A few good reads to jumpstart your short week.<\/p>\n
These are pretty funny. Although are we sure Pearl Jam is a sad dad band? I do shake my head at the word \u201ccrypto,\u201d though, so they may be onto something.<\/p>\n
What Your Favorite Sad Dad Band Says About You<\/a><\/p>\n Kevin Clark\u2019s summary of the CFP National Title game was terrific<\/a>. I loved this section, in particular, about Kelee Ringo\u2019s pick-six that iced the game and title for Georgia.<\/p>\n You can go to a lot of games but you rarely get a moment like this. The type of moment that will not just be remembered\u2014there are all sorts of memorable moments in title games\u2014but a moment whose image will be painted on the side of random sports bars. Fans will look up the play on YouTube when there\u2019s nothing to do after they\u2019ve had two beers. People will get tattoos of the play and it won\u2019t be considered that weird. That<\/em>sort of play.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sports are full of wonderfully ridiculous moments like this. I really didn\u2019t care who won but was swept up in the moment, letting out a yell as Ringo raced up the field.<\/p>\n Every sports fan has moments like this. Most of the time they happen in games that aren\u2019t for a championship of any kind. So they don\u2019t get forgotten – most of us lunatics can talk about way too many random moments from 35-year-old Big 8 games – but they certainly have a pretty niche audience.<\/p>\n But for a moment like that to happen on the game\u2019s biggest stage is pretty special. Georgia fans are going to talk about it forever, even ones not old enough to remember it. And the rest of us will, too. I\u2019m lucky that I have one of those moments<\/a> in my personal sports history. Slightly different context, but still a play that will never be forgotten.<\/p>\n A really good piece about the impact that John Madden had. I love the stuff about how he changed the way football was broadcast.<\/p>\n Madden\u2019s genius was how<\/em> he taught football. Those booms<\/em>, that unbuttoned aura of regular guy-dom\u2014all of that was an invitation. It made Madden\u2019s classroom feel like a safe place, where you\u2019d get a little smarter and the professor would never act like he was smarter than you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Genius of John Madden<\/a><\/p>\n When we visited Nashville in October, Jason Isbell was in the midst of his annual residency at the Ryman Auditorium. HIs band\u2019s gear was on stage when we took our tour. This piece came out of that time. I don\u2019t always love Isbell\u2019s music, but I greatly admire his point-of-view and his efforts to make change.<\/p>\n
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