Buh-bye, NFL

2018 will go down as the year I was liberated from the NFL's Sunday stranglehold on my attention. I still love sports and athletic achievement (Tiger Woods back in the winner's circle, unbelievable), but the game of professional football has lost me. I don't know what is holding, I don't know what is interference, I definitely don't know roughing the passer--and apparently, do few of the officials--but I do know a grab-all-the-money-you-can-while-you-can, and that's the NFL in 2018.

For 40 years of my life, I ranked NFL football first and all other sports second. Now, baseball (Go Brewers!), basketball (the Bucks oBuh-f 2018/19 are the team to watch), PGA golf (I still play golf and, hey, at least I understand the rules), and a bunch of other things (World Cup Soccer?) come before the NFL.

Proof? The Packers lost yesterday and I don't even care. If my social media feeds are any indication, I am not alone. The 30-year waiting list for Packers' season tickets ought to be down to four and a half years by seasons' end.

(P.S., I'll still watch sometimes, but with unequivocal ambivalence.)

Fire Packers Coach Mike McCarthy? That's Crazy Talk.

I love sports ... but hate sports fans.

Under Mike McCarthy, the Packers are 81-45-1 with five playoff appearances and a Super Bowl win. Yet I hear (see) Packers fans clamoring "FIRE McCARTHY!"

Are they nuts? The biggest problem is, as Packers fans, we've become so accustomed to success that an injury-plagued, .500 season is deemed a failure and we demand someone be held accountable.
That's just dumb. McCarthy has earned the right to have a mediocre season for a change. The four years prior to this season all ended with double-digit victory totals.

I'll stick with Mike, thank you very much.

It's a Zero-Zero Ballgame!

Watching the Badgers throttle Nebraska reminds me of a funny story. It brings a smile to my face every time I think of it.

I played football all throughout high school. Every team I ever played on was pretty good. In fact, my Junior year we went to the Wisconsin State Finals and played at Camp Randall only to fall prey to a powerful opponent with a beast of a running back (I still hate you, Deforest).

Being a good team meant we heard certain things from our coach with regularity. One of coach's common halftime sayings was "Okay, boys. It's a zero-zero ballgame. Now let's go out there and execute!"

The reason he would say that is, we usually went into the locker room at halftime with a nice lead. "Zero-zero ballgame" meant that we should not rest on the first half's success, but approach the 2nd half like the game was tied. Stay focused, execute the game plan and, when the game was finally over and we were victorious, only then could we relax and celebrate.

I had a teammate who wasn't one of my favorites. He was a bit goofy and, when we were younger and I was a lot smaller than him, he would bully me. I never forgot his bullying and even when we were older, similarly sized, and he stopped picking on me, I still resented him.

For the sake of this story, we'll call him Johnson.

During my Senior year we had a problem with one of our opponents. So much so that we went into halftime down a considerable amount. I can't remember how much we were down, but it was probably about 13 points.

Anyway, in the locker room, Johnson starts yelling at his teammates, "Okay guys. It's a zero-zero ballgame!"

The coach hears him and shouts for all to hear, "Shut the hell up, Johnson. We're getting our asses kicked! We're down by 13 points and we got to go out there and play some catch up ball!"

Man, did I snicker. I took the game and our deficit pretty seriously, but when I heard that, I couldn't help but crack up. 

Johnson. 

What a dumbass.

:)