I’m not listening to the 1992 House of Pain hit Wisconsin uses to bridge the third and fourth quarters of each Badger home football game.
I’m jumping around… topics.
My thoughts shared in this morning’s Weekender come from last Sunday afternoon.
I’m getting ready for a conference this week where there will be lots of fruitful meetings, training, and then keeping up transactional and decision chores in the evening. Consequently, come Thursday night or Friday morning when I typically share my thoughts to meet my deadline, I’ll likely be spent.
I am putting laundry away, doing some minor straightening, ironing enough clothes for my wife to wear to work while I’m gone, and packing for my trip.
Ironing. Veterans tend to keep doing that without fuss for years beyond those we spent serving our country. I have butler potential If I live long enough to retire from accounting.
NFL regular season number 104 – already in week 1 – has further triggered the “squirrel” in my brain.
I have NFL Red Zone on my phone as I putz around the house, the Cleveland Browns-Cincinnati Bengals game on one TV, and the Indianapolis Colts-Jacksonville Jaguars game on another among the three areas I’ll be trekking.
So much for focus in Sunday’s chores, and this morning’s thoughts for that matter.
NFL action also makes the tedium and foul smell of overhauling three litterboxes (Clorox, Lysol, vinegar, and loads of rags and towels) a little more bearable.
Here are my predicted NFL winners by division:
AFC North: Cincinnati; AFC East: Buffalo; AFC West: Kansas City; AFC South: Jacksonville
NFC North: Detroit (out on a limb); NFC East: Philadelphia; NFC West: San Francisco; NFC South: Atlanta (eenie-meenie-miney-mo in the pathetic South - scientific, eh?).
The five worst 2023 season finishes expected are comprised of the following franchises in alphabetical order:
Arizona, Atlanta, Chicago, Indianapolis, Washington
Arizona, the clock is running.
I spent last Saturday morning and afternoon working from my home office almost all the way until it was time to shower, shave, and dress for the Jim Gaffigan tour and a late dinner in Fort Wayne. I was a little glum at first thinking about how I used a good chunk of the day to focus on work instead of chores or relaxing.
By the time I was enjoying dinner, I realized the reward for weekend work was not sweating the costs I incurred for the evening’s activities.
Many coaches say, ”If it WERE easy, everyone would be doing it.”
True.
This last week is customarily my busiest week in PA announcing until the last two or three days of September through the first full week of October. Most of this week is chock-full of soccer action. Warsaw’s boys’ and girls’ sides have a handful of consecutive home games in alternating years.
This year, it’s the Lady Tigers with the long homestand. Those of you in attendance among games Monday through Thursday have heard the voice of Warsaw boys’ and girls’ basketball, Keaton Anderson.
You were in good hands while I was taking care of business in Omaha.
It is good to have a pool of back-up and primary announcers to spell each other when commitments pull us away from sporting events.
I joined a Facebook group for PA announcers, and it solidified my opinion based on limited interactions among my sporting event brethren… and sister-en for that matter.
The collective of PA announcers among all levels, me included, is weird.
The most obvious weird characteristic is enjoying hearing our own voices, sometimes in a 2-3 second delay. Furthermore, based on posts I’ve read in the Facebook group, there are additional reasons why I’m certain… we’re just… weird.
I was excited at the prospect last weekend of - looking at football scores in Max Preps to announce in breaks – getting to see the Wawasee Warriors win two straight games, but Plymouth, who recently struggled but is beginning to turn its fortunes in a different direction, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
The Warriors haven’t won two straight games since the opening non-conference slate of the 2020 season. Wawasee’s last two-game streak in conference action was their final two contests of the 2017 regular season.
The Rockies’ last Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) win was September 25, 2020, over the Warriors 37-12. Plymouth lost 15 straight NLC games until their September 8 25-19 win, coming full circle at the hands of the Warriors.
I still believe the Warriors will continue playing with a big chip on each athlete’s shoulders.
Goshen (0-4, 0-2) already appears to be destined for a goose egg in the conference standings in 2023, as well as the full season. They travel to the Rock Pile September 29 to face a Rockies team who have already won two games in the early half of this season.
I’ve returned to town as you read this, fresh from last night’s Warsaw-NorthWood gridiron battle, and back at the Tiger Soccer Complex this morning.
Bring on the next three crazy weeks.