Mother Nature takes a lot of grief around here. Occasionally, though, I have to give her props. Yesterday she dropped an absolutely perfect late fall day on us. It was sunny, not much breeze, and although the high was forecast to be in the mid–50s, she kicked her heels off, checked her nails, and gave us a bonus high of 61. I spent most of the day doing yard work, but I did not mind because it was so beautiful out.
People clearly took advantage of the day because I saw several houses with Christmas lights on during our drop off commute this morning. We thought about putting our up but didn’t get to it. Still, the lights would not have been turned on if they had gone up. It’s fine to take advantage of a nice day to get the decorations up, people. It doesn’t mean you have to turn them on. (In related news, the grocery store was mixing Christmas songs in every third or fourth song this morning.)
So, thank you, Momma N!
Of course, as I type this it is a dark, rainy morning and in a few hours that rain is supposed to turn to snow and give us a couple inches in our first snow of the season. I imagine most of that will melt given Sunday’s temps. Tuesday morning wind chills should be right around zero.
Hey, Mother Nature: fuck you!
OK, it was a pretty quiet weekend with no sports we had to attend. But a few notes.
High School Football
Cathedral hammered the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year to win the sectional championship. Now they face the #1 5A team in the state, which has lost four games in the last seven years. They have this freaky little running back who has run for over 10,000 yards and 100 touchdowns in his career. The computers favor CHS, though, thanks to a tougher schedule. It should be an absolute battle. It is a road game, about a 45 minutes away, so we will likely stay home and I will listen on the radio.
College Football
I watched parts of two fun games during KU’s bye week. Minnesota beating Penn State was a really entertaining game to watch. I’m not sure anyone outside Minnesota thought the Gophers were for real until they smacked Penn State in the mouth through three quarters Saturday. They almost blew it but survived to remain. Pretty crazy. Also crazy is the fact that Minnesota claims seven football national championships. Not all of these are recognized these days, but they still have a minimum of four national titles by the strictest measure. If you want to waste time, get yourself into the rabbit hole of reading about how football national champions have been declared over the years. There’s some wacky stuff out there, folks.
Then, of course, came the big daddy of the season, LSU-Alabama. It was thoroughly delightful to watch LSU beat the snot out of ‘Bama for 30 minutes. We were hosting a small family gathering so I missed most of Alabama’s comeback but was able to watch the final minutes as LSU closed it out.
I always think it’s funny how people like me, who root against Alabama, Duke, the Yankees, or whoever, often have to support another team that is just a slightly less successful version of the team we hate. With ‘Bama dominating football over the past decade, that means I’m often a fan of LSU, Auburn, or Georgia, schools that also send tons of players to the NFL, win 10 games more often than not, and have rich histories of their own. Yet because they ain’t ‘Bama, they come off as plucky underdogs.
NFL
I was thrilled I missed most of the Colts ugly-ass loss to Miami. I did make it in for the fourth quarter, though, which was probably the worst part. For all the stupid shit they did through three quarters they still really should have won that game. Another week, another nail in Adam Vinatieri’s career coffin.
I don’t follow the NFL super closely anymore. That changes a little right about now when kid fall sports end and the weather keeps us inside on weekends. But, still, I’m not like a super fan. I do skim a few notes columns on Mondays just to have a general feel of what is going on around the league. At The Ringer, I thought Roger Sherman had a great point when discussing the end of the Green Bay-Carolina game:
I’d tell NFL teams to coach their receivers not to stand on the goal line on these plays…
Yes! I was thinking this exact thing as the officials reviewed the final play of the game to see if Christian McCaffery scored or not. Every game you see receivers running down the goal line with their hands in the air, blocking the camera angle. They should spend an entire day in training camp teaching them to get off that line. Then again, I guess it’s a 50–50 shot whether blocking that angle hurts or helps your team, so maybe teams want them running down the line.
All I know is it was fun watching football in the snow in Green Bay.