 |
| "Who the hell asked you, Karl?" |
"Advertising is maggots feeding on
the rotting carcass
of Capitalism…”
And for that matter, you too
Dilbert.
 |
| "Right here, doctor?!" |
And at a time when what we all need is a little inflating, wouldn’t ya say?
But I digress.
This was not a good week for ND or its football
program.
I especially appreciated Jerry’s account of being on campus
last week and the myriad of people connected to the program. I can't even
imagine the trauma… the shock, the guilt, the sense of responsibility.
Someone will be rightfully held accountable and more lives will be
affected.
Personally, I do not wish to see coach Kelly dismissed. I
believe him to be a good man and a smart coach - despite his baffling coaching
decisions playing a virtually all our losses this year. Weirdly, I think
he was the right hire. But is he still? Man, that’s the
million dollar question. (Forbes would say it may be a $30MM question.)
How affected – and effective – will he remain to be after this past
week’s events?
 |
| "Fasten your seats, it's going to be a bumpy ride..." |
Who knows. But I think it’s going to get worse before it
gets better.
Word
of the Week.
ap•o•plec•tic adj \ˌa-pə-ˈplek-tik\
Definition
1 of,
relating to, or causing stroke
2 affected
with, inclined to, or showing SYMPTOMS of stroke
3 of
a kind to cause or apparently cause stroke <an apoplectic rage>; also :
greatly excited or angered <was apoplectic over the news>
— ap•o•plec•ti•cal•ly\-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb
Examples of APOPLECTIC
1. He
was positively apoplectic with anger when he witnessed the coach’s final play
of the game,
Origin of APOPLECTIC
French or Late Latin; French apoplectique,
from Late Latin apoplecticus, from Greek apoplēktikos, from apoplēssein
First Known Use: 1611
Related to Apoplectic.
Synonyms: angered, angry, ballistic,
cheesed off [chiefly British], choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming, furious,
hopping, horn-mad, hot, incensed, indignant, inflamed (also enflamed), infuriate, irate, livid, mad, outraged, rabid, roiled, shirty [chiefly British], sore, steamed, teed off, wrathful, wroth.
Game
Commentary.
Believe it or not, I actually took notes
while watching the game. But then I lost
‘em, A therapist might say that I was
subconsciously just getting rid of the negative baggage in my life. Here’s what I recall in more or less
chronological order:
• Why
are we even playing this game? What a
wretched, wretched week. Does the team
go in the tank or rally around the tragedy?
• 1st
series played utterly w/o any spark on either side of the ball. I can't say that I can fault them.
• What
the heck is the offense wearing under their uni’s?! It looks like… could it be… Mormon
underwear?! As Albert would say,
“Curious. Tell me more.”
• Dayne
goes down and I don’t feel that bad.
Does that make me a bad person?
• Tommy
Rees comes our en fuego… slingin’ the ball all over the yard. So this is how the spread is supposed to be
run.
• Offense
is showing creativity… hook ‘n ladders! Fake punts! Is it just my imagination? Terry hears Temptations music somewhere off
in the distance.
• The
defense similarly comes alive and Terry begins to wonder, a long held belief,
that ND’s defense actually feeds off the O’s performance, good and bad.
• Bam! ?
• Un-freaking-believable.
20-18 half-time. Put away the scotch and
start looking for the crack pipe.
• This
team simply cannot stand success. Are we cursed?
• Fast
forward through the 2nd half,,, young Tommy comes back to earth.
• Team
Hawaii is taking over – Manti, Kona, Robbie…
• Our
offensive line is hugely over-rated.
• 3rd
and 26. Good grief.
• Penultimate
play of the game, ND will surely run the ball to the center of the field in order
to set up their flawless kick… nooooooo!!!
• Freshman
QB goes for it all, throwing into double coverage, against the wind, with a
kicker who’s never missed still limbering up.
Game Freaking Over.
o Internal
voice #1: “Well Terry when you say it like that anything sounds negative.”
o Internal
voice #2: “Is there any other way to say
it?!”
 |
| "We'll always have hockey..." |
Driving Miss Lisa.
But as this-can’t-possibly-get-any-more-hellish-game
was, it also came on a weekend when Lisa and I took Ryan down to a couple job
interviews in Lexington, KY – working for some pretty high profile equine
hospitals / ambulatory care facilities related to the thoroughbred racing industry.
Big name farms and big money animals.
And quite quickly, it became apparent to me that if I was going to enter in negotiations with God - and as I’m from the Druid side of the Corrigans it’s a practice that I engage in almost every weekend (“c’mon Lord, if You're gonna torture me w ND, You MUST give me the Packers…”) – football actually wasn’t really that high on my priorities.
 |
| "The Packers are not losing to Favre again, Lord..." |
And quite quickly, it became apparent to me that if I was going to enter in negotiations with God - and as I’m from the Druid side of the Corrigans it’s a practice that I engage in almost every weekend (“c’mon Lord, if You're gonna torture me w ND, You MUST give me the Packers…”) – football actually wasn’t really that high on my priorities.
 |
| "Yes, Miss Lisa - Keeneland is just up yonder and the betting windows are still open..." |
As an aside, Lexington was really pretty nice – a college town. Plus I learned my wife likes to play the ponies.
Oh yeah, Ryan’s interviews went very well.
Song
of the Week.
Okay as I was fantasizing about an
impressive win – and at the end of the first half I was seeing a spirit
crushing 27-12 lead so close I could touch it – I had concluded that this being
Halloween weekend, the song had to be Rocky Horror’s “Time Warp”, a song so
infectious and fun that it’d put the previous week’s in our rear view
mirror. One freakish, bubble
screen-tipped-pass-interception-for-a-Tulsa-TD later, that idea went out the
window.
Next up came the idea of tipping my hat to
Tulsa with an homage to cowboy songs, w a rollicking Willie Nelson-Aerosmith,
“One Time Too Many”. (I trust you can all see the relevance.) But then Robert Rasmus, arguably this group’s
Renaissance Man, pointed me in another direction, one so painfully perfect -
The Door’s “The End” it seemed The Choice.
Until I recalled a still more recent ditty
with a lyrics that just seemed spot on:
Linkin Park’s “In The End”.
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there’s only one thing you
should know
I tried so hard and got so far.
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter.
This might not be many of yours musical cup
of tea but give it a listen. Having even
heard it will make you exponentially hipper with your kids. Plus the lyrics are accurate: faced with
things like death and our family’s health and / or futures, ND football really
doesn’t matter in the end.
Terry’s
Tool Time.
Jason
Whitlock / Mike Florio. Both of these
guys chose to immediately get on their moral soapboxes, screaming for Brian
Kelly’s head, without the burden of having any facts surrounding Declan Sullivan’s
death. Ultimately, they may be
correct. Maybe the moment coach Kelly
said, “we’re practicing outside and I want film…” all of the responsibility
rested on him. But right now, I‘d like
to believe it’s not quite that simple. And their rush to judgment, with
something so profound, is beyond irresponsible.
Schadenfreude
Winner of the Week.
It occurred to me that I had begun to stray
from the true spirit of this recognition.
Never intended to be merely a referendum on who got upset the prior
week, this was always supposed to be about me disliking some programs so much
that the losses literally tasted delicious:
ü The State of Florida. As Mark
Twain might say, the reports both Miami and FSU football programs’ resurgence
has been greatly exaggerated. And were
it not for Georgia’s QB throwing the 2nd dumbest INT of the weekend, we
might’ve had a state trisect. Yes, I’m
increasingly bitter that seemingly all our Florida recruits seem to be so
easily swayed from their commitments.
But any week any of those teams lose is a good week.
ü The State of Texas. UT and
the Cliff Lee Texas Rangers. Ouch.
ü The State of Michigan. Rich
Rod’s Big Ten record is something like 4-16 and UM finds itself facing a Weis-Ian dilemma: ending up w a possibly respectable record but knowing their coach is not the long term solution. Bummer. And Mark Dantonio - don’t think we have forgotten that smug "aren’t I clever" look on your face after the fake FG to win the ND game. Karma’s a bitch. And Iowa City is a pretty tough place to play.
o
“You like yourself, don’t ya
Mark?”
ü USC. Even if it’s now likely
you’ll spank us – again – on national TV,
you still lost by 21 points at home. Allow me to revel in that, for at least
this one week.
you still lost by 21 points at home. Allow me to revel in that, for at least
this one week.
Recruiting
Buzz.
Our #1 recruit, Aaron Lynch, not only
de-commits but apparently takes us off the table entirely. The quotes would lead you to believe that the
kid never had the confidence that he could survive academically. Still, it’s hard to believe that the
program’s on-the-field implosion hasn’t been a contributing cause.
The
Wager.
Okay, I think we’re all agreed that no
one’s winning this bet. Maybe Perez is
the smart one in all this…
But in order to respect protocol, the
Albert-villains are on the clock. Lucky
you – with the bye week, you get to live for two weeks.
On that note, next week’s a bye week. Woo hoo! May I
recommend a movie, courtesy of Mr. Brian Ward?
“Dead Snow.”
Two words:
Nazi Zombies. I am sooo there but
before you dismiss this, ask yourself this:
can it be any worse than ND football?
I think not.
No comments:
Post a Comment