I don’t enjoy the Christmas season when Christmas Eve and Christmas Day land in the middle of the week.
I make a living closing the books each period, quarter, and year. A mid-week holiday is disruptive. When the holidays fall on weekends, it’s easier to navigate these cycles because they are usually bookended by a Friday and a Monday, or a Thursday, Friday roll into the weekend.
When this happens, folks’ return to the office usually is less choppy, and more efficient instead. A mid-week Holiday can mess up an entire week if you’re people lack focus.
One of the good things about the mid-week Christmas holidays, on the other hand, is there will be no weekend where high school athletic events cannot be scheduled.
Starting with filling in for a school who needed a PA announcer for a boys’/girls’ cage doubleheader on short notice last night, this weekend and next weekend are chock full of gigs for me: women’s college basketball this (early) afternoon, and a busy holiday tournament this coming Friday and Saturday covering eight games in two days.
I’ll also get a does of each gender’s Tiger cage squads late Saturday afternoon and evening
Show some appreciation for your event workers and concession stands folks this weekend. These people are here instead of being in Naples, Florida, and other warmer locations where families around her travel to visit their snowbird relatives.
The NCAA’s transfer portal and Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) have transformed many college athletes’ careers from obscurity to newfound fame. There are far more disappointing outcomes on the horizon for college athletes, but folks don’t talk much about it.
How many athletes paid handsomely to join a night-time program will not have the talent, medical good-fortune, or enough intelligence to grasp their sports’ professional level rigors?
It will be interesting to see if a filmmaker documents the riches to rags stories among college student athletes who will make more many from signing on to a university than they’ll make in any accumulation over multiple years after college.
The ESPN 30-for-30 film Broke shared numerous stories about pro athletes with millions of dollars in income for several years who are now penniless. As interesting and informative as this film was, it would behoove young people to watch Broke to see what could happen to them if they can’t manage their NIL money in college.
College graduates who enter pro sports walk on to their teams making C-suite salaries. Now, we’ll be witness to success stories and tragic tales about kids IN college with even less business acumen than the slightly older athletes leaping into the pro sports world.
Since the NCAA does not prohibit athletes from black-out dates for transferring, and there has been little regulation for NIL done in haste to “give the people what they want” college sports has once again been mismanaged when comparing pro sports - its more rigid timelines and rules for free agency, and more competent legal representation among owners, players unions, and the players’ agents – to the Wild West that used to be amateur sports.
I’ve never been more apathetic about the Ohio State Buckeyes’ football team’s postseason than I have this year. So much of it has to do with the aforementioned rights players have.
The Detroit Lions, on the other hand, are a bit beat up on defense, smarting from a nationally televised game where some of their flops were viewed in front of a huge viewership. Their athletes, however, are practicing this week, and will suit up for their next opponent this Sunday.
When the Lions travel to Soldier Field, they’ll likely – in a pretty or ugly way – get back on track for another win toward one of their best seasons without last week’s rough loss to Buffalo. In the meantime, in the college world – even during the College Football Playoff – there are already athletes sitting out and taking the season one week at a time… the wrong way.
Merry Christmas to each of you, and Happy Hanukkah to those folks I know who are members of the Tribe. The first night of Hanukkah will be celebrated December 25th this year, a rarity.