Friday Thoughts!

1) For the love of Bear Bryant, Alabama, you sent this ex football coach to the Senate instead of a decent guy named Doug Jones who had prosecuted the crackers who blew up the 16th Street Baptist church and killed 3 little black girls...Oh I get it now. Chinless crackers gotta chinless cracker. 

Tommy Tuberville is holding up military promotions because he dont care for those wimmen in the military gettin abortions and lettin the military pay for travel because certain states run by ex-football coach types and self-hating women won't let them get the procedure in states where the bases are. Tuberville, who without a doubt is the dumbest man in the Senate perhaps ever, continues to keep his stranglehold on national security because he wants all women to birth babies, especially the white ones,  he and his GOP colleagues can ignore after the first breath. I once saw Tuberville, coaching for Texas Tech, stick 14 players on the field during not one but two plays in a meaningless blow out of Kansas . Tuberville is not smart folks and he proves it every goddamned day. Thanks Alabama.

2) California Senator Diane Feinstein has died of being 90. She has been in bad shape for a few years now but stuck out the Weekend at Bernie's existence the Senate Democrats forced upon her because an even worse group of scumbags, the Senate GOP, would have refused to replace her on the Judiciary Committee and gummed up any new judges Joe Biden nominated with 7-7 votes. 

Feinstein was not perfect or even coherent the last few years but at one point she was in pure "First Woman (fill in the blank) " whether it be Mayor or Senator. She had her times at being brilliant and an advocate for gun regulations. Who can forget the 2013 version of a beardless ferret named Ted Cruz attempting to mansplain the 2nd Amendment to the 80-year-old Senate veteran who suffered no fools. She took Cruz's arrogance and shoved it back up his ass from whence it came.

RIP Diane. You were great for many years. I'm sure the GOP base will be very kind in its condolences 

3) Government shutdowns. They suck and they're always the results of far right wingnuts posturing for the GOP base prior to an election year. We need to cut spending and taxes, we need to reinforce the border to keep the browns out, we need to allow Russian murderers to do whatever they want, we need to starve the poor children we secretly enjoy to make our racist tropes. All day today the House and its really terrible actors faking outrage that it's not us shutting the government but the Democrats and their spending (the House is the purse not Joe Biden). 

The GOP House is being run by Neanderthals, ex strippers, statutory rapists, goateed yelling  confederates, self aggrandizing grifters and ex felons, GED failures, and power mad phonies.  As long as they exist the shit storm will continue. Vote them all out.

4) Curt Schilling is a piece of shit. He always has been whether he's smearing blood on his sock pitching for the Red Sox, taking government money because his business fails, expressing anti-Semitic tropes, or just being a MAGA asshole, Schilling is on a mission to be such a monster that he will never get into the Baseball Hall of Fame (which he doesn't belong in anyway) and thus can claim he's a martyr to the MAGA cause.

Schilling, a true teenager I wanna be first to tell you mode, disclosed that former Red Sox pitcher and general good dude, Tim Wakefield, has brain cancer. Then he also disclosed that Wakefield's wife also suffers from cancer just to compound his dickwadery. The problem is that Wakefield's family didn't want it out there. Being private people, it was NOT their wish to share this with the general public. But what does Schilling care? It's about him, not some beloved knuckleballer from the past. As far as I'm concerned, I'd put Tim Wakefield in the Hall of Fame (which will never happen) before I'd let a loud-mouthed cretin like Schilling in. 

Later

Division 3 Football Rocks!

 My first in person football game was in 1963 when my Dad took me to see Nebraska beat the shit out of South Dakota or South Dakota State I'm not sure. Then I saw the Steelers and the Vikings from a rickety bleacher at the old Rosenblatt. From then on it was Husker football, high school football, University of Nebraska at Omaha football (those were the days before Trev Alberts decided a hockey team was more important than football OR a national champion wrestling team), an occasional NFL game in Kansas City, and an occasional Kansas game (ugh). 

About 5 years ago or so, I discovered Division 3 college football. Because my nephew, Tad, was playing center at Nebraska Wesleyan and only because of that did I begin to notice that football for the love of the game actually existed on a college level. I know its all a cliche to say college players play for good old State U and the glory but we all know what bullshit that is. But Division 3 college players truly do play for the love of the game. There are NO scholarships, no NIL money (I think Tad once got $50 bucks for tweeting about Runza once), nuthin. They have no incentive to lift weights, work out, practice 6 days a week, take long ass bus rides to far away places and then back in the dead of night other than they love the game of football.

Nebraska Wesleyan began its 2023 season far away in Sherman, Texas against Austin College. Its ten hours away. Its in Texas for chrissakes. But Max's Mom and I decided what the hell, lets go. And go we did. To Sherman, Texas to watch Division 3 college football. This is exactly the type of adventure I love. An adventure nobody in their right mind, other than parents of players would endure. Aunts and uncles of players? Damn right.

The road to Texas consists of flat prairie, toll roads in Kansas (really, you haven't paid for freakin turnpike yet?), red dirt in Oklahoma, rest stops and Spotify and podcasts (thank god they exist what a time to be alive!). Sherman, Texas is a smaller town barely in Texas. It consists of I think one road in which you are constantly on in some form, the Sam Rayburn highway. You are on this road turning left going in circles so much it's like you actually drove in a NASCAR race.

Austin College is a small private college in Sherman with an NAIA athletic program. What's that mean? Well, they aren't in the NCAA Division 3, so they can give scholarships to play football (what that means I have no idea). They are called the Kangaroos or Roos for short and have a large stadium like all Texas schools do. They also went 1-9 last year and have a new coach so optimism reigns in Sherman. Nebraska Wesleyan also went 1-9 last season, so something has to give here.

The game itself is good football. These kids are out there in the Texas heat cramping up like crazy, getting hurt, giving it all they got, and what more can you ask? Nephew Tad is the starting center, all conference and a captain. Scoff if you wish but this kid is dedicated to being the best he can be as an undersized offensive lineman 24/7. I am proud of him and his ability to perform at a superior level and as a linemen get no glory. Dedication, man. 

Wesleyan broke Austin College early and held them off with two defensive goal line stands to take the season opener 19-7. As a point of pride, Tad made a serious block that saved a sack and allowed a long pass completion to be had (that it was called back for some reason is of no importance because the kid did his job). That's the play I remember and always will. 

After the night game, the NCAA forced Wesleyan to get back on their bus and ride home all night sore and tired and cramping (it was like a MASH unit on both sidelines there was so much cramping going on) because the NCAA sucks. Forcing a team to NOT stay an extra night at a hotel after a night game in the Texas heat is not only unsafe, but also downright cruel. But that's the NCAA, an organization stuck in the days of the flying wedge and sis boom bah. 

It was a long trip home also. A stop at Win Star Casino, a gigantic decadent resort that would fit right in out in Las Vegas, cut the drive from 10 hours to nine hours (woo hoo). 

Congrats to Nebraska Wesleyan. Back in Lincoln next Saturday to play somebody. But wait, my Huskers play at Colorado on TV at the same time. Oh well, I guess the Huskers will have to win without my help sitting on the couch screaming and scaring the dog. I'll be in Lincoln screaming Go P Wolves!