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A Blog Post About the NFL Draft
Colorado University head coach Deion Sanders apparently is backing away from comments he made recently saying there were six teams he would allow his son Shadeur Sanders and Buffalos teammate Travis Hunter to play for. Both are reportedly projected to be high picks in the 2025 NFL draft.
Hey, Prime Time, be grateful that there are teams that want to invest in your players. For most high school football players who dream of an NFL career, it’ll remain just a dream. Lots of solid athletes never make it to college because they aren’t good enough or lack the grades. And lots of solid college football players fall short of the NFL because they can’t learn the playbook. One former NFL player once joked to me that you practically need an engineering degree to learn the plays, variations, and what you have to do if the quarterback suddenly audibles.
I don’t remember Dan Marino, a Pittsburgh native, telling NFL teams not to pick him because he preferred to play in the Steel Town (he went to Miami after the Steelers passed on him in the first round in 1983).
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Who’s the GOAT? There isn’t one
I try not to argue anymore on Facebook, simply because it’s a waste of time. The most common arguments I see are theological, politics, whether or not Pete Rose should be made eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Beyoncé’s venture into country music, and who is the greatest.
Who’s the greatest writer? Who’s the greatest actor? Who’s the greatest rock band? Others argue who’s the GOAT (greatest of all time) of football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis, chess, badminton, marathon running, ping pong, curling, and competitive eating.
Here’s the answer, and it’s much simpler than you think: there isn’t one.
It’s far too subjective to pick a GOAT. Even people who are well informed have opinions that vary. Many consider Herman Melville’s Moby Dick to be the greatest English novel ever. But there are intellectuals out there who think it’s overrated and boring. Lots of contemporary readers love Stephen King. My high school English IV teacher, who had a Ph.D., and knew literature well, felt that King’s books were a pile of tripe.
Many basketball fans think Michael Jordan is the GOAT. Others think he’s more like top five greatest, while others would consider him overrated and suggest the GOAT title belongs to LeBron, Kobe, Larry, Magic, Kareem, Wilt, Bill, or Pistol Pete.
Truth is, there are too many variables to evaluate. Some say Tom Brady would’ve have lasted five plays if he’d played in the 1950s or 1960s, back when many rules protecting quarterbacks didn’t exist. Naysayers of Babe Ruth point out he got his titanic stats while playing in ballparks with short rightfield fences and when the color barrier was in place (Ruth, in fairness, supported ending the color barrier). Some consider Nolan Ryan baseball’s GOAT power pitcher, but as someone pointed out, his penchant for issuing walks would’ve made him struggle if pitching in the Deadball Era. In those days, priority one was getting on base, and for a while, walks were counted as hits.
We all have our own opinions, and the only one that’s wrong is the one who thinks everyone else is wrong.
One reason I try to avoid these debates is they’re just not worth it. Is it really worth losing a friendship?
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A letter the editor rejected
I recently felt compelled to do something I rarely do — write a letter to the editor. My argument: newspapers should not endorse political candidates. After being told the letter needed to be tightened up, since it was over the 300-word limit. My proposal was to run it as a guest column, since, well, I’ve been a professional writer for years and felt I’ve earned a little leeway. Lord knows that particular editor has given plenty of leeway to others.
The editor rejected that proposal, and the rest of the conversation isn’t worth publicly mentioning. So, I decided to post the letter on my blog. I have blocked out certain things so it wouldn’t be obvious what paper it was intended for. Enjoy.
Not endorsing political candidates is the right choice
In her letter to the editor, [Jane Smith] defended the paper for not endorsing a candidate in the [obfuscated] primary. She added: “The media should be impartial and report fact-based news.”
I completely agree with her on the newspaper’s decision and wish all newspapers would make this a standard practice. Whether it’s a political candidate or an issue to be decided in the voting booth, newspapers should not make formal endorsements.
This includes all races for public office: school board trustees, mayors, city council members, representative or senator for Texas or for the United States, and, finally, the U.S. president.
When papers endorse candidates, their objectivity disappears in a cloud of question marks. Readers can only scratch their heads and wonder: how much of an effort will the paper make to be objective when covering the candidates in regular, straight news stories? Often, I believe the effort is lackadaisical at best.
Instead of doing endorsements and risking journalistic integrity, it would be better to run bylined guest columns featuring writers who don’t work for the paper. Or, as a compromise, newspaper writers who don’t cover politics or current news in their beats. In one or two editions of the paper, one columnist could endorse the Republican candidate, another the Democrat, and one or two for third-party candidates. Finally, a citizen would write a column on why they’re not voting at all.
Fifteen years ago in Michigan, I worked at a small weekly newspaper in Greater Detroit. A certain editor there would routinely write news stories on controversial people in the news and would then write opinion columns about them. Twice he defended the subject, as they were his friends (something he didn’t always make clear to the readers). Once he took someone to task, as he personally detested them. It never occurred to him or to his ego that many readers wondered: if you felt this strongly about them in your opinion column, how much of an effort did you make to be unbiased in your news story?
Obviously, not even enough to be considered lackadaisical.
Richard Zowie
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Hippies, ADHD, and Aspergers
The late David Crosby was well known for his bushy, soup-straining moustache, songwriting, and ability to harmonize with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. He had interesting things to say, even though I didn’t always agree with him. He advised people to avoid the hard drugs like cocaine, meth, and heroin, lamenting how many years he wasted on them. He also had interesting observations on sex (he preferred monogamy and making his partner a satisfied customer), music, politics, and being a hippie.
Crosby, who died in 2023, described himself as a pacifist. One question I’ve always wanted to ask pacificists: is that belief an absolute, or at some point would you be willing to take up arms? It’s easy to be a pacifist when you’re insulated and living in a country where your freedoms aren’t threatened. What if you lived in Cuba or North Korea, or some other country where you keep quiet if you disagree with the government? What if a communist country tried to take you over?
“The Kroz” also said living as a hippie was educational for whites because it gave them a chance to live life as a second-class citizen and better understand minorities. There’s a lot to learn from the hippie lifestyle, but…I don’t think all of their ideals abide in reality. I remember watching Dharma and Greg, which was set in San Francisco. They never explain how Abbie and Larry can afford their home given that Larry thinks employment is beneath him. We’re left to wonder: who subsidizes them? Abby also seems frustrated that Larry never marries her but prefers to be “free.”
Myself, I don’t need to live a hippie lifestyle to better understand what it’s like being an outsider. I deal with ADHD and Asperger’s. They have given me an acute awareness. Abstract thoughts, limited social skills, penchant for off-the-wall observations. Girls mostly just “want to be friends” and bullies look at you and see their chance to reinforce their macho reputations. Earning respect is a lifelong battle.
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C’mon, catchers!
I wish MLB umpires would wake up, smell the coffee with seven shots of espresso, and crack down on pitch framing. Lately, I’ve seen many balls get called strikes because the catchers shamelessly frame them. In the 1990s, I lost track of how often Atlanta Braves catcher Javy Lopez would catch a ball clearly outside the strike zone and quickly pull it and park his glove over the plate. In an instruction book he wrote many years ago, Cincinnati Reds Johnny Bench (considered by many to be the GOAT of catchers) discouraged framing for two reasons. He called it “bush” and said you’re never going to fool a good umpire*.
Plenty of “good umpires” are getting fooled. Can we go with an automated umpire behind the plate?
*I recently got new glasses. Does anyone know Joe West’s address? I’d love to send him my old glasses.
Richard Zowie lives in Fredericksburg, Texas, where he works as a broadcaster, blogger and fiction writer. Post comments here or e-mail him at: fromatozowie@gmail.com
Appalled for Elliot Page
Ellen Page (above) is now Elliot Page (right)
I recently left a Conservative meme page on Facebook because of a tasteless post about actor Elliot Page. Formerly known as Ellen Page, Elliot is now a transgender man.
The meme shows a picture of Matthew Broderick from his Ferris Bueller days and states that Page looks like Bueller with AIDS. I was disgusted enough to report it as hate speech. The post garnered six reactions. It was a mix of likes and laughs, and one share. No response to my complaint, which tells me the page creators probably also think it’s funny.
Goodbye, I thought as I unfollowed and left.
The same who thought it was funny likely expressed outrage over a more recent post about meme poking fun at the submarine that imploded while going to explore the Titanic.
We try to hard to convince the world that conservatives aren’t hatemongers, and then this nonsense shows up.
For the record, I am mixed on transgenderism. I don’t believe in transitioning children as they should wait until adulthood to mature and make sure it’s not a phase they’ll grow out of. (I can remember wanting to be a superhero when I was a kid, and another time I begged my parents to let me have a shot into my pituitary gland so I’d grow an extra five inches). However, I do believe it’s possible that some are born into the wrong gender. Sometimes what looks like a boy on the outside is a girl in the reproductive organ area, and vice versa.
Transgender women don’t interest me romantically, but this meme on Page makes me pity him. Probably not the reaction the page’s officials expected as their heads are lodged into sand…
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Burning Fred, leaving the past behind
Burning Fred, prior to the pyre. (Photo by Richard Zowie)
Near the end of the 1998 movie Ever After, Princess Danielle confronts her stepmother, the former Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent. Having recently been stripped of her title by Queen Marie of France for having lied to the queen, she is just now Rodmilla.
Remembering the years of cruelty that Rodmilla subjected onto her following her own father’s death, Danielle says this to her stepmother: “I want you to know that I will forget you after this moment, and never think of you again…”
Danielle the lives her life as a French princess, wife of the future king, as Rodmilla and her daughter Marguerite receive a fate worse to them than death: living like lowly servants for the rest of their lives.
I thought of that movie last Tuesday, June 6, as I drove to a secluded place in northwest Fredericksburg for an event called “Burning Fred.” There, people relaxed, talked, danced, kept hydrated as best as they could in the warm, late Texas spring. When it’s this warm in Texas in early June, it’s a sign of a nasty summer ahead. Bands also played, some were local songs and others were covers.
Many approached a wooden, makeshift effigy, placing various things at the effigy’s feet: mementos, slips of paper, blocks of wood. The mementos were from their pasts: failed friendships or relationships, a line of work, a place where they lived, or something else that had been a thorn in their side. One man wrote a phrase down on a block of wood. He declined to say what it was. Too personal for him. One person printed out a decade-old email containing correspondence with their estranged spouse, who would later become their ex-spouse and, finally, their late ex-spouse.
Later that night, Burning Fred ignited. The event’s founder and organizer, Melissa, added things to the effigy days before so that the pyre, instead of shades of pale yellow and orange, would burn far more colorful, adding more colors.
Whether the block or the paper, once the fire consumed them and reduced them to ash, the words written will exist only in their memories.
Or, if you’re like Melissa, they no longer exist at all.
Melissa said she started the event in memory of her husband, who passed away a few years ago. He lost his battle with drug abuse. Some conquer it and emerge clean and sober and find the strength to toss a lifeline to others fighting addiction. Others can’t find the energy to finish the race and succumb to whatever chemical they’ve loved, hated, fought and finally couldn’t fight anymore.
She’s a friendly, warm lady, one of many secrets, experiences, and adventures. Like us, she has a past that includes regret. And at Burning Fred, she decided it was finally time to walk away from specific elements of her past and move onto the next chapter, never to re-read this one.
Her ability to walk away reminds me of what John Travolta once told Reader’s Digest regarding regret: if you regret, do it just enough to learn from your mistake and walk away.
For Melissa and others, along with Danielle in the movie, the next step is to turn the page, explore the next chapters, and leave this chapter behind. Leave the past pages closed, destined to gather a permanent musty smell from disuse.
Richard Zowie also blogs about writing, books, and Christian issues. Post comments here or email them to fromtozowie@gmail.com.
Restless meets the Abstract: ADHD, Aspergers collide
Goodbye to New Amsterdam, a show I was watching on Netflix. I love medical dramas and like the actor Ryan Eggold, but the show ran its course for me. Dr. Max Goodwin likes to dream of things like free health care. That’s fine. Know any doctors or nurses willing to work for free? Even if you do, that doesn’t even count the cost of equipment, utilities, donated human tissues, etc. Otherwise, you have create insurance or tax citizens to pay for it. Last episode, he envisioned free internet for New York for the needy. Again, someone has to pay for it. I find myself wondering: why should my tax dollars go to heart patient who’s an overweight heavy smoker who will likely continue his bad habits even after multiple bypass surgery?
The last show I watched delved into racism, the notion being that whites are deeply ingrained to be racist. Right, and children automatically learn to read on their own without any help from teachers. The good doctor takes down all the pictures of past doctors in his office as a way of protesting against past racism. Never mind the doctors made contributions and breakthroughs.
No time for a self-righteous show that doesn’t grasp economics and insists on looking at history through a modern lens…
…There’s a notebook I love, and Dollar Tree seems to know that, so they’re conspiring against me by not stocking it. I love it when both covers are firm plastic, and the paper is durable. Ordering it off the internet is too expensive, but, maybe sometime I’ll splurge…
…The debate rages about who is the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) of football, basketball, baseball, auto racing, boxing, curling, bowling, and golf. I have finally concluded: who cares? In the not-so-distant future, when we’re in the Great Tribulation, inflation is through the stratosphere, and people latently realize the Antichrist is a used car salesman, nobody will care who was the greatest in any sport…
…Watched a little of Rocky V on Netflix. I loved the franchise but prefer to act like that movie never happened. Really? Rocky is really dumb enough to place his finances in Paulie’s hands? I think the better thing would be Rocky returning to America, retiring, running the restaurant, and then becoming a trainer for Adonis Creed…
…Just got my taxes filed. I am reminded of two funny stories I heard. One, a professional practical joker submitted his income taxes using roman numerals on his forms. “The IRS was NOT amused,” he said. Two, a man wanted to file for bankruptcy learned that to do so, he’d have to give his attorney 10 years of tax returns. “I haven’t filed a tax return in 30 years. It’s none of the government’s business how much money I make,” he said. Oops…
…Recently got a new driver’s license due to changing my address. My new license has the Gonzales cannon on it. I’m excited.
Richard Zowie lives in Fredericksburg, Texas, where he works as a broadcaster, blogger and fiction writer. Post comments here or e-mail him at: fromatozowie@gmail.com
Texas and public schools
I’ve heard there has been a surplus of money at the state level in Texas. Solvency at the state level is great, especially since we’ll probably never see it at the federal level due to the House and Senate never meeting a tax dollar they didn’t want to spend five times over.
And as we ponder Texas people wonder what would be done with the money: place it into the rainy-day fund? Use it to repair roads? Improve infrastructure?
How about education?
Many teachers I know say their school districts are desperate for more money. Teachers are underpaid. Textbooks are out of date, etc.
One friend, “Elizabeth,” who teaches in San Antonio, had these observations:
Everyone blames the teacher, but have you ever spent seven hours with 24 students? Day in and day out?
Not only must you keep each one alive, you must make sure they don’t hurt each other.
You are a nurse, a therapist, a social worker, a secretary, and you have to educate them.
And many parents have done nothing to teach their children to behave.
I hear a lot about controlling classrooms. I wish many of you would come try it and see how you’d do. I’m great at it. But it is my calling. I just think it’s a rough thing to say for a profession that is so important yet underpaid.
The money that is in education is funny, it isn’t where it belongs. So much goes to sports. It should be invested in the lower grades because real change begins with the little ones. Years of failure reduces the odds of success yet we sink the money in football.
Attendance is everything. Prosecute parents who don’t send kids to school. Kids who don’t attend fall behind and these behaviors are not conducive to later success.
Enforce expectations at school and support at home. If your kid is bad at home, they’re probably bad at school, too. It takes a village.
It’s a tough topic for me. I have taught for 21 years and I’ve had to work two jobs to make it. And the public doesn’t have a clue on what we do. They cry about the teachers who die protecting their kids when nearly all of us would, but hate us all of the other time.
Yes, I have strong opinions about this. Have you ever cried and held the hand of a child who had been raped by her mom’s boyfriend?
Have you ever helped packed a kid’s things from the classroom because Child Protective Services was coming because mom gave up rights because her boyfriend doesn’t want kids?
Have you ever cleared a classroom to stay with a child who was throwing desks at you, or talked a parent down who was trying to fight you?
Have you ever received something you knew was second hand for Christmas because the kid had nothing else to give you?
I’ve seen poverty on another level.
Ask me what it’s like to control a room filled with 24 of kids just like that.
Private schools take money away from public schools. It’s robbing Peter to pay Paul. The problem with private schools is that they aren’t designed for everyone. They’re designed for the elite, future leaders.
The waste is often at the top, new curriculum to replace research, people without classroom experience making decisions. Our district adopted a GT program that they forced out on everyone. Millions of dollars on a program that will fail, and they threaten us with it. They leave people like me alone because my kids are always successful.
Elizabeth is also dealing with a possible pay cut, as her school district is proposing a 15 percent pay cut for teachers.
I’m not against putting more money into public schools, but I’d also like to see some concessions made. Robin Hood? It needs to be reformed. I also think that the teachers who lack the ability to control a classroom either need to learn or need to go.
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