Meatloaf – again?
The mid-1970s phrase you just read – depending on your frame of reference – came from a closing line in a television commercial, and a crowd participation exclamation when rocker Meatloaf enters a scene in the 1975 cult movie classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Kids, ask your parents… or your grandparents for that matter if they’re closer to 55-65 years old.
Football, again?
Yes. Baseball purists might disagree, but football is America’s game now, and I’ll unapologetically discuss it any time of year. I’ve mentioned in a previous column how the sport, especially at the NFL level, has taken up almost all of the “relevance real estate” in a calendar year.
Week two of the NFL season was completed, and I watched half of the games I wanted to in condensed versions last night. This is going to be a pattern due to my ongoing schedule. Thank Heaven once again for NFL+.
My observations of this week were the rough start the rookie quarterback collective is having in its first two weeks. No touchdowns yet, struggling start with struggling teams. I hope, for Caleb Williams’ sake he is traded to a team who can develop him at QB.
Looks like the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young, in his second season as quarterback following the 2023 draft, will be replaced by Andy Dalton. Young, who on the field looks like a pee-wee football player in an oversized helmet will join a group of Heisman Trophy busts, and we’ll likely see him go the way of the dodo bird, and Josh Rosen (Josh who? See what I mean?).
I was excited to see the week two clash between what looked like a stellar Dallas Cowboys defense and a dominant New Orleans Saints offense (bear in mind they only beat the Panthers in week one, but still). Only one of those teams showed up at the Cowboys’ 2024 home opener, and it was the visiting Saints. New Orleans continues to demonstrate a strong enough running game to make life easier for Derek Carr’s passing game.
I can’t wait to see week three action, but it is likely I won’t get my first glimpse of it until late Wednesday and Thursday nights.
This morning there will only be, so early in the Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) football title race, one undefeated team. Since my column is due mid-day Friday, I do not know if this team will be Warsaw, or if it will be Concord.
If it’s Warsaw, the Tigers will still have a challenging late season slate featuring Mishawaka in week 7 and Northwood in week 8. In the meantime, they’re preparing for a vastly improved Plymouth Rockies squad playing with a chip on its shoulder. The Rockies squad boasts one of the area’s most versatile and athletic quarterbacks, Exzander Ramirez. It took the Tigers a little more than one quarter of play to neutralize Ramize and his Rockies last season.
It it’s Concord surviving last night’s Tigers-Minutemen clash at Jake Field, the Minutemen will run the table. They still have to play each game, and the boys need to keep their noses clean, but on paper, if they lost last night to Warsaw, they are still looking at a 6-1 NLC record.
Regardless of who won last night, there are at least three NLC teams with 2-1 conference records.
The aforementioned Tigers and Minutemen squads along with the Mishawaka Cavemen will lead a top-heavy conference, and I am not ranking their finish in any particular order.
Each of the three teams expected to land in the bottom spots of the NLC standings is a very well-coached outfit. We’ll see growth and competitive improvement among Northridge, Goshen, and Wawasee.
Goshen has a legitimate shot at picking up two conference wins this season if their kids can stay healthy. The RedHawks are keeping some talented athletes on the freshman squad (all-purpose athlete Spencer Elliott comes to mind) to build the program starting with keeping the class of 2028 together in their inaugural sub-varsity season.
Consequently, Goshen will not field a JV team this season, but the long-term benefits based on their decision to sit out JV action are understandable.
One of their last JV teams they fielded (2018) was peppered with freshmen and Warsaw’s JV, conversely peppered with juniors, headed into their final quarter with a 50-0 lead. The IHSAA Mercy Rule was not introduced until the following (2019) football season.
Thank Heaven for the Mercy Rule. It has helped give game reporters some breathing room meeting their increasingly aggressive print deadlines, and smaller schools are afforded an extra quarter for their athletes to keep their sub-varsity teams from using up precious quarters available to them.
My concluding thoughts move to futbol instead of football.
I began pinch-hitting for the incumbent Warsaw Tiger soccer PA announcer in 2020. My level of enthusiasm was more about getting a variety of sports in my PA resume. I was only announcing varsity levels of wrestling and softball at the time.
Limited soccer knowledge at the time made almost anything but a scored goal or a great save look uninteresting. I’ve learned a lot.
Wednesday night’s Warsaw Tigers boys’ match hosting Homestead was a scoreless draw. Four years ago, this would have been dreadful to me, but I left wishing the Tigers would have had a break on a last-minute scoring attempt with a questionable call, and I still had great appreciation for the quality of play in this scoreless match.
There were great slide tackles, each side’s goalkeeper made great saves, the match was physical, but the boys played with class, and each side had some good shots and passes. Defenders hustled, and there was no dip in the game’s energy from either side.
Let’s see if it’s… meatloaf again next week.