D's Notebook

Tag: Indianapolis Colts (Page 3 of 12)

Holiday Weekend Notes

November 27, 2023 /

For the first time in three years we were home for Thanksgiving week. We packed a lot in, and it deserves a wide-ranging, extra-long breakdown.

College Visitor

I picked M up Tuesday around noon after her last scheduled class of the week. We grabbed lunch at Hangover Easy, a place just off campus I’ve wanted to try just because of their shirts. It was solid, but I couldn’t find any shirts for sale. I guess I’ll have to get one online.

That night she (and C) went with me to L’s game. M had a couple nights out with high school friends, but didn’t do anything too crazy. She thought about going to the IU-Purdue game with one of her best friends but they slept too late to make it to Lafayette in time. Seemed like she behaved herself. Unlike me during my freshman Thanksgiving break, when I may have consumed as much alcohol as I ever did before or have since.

S ran her back to school Sunday evening.

She will be back soon. UC has class this week then go straight into exams. She only has two true finals. One of them would normally be on the 9th, but all tests for that course are done outside class, so she’s hoping she can come home earlier in the week.

Oh, she was also elected as social chair of her house. Most of the new officers don’t take over their duties until January, but since she has to plan the formal this spring, she’s already pretty deep in finding a venue and getting all that arranged. Shocking she would be social chair, right?

Hawaii Basketball

Mixed results for KU out in Oahu. Smashed Chaminade in round one, as expected, with Kevin McCullar becoming the first KU player ever to record back-to-back triple doubles.

Then smashed by Marquette in the second round. That game never felt close, which was super annoying. There was the added bonus of Shaka Smart acting like a clown and then pretending he didn’t know why anyone was upset. It’s always a shame when someone acts like a punk then wins the game. Thanks to the Purdue-Tennessee game taking about five hours to play and this one starting after 11:00 PM eastern, I recorded it and watched first thing Wednesday morning. Good call, as I was able to fast forward through most of the second half. I would have been up until 4:00 AM pissed had I watched live.

Finally an encouraging win over a tough Tennessee team in the consolation final. Jamari McDowell stepping up might have been the best development of the week.

KU has some holes, but I think as a few players get more comfortable, those holes will get smaller. And Bill Self will figure out how to hide them better as the season continues. This is a good team that can get a lot better.

Jim Irsay

Oh boy…

In case you missed it, the Colts owner appeared on HBO’s Real Sports and, as is his general MO, was very candid about his life. Which in general is a good thing. Until he claimed that the only reason he was arrested a decade ago when he was pulled over for driving under the influence was because he is a “rich, white, billionaire.”

Please note he was pulled over and arrested in Carmel, IN, which isn’t exactly the most diverse suburb in our area, nor one that has ever been noted for its anti-capitalist views. Hell, the new mayor who was elected earlier this month refused to denounce a local mom’s group that used a quote from Hitler in their literature.

So, sure, the white cops in a super white, conservative suburb decided that they were going to stick it to the man by arresting the Colts owner.

It’s sad that someone who has done so much to both own up to his mistakes and help end the stigma around mental heath disease can’t take responsibility here and resorted to pretending that he, with endless resources and likely decades of people looking the other way at similar behavior, is the person oppressed by a racist police department.

Thanksgiving

Last year we were in Italy for Thanksgiving. Two years ago Hawaii. So it was nice to be back home again in Indiana for the holiday this year. We hosted, and had just 16 this year. We’ll be closer to 30 at Christmas so this felt super manageable.

I did the bird, Giada’s dressing, and potatoes. We delayed our meal until later in the day to allow for a sister-in-law and her kids to return from their trip to Denver. That made the day a lot easier than eating around 1–2 as we usually do. Although that last 45 minutes always gets crazy no matter what time you eat.

KU-UC

Several of you asked over the past week. No, I did not drive down to Cincinnati for the KU-UC game Saturday night. Had the game been played at noon, I could have made it work. However, the 7:30 kickoff was the exact moment that L’s game was scheduled to tip. As much as I love my Jayhawks, I love my daughters more, and chose to be a good dad.[1] Plus, M wasn’t interested in going back on Saturday and we really didn’t want to make the drive both Saturday and Sunday. Oh, and it was very cold.

Naturally I was annoyed that I missed it given the result. When we walked out of the CHS gym, KU had just taken a 21–10 lead into halftime. As we were pulling into our driveway Devin Neal was scoring his second touchdown of the night to extend the lead. Once I was seated in front of the TV I made M come down and watch with me. The next hour or so involved a lot of me waving the wheat and sending her bean emojis – 🫘 – with her flipping me off and telling me how much the Bearcats “freaking suck” in return.

Good times!

Sooooo happy for Jason Bean. Sure, the UC defense had basically given up by the fourth quarter, but it was fantastic for him to cap his regular season college career with two more long touchdown runs. His 340 total yards were both super-efficient and impressive. The guy has taken a lot of abuse, verbal and physical, over his career. He tried to leave KU last summer but no one wanted him. And, in the end, he is as responsible for KU’s turnaround as Jalon Daniels is. JD beat Texas two years ago. But Bean nearly beat OU that same year, did beat OU this year, and led the Jayhawks to two conference road wins this season. KU won eight total conference games from 2009 to 2021. Jason Bean has been the starter in six Big 12 wins over the past two years. When this season seemed to be on the verge of going down the toilet because Daniels could no longer play, Bean stepped in and KU barely missed a beat, winning eight regular season games for the first time since 2007.

There is a lot of praise to go around for the KU turnaround, from Lance Leipold and his staff, to Travis Goff and the athletic department, to players like Daniels, Neal, Kenny Logan, Cobee Bryant, etc. Bean’s name needs to be high on that list as well.

Eight wins! The Big 12 was a true adventure this year, with results often not making sense from week-to-week. KU was pretty damn steady, though, with the only real blip coming over the past two weeks because Bean was hurt and Cole Ballard had to drop his clipboard and fill in for 2½ games. KU was damn close to 11–1, and who knows, maybe they can stick with Texas longer if Bean had practiced as the QB1 all week instead of finding out about 30 minutes before the game that he was the starter.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

Other Football

As much as I hated all the hype that surrounded Ohio State – Michigan, that was a hell of a game. Incredibly entertaining.

M asked me if the weekend after Thanksgiving is when most rivalries play. I liked that she picked that up. I switched to Indiana-Purdue a few times during the OSU-UM game and that game felt very familiar. For a good chunk of my life the Kansas-Missouri game was at the end of the year,[2] and at least one team was usually pretty bad. Some years both sucked. There’s nothing quite like sitting in a cold-ass stadium in late November with 24,000 other people watching two shitty teams battle for bragging rights and not much else.

The Colts are 6–5? The Colts are 6–5! They would be playing in a Wild Card game if the season ended today. They have a pretty favorable schedule remaining, too. They – especially Gardner Minshew – do not make it easy each week, so I wouldn’t go printing playoff tickets up just yet.

Poor Detroit fans. It’s been since early in the Barry Sanders years that they had a good team to root for on Thanksgiving. When it finally happens again, they get curb-stomped by a mediocre Green Bay team. Just a cursed franchise.

Oh, and the Buffalo-Philadelphia game was straight-up awesome. Rain and a sloppy field. Josh Allen doing good Josh Allen things. Jalen Hurts doing Jalen Hurts things. Maybe the biggest and most clutch field goal in adverse conditions since Adam Vinatieri’s kick in the snow 21 years ago. And then a fun overtime to top it off. That was a fine way to end a terrific weekend of sports.

Pacers

The Pacers are a wild-ass team. Last Tuesday they clinched a spot in the quarterfinals of the NBA’s new In-Season Tournament with a 157–152 win over Atlanta. When we got home from L’s game, the Pacers were down by 20. I know everyone makes a run in the NBA, but coming back from 20 down to build a 12-point lead is kind of crazy. Even then the game came down to the final minute, and the Pacers just did not miss. Tyrese Haliburton had 37 points and 16 assists. Buddy Hield was 6-for–6 from deep. I don’t know that Bobby Knight purists love them, but I sure enjoy watching this year’s team.

They scored 131 the next night…and lost by one. Which was kind of incredible given what they did the night before. Then they dropped another 136 in a win on Friday. They are on pace to shatter the record the Sacramento Kings set last year as the most efficient offense in NBA history.

  1. Guess who has a game the same time as the KU-IU game in Bloomington in two weeks?  ↩
  2. I believe if you dive into the site’s archives you can find some of my thoughts about football rivalries and when they should be played.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 23, 2023 /

It was a pretty good fall break/long weekend around our house. It included another trip to Cincinnati, a new family toy, and a variety of news on the high school sports front. Let’s dive into the details.

CHS Fall Break

C and L were off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for their fall break. L had basketball practice all three days and the weather was crappy, so we didn’t do much. Our pool guy was supposed to show up Thursday to close it for us, but it rained so much he didn’t make it. He’ll now be here Tuesday.

Aficionados of my fall break posts will not be surprised that we went up the block to Walgreens and got flu shots on Thursday, which is a bit of a tradition. The girls also ran around with their friends a little bit. L got to go the final Pacers preseason game of the year Friday, sitting in the front row behind the basket. She got pictures with Cavaliers Caris Levert and Donovan Mitchell after the game, which was pretty cool. One of her friends accidentally dumped a bottle of water on Levert when he slid into them during the game.

UC Family Weekend

We drove down to Cincinnati Saturday morning for Family Weekend. The Bearcats were taking on Baylor, but I doubted the girls would be interested in an entire game between two bad teams so we opted to let M do her greek life tailgating thing and picked her up right after kickoff.[1]

We headed to the Findlay Market area and ate some pretty solid barbecue. While we were eating I could see L whispering to her sisters and they were all laughing. When I asked what was so funny, so said, “This is way better than Oklahoma Joe’s.”

Then M lost it, “LOOK AT HIS FACE! HE IS SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!”

I mean, it was good barbecue, I won’t lie. But if she wasn’t just messing with me I may have to disown her.

While eating we ran into some Indy friends who sent kids to both St P’s and CHS. I’ve sat with the dad at multiple football games this year. Their oldest daughter is a senior at Xavier and it was her sorority’s parents weekend. Small world.

We went downtown to check into our hotel then walked down to the riverfront and visited the Underground Railroad Museum. It was fascinating. They suckered us into getting a membership since that is cheaper than five individual day passes. That’s cool because I definitely want to go back and spend more time there. Not going to name names,[2] but some folks in my family tend to breeze through museums where I like to take them in slowly and get into the details.

Back to the hotel for some down time. I watched football while all three girls took naps. Then we headed back to the dorm so M could change and grab her high school bud who was joining us for dinner. A’s parents couldn’t make it for the weekend so we made her an honorary B girl for the night. We went to Sacred Beast in the Over-The-Rhine district. It was quirky and good. And we sat in a booth next to another group of folks we know from St P’s and CHS. Twice in one day! So odd.

We dropped M, her friend, and C back at the dorm and returned to the hotel for the night. C was going to spend the night with M since her roommate was gone and get a taste of college life. Seems like that went ok, although C’s back was bothering her and M dropped C off after a couple parties, locked her in the room, and went back out. This might be the moment to point out that despite being sick for 87 consecutive weeks, M apparently doesn’t miss a chance to go out.

Sunday morning we got the girls then headed back downtown for breakfast at the tremendous Maplewood Kitchen. One of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had. And we got there just before the rush hit and were able to get a table without too long of a wait. By the time we left the line was out the door.

After eating it was back to campus so M could show us around. We got to see her sorority house and meet her pledge mom, J, who is awesome. M had told us a lot about her but meeting her made it all click. They are VERY similar, but in a good way where it works. We made a stop at a bookstore so both C and L could get some UC gear, ran into Target to get M a few things, then headed home. We were back in our house in time to see the second half of the Colts game.

Cincinnati is cool. I’ve been to one Reds game in my 20 years in Indy, and that was a quick in-and-out for a day game. I forget where but I had heard plenty over the years about the geography of the city, but until you see it, it doesn’t really make sense. It is a river town, like Kansas City and St. Louis, so all the roads are kind of fucked up based on that alone. Then it is built into some serious bluffs that rise straight up out of the Ohio. Parts of it look kind of California-like just because of the rapid increase in elevation. It is definitely more St. Louis than KC, as it feels a lot older than my hometown. Even then Cincy has a very distinct feel from the Lou. I imagine I’ll get to know the city even better over the next few years.

New Toy

We made the trip in S’s new vehicle, a Kia Telluride. It is very, very nice. Her lease doesn’t end on her Grand Cherokee for a few weeks, so we kept the Telluride in the garage for the first few days we owned it. She got it early specifically for this trip, so M could bring a friend (or two) if needed since we again have a seven-passenger vehicle. I drove the entire weekend and loved it. Between having a kid in college and another joining her in less than two years, when my Audi lease is up I’m going to have to do some serious financial downsizing. I dig the Telluride enough that a smaller Kia SUV will likely be in the running.

High School Hoops

I mentioned above that L had basketball practice last week. To answer the obvious question, yes, she seems to have recovered from her concussion.

Monday was the first official day of practice in Indiana, and she was cleared to return that day after taking a week off. Her coach did keep her out of scrimmages, though, just to avoid contact for a little longer. L said that made practice boring but I reminded her she didn’t need to get hurt again and then miss weeks of the season.

Wednesday was roster day, when the girls learned what team they would be on. We kind of knew what to expect, but it was still a little nerve-racking to drop her off, run to the grocery store to grab a couple things, then wait for her to come out.

Options were freshman, JV, varsity, freshman-JV double roster, or the JV-varsity double.

Each player had a one-on-one with the coach where they learned their fate. She texted me about 45 minutes in asking if I was there. I said yes, but she didn’t come out for another 20 minutes, which concerned me. But when she came out she was with a few older girls who I knew would make varsity, and they were all laughing.

She got in the car, I asked how it went, and she just said, “Fine.”

“Well…what did you get?!?!” Jesus, this kid.

She made the JV team, one of only three freshmen to make it. When I asked her what the coach said to her she said that L had done a great job in preseason camp, was already a leader in the program, and she expected that she would get some varsity minutes this year. So not double-rostered but the window is open to play up. My expectation/assumption is that she will be the starting point guard for JV. The head coach had the girl who will start as PG for varsity guard the hell out of L all preseason to get her toughened up for high school ball.

Pretty cool! I was pumped and told her I was proud of her. She kind of blew me off, because this is what she expected, but I think she was pleased on the inside.

Thursday night she had four of her friends over, all of whom made varsity. She knows how to get in good with the older girls.

The first game is November 7. Practice goes up to 2.5 hours this week, plus they have JV and varsity scrimmages against another school Wednesday.

Other CHS Sports

The football state tournament began last week. Class 6A gets a week off before their tournament begins, so no game for CHS. The Irish open sectionals against an 0–9 team this Friday.

CHS had three other teams playing Saturday, two of which could affect how quickly L gets to at least sit the bench in a varsity game.

The girls soccer team was playing in semi-state, a week after knocking off the #1 team in Indiana. Two varsity basketball starters are on the soccer team, and if they won and made it to State, those girls would not be eligible for the first two basketball games of the year.[3] The volleyball team was playing in the regional round, and if they advanced to semi-state next week that would knock another varsity basketball starter out for two games.

Unfortunately – except for basketball, I guess – both teams lost. Soccer lost 1–0 to the #11 team (CHS was ranked #6), and #4 volleyball lost in five sets to the #6 team (they would have played #5 Saturday night if they won the morning match). So bummers there.

Boys soccer balanced that a bit, getting a 2–1 win to advance to State. But our girls don’t really know any of those kids so would have much rather one of the girls teams won.

Colts

LOL. That was an insane game, and I missed the entire first half which was apparently totally off the rails. If I was fully invested I would be pissed about the second pass interference call on the Browns’ final drive of the game. I wonder what that Twitter user I mentioned last week, who likes re-tread white quarterbacks more than first round draft picks who happen to be Black, thought of Gardner Minshew turning the ball over four more times this week.

  1. (Speaking in a Troy Aikman voice) Folks, I gotta tell ya, the Bearcats might really stink. They may well be 2–9 when the Jayhawks roll into town Thanksgiving weekend. Which means I probably just jinxed KU into an L. Idiot.  ↩
  2. My wife.  ↩
  3. In Indiana you have to participate in ten practices before you can play in a high school game. Even if you are coming from another varsity sport, which is super dumb to me. Those kids are in shape.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 9, 2023 /

Going to flip things up a bit, as our family had a rough week that’s worth getting caught up on first.

Squad News

Monday M got diagnosed with mono. She’s been sick for weeks and it took a turn last weekend, so she went and got checked. She told us she could see the test turn positive from across the room. So she REALLY has mono, I guess. She had a terrible couple of days but after starting on some steroids, improved pretty rapidly.

She ended up coming home for the weekend – UC is off Monday and one of her local buddies offered her a ride – so she was able to have some downtime away from the dorm. When she was awake she seemed pretty normal, but she did sleep even longer than usual. Hopefully she’s on the right path for recovery. Funny how when your kid gets mono everyone you know has to tell you the story of the person they knew who missed a year of school when they got it. I know one of those people, so I understand some of those stories are legit.[1]

Otherwise she seems to be doing great at school.

That wasn’t our worst health news of the week. Friday morning L cracked heads with a teammate in practice and failed a concussion test after. She went to class for a bit but started to feel bad and I picked her up around 11. She had all the classic symptoms – headache, dizziness, light sensitivity – and they were pretty bad both Friday and Saturday. Sunday they hadn’t improved much but she was feeling a little more like herself.

The girl she knocked heads with is a good friend of hers. She stopped by Sunday to give L a bag of candy, which was nice.

Obviously we’re being very careful. She’s anxious to get back to school and on the court. We told her to slow her roll, it’s better to miss some time and have to make school work up and catch up in practice than get hit again before she is healed and miss even more time.

C didn’t have any issues last week. But we are still working to get her back issue figured out. She’s had an injection that didn’t work, seen a back specialist, and a spine specialist. Friday she goes back to the spine specialist for a more advanced injection he hopes can give her some relief.

HS Football

Friday was the first time Cathedral played Roncalli, the Catholic school on the south side of Indy, during the regular season in 13 years. They used to play every season and often played in the state tournament before Cathedral moved up two classes.

Roncalli won a state title three years ago and were very good last year but are a little down again. Friday the Irish killed them 42–0, extending their winning streak in the series to 13.

I only heard a few possessions as I was picking M up right when the game started. She laughed because one of her UC friends graduated from RHS and was going to the game. He said he was only going because his dad was making him and it was stupid to go because “We’re going to be down 30–0 at halftime.” It was, indeed, 28–0 at half.

Now it’s on to the final week of the regular season, the big Center Grove game. Center Grove is ranked #2 in the state but #23 in the country, so pretty much the same old same old down there.[2] Because a huge crowd is expected and CG is still complaining about having to play on real grass two years ago, the game has been moved to Butler’s stadium. Not sure if I’m going or not yet. I have a big day Saturday and have yet to determine if going to a game Friday night fits with those plans.

The Irish have adjusted their offense and played much better the last four weeks but it will take their best game of the year, by far, to hang with the three-time defending 6A champs.

Late Night

Friday night was also Late Night in Lawrence. Someone asked the question online if Late Night is washed. My response was “Of course it is.” The concept is 40 years old and pretty much every variation has been tried. If you expect anything more than silly/dumb skits and a ragged scrimmage you’re asking for way too much.

Where Late Night used to be the first chance for fans to see new players, we’ve now seen their highlight videos, seen them play on ESPN as high schoolers, seen viewed clips from summer pickup games, etc. In the transfer portal era we’ve even seen some of them play against their current teams. One of my buddies shared that he thought a guy who played for KU when we were in school was white until Late Night, which I thought was hilarious. No such issues these days.

(Lengthy aside: an underrated big day on the college hoops calendar back in our time was the first game after classes had started for the second semester. We always anxiously watched the tunnel the players came out of to make sure everyone was eligible. There was always one guy you were worried about. There was nothing like that moment of relief and elation when you saw Terry Brown or Alonzo Jamison walk onto the court in uniform. Of course today, when athletes take enough hours in the summer and online to stay eligible, kids have no idea about this flavor of anxiety.)

I say accept Late Night for what it is, the ceremonial start to the hoops season, and don’t ask any more of it.

College Football

We had a front blow through Friday night that crashed the temperatures. Saturday and Sunday were both cool and blustery. Which made each day perfect for sitting on my ass and watching football.

The Oklahoma-Texas game was awesome. I was super entertained for the three-plus hours it took the Sooners to pull out the win. And while I hate both schools for leaving the Big 12, I always lean OU in that game since they were a Big 8 school, so I was pleased with the result.

I was super nervous about the KU-Central Florida game. We knew Jalon Daniels would not be playing, which meant KU would feature the run. UCF’s defensive strength is their interior line. Seemed like it could go sideways pretty easily. I was both nervous about losing and about what an L would mean for the season. Drop this game, at home, and the road to bowl eligibility gets a lot tougher, many of the hopes of August quashed in early October.

Silly me. The Jayhawks manhandled those fools. One snap into the second half it was 31–0. Methodical marches down the field. Great defense (in the first half). A punt return touchdown for the first time in nine years. A 75-yard TD to open the second half. Other than the D getting torched in the second half and keeping one of the Indy boys from getting to play quarterback, it was almost a perfect game.

399 yards rushing on the day Tony Sands went into the Ring of Honor was perfect, too. In an ironic twist, my buddy Sweets, who missed Tony’s then NCAA record game in 1991 was unable to watch Saturday. We let him know about it.

So, Jalon… Super concerning. Especially since he apparently didn’t even come to the stadium to watch. Which is weird.

I have four theories, offered in order of likelihood:
1 – His injury continues to baffle doctors and he wasn’t actually in Lawrence but somewhere else seeing a specialist.
2 – He’s already had some kind of surgery and they’re trying to hide it.
3 – KU and Daniels/his family disagree on the best way to treat the injury and because of that he stayed away.
4 – Daniels has shut himself down for the year and was told to stay away from the stadium if that was his choice.

I can’t see JD not being around to support his teammates if he was able, so I doubt options 3 or 4 are the explanations. As the father of a kid with a back injury that experts have struggled to identity and treat, I totally get #1, which is no doubt way worse for a football player than just a random high school kid trying to get through her day.

He’s not been the same since he took that hit against TCU last year, and back injuries are never any joke. I’m hoping there’s a reasonable explanation and a path towards getting healthy and playing again before this season is complete. It would be very KU football, though, if his season/career is over.

Once again KU should be super happy Jason Bean decided to come back. He has some flaws, and I worry about how he’ll manage once teams dare him to make throws consistently. But he’s a hell of a second option and definitely good enough to win another game or two.

And I keep telling myself don’t let the drama around Daniels distract from a second-straight 5–1 start. Last year KU fans were thinking, “Can we win one more game?” This year it is “How many more can we win?” It’s kind of weird to hear national broadcasters praise KU football.

After KU I flipped between the evening games, but mostly watched Notre Dame – Louisville. That turned into an ass-kicking. The Irish, again, are frauds.

At some point in the evening S complained that she felt like she hadn’t accomplished anything all day. I pointed out she went to a friend’s house to take out some stitches and took M to both Costco and Target.

I, on the other hand, had been sitting on the couch watching football for nine hors at that point.

C helped me out, though. “Hey, you yelled a lot for awhile so you got your heart rate up.”

She’s my favorite for the moment.

Colts

What a weekend for the Colts!

Saturday they announced they had re-signed Jonathan Taylor after his holdout and that he would play on Sunday. I was torn on this. He makes the Colts better, but they are now paying like five guys a quarter of their salary cap, and three of those guys have concerning injury histories. Another potentially bad contract as the team tries to rebuild around Anthony Richardson. But, when healthy, Taylor will take pressure off of Richardson.

Sunday Taylor played a few snaps, but his replacement, Zack Moss, had the game of his life. Nearly 200 total yards, 160+ on the ground against one of the best run D’s in the game. Moss makes a hell of a lot less than Taylor, so now the new contract looks kind of dumb?

Moss was huge in the Colts beating Tennessee and pulling into a tie for first place. Which was even more impressive since Richardson got hurt for the third time this season, leaving the game with a shoulder injury. Apparently my teams can’t have good, young quarterbacks.

Again, great to have a competent backup, in this case Gardner Minshew.

I wrapped up the weekend watching a good chunk of the Cowboys-Niners game. Woodsheds, ass kickings, and whatnot. San Francisco looked awesome, which makes me even more sure that one or more of their stars is going to have a leg amputated or something next week.

  1. What up, Em?  ↩
  2. Brownsburg is ranked #1 in Indiana, but only #50 nationally. Cathedral is #8 and #212.  ↩

Sports Notes

October 4, 2023 /

NFL

Four weeks into the NFL season and I’m not sure what to make of things. Is there a single team that deserves unquestioned trust?

The Chiefs lost at home to Detroit opening night, righted themselves over the next two weeks, then apparently looked kind of crappy against the Jets last Sunday before escaping with a win.

The Bills played lethargic football against the undermanned Jets in week one, but have been kind of awesome since.

Miami hung 70 points on Denver, then lost by four touchdowns the next week.

Dallas has made a strong argument as the most complete team in the league. Well, other than losing to Arizona.

Philly is 4–0 but have been far from impressive getting there.

The 49ers are also 4–0, which means one of their stars is almost guaranteed to get hurt this week.

The top of the league seems kind of jumbled and uncertain, plenty of good teams but no great ones at the moment. Which I guess is a good thing as a casual fan of the game, as it makes for competitive games. Of course, any of those teams could go undefeated through October and a month from now we’ll be talking about how great they are.

For some reason I’m always surprised at how the Bears have been so bad for so long. 1985 was a long, long time ago, yet my brain keeps trying to convince me that they were still good until recently. They’ve been to the playoffs six times in the last 30 years. Is it just me or can other Gen Xers not get their heads around how long the Bears have been terrible?

I wasn’t able to watch the Colts Sunday, but it sounds like Anthony Richardson again dazzled. I caught a few minutes of ESPN’s NFL show Tuesday afternoon and I thought it was interesting that the panelists said they’ve seen enough, he is legit, and it’s time to start thinking about what moves the Colts need to make this offseason to both protect Richardson and put more weapons around him. He is still very raw, but is already making plays not many quarterbacks can make. I’m guessing if there was a re-draft, CJ Stroud would now be the #1 pick and playing in Carolina while Richardson would have gone #2 to Houston and the Colts would be, sadly, trying to keep Bryce Young from getting killed each week. Or maybe they would have traded down and chucked this season to go for Caleb Williams if they knew Jonathan Taylor would hold out.

NBA

What a crazy week in the association!

First, the Blazers trade Dame Lillard to Milwaukee as part of a three-team deal. Dame joining forces with Giannis made the Bucks the Eastern Conference favorites, at least temporarily.

My favorite part of the trade was Miami getting butt-hurt about being left out of the trade discussions. As if there was an obligation for Portland to make the deal that Dame wanted most but did not bring the best return for them. There was some pettiness on Portland’s part, which is kind of to be expected when the guy who still has four years left on his contract asks to be traded. But the Blazers were absolutely free to find a deal that gave them the best return as they rebuild around Scoot Henderson. Fuck Miami.

So for, what, three days the Bucks were conference favorites. Until Portland sent Jrue Holliday, who was part of their return for Lillard, to Boston. Suddenly the Celtics had one of the best perimeter defenders it the league and a thoroughly capable fourth option on offense. While there was some arguing amongst the experts, this trade made Boston at least co-favorites with Milwaukee, while some pushed the C’s into the top spot after the trade.

I loved all of this. Now we have two teams that are built to give the other absolute fits and will eye each other the entire regular season, likely battling for the top seed that would put a possible conference finals game seven on their home court. Should be a fascinating journey to get to those conference finals in late May.

And the Blazers absolutely kick-started their rebuild, assembling good pieces around the young core they already have while also grabbing a couple more established players that can be moved to add even more picks/youngsters to their stash.

I very much approve of teams making splashy moves like this. Dame or Jrue or one of their teammates could get hurt and blow this all up. Portland’s youth movement might never come together into a winner. The process sure wasn’t boring, though.

Man, the Lakers need to shut the fuck up. How do you whine about Denver talking a lot of trash last year after they swept you? Especially when the Nuggets went on to win the title. If a team sweeps your ass, they can say anything they want.

A team built around two aging, injury-prone stars should keep their mouths shut, lest the Hoops Gods notice and reward them by blowing out LeBron’s ankle again for wrecking AD’s back for the 1000th time.

MLB

I actually watched a baseball game on Tuesday, my first of the year! I didn’t plan on it, but when I was texting with L’s travel coach he said he was watching his Twins try to break their 18-game playoff losing streak. I had nothing else going on so flipped to the game. I was transfixed by the beautiful uniforms both the Twins and Blue Jays were wearing, and left it on as I did other things. I wouldn’t say I was super focused on the action, but at least I had it on. I even watched a couple innings of Arizona-Milwaukee later. I don’t know if this means I’m going to totally dive back in for the playoffs, but I may at least glance at them from moment-to-moment.

Travel Ball

Speaking of youth basketball, we finally got L’s assignment for the next travel season yesterday. I had been sweating it because I knew we were close to the deadline for rosters to be set.

As I’ve said several times, we knew the high school travel ball world is different, just not for sure what those differences were. At the final tryout the girls were told “if” they made a team, they would get an email in the next two weeks. “If.” Yikes.

It seemed like the past couple years it took a little over a week to get the assignment. But one of L’s best friends got hers last week and when L’s didn’t come, I started to panic a little.

Now I’m pretty sure that friend is going to play on a higher level team (there are three tiers of teams in high school), and figure that those teams come together first so they can fill holes.[1] But as each day went by without an email, I got more and more worried. I kept telling myself it would all work out, she will likely play a lot of minutes on the JV team this year so surely she’d land on a travel team, but she also wasn’t super happy with how she played in her tryouts, so you never know.

Fortunately the email arrived yesterday morning, coincidentally on her birthday. She’s staying with the coach she’s had the past two years, three of her teammates from those seasons are staying with her, along with one of her teammates from CHS. Another CHS girl may join them. It sounds like we might have zero size, although the coach is trying to find someone with height in the pool of remaining girls.

  1. A lot of those girls try out for multiple programs and pick from their offers. I’m not sure if money is involved for ninth graders, but L’s friend chose the team that practices closest to her home.  ↩

Weekend Notes

September 25, 2023 /

HS Football

Cathedral went down to Lexington, KY to play last year’s Kentucky 5A state champs. The Irish got an early lead, weathered their normal letdown, built the lead again, then held on for a nine-point win. Probably their best, most complete win of the season, from what I could judge by listening. They travel to Cincinnati next week.

The big news of the week was that the season finale against Center Grove has been moved to Butler’s stadium. CG fans are still bitching about having to play on natural grass two years ago, so this may have been purely a move to shut them up rather than play in a bigger stadium on a better field.

College Football

I had a very good day Saturday. I watched college football for at least 11.5 hours, almost uninterrupted.

I started with a little of Fox’s pregame show, something I never do, just because they were at UC for the Oklahoma-Cincinnati game. I talked to M Thursday and she told me some of her guy friends were going to go to bed mid-afternoon Friday, sleep until about midnight, then get up, go to bars until they closed at 2:00, hang out and drink until the official line for seats started at 5:00, then find a way to power through until the show started at 11:00. I haven’t heard how successful they were.

OU-UC was my first game of the day. Because it was another perfect day here, I watched on the outside TV. The Bearcats hung in all day, but are just dreadful in the red zone and couldn’t capitalize on multiple scoring chances. Oklahoma looks super talented, especially on defense, but something feels off about them still. They are good but don’t seem like a great team. Or at least not right now. I probably just jinxed KU into a 56–17 loss next month. The Sooners were good enough to earn a 20–6 win.

Then it was over to the BYU-KU game. The Jayhawks had been favored by between 8.5 and 10 points all week, which seemed crazy. They had struggled against a bad team last week while BYU won at Arkansas. I listened to a couple preview pods and both insisted that KU was a bad matchup across the field for BYU, and expected a comfortable Kansas win. I still didn’t trust them.

Naturally KU covered, winning by 11.

Not that it was that easy. Sure, KU got a scoop-and-score on BYU’s second snap of the game. But the Cougars led by one at halftime and KU’s offense seemed to be struggling. KU dropped a sure pick-six on the first snap of the second half, which seemed ominous. Until Kenny Logan snatched a pick-six two plays later. Then the offense took over. It wasn’t spectacular. Just solid, physical, ball-control offense with a couple beautiful touchdown passes to Luke Grimm mixed in.

Take out a couple bad, untimely penalties and this game is a blowout, so lots to feel good about.

As much as last week’s winning ugly game at Nevada, I think this game really showed the improvement of the program. They won a game by dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. KU rushed for 221 yards while holding BYU to nine yards on the ground. For years that was the biggest personnel issue with the Kansas roster: both lines sucked so they couldn’t protect their quarterback or control the game on defense. That once or twice a year things came together and the team was still in the game late, it was inevitable failure on the lines that sealed their fate. There’s a long way to go, and the competition gets much tougher this week. But as much of the credit as Jalon Daniels, Devin Neal, Daniel Hishaw, Logan, and Cobee Bryant get, it is the two lines that truly demonstrate how much KU has improved.

Being 4–0 in consecutive seasons for the first time in over 100 years is pretty dope.

Oh, and the bigger deal is that I am traveling to Austin to watch the #24 Jayhawks take on the #3 Longhorns next Saturday. Really looking forward to standing in the 90+ degree heat for four hours. No, really, I am. It will be my first KU football game in 13 years, plus I’m seeing guys I haven’t seen in six and 20 years. I’ll take potential heatstroke and sunburn in exchange.

Seconds after the KU game ended S walked in the house with the dinner she had picked up for us. I scarfed down my burger then headed back outside for the evening games.

I watched half an hour of Oregon State-Washington State before flipping to the night’s marquee game, Ohio State-Notre Dame. That was quite a contest. I’m not really sure why Ryan Day was so worried about what Lou Holtz said about his team. No one cares what that crazy old man says. And I’m not sure how the Notre Dame coaching staff can let their team play the final two plays of the game with only ten men on the field. If they struggle through a very rough stretch in their schedule the next three weeks, that decision may become even more significant.

It was getting a little chilly so I moved back inside during the fourth quarter of OSU-ND. Being back on cable meant I could happily rotate between games. I watched a little of everything that was on, without really settling anywhere. Penn State looked pretty impressive. When I was watching USC they were doing usual dumb USC stuff, although it seems like they figured things out late. I ended the night by watching the overtime periods between Akron and Indiana. Akron should have won in regulation, but missed a short field goal as time expired. Eventually the Hoosiers pulled it out in the fourth OT. Inspiring stuff from the Hoosiers.

NFL Sunday

I did not watch nearly as much football on Sunday. I would truly be a sicko if I had tried to sit through another full day.

I flipped on the Colts-Ravens game midway through the second quarter and was surprised that the Colts were only down seven. Anthony Richardson was the most notable of several key players who were sitting out the visit to Baltimore.

The Colts carved out a 10–7 lead at the break and trailed by just one when they set up to receive a punt with under three minutes remaining in the game.

That’s when all hell broke loose. The next 45 minutes of real time covered about 11 minutes of football time. And it was all gloriously stupid. The Colts would make a terrible play, then the Ravens would match it. Then the Colts would say, “OK, we REALLY don’t want to win,” and do something dumber. Only for the Ravens to say, “Not so fast!” and top them again. But then the Colts would make an amazing play and seem to have the game in hand, only for the Ravens to step up with their own amazing play. The CBS announcers were incredulous, shouting about the crazy things each team was doing.

This went on for the last 2:30 of regulation and almost all of overtime until Matt Gay hit his fourth field goal greater than 50 yards in the game to steal the win for the Colts.

Just an amazing, gloriously idiotic stretch of football. I literally laughed out loud multiple times.

This is the freedom that comes with not really caring whether the home team wins or loses. I’m just looking to be entertained. This game – or at least those last 11 minutes – were about as entertaining of a game as I’ve watched recently.

Three weeks in the Colts are in first place, their only loss being a game they pissed away late. Zach Moss (WHO?!?!) ran for 122 yards and had another 23 yards receiving. If only Jonathan Taylor had come to his senses and was playing in this offense.

The AFC South sucks.

Kid Hoops

L had her final travel team tryout Sunday. There were a lot fewer girls there than the first one she went to, as I think many of the locals had already put in their two recommended appearances. When I walked in she looked wiped out since she had played a lot more than two weeks ago.

It’s all kind of a mystery how this high school travel thing works, so we’re hoping we hear in the next couple weeks that she’s landed on a decent team.

She was excited that the director of training and recruiting who runs the workouts knew her name. Doesn’t hurt that her high school coach has worked in this program the past couple years.

Weekend Notes

September 18, 2023 /

HS Football

Two games again this weekend.

Friday night Cathedral played at the public school down the street. Both girls had some friends over before the game and we walked to the stadium. First play of the night CHS snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head, he chased but could not cover, and North Central took over in Irish territory. Not a promising start.

North Central was winless and it showed, as they went nowhere and gave the ball back to CHS, who methodically ran up a 49–0 lead before halftime. A penalty on the final play of the game gave NC an untimed snap, and they got the ball into the end zone to lose 49–6.

I’ve gone to four of the first five games this season (L has been to all five) and each of them has been on a perfect evening for football. CHS is out of state the next two weeks. We’ll see if the weather holds when we return to games in October.

Saturday I took L to the freshman game so she could take pictures. NC took the lead twice on huge kickoff returns that set up short possessions. Each time Cathedral answered with a 70+ yard TD run. The Irish pulled away in the second half to win 34–21. Very entertaining.

I stood near the dads of a couple of the players, who had a game-long commentary going. I’m thinking I should just live blog what they say some week as it is hilarious.

Oh, and L handed her phone to a friend to take a picture of her with some football player after the game. Then she saw the kid twice more over the weekend. Good grief…

College Football

Surely it is a sign of how far KU football has come that Jayhawk fans were pissed off about Saturday’s result. I mean, the program went something like a decade without winning a road game once. So even if needlessly close and nervous, getting out of Reno 3–0 should be what we’re focusing on, right? When you struggle with a team that got blasted by an FCS team the previous week, it’s going to mess with your head.

The worst part of the game wasn’t that KU played poorly, or that I don’t have CBS Sports Network and had to listen to the game, or that I’m not crazy about KU’s radio announcers. No, the worst part was that it began at 10:30 Eastern, and since victory wasn’t assured until there was under a minute to play, that meant I went to bed after 2:00 AM Sunday. Several of my buddies checked out at halftime, which was probably the smart move. I was wiped out on Sunday. I had Colorado State-Colorado muted on the TV so I was entertained. Just wish the game had started at a more reasonable time.

Saturday was also M’s first game in the stands for UC, as they played Miami (OH). The schools have the oldest non-conference rivalry in the country, and I was amazed to learn that despite winning 16-straight in the series, UC only led by one win.

M got fantastic seats and I was constantly looking for her in the crowd shots. Never saw her though.

Miami played great and held a lead into the fourth quarter until the Bearcats jumped ahead. Miami tied it and then UC had a makable field goal to win the game late that Miami blocked to send the game to overtime.

In OT Miami scored first, then picked off a pass in the end zone to get the W. Now the series is tied 60–60–7. Two of M’s best friends go to Miami. I bet those girls were way nicer about breaking a long losing streak than I would have been in the same situation. We talked to M Sunday and she said it was a lot of fun, until the very end.

Colts

Another Sunday of doing work for relatives meant I missed most of the Colts game. I was tracking the score and saw the Colts were up 14–3, then 21–3. I also noticed that Gardner Minshew was playing. That was strange.

When I got home and looked up what happened I learned that Anthony Richardson had gone nuts early, smacked his head on the turf, played two more series, and then reported concussion symptoms and sat out the rest of the game. Hmmmm.

You can’t get too excited about beating up on the Texans – who tried their hardest to come back in the fourth quarter – yet it’s still promising that the Colts apparently looked really good with Richardson in. Now comes the worry of when he’ll play again and if he’s now in the “every big hit might cause a new concussion” zone. Which is a bad place to be.

KU Hoops

This is not good. Very not good. There were some rumbles of displeasure/disbelief when Bill Self took on Arterio Morris, given he played last year with a domestic abuse charge pending in Texas, but no general outcry. I would expect even Teflon Bill is going to get some serious heat about Morris as more comes out about this case.

Assorted Other Notes

We got the girls’ car back from the repair shop on Wednesday, about a week earlier than expected, which was awesome. It looks nearly perfect, so no complaints.

One of our senate seats is opening up here in Indiana next year, so the rats are scrambling to get their names out there early. The last two Sundays NFL games have been flooded with ads from all the “self-made outsiders” who will be in the Republican primary next spring. Throw in a very nasty Indianapolis mayoral race in this fall’s election, and I’m already having to mute commercial breaks. Really looking forward to 2024.

Speaking of commercials, I saw my first Christmas ad on Saturday. That was September 16 for those of you who don’t own calendars.

While on the subject of getting an early start on the holidays, S and I were at Target on Thursday and bought two full-size, posable skeletons for the front porch. We got a lot of looks as we wheeled them through the store and parking lot. We’ve given them some accessories and have a couple more things coming. Once we get everything situated the way we like I’ll share a picture.

Weekend Notes

September 11, 2023 /

A lot of sports and stuff to get through from the past weekend.

HS Football

Weirdest game of the season for Cathedral, against rival Bishop Chatard. It was CYO Night + Homecoming + Chatard, so the stadium was packed. We got there an hour early and still had to park in the overflow section a couple blocks away.

The Irish started hot, jumping out to a 21–0 lead in the first quarter, and it looked like it would be a repeat of the past three years, all blowout CHS wins.

But Chatard steadied themselves and controlled the second quarter, cutting the deficit to 21–10 at the break.

The weird thing was the lights on the visiting side of the field were not working. As CHS went through the halftime homecoming festivities, we noticed the Chatard side was completely clearing out. As soon as the homecoming king and queen were announced, official word came that the game was being postponed until Saturday morning, and would move to Chatard.

(Reminder for you non-Indy folks, CHS does not have their own football stadium. In recent years they’ve stuck to Arlington Middle School, which is about a mile from campus. The stadium is old, isn’t well maintained, and most fans have to park in a very sketchy strip mall. The other option is to drive 20 minutes downtown to play at Tech High School, which has a much nicer field but it is, again, 20 minutes away. Something is always going wrong at the Arlington stadium. This time it was the power not working for half of the lights.)

L wanted to go to the freshman game Saturday so we did not return to the varsity game. Good choice. On Cathedral’s four second half possessions, they threw two interceptions and turned the ball over on downs twice, while Chatard scored on their first possession after resuming and then threw a 39-yard TD pass with a minute left to break their four-game losing streak in the series. The kid who caught the winning pass did not play Friday night because he was in the concussion protocol, but Saturday was the first day he was eligible to return. Pretty good timing. My girls all thought I was joking when I told them the final score. By the computer rankings, CHS was a 19-point favorite.

Familiar issues for CHS. Their offensive line can’t block. They have a D1 quarterback, four really good receivers, and a junior running back who has the potential to be great. But they can’t give the QB time to throw or open holes for running plays. The D-line struggles as well, and the secondary is the weakest I can recall in my five years of going to games. Since schools don’t hand out rosters anymore I don’t know if CHS is young or just not very good. Whatever it is, they’re wasting the skill players.

Next week they play hapless North Central, right up the block from our house. Unless they get their shit together, that might be their last winnable game of the regular season.

KU Football

I again missed the first half of the KU game while watching CHS. Allow me to reiterate that playing college football on Friday nights is dumb. Although it you have to do it, it better be on ESPN/ESPN2 so you at least get the benefit of people being able to watch it easily along with guaranteed coverage on Sportscenter.

Apparently I missed the best part of the game. As we were leaving Arlington I couldn’t find the KU feed on Sirius, so listened to the Illinois halftime show and they were raving about Jason Daniels. 28–7 seemed like a good start.

By the time I got home the second half had just begun and I had to watch nervously as Illinois tried to come back and the referees tried to steal the game.

OK, it wasn’t the field refs so much as the replay official. The targeting call on Austin Booker was terrible. There was no way you could definitively determine if he hit the Illinois QB with the crown of his helmet, especially when making such a call leads to an ejection and suspension for Booker. Then the same person somehow confirmed a spot that was clearly wrong by two yards as KU was trying to clinch the game late in the fourth quarter. When the impartial ESPN announcers are incredulous about calls you have to assume it was an Illinois alum doing the reviews.[1]

I’m obviously kidding but since I didn’t see the best part of the game I can’t dive into those details and am left to overreact about those two calls.

Bottom line was JD looked great, the offense was crisp in the first half, the defense was doing some nice things before they lost focus/got tired in the second half, and KU won a game everyone was worried about fairly easily. I saw that KU is now something like 42–117 all time against the Big 10. Maybe this was the win that turns all that history around!

I did not like the uniforms. I have it when schools that don’t have black as a primary color decide to bust out black uniforms. This isn’t 1995. Now make those same uniforms blue and I would have been totally onboard. I guess the players loved them, which is all that matters. The uniform gurus agree with me.

NFL

I was only able to watch isolated portions of opening weekend of the NFL. The Colts looked competent for stretches of their game against Jacksonville before things fell apart in the fourth quarter. Anthony Richardson getting blasted and having to leave the game was not good, although he claimed afterwards that he was fine. He was terrific in the first half – 16–20 passing including two drops, 30+ yards rushing – but was largely ineffective in the second until his final drive. That will be the story of the year so no need to get worked up about either aspect of it.

Props to the Colts for keeping the Lucas Oil stadium roof closed on an absolutely perfect day. It’s a running joke around here how much we paid for a retractable roof for how rarely it actually gets opened for a Colts game. I guess 78 and sunny was too oppressive for the fans and players.

The Cowboys looked awesome Sunday night. I apologize to Lions fans for not taking them seriously. Green Bay fans need to calm down and save it for after the play a real NFL team. I’m officially declining my honorary homer status for the Bengals, but reserve the right to reclaim it when they play better. My Niners pick is looking good after 60 minutes of football.

US Open

We watched almost every one of Coco Gauff’s matches, from her opener against the frustrating German Laura Siegemund, to the final when she captured her first Grand Slam title. What a delightful two weeks. Not only is she a terrific tennis player, she is more composed and thoughtful than I’ve ever been. And she’s only 19!

There were so many great moments over her run, but my favorite may have been how she was sobbing after she hit the winner that clinched the championship match. Most players cry tears of some kind when they win a Grand Slam. Something about hers seemed different. Teen tennis prodigies are always a dicey long-term bet. Coco sure seems like the real deal.

One of my other favorite recurring moments of the tournament was all these divas (of both genders) who for some reason scream at their coaches and support teams when they lose a point. You’re the one with the racquet and on the court, asshole. Take some responsibility.

FIBA World Cup

Speaking of assholes, I didn’t get too worked up about the US losing the third-place game to Canada. I did get worked up about them letting Dillon Brooks score 39 points. DILLON BROOKS. No one on the US roster should be allowed to play international ball again. Although he probably thinks he’s an All NBA caliber player now, which could lead to all kinds of hilarious bad play this coming year. Kind of a shame he’ll be wasted in Houston and not torpedoing some actual contender when he goes 3–27 in a playoff game.

I didn’t get up to watch the third-place game and it was over before I woke up Sunday. I did watch most of the other US games during the tournament that were on at more decent times. The real goal was to qualify for the Olympics, which they accomplished. With a flawed roster. Now roll out the A team next year to grab the gold medal.

It was super interesting to watch how the US struggled with the format of FIBA basketball. The court is slightly smaller. The ball a touch different. There are no illegal defense rules. Refs call some fouls very differently than in the NBA. The games also move quicker.[2] Combine all that and the US never seemed comfortable.

It’s not just that the rest of the world has gotten a lot better. The international teams generally have a core that has been together for years, where the US throws a different lineup out there each time they play in the World Cup or Olympics. When you have a LeBron or KD or Kobe anchoring things you can paper over a lot of those little issues. When you have a bunch of nice but not great players there is not much room for error. It’s also interesting that of the top five players in the world right now, only one is an American, and he wasn’t playing in this tournament.[3]

One thing about the US team did bother me. It seemed like they were always looking to throw the toughest pass possible rather than the easiest. I blame it on them wanting to try to match the 1992 Dream Team’s flair. They need to understand that Germany in 2023 is way better than it was in 1992. Just do the simple things and win the game. If you’re up by 20 in the closing minutes, then you can start throwing behind-the-back passes. Oh, and maybe pick someone for the team capable of getting a rebound.

BREAKING NEWS: This morning LeBron said he’s in for next summer’s Olympics. That’s great and all but not sure he’s what the US needs.

PJ

It was an utterly amazing night for an outdoor concert Sunday evening. Warm as the sun set, cool but not yet chilly as darkness descended.

Sadly Pearl Jam postponed their Indianapolis show because of an illness in the band. They say they will reschedule and tickets will be honored at that show. There are only four more nights on this tour and Eddie Vedder starts a solo tour on September 30, so it seems like it will be in the next couple weeks, maybe? I hope whenever it is that the weather is as great as it was Sunday.

  1. Cobee Bryant’s targeting foul? Yeah, that was 100% a legit penalty.  ↩
  2. One minute time outs are the best invention ever. The NBA and NCAA would never go to those – too much lost ad revenue – but they sure speed up the pace of the game.  ↩
  3. I would say that’s Steph Curry, although Jayson Tatum was All NBA first team last year.  ↩

NFL Predictions

September 7, 2023 /

As I skimmed the site’s archives over the summer, I realized I’ve gotten away from the half-assed NFL predictions that used to be a staple this time of year. That is mostly because I was busy with kid sports and the beginning of the NFL season often snuck up on me. And because I loathe how the NFL offseason dominates sports media and largely tune it out, not checking back in until the games begin.

Both to honor the heritage of this site and because I listened to a few NFL preview pods this week, I’m going to jump back in and offer some extra half-assed NFL predictions.

AFC

East

Lots of people seem down on the Bills after their struggles to match the hype they entered last season with. I’m going to chalk a lot of that, along with their early playoff exit, to injuries. Plus I don’t trust the other teams in the division. Buffalo

North

Maybe the best and most intriguing division in the game. One injury to a key player could tip the entire thing. Since I’m a partial Bengals homer now, I’m going with Joe Burrow and his crew. Cincinnati

South

Ugh. The Colts should really suck this year. Every preview I’ve either listened to or read, though, suggests that at least Anthony Richardson is going to be interesting enough to watch their games. He’s going to have amazing moments and look completely overwhelmed at times. Often within the same drive. I suppose the question is whether the organization can shake its recent dysfunction and build around him as he (hopefully) turns into a star, or is he destined to be a Must Watch QB stranded on a terrible team his entire career?

As for the division, both Tennessee and Jacksonville have strong selling points. Culture in Nashville, youth in Jax. Yet both teams have huge holes that have some people squinting and suggesting that if the Colts can protect Richardson, bring back Jonathan Taylor in week five, and keep the defense healthy, they could actually steal the division. Yikes. I like Trevor Lawrence’s potential the most, so I’ll take Jacksonville.

West

Kansas City until Mahomes can’t throw.

Wild Cards

There are a lot of good teams in the AFC. But once you get past the top three, they all have serious questions. Can Tua stay healthy? Is Aaron Rodgers washed up or revitalized? Can the Ravens still stop people? Was that late season-run by the Steelers legit? Can Sean Payton really fix the Broncos? What new ways will the Chargers find to squander their potential? I’ll take Pittsburgh and New York.

Oh, wait, I just remembered there are three Wild Card teams now. Shit. Throw in San Diego just because their eventual loss will be highly entertaining.

NFC

East

If Washington were better, this would match the AFC North for overall strength. Lots of people are jumping on the Cowboys’ bandwagon, but I can’t possibly trust that franchise not to fuck it up somehow. Philadelphia was clearly the best team in the NFC last year. No reason they won’t win the division again this year.

North

All the love for the Lions is cute. Get back to me when they’ve won a meaningful game. I think Minnesota holds off Green Bay.

South

Man, what is it with the South divisions? They both suck. New Orleans I guess?

West

The Niners are a weird team, man. They might have the best, most complete roster in the game. With one glaring exception: quarterback. They always seem to have a couple huge injuries, too. I still trust them more than I trust Geno Smith to repeat last year’s performance. San Francisco

Wild Cards

Dallas, New York, and Green Bay

Playoffs!

AFC

Buffalo over New York
Pittsburgh over Jacksonville
Cincinnati over San Diego

Kansas City over Pittsburgh
Cincinnati over Buffalo

Kansas City over Cincinnati

NFC

Dallas over New Orleans
New York over Green Bay
San Francisco over Minnesota

Philadelphia over Dallas
San Francisco over New York

San Francisco over Philadelphia

Super Bowl

Niners get another chance at the Chiefs. Their defense slows Mahomes down, but when forced to play the entire game with some quarterback they signed in November – Carson Wentz!?!? – they can’t put any points on the board. Kansas City 24, San Francisco 9, and the Chiefs officially enter dynasty territory.

As always, never, ever take use these to make actual bets.

Sports Notes

August 1, 2023 /

I’ve stacked up a lot of sports thoughts over the past several weeks. Let’s dive in and see how long it takes to get through them.

Tour de France

After watching the Netflix show Tour de France: Unchained in June, I was all-in for this year’s tour, even ponying up for Peacock for the month to watch.[1] It was like the good (bad) old days watching Lance Armstrong as I turned the race on first thing every morning and tracked the day’s progress.

This year’s race was awesome. Week one was incredible, with all kinds of cool attacks and finishes until Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, combined winners of the last three Tours, took over. The duo battled across France and stayed within seconds of each other into the final week, until Vingegaard won a convincing victory in stage 16’s individual time trial. The next day he blew the race open in the Alps. What had been a nine second lead exploded to over seven minutes. It was a remarkable two days to earn a deserved second-straight Tour win.

I had a few sources for reading about each day’s stages, one of them The Guardian. Which, being The Guardian, threw aspersions towards any biker who performed particularly well. Vingegaard got the worst of it as he took over the race. Who knows if the speculation is accurate or not. His team noted how many times his blood was tested over the month, an argument we’ve heard before. I just found it interesting it was NEVER discussed on the TV broadcast.

It also drove me nuts that the announcers, the same main two guys as back in Lance’s prime, have the same quirks they had 20 years ago. They’re looking at the same footage we are watching, and somehow almost always misread biker’s body language. Multiple times they suggested someone was in great shape, only to get dropped moments later, or that someone was struggling only for them to surge away from their rivals. And they love to speculate, with like 80 kilometers to race, that some guy with a minute lead “surely has this stage won.” I blame Europeans and their strange ways of covering sports.

KU Hoops

I’ve never followed up on my May thoughts, after Hunter Dickinson committed. It’s been a busy summer.
Both Zuby Ejiofor and Ernest Udeh transferred out, which really, really sucked. I totally understand why they left, and that is the big downside to adding a massive transfer in like Dickinson. I wish Bill Self could have talked at least one of them into staying. Udeh ending up at TCU was a real bummer, but better than Kansas State, which was one of his other options.
Kevin McCullar decided to come back, which was huge.
Christian Braun’s brother transferred in, giving KU another body in the front court.
Zach Clemence, who had said he was transferring to UCSB, changed his mind and announced he was returning and would redshirt.
Incoming freshman Chris Johnson saw the roster crunch in the backcourt and decided to de-commit and go to Texas.
Then, after a couple weeks of summer school, fellow freshman Marcus Adams decided Lawrence was “too country” for him and bailed, burning his free transfer in the process, for Gonzaga.

Suddenly a super-deep roster was kind of thin. There were rumors KU might grab an international player who could come in and play this year, but those rumors have faded. There could still be a grad transfer to add, but it looks like KU might roll into the season with just nine eligible players, assuming Clemence sticks with redshirting. Self normally only plays 7–8, but all it takes is a couple tweaked ankles or the flu running through the locker room for the bench to get shallow real quick.

The Jayhawks go to Puerto Rico this week to play a few games, two of which are against the Bahamas national team and could include several NBA players. Just need no one to get hurt…[2]

Pacers

Man, the Pacers had a nice summer. They made smart draft picks to start. Then they signed Bruce Brown. During the NBA Finals I knew someone would overpay him after his great performance, and I was bummed when it was the Pacers.

However, while his contract was reported as two years, it is basically a one-year deal that the Pacers can get out of if he doesn’t perform this year, or re-sign him on better terms for each side next year if he has a good season. A savvy, win-win signing.

Then they traded for Obi Toppin, which seems like an awesome move. He was always forced to play out of position in New York, and seems like a perfect match for Tyrese Haliburton. The duo showed up at a local pro-am league last week and combined for approximately 800 alley-oops. Toppin has vibes of the classic guy who needs a change of scenery to finally capitalize on his potential. I don’t think he’s going to be a superstar, but he fits what the Pacers are trying to do.

They still need to massage the roster a bit, the young guys need to develop, and Haliburton and Myles Turned need to stay healthy. But they could be one of the most fun teams in the league next year, and should battle for a playoff spot.

Royals

Props to the R’s! They won their last three games of July, giving them their first three-game winning streak of the season. No one keeps the Royals from winning three consecutive games for four months!

Colts

The team didn’t even get to training camp before drama popped up. Jonathan Taylor was part of a group of running backs around the league who met virtually to discuss how their position gets screwed by the current collective bargaining agreement. Then he suddenly was placed on the PUP list when camp opened. Two days later he requested a trade. This from the guy who has been the epitome of how you want a player to behave, and kept insisting he wanted to play his entire career in Indy.

I totally get where he, and his fellow RBs are coming from. Only kickers are compensated less under the franchise tags since the NFL has decided that running backs are basically interchangeable and dispensable. But that’s an argument they need to aim at their own union, not at ownership that is following the agreed upon rules.[3] And I also understand Taylor’s specific fears. He was hurt last year and had off-season surgery designed to keep his ankle healthy. The Colts drafted a dual threat QB who is going to be given the keys to the offense soon enough, which will cut down on Taylor’s carries, yards, and touchdowns. If he doesn’t get his money now, he might not get it next off season.

The Colts don’t seem inclined to move him; I wonder if they’ll have the guts not to play him. Regardless of cause and odds of resolution, it’s not a great way to begin the season. Especially when his prime backup broke his arm in practice on Monday.

Oh, and I read this morning that the Colts have dropped hints that Taylor also hurt his back over the summer working out on his own, a claim Taylor angrily denied. We’ve moved beyond ugly and are pushing irreparable.

USWNT/World Cup

Ooof. I was not up at 3:00 AM today to watch the US women’s national team’s final group stage game against Portugal. Pretty glad I did not set an alarm. The outcome could have been worse, but not much. A team that has looked sluggish through their first two games failed to score and had to rely on Portugal hitting the post in stoppage time to advance to the knockout stage.

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski has faced a lot of criticism for how he’s constructed the team and how they played in the run-up to the tournament. I haven’t watched enough nor know enough about high-level soccer tactics to be able to critique his choices. At some point, though, the most talented team in the world, filled with both veterans who own two World Cup titles and some of the brightest young stars in the world, have to take responsibility for their play. Even if Andonovski has made terrible tactical choices, they should be good enough to overcome his errors.

I guess the only good thing about the team’s subpar performance is that so few Americans can watch it because of the time difference.

  1. Strangely convenient how our free access to Peacock thanks to being Xfinity customers expired the day before the race began.  ↩
  2. Jinx. You read it here first.  ↩
  3. Note is, as it may be a first: me siding with ownership over labor.  ↩

Weekend Notes

January 9, 2023 /

It’s back to semi-normal today. L returned to school after her Christmas break. M and C still have one more week of J-term, so they go in a little later and get out a little earlier. But all three have to get up in the mornings again.

Last week I had to get up to make sure C was up, so my alarm was 7:15 instead of my normal, school-day 6:55. Still, it was a little weird coming down this morning and finding the house dark instead of two Christmas trees already turned on filling the living room and front office with their soft light.

We took all the holiday decorations down Saturday. Since they went up earlier than normal and stayed up a little longer than normal, this was our most decorated Christmas ever.

We all have dentist appointments this afternoon, which wraps up a busy run of visits to health professionals over the past few weeks. I’ve been to the orthodontist three times, optometrist, sports medicine, MRI center, physical therapy, and had my annual physical.

I’m good, all that middle stuff was for C. She’s been having back pain for a few months, and even resting it plus a few visits to a chiropractor last fall didn’t help. Walking around in Italy was awful for her, and she was generally miserable at the end of each day, and progressively worse as the week went on. We finally got her in to a sports medicine doc three weeks ago. X-rays were clean but her MRI showed two interesting things. First, she has a bulging disk, the likely cause of her pain. Second, she is missing a vertebra and one set of ribs. That diagnosis got S into super medical research mode and she found about 4–5% of the general population has this issue. Weird!

The sports med doc said while there’s no research that would definitely tell us the bulging disk is directly tied to the lack of that vertebra, she also said it sure didn’t help. She also said it likely cost C an inch or two of height, which makes her topping out at 5’2” while her sisters both made it to 5’4”-ish make sense.[1] She took some teasing for that.

She started physical therapy last week and will do that for a month or so, with the hopes that helps her avoid anything more invasive to correct the issue.

Big 12 Hoops

Another crazy-ass weekend in the best conference in the country. Three teams are tied for first place at 3–0, all three getting there on the strength of two road wins. KU is not a huge surprise to be in that group. Kansas State and Iowa State, though? HUGE surprises. These were picked 8th and 9th in the preseason polls!

I think it’s too early to draw broad conclusions about any team. Especially in a conference like the Big 12. The Wildcats and Cyclones might be mid-tier teams a month from now. But they are off to great starts, and those road wins are huge bonuses in a conference that will likely be tightly bunched much of the season. 14–4 is always my default answer for what it takes to win the Big 12. Could this be the year that something like 12–6 guarantees you no worse than a tie?

More Jayhawks-centric talk later this week.

Pacers

The Indiana Pacers were expected to win right around 20 games this year. They just played their 41st game of the season, the exact midpoint of their schedule. After grabbing two more close wins this weekend, they stand at 23–18, good for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

It’s been a remarkable first half. They are hella fun to watch, as my friends in Cali might say. Tyrese Haliburton is a legit All Star, and plays with a joy that is infectious. Buddy Hield leads the league in 3-pointers made, connecting on nearly 20 more than the second-most prolific shooter. Rookie Bennedict Mathurin is going to be a star. Second-round pick Andrew Nembhard could be one of the steals of the draft, an ideal backup to Haliburton who can also play next to him. Aaron Nesmith is beginning to show why he was a lottery pick two years ago.

But the biggest surprise is Myles Turner, a player most expected to have been traded by now. Turner is playing the best, most complete, most inspired ball of his career. I’ve always thought he was a little immature and disinterested in doing the hard work it took to be a star. At least for now he seems fully invested. To the point where the Pacers have made him a contract extension offer, attempting to capitalize on the big chunk of salary cap space they still have open. Turner has, for now, said he’s not interested.

That will set up an interesting game of chicken. Can the Pacers really trade their second-best player when they are in the running for a playoff spot and far too good to have a realistic shot at the #1 pick if they suddenly decide to tank? Can Turner turn down more money than any other team will be able to give him next summer no matter how badly he wants to end up in LA?

A year ago I would say the sides will come together and find an agreeable extension before the trade deadline, and Turner will quickly get injured. He’s always getting injured, and it would be just the Pacers’ luck for that to happen after they lock him up.

I think the Pacers’ luck has changed, though. So I think they either re-sign him and he stays healthy, or they can’t agree to terms, he plays out the year, signs with another team over the summer and that inevitable injury pops up in training camp. Meanwhile the Pacers use all their cap space to plug some other holes and immediately turn back into the solid 40–50 win team they usually are.

cLots/NFL

What a finish to the regular season! The cLots began the season with that humiliating tie in Houston, one that required a furious comeback just to get to overtime. They ended it with an even bigger embarrassment, losing to the Texans at home in the final minute of the game. Houston had a 10-point lead three times, but the cLots rallied to take a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter. The Texans, who should have been satisfied with the loss and the #1 pick in April’s draft, for some reason decided to play full-out, converting on fourth and 20+ two different times on their final drive, including the touchdown that cut the lead to one. Then they went for two and the win and got it.

Amazing!

In the process they allowed the Bears to jump them for the #1 pick. The Texans’ owner was on the sideline after the game and he seemed to be the only person not celebrating. A few hours later he fired coach Lovie Smith. I like to think Lovie and his players knew what was coming and the final drive was a big Eff You to ownership.

The L could be good for the cLots. The Bears don’t need a quarterback, so perhaps they will entertain flipping that pick for Indy’s #5. Or at least that’s what speculation is around here. The Bears can certainly use the top pick to select someone other than a QB, and the cLots will have to hope either they can get a decent candidate in their fifth slot, or focus on one of the teams between them and Houston to swap picks with.

***UPDATE***
I heard at least four times yesterday that the cLots’ pick will be #5. Turns out they snuck into #4 thanks to Denver’s win.

I don’t know. It sure feels like the cLots will be stuck at five, reach for someone who is not ready to be an NFL QB, and remain mediocre, at very best, for the foreseeable future.

Not that I’m convinced either Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud are sure-things. Maybe it’s better not to pick them.

  1. And L is still growing.  ↩
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