Heck Of A Way To Lose
I love Pete Carroll. If, through some miracle, I could suddenly play football (and be 20 years younger), there is no coach who I would more want to play for. I LOVED his call to go for a touchdown rather than just kick the field goal at the end of the first half last night. I wouldn’t have done the…
Big Game Forty Nine
Karma is a bitch. No where is that more true than in sports. Example: In the 2013 Sweet 16 in Arlington, Texas, KU guard Elijah Johnson decided to cheap shot Michigan forward Mitch McGary in the sack early in the game. Anyone watching the game knew the Hoops Gods would exact revenge. They teased us, but then they did so…
Make It Stop
My usual early morning routine is something like this: Get the girls up, get them breakfast, and then get them on the path to getting ready for school. When I reach the point where they are getting dressed, I start running through Twitter to see if I missed anything overnight. Well, last night I apparently went to bed right before…
Gut Punch vs. Embarrassment
Which is the worst way to end a season? In an utterly crushing, heart-breaking manner, losing a game that seemed convincingly won, and in which any of a series of singular, seemingly simple, plays over the final minutes would have been the final nail in the coffin of the eventual winners? Or to be completely outclassed and embarrassed and made…
Football Notes
Some weekend of heated action on the old gridiron! Most significantly, to me at least, was the Colts going to Denver and, aside from shaky first possessions on both sides of the ball, completely controlling the game and escaping with a border-line shocking 11-point win. I say border-line shocking because while many people this morning are acting like it wasn’t…
NFL Playoffs Picks
Funny how fast the NFL season goes when you spend the first two months of Sundays on the soccer fields, casually following scores and paying more attention to fantasy stats. But here we are, Wild Card weekend. Thus, my patented, half-assed picks for who will make it to Glendale in a month. AFC Wild Card Round Pittsburgh over Baltimore. A…
Hot Sports Takes
A few quick, very hot, sports takes. CFP As an alum of the University of Kansas, I generally root for chaos when it comes to determining a college football champion. So I was pleased that there was much controversy surrounding college football’s first final four. What happened, with Ohio State leap-frogging[1] TCU and holding off Baylor after they pounded Wisconsin…
Pre-Thanksgiving Notes
A busy few days between get-togethers, kid activities, and prepping for Thanksgiving. How about a few notes? M. has kicked off her volleyball career. She’s been to one skills session and another evaluation session as the fourth graders at St. P’s get slotted onto the appropriate team for their first year of CYO play. I haven’t watched any of her…
Football Notes
Well, there’s snow on the ground. Probably as good of a time as any for my first lengthy football post of the year. Jayhawks It says a lot about the KU football program’s recent history that a win over another crappy team and a near-win against a very good team went down as the best stretch since the end of…
Reporter’s Notebook
Well, the Hinkle Fieldhouse stuff was technically a lengthy reporter’s notebook entry. But I still need to get you caught up on the last month of work. The final regular season football game I covered came over a month ago, the same night as game one of the ALCS as a matter of fact. My team was down 24–0 before…