10.14.2024 – The Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions
made a statement to the league …
NFL’s best team

My Monday morning started as my fall Monday mornings have started for the last 40 years.

I get my coffee and review the weekend’s pro football games.

With online news, I can flip through the New York Times Athletic, The Guardian, USA Today Sports, The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit news.

This morning I read sentences made up of words I never thought I would ever see in anyone’s lifetime, let alone my life.

I read …

The Lions arrived in Dallas looking for a win — their first in three tries under Dan Campbell. They’ll leave with not only that, but a statement win. This was an all-out dismantling of the Cowboys. The offense never punted and put up 47 points. The defense forced five turnovers and held the Cowboys to three field goals. You could make a strong argument this is the most complete win of the Campbell era.

Defensively, Detroit suffocated the Cowboys (3-3) offense.

The manner of the defeat on Sunday is more impactful than the loss itself. Detroit bullied the Cowboys, on offense and defense.

Losing is one thing. Being humiliated at home – again – in a season that the Cowboys entered with championship expectations is something bleaker.

A run defense that has struggled all season had no shot against the best offensive line in the NFL.

Sunday’s 47-9 drubbing at the hands of the Lions may have felt more like watching The Substance than Love Is Blind, but seeing the Cowboys being beaten on their own home turf remains must-watch TV.

In the nearly 30 years since the Cowboys last won the Super Bowl, there have been plenty of lows. Sunday’s defeat, though, felt like a nadir. It was the team’s worst loss since 2010 – and the worst at home since before the days of Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith.

The Cowboys have lost three straight since, all in embarrassing fashion. They were routed 44-19 by the Saints in Week 2, fell 28-25 to the Ravens in Week 4 in a game that was never really close, and on Sunday were dismantled by the Lions 47-9, the franchise’s worst loss since 2010 and worst at home going all the way back to 1988.

Detroit spent the remainder of the game playing with their food, trying, in vain, to draw up a touchdown for one of their offensive linemen. It almost felt like bullying.

The best division in football — which was the AFC North not all that long ago — is now unquestionably the NFC North. For the first time since the 2002 realignment, all four teams in a single division have at least four wins six weeks into the season. The Bears and Packers are 4-2, and the Lions are 4-1, trailing the 5-0 Vikings, who were on a bye.

The Lions made a statement to the league that they should be viewed as the NFL’s best team

I decided I had to be dreaming and I went back to bed.

If I was dreaming, I really didn’t want to wake up.

PS: Terrible news about the injury Hutchinson but I was intrigued that Dallas QB Dak Prescott said that he tried to talk to Hutchinson as he was taken off the field but Prescott was pretty sure that Hutchinson wouldn’t remember. Prescott said that he planned to talk to the Michigan guys who played for Dallas so he could get Hutchinson’s phone number. I was struck that Prescott was aware Hutch played at Michigan. I was struck that Prescott knew who on his team, had played at Michigan. And I was struck that Prescott sounded pretty confident that those guys had each others phone numbers and kept in touch. For some reason, a window on the pro game I hadn’t thought about.

10.13.2024 – problems often come

problems often come
being young rich immature
unaccountable

When college athletes started making money — and often more money than a lot of fans will make in their entire lives — there were concerns about how 18- and 19-year olds would handle the entitlement that often comes with being young and rich but immature and unaccountable. It’s a valid issue, even if you believe in American capitalism. Money solves a lot of problems, but it presents a few as well.

From the article, Another tough loss with Lincoln Riley has USC leading college football’s Week 7 Misery Index by Dan Wolken in USAToday.

On the one hand, this statement calls for a ‘Gee Whiz – pay those college kids! What could go wrong?’

When States started setting aside lands that would be sold to provide funding to build state colleges, the brains behind the plans decided they needed something to make a splash and give folks a reason to WANT to got to these colleges and they hit on football.

A good team, a winning record kept the school in the papers in a good way and gave students reasons to buy T shirts.

All strictly amateur of course but what could stop alumni from offering summer jobs or a little spending cash and well you all know the stories.

In an effort to stay competitive, scholarships were given to the best players.

Come play for us and go to school for free.

There was a time that the University of Michigan Athletic Department would say that they were the single largest tuition check writer the University ever had.

This wasn’t enough and now these student athletes are being compensated for their Name, Image and Likeness and offered often more money than a lot of fans will make in their entire lives.

Again, what could go wrong?

This was broken.

This needed to be fixed.

But you always hope the cure is better than the cold so we will have to wait and see how 18- and 19-year olds would handle the entitlement that often comes with being young and rich but immature and unaccountable.

On the other hand, isn’t every other sport, and maybe every other career path, including politics, filled with stories of young stars with money beyond their years and unaccountable?

Money solves a lot of problems, but it presents a few as well.

I agree.

Always good to remember what Paul the Apostle wrote to his friend Timothy saying, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Remember its not the money but the love of money and the coveting of money where the problems come in.

Pretty sanctimonious for a Sunday morning, but there you are.

10.12.2024 – leave your cares behind

leave your cares behind
here’s the perfect chance – troubles …
they cannot find you

From an ad in the New Yorker Magazine on May 6, 1933 for traveling on the French Line.

The ad featured a drawing by James Thurber.

Travelcade! Full of expectations?

Not interested or at least not as interested as leaving my cares behind me and that troubles cannot find me.

My daughter is working to get back on her feet best she can with two little girls to look out for.

Two weeks ago everything was looking good.

She had a substitute teaching job / semi-permanent on call but still paid hourly but with the promise that she would be working every day.

Because she was working, she was able to qualify for reduced day care for the girls.

Things were full of expecatations.

Then Helene hit.

They were without power or fresh water for days.

Internet and phone just now being restored.

Schools have been closed and will be closed until next Tuesday.

No substitute teaching jobs.

Then she was informed that she had to get the girls into day care, when it opened as you had to use it once a week or lose your spot.

When she showed up with the girls, she was told she also had to pay for day care for the weeks they were closed or lose her qualification for the reduced cost program.

Even though the day care was closed by the storm.

Her rental insurance would not cover the cost of food lost when the power went out as it was only a tropical storm, not a hurricane.

And FEMA rejected her claim for assistance.

Where do you go to get on the French Line today?

10.11.2024 – any home you want

any home you want
even get stucco – oh how
you can get stuck-oh!

In the 1929 movie, Cocoanuts, a satire on the depression era Florida land boom, Groucho Marx extols the state of Florida saying …

You can have any kind of a home you want. You can even get stucco. Oh, how you can get stuck-oh!

Grouch has another line saying, “Florida folks, land of perpetual sunshine. Let’s get the auction started before we have a tornado.“

The weather has been much on folks minds of late.

Mark Twain was supposed to have said, ” … everybody talked about the weather, nobody seemed to do anything about it.“

But Respectfully Quoted says that the saying is: “Generally, but perhaps mistakenly, attributed to Mark Twain. It has never been verified in his writings. Many quotation dictionaries credit Charles Dudley Warner, a friend of Twain’s, with this remark.”

It seems that certain folks with a voice on social media not only think that people can do something about the weather, they HAVE DONE IT and what they have done is use the weather to impact the upcoming election.

At least that’s what they say and say it so often that according to the article, How could hurricane misinformation affect the US election? by Rachel Leingang in the Guardian, Friday, 11 Oct 2024:

Chuck Edwards, a Republican representative from North Carolina, put out a lengthy release debunking a series of rumors about Fema, search-and-rescue efforts and weather manipulation. Fema’s response has had “shortfalls”, he said, but “nobody can control the weather”.

“I encourage you to remember that everything you see on Facebook, X, or any other social media platform is not always fact,” he wrote. “Please make sure you are fact-checking what you read online with a reputable source.”

Nobody can control the weather.

How about that!

A member of the United States Congress had to say that in an official release from his office.

Nobody can control the weather.

Friends and neighbors, we live in troubled times but oh for pete’s sake.

In my 20 years of working in online television news, I have known countless weather professionals.

I admire them all for both there dedication to the job and their mastery of their field.

I cannot tell you the number of times these folks told me about the emails they would get asking, ‘Can you tell me what the weather will be next June? I am planning an Outdoor Wedding,’ or ‘Why did it have to rain during the baseball game? Why didn’t you stop that?’

Folks at home and at sea, if someone, anyone, ever comes to your door selling weather, beware.

Like the houses Groucho was selling in Florida, you could probably get any type of weather you wanted.

You could get stucco weather … Oh How you could get stucco!

About selling weather, Mr. Twain did say this.

Yes, the weather is bad, and if I were dealing in weather it is not the brand that I’d put up in cans for future use. No, it is the kind of weather I’d throw on the market and let it go for what it would fetch, and if it wouldn’t sell for anything I would hunt up some life-long enemy and present it to him.

Come on people.

Is this not the bridge too far even for those folks?

As Sheriff Andy Taylor once said, ” … act like you got some smart.”

10.10.2024 – no, it will be great

no, it will be great
sand in hair, shoes, sandwiches
and then in our mouths …

No, it will be great. We’ll get sand in our hair. We’ll get sand in our shoes. We’ll get sand in our sandwiches and then in our mouths. We’ll get sunburned and windburned. And when we get tired of sitting, we can have a paddle in water so cold it actually hurts. At the end of the day we’ll set off at the same time as 37,000 other people and get in such a traffic jam that we won’t get home till midnight. I can make trenchant observations about your driving skills, and the children can pass the time sticking each other with sharp objects. It will be such fun.’

The tragic thing is that because my wife is English, and therefore beyond the reach of reason where salt water is concerned, she really will think it’s fun. Frankly I have never understood the British attachment to the seaside.

From The Complete Notes by Bill Bryson, Doubleday, London, 2000.

Watching what’s left of Hurricane Milton head out over the Atlantic Ocean from Hilton Head Island.

I walk along the ocean shore on my lunch break when I can.

Yesterday as Hurricane Milton approached the Gulf Shore of Florida, the day here was gray and gloomy.

Not a day for the beach.

The local park with the pirate ship jungle gym was full of kids in shorts running and screaming along with Dads in shorts watching while juggling cell phones and Moms in shorts, sitting on benches, wrapped in beach towels, wondered what happened to their sunny beach vacation.

The next day the sun was out.

Those families packed up and hit the beach.

But the sun was out.

There was a rip current going south that would sweep anyone off their feet.

But the sun was out.

The red flag was up.

But the sun was out.

The wind whipped along the beach sending sand flying in mini tornadoes about 6 inches about the shore, sand blasting everything in its path.

But the sun was out.

Umbrellas and beach tents were anchored by cinder blocks.

But the sun was out and the families hit the beach.

It will take more than a rip current, a red flag and a sandy breeze to keep those Moms from their sunny beach vacation.

I can hear those Moms as they packed up.

No, it will be great.

We’ll get sand in our hair.

We’ll get sand in our shoes.

We’ll get sand in our sandwiches and then in our mouths.

We’ll get sunburned and windburned.

And when we get tired of sitting, we can have a paddle in water so cold it actually hurts.

It will be such fun!

At least they were already on the Island.