The intellectual equivalent of a ham sandwich.

Posts tagged ‘NFL’

Hello Darkness My Old Friend

This weekend I welcome college football back into my life. Saturday SMU will play North Texas, a game that SHOULD be a game SMU wins, but you just never know.

The next weekend SMU plays again, this time against Baylor. A game I will describe as “missable” since I am pretty sure SMU will be a tune up for Baylor. However, West Point will be starting its football season with a game against Rice. This is a game that West Point could win, and so I will be listening with anguish, grief, agony, you name it (that is, unless Rice jumps out to a 40 point lead).

The very next day, the NFL has its first weekend of action.

Oh yes, it is an exciting time … but also terrible.

If SMU or Army are playing a game they could win and they perform poorly, or they hang in there with a tougher opponent but snatch defeat from the jaws of victory … well, it is heart-wrenching.

I recently thought out loud to my wife, “I wonder if I’d be happier if I never watched sports.” She thinks I’m nuts. But it’s like a great book, you root for a character even if they always come up short, you celebrate their occasional victories with joy but you grit your teeth and brace for the worst while hoping for the best.

Come on SMU, come on West Point, defy expectations!

(As for the NFL side I tend to be less emotional … but the Cardinals and Texans do have their own little keys to my heart.)

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A Quiet Conversation

Somewhere in the southern United States, in a locker room on a sleepy Tuesday, the only people left after a long practice are the quarterback and an offensive lineman.

Quarterback: Hey man, good practice.

Lineman: Yeah, man, just trying to keep you clean.

Quarterback: Oh I don’t mind getting hit once or twice, I …

Lineman: What? Say it, man.

Quarterback: Aw it’s dumb but … You know in games on TV when a quarterback throws right as he’s getting hit and you see him laying there, looking up to see if it’s a complete pass, and woah, it is, and the quarterback just stays laying there for a second like … super happy.

Lineman: Yeah I know exactly what you’re talking about. You wanna do that?

Quarterback: Ha. Yeah … I guess I … I guess I do.

Lineman: …

Quarterback: Ok. Well. I gotta go so I’ll –

Lineman: Wait.

Quarterback: Dude … You just gonna make fun of me for what I just said?

Lineman: No, no. It’s uh … I got one of those too.

Quarterback: Yeah?

Lineman: Yeah. Um. You know like, when a quarterback scrambles and gets a touchdown and he’s all excited?

Quarterback: Hell yeah I do! I did that last game man!

Lineman: Yeah! Yeah that was great! What a win, huh? It’s just … You ever see that chick flick Dirty Dancing?

Quarterback: Dude. I know exactly what you’re gonna say. I’m on it. Next game. I promise.

Lineman: (smiles ear to ear)

I’ll be honest, before I started writing this I figured it’d be the quarterback wanting the lineman to hold him but then I thought, “you know what? I bet it’s actually the lineman!”

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First Openly Gay NFL Player

Recently a soon (probably) to be drafted football player announced that he is gay. This is newsworthy because he is the first openly gay man to be a likely NFL player.

People on all of the important channels and radio stations have been debating: will the gay community accept him?

Here’s this guy who has been hiding amongst the wolves (football players), the very group most likely to have caused such grief for so many openly or perceived gay middle and high school kids … And now he says, “I’m gay” and he just expects the gay community to welcome him with open arms?

I don’t think so.

Can you imagine him meeting a fellow gay person? “Oh, you play in the NFL? I admire their open-minded policies on … breast cancer awareness and Viagra.”

Edit: I’ve just been informed that this guy has been in the news NOT because of the question of how the gay community will accept him, but because apparently some big wig NFL people and NFL players think he might be a distraction. Some of the players are afraid the gay guy won’t be able to keep his hands off them. That’d be hysterical if it wasn’t so unfortunate.

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