when really matter …
really matter now but when
they really matter

So as long as we’re being conscious about learning and getting these things in long term development then all these games will help us pay dividends and help us win those games later when they really matter. They really matter now, but when they really really matter.

Michigan Head Basketball Coach Dusty May on where his team is after 2 games as quoted in Michigan basketball, Dusty May ‘not going to panic’ over early turnover troubles by Tony Garcia in the Detroit Free Press.

Win those games later when things really matter.

They really matter now, but when they really really matter.

I do, goofy to say, know what he means.

But like they say in baseball, a win in April counts as much as a win in September.

They really matter in April, but they really really matter in September.

when it’s not your day
and you can still win, that’s a …
sign of a good team

“For me I’m not going to tell him anything because I don’t feel like this is, oh, man, what are you doing? These weren’t ill-advised throws. It wasn’t our day. When it’s not your day and you can still win, that’s a sign of a good team.”

Detroit Lions Head Coach on the 5 interception performance of Lions Quarterback Jerod Goff in a game that saw Detroit score 19 second half points Houston Texans, 26-23.

“Man, that is the definition of resiliency,” Campbell said. “You guys just kept bangin’ away, right? We did whatever we had to do. And we just bought our time.”

“We get our points. Bates, that was freakin’ ginormous, alright?“

My college team is awful.

My pro team, for the first time in my life, is good.

Good good.

Lucky good.

Rather be lucky than good good.

Finding ways to win games they have no business winning.

Winning games they should win.

Going to sit on the beach of this Detroit Lions team and enjoy the warm sunshine and soft breeze as long as I can.

irrelevant? how
bad does it have to be to
be irrelevant?

I like to start my Sunday newspapers reading two sports columns in the online USA Today.

One is a column that tracks the winners and losers, those college football teams that came out as winners the previous Saturday and those college football teams that came out as losers.

My team lost and lost big to the Number One team in the nation.

Oddly though neither team made this column.

My team lost, was expected to lose and I guess as such, was not listed among the losers.

The other team, just be a loser of a team, and I guess as such, was not listed among the winners.

The other column is the College Football Misery Index.

This column tracks which college football team’s fans feel the worse.

Your team can win and you still feel lousey like last week, Ohio State beat Nebraska, but no one felt that good about it.

This week the five top teams whose fans are in Misery, all lost.

The next group of fans are listed as being Miserable but not miserable enough.

Georgia won their game but with their QB throwing 3 INT’s, their fans still feel not so great.

But here is the point.

My team didn’t make either list.

They are so awful, that there no longer even figure in the conversation of teams whose fan’s feel awful.

My team had a very good year last year.

I should be able to manage a bad year this year.

But who planned on being … irrelevant.

My team has been here before.

We hired this feller known as the Morgantown Miracle Worker as head coach and he was reverse Amish.

He did less with more than almost any coach known in the history of the game.

My team didn’t lose often, at least until Rich Rod came along.

He even lost to the University of Toledo.

Lost to Toledo and then an odd thing happened.

Toledo had a bad season, beat my team but had a bad season.

Almost any other time in history, any team from the state of Ohio that beat my team was a reason to give the coach a better contract.

This year though was different.

Beating my team didn’t matter and that Toledo coach got fired.

My team was irrelevant to the conversation that season..

Much like my team was this past weekend.

Winner?

Loser?

In Misery?

In the wrap up conversation about the weekend of football, my team had again become, irrelevant.

Are we back in those bad old days so soon?

Oh well, there was always last year.

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.