Different Games

Two different types of athletic contests have occurred this month. The games have two markedly different speeds of play and flow. One dominates the news cycle and its national organization makes sure to dominate at the sports news cycle in almost every month of the year. The other sport is well known, but does not dominate the news cycle as the other. The first event was football with the Super Bowl played on Feb 8 in San Francisco, between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. The second involved two Olympic hockey games between the US and Canada, for both men and women. The games are treated somewhat differently in news, but also in how they move.

2026 Olympic US Women Hockey Team

If you collapsed an NFL game, which takes over three hours and closer to thee and a half, to just the time played, such amount actual play time is said to be between 11 to 18 minutes; that would fit within the standard 20 minute hockey period. NFL games seem to plunder along, while hocky is fast moving, with line changes often occurring during play. NFL games, with so much time between plays, is well suited to having a beer during the game. You can sip, or get up and get a beer without missing much if any action. In a hockey game you may not be as fortunate.

Good friends Laila Edwards and Caroline Harvey (UW Player) 

                                  both earned gold medals and all-star honors at the 2026 Olympics

I know of people who turned the Super Bowl off at half time because they found it, well, boring. The score was 9-0 Seattle, three field goals. It was a two score game at that point, and while defenses dominated many people found the game boring. The NFL is perhaps its own worst enemy. It has changed the rules to make play more favorable to the offense. Many years ago, they moved the hash marks closer to the middle of the field, they altered rules to favor the quarterback, and have made rules for blocking much more favorable to the offensive player. When I played football you could not use your hands, and we were told to essentially hold onto our jerseys with our fingers. A flailing hand would get the attention of a zebra and a penalty for holding, even if you did not hold. Today, it is common for a lineman to push off with their fists or hands, and one could probably find a hold on every other play. That is why today the length of a lineman's arm is important--no T-Rexes on the O-line.

Caroline Harvey was MVP of the Women's Hocky

People have been conditioned, by the media and even the NFL to find low scoring games boring. Roger Goodell probably put out a bulletin at half time to make sure the game got more exciting. The second half saw a combined 33 points scored, with Seattle winning 29 to 13. Except for a few long passes by New England at garbage time, the game really was probably not as close as the indicated by the score. 

Missed wide open shot by a Canadian player
and the guy with the quote

Both the women and men gold medal games were won by the US over Canada, 2-1, with both teams tied at 1-1 after three periods, they went to overtime with three on three play. People seemed excited about the results. Perhaps influenced by the US beating archrival Canada in each game, but also by how exciting the games were. Like the Super Bowl, they were defensive battles, but in hocky a defensive battle seems to be thought of as good, where in the NFL it is not. 

Great goalie play, this puck was kept out of the net

Shots on goal is one example of how a game is played, and in the women's contest, the US goalie had 30 saves on 31 shots. It was a closely matched contest as the Canadian goalie had 31 saves on 33 shots. For the men, it was a different story, leading one Canadian player to claim, regardless of score, that he will let people judge who was really the better team. The US goalie was probably the best player in the game as he had 41 saves on 42 shots. The Canadian goalie had 26 saves on 28 shots. The offensive players for Canada were the best the NHL has to offer. The US, however, had the better goalie. The US team, however, had 93 seconds, due to penalties, when they were playing with three to the Canadian five players. Canada did not score with that two man advantage. The final score is what matters, not shots on goal. The last time the US men won Olympic gold was in 1980, on the same day as gold was won this year, February 22. Earlier that year, they beat the best team in the world, the Soviet Union, 4 to 3. In that contest, the Soviets had 39 (US 36 saves) shots on goal, while the US had a total of 19 shots on goal (Soviet goalies 15 saves). Complaints about the current OT rule of playing three on three (with a goalie), well, it is the same for both teams. 

Here is the net size Canada wants to shoot at

The US women had a generally easy path to the championship and their is little contest that the two premier programs for female hockey are the Canada and the US. Each of the two gold medal contestants in the men's division had prior overtime games in the medal rounds, showing that other men's teams are chomping at their skates.

A fun fact is that the MVP of the women's tournament was Caroline Harvey, who plays defense for the University of Wisconsin. The coach of the University of Wisconsin Women's team is Mark Johnson who was the MVP in 1980 for the Miracle on Ice team. One person commented that all of the Canadian and US Women's team members played college hockey in the US. The UW is a power house in female hockey, having won 8 NCAA National Championships since 2006, the last just under a year ago. For the 2026 Winter Olympics, 12 current and former University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) women's hockey players are competing. This includes 6 players on Team USA, 5 on Team Canada, and 1 on Team Czechia. The Women Badgers had four current players on the US roster, and 2 alumni. 

Some analysts have said that the Canada men's team was without their captain, and would have won if he had played. It is like Badger fans always coming up with complaints about a loss, and  a bunch of could've if this was different.  Others point to the fact that the US seems to now be developing better younger hocky players than Canada. This was shown particularly in the women's contest. The wins may now galvanize more young athletes to the sport. What it does do, is intensify the rivalry even more between Canada and the US. As for football, the NFL has done its best to make sure games have a great deal of points, meaning, that low scoring games are now thought as dreadful, when such a low scoring game in hockey is thought of as great play, leading to a great game. Two different games with two different intents.

Curlinggate

Curling is an Olympic sport, and one that, being on a sheet of ice, is quite popular in Canada. Canada has won, in the three events (men, women, and mixed) 11 Olympic medals since since the sport was reintroduced to the games in 1998 (Wikipedia). (Curling had a 74 year hiatus from the winter games, before being reintroduced 1998.) They have not won an Olympic gold medal since 2014, however, when they earned gold in both the men and women events. That means they must be quite hungry for a gold medal. Canada won men's gold in three consecutive Olympics: 2006, 2010 and 2014. Canada is to curling what the Soviet Union was to hockey from 1964 to just before the Soviets loss to the US in the Olympics in 1980. Sweden has eight medals in this time frame, and won the gold in the 2022 games in the Men's division. Canada is big into curling, and so it is interesting that our northern neighbor has instigated Curlinggate by double touching the granite stone. 

I often think of curlers as being rather polite to each other, even in competition. I am not sure how I got that image, perhaps since it is an event where they are close to each other on the same sheet, but not bashing the opponents head in. Or, the curler I know is such a gentleman that I could not see him reacting the way the Canadian third did to the Swedish allegation. That is why I took some interest in a dustup that occurred between Sweden and Canada in the men's match at the Olympics less than a week ago.  A Swede said that the Canadian third touched the stone again after it was released, a double touch is against the rules. This less than polite Canadian unleashed a series of F-bombs against the Swede. He then tried to paint the Swedes as the guilty party. Does not say much about Canadian nice. That lack of niceness was reiterated in a BBC report.

The BBC reports that what the Canadian men's third and the woman skip did makes it a "sad day" for curling. The BBC had this to say: While the curlers have shown their anger over the situation during matches, fans of the sport and Canadians have questioned whether the team acted in the spirit of curling. To quote the BBC: "In a country well known for its 'niceness', the cheating row has stung for some. The BBC asked tourists and locals in Montreal what they made of it. 'It's a sad day for Canadian sport,' said Tim Gray, from Alberta. 'Integrity in the sport is important, even if you have to call it on yourself.'" Other news outlets, LA Times as one, say Curlinggate has destroyed the trust for a sport which has typically operated on a culture of trust and self-regulation.

Canadian Men's Curler, Marc Kennedy, who was
said by Swedes to Double touch
Image: Tiziana Fabi /AFP via Getty Images

This got me wondering what that gentleman curler acquaintance of mine thought. He was born and raised in Canada, but has lived in the US for much of his adult life. He has been an Olympic coach of the US Women's Curling team (2010) and during his career a two-time US men's champion and two-time world bronze medalist. When asked about the situation he made two cogent points. First, that if the issue of the double touch was raised it likely had occurred. Such that it made me think no one would bring up the double touch if it was not true. Second, he intimated that such double touch seems to be somewhat common, as he said other Canadian teams have done this in the past. This makes me wonder if they are coached (wink, wink) that way?  Delivery of the rock is crucial in curling. You try to get it in the house or knock other rocks out of the house. The sheet is swept ahead of the rock after it is delivered to form a layer of water to move the rock faster, or to alter its direction. Actually, according to the BBC the physics behind how and why the stone moves is really not well understood. 

Curling goes way back. According to World Curling "The first written evidence appeared in Latin, when in 1540, John McQuhin, a notary in Paisley, Scotland, recorded in his protocol book a challenge between John Sclater, a monk in Paisley Abbey and Gavin Hamilton, a representative of the Abbot." 

Canadian Woman team skip, was hit with a double touch
Image: Fatima Shbair/AP Photo/picture alliance

I curled one day, many years ago, and never could get my knees to cooperate, so I declined any further involvement. It seems like a somewhat silly sport until you try it and it is more difficult than one would have thought. I am not sure how well I delivered the rock, that piece of granite with a handle attached, much less judging how much to sweep. 

With the complaint. the Olympics have now decided, since the infamous brush up (pun intended) at the Canadian-Sweden match, to have two judges at the delivery end. Now, showing that perhaps my source is correct regarding Canada, the Canadian women's skip had a delivery stone pulled due to the same issue the men allegedly did, touching the stone twice. Following that on Sunday, the British team's third had a stone pulled for the same reason. My source's comments (see paragraph three) came before it was made public that the Canadian women had a delivery disqualified. Hence, this could be the way our northern neighbors are taught how to cheat at this sport, with perhaps difficulty in noticing what is occurring on the delivery. The fact that two incidents have occurred since the additional referee was added makes me think it is engrained in these curlers, and has been practiced that way. Otherwise why would you risk disqualification of a stone by the double touch? It may be a difficult habit to break. The extra touch is used to add or reduce speed. Keen eyes, it seems are required to pick this out, and hopefully they are better at it than NFL referee's trying to determine what is or is not a catch, or interference on a pass play. I wonder if curling will go to the replay booth to help determine the proper call. Curlinggate. Curling's version of the NFL's Deflategate. In 2014-2015, the sport was rocked by new bristles on brushes which were able to alter the trajectory of the stone in a greater degree, this became known as Broomgate, or Brushgate. And, for all the gates, whether brooms, deflate, or curling, we have Watergate to thank.

The Canadian who started the controversy, denies the double touched, even when a video from a Swedish network seemed to implicate him as touching the stone twice. He may not know he even does it, that is how ingrained it has become. The Canadians now claim the Swedes were illegally filming the match. The recalcitrant Canadian believes the Swedes were filming to catch a curler in the act of the double touch. He calls it a premeditated plan to catch the illegal touches, and he claims they have filmed other teams too. If so, the Swedes were waiting for the right moment to make the call and release the video. Does curling now have an illegal video being taken to prove illegal activity? 

Science may have trouble explaining how a curling stone moves, but it has figured out the ability to get lift in ski jumping. Male ski jumpers apparently thought to inject their male organ with hyaluronic acid to get more girth and hence to get more lift on the jump. More lift equals more distance. The injections led to the additional regulations right before the Olympics. In the meantime, it seems other Olympic sports are taking heed. An Austrian ski jumper was disqualified because his ski boot was 4mm too long. A US woman ski jumper was disqualified because her skis were too long. It seems that ski jumpers were to enthralled with the hyaluronic acid issue to make sure their equipment met the specs. Curlinggate only leads to removal of the stone double touched, not a disqualification. 

And, if once was not enough, and perhaps showing how this is ingrained in the Canadians, it came out Tuesday that on Monday Marc Kennedy of Canada was called out by a Swedish journalist who took a photo of him double touching against Czechia. Responding to the reporter when confronted, Kennedy said there was not a single intentional double touch. The key word being intentional. Whether by design, or simply by habit, it is still not legal. Except the Canadians apparently do not see it that way. The Swedish photographer also apparently has photos of the Canadian men's skip double touching. I am not sure where the officials were, perhaps looking the other way. For some reason, I don't think this will go away, and it is a stain on a once gentile sport. Canadian press would not allow the journalist to speak to the skip. It seems as if they will have to go to video replay.

Swedish Journalist photo of
reputed illegal touch in Canada 
against Czechia

What athletes are willing to do to try to find that edge to get higher, stronger and faster seems to lead to controversy and then more regulations. People will be people in always looking for that slight edge over their competition. Ski jumpers are willing to inject themselves, and then we have the Canadian and British curlers doing the double touches. If Canada were to win a medal it could well be clouded by their double touching, and make the curling crowd wonder if the double touches influenced early match outcomes. One mate involved in curling in Canada, subscribes to a school of journalism popularized by the current US President (all news is good news) and said the added press may be good for the sport. 

Curlinggate gets more juicy by the day and Canada is getting more press on this issue than it may have desired, on the other hand they kept it going by their whining about the issue. It is also why I decided I have to get this published, otherwise it would take a life of its own, as Canada simply can't keep their fingers off the stone. As Curlinggate dominates the Olympic press, curlers need to ask themselves what impact this will have on the sport.

Rodent Forecasters

It was a typical early February day last week Monday morning. Cloud cover obscured the sun as it came over the horizon. At this time, the city of Sun Prairie pulled out of hibernation a groundhog. The purpose of the ground hog was for it to make its annual forecast for when winter will end. Jimmy did not see his shadow, which legend portends a shorter winter season. Several years ago Jimmy, who has been at this since 1969 (albeit different animals), experienced 15 minutes of fame when the rodent bit the Mayor's ear. This fame was sandwiched between  the fame the city received when Christopher Hovel last played football at Sun Prairie High and the notorious July 2018 gas pipe explosion that took out part of the downtown. Jimmy may even have had more press that year, due to the ear bite, than Punxsutawney Phil, the oldest rodent winter weather predictor in the nation, which was started in 1887. Every year it seems Phil gets the press. Phil had a different prediction than Jimmy in the binary selection process.

Not sure who this guy is, or where he got the 30% for Phil
Oh, what AI can do!

At the same time, there seems to be a contest of who is the most accurate predictor of an early spring, as compared to six more weeks of Winter. The web site for Jimmy does not give his percent success rate, but reads: "Jimmy has an extremely high accuracy rate on his annual predictions, making him an outstanding leader in meteorological circles." So, I wondered, what metrics are used to determine if spring arrived early. Many negativists say it really does not matter, since by the calendar spring arrives in about six weeks anyway. This year, calendar spring will arrive on March 20. Some years it is March 21. This year it is six weeks and four days past Groundhog Day. Perhaps sometime I will delve into why it is Feb 2, and not a couple days later putting it right at the halfway point through the calendar winter. Meteorologically, winter is said to be Dec, Jan and Feb. Hence, March, April and May make spring.

Phil's recent scorecard, which got me wondering how this was calculated

Regardless of calendar or meteorological springs, as people we generally look to certain signs of spring. Flowers, snow has melted, temperatures warming. It is hard to define, but we seem to know it when it comes early. Same thing for winter, which sometimes starts, as this past year, right after Thanksgiving. In 2019 we had several inches of snow at the end of October (with other early storms)  followed by very cold weather for many weeks; it then warmed before Christmas and the snow had mostly melted. The ground froze, crops remained in the field and the sewer district had months of sludge that had not yet been worked into the ground. The district had to find former farm storage tanks to store it until spring. Mother nature sure knows how to throw curve balls. As a shoulder months, March and April can be very unpredictable. Although seldom is weather consistent with you would expect. A few years ago camping at Cunard Lake I talked a man who was there camping, and he had come up for the opening of fishing season on May 1, only to find that the lakes were all frozen and covered with several inches of snow. Here it was less than two months later and I was swimming in that lake. The latest known frost date in Boulder Junction is June 30, which probably explains why their claim to fame is muskies and not groundhogs. I would think ice and snow on lakes counts as a late spring. Does frost on the last day of June count as a late spring? The day my youngest son was born (Apr 29) we went from unseasonable warm, the wife who was very pregnant that year would say hot, to having seven inches of snow on his date of birth. Luckily, the warm pavement and ground allowed much to melt quickly. Without metrics, how does on acknowledge if the rodent is correct?

Jimmy about to pounce on Mayor's ear
Apparently, it needs a muzzle

My wife thought I was being too analytic in attempting to figure out the metrics used for the rodent handlers to say if they were correct or not. Her point was this is all in jest.  But, when they start giving out stats, it is not just jest. I get it, they are trying to prove who has the best prognosticating rodent. I look at my desire for a sophisticated metric to be very Germanic, as who else but the Germans would desire detailed calculus of how the groundhogs perform? Germans demand precision, just like in that former car commercial. 

NOAA top ten, see link in paragraph below for the whole ranking

As items of rodent prognostication showed up on my Facebook page I realized two main points. First, there are many more rodent prognosticators present than I thought, and, two, that the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) has rated the 18 groundhogs and one turtle. To meet their criteria, they had to be doing this at least 20 years as of 2 Feb 2024. What they found was rather striking, with success varying from 85% to 30%, with Phil and one other woodchuck at the low end for groundhogs. The outlier was the poor turtle who had a lowly success rate of 20%. Jimmy came in fifth at 65%. The problem is that they do not say what metric they used to calculate. Was it based on how much a location was above or below average, or did it use some level of standard deviation from the norm? After all, there is variability in weather. As Josh and Jase (the Brits who visited Michigan this past January) have said, in the Midwest all you have to do is turnaround and the weather may have changed. It must have been a down week at NOAA for them to do find the weather and do the calculations on groundhog forecast proficiency. Perhaps Donald Trump saw this and it led to his agency cuts. Yet, with such a low rate of success, should Phil be the determining factor for early verse non-early spring?  Most news outlets seem to think so. Phil predicted a long winter, while Jimmy has predicted an early spring. Now, weather can vary by region in the US, so who is to say Phil is correct for Wisconsin, much less California?

The 18 groundhogs are in 8 different states, with Pennsylvania leading the way with four, followed by NY with three. Unfortunately, a Friendly Illinois Brethren rodent tied with Jimmy for fifth place. Communities desire some claim to fame, and sad to say Sun Prairie had the chance at other aspects, but chose a groundhog. A bit quirky, and I guess it beats Fitchburg's Recycling Capital of Wisconsin, which no longer applies since most of Dane County all recycle the same stuff (although McFarland, through a local club here recycles stretchable plastic, with bins at the library). Actually, Pennsylvania and New York make sense for Groundhog Day did not start with Bill Murray, but with German, and more specifically Dutch Germans in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the old country a hedgehog was used. It is an outgrowth of Candlemas where, according to lore, if an animal like a badger or hedgehog, saw its shadow there would be another winter. Lacking hedgehogs, and probably finding badgers a bit unruly, the Pennsylvania Dutch-Germans used the groundhog, with the first observance by Phil in 1887. For those not aware, Wisconsin, the Badger State, did not get the moniker from actual badgers, but from lead miners in Southwest Wisconsin who were referred to as Badgers because they lived in caves in the 1820's to 1830's as temporary shelter, and of course dug for lead. Actually, this whole thing of groundhog prognosticators involving German and Dutch-Germans is rather hard to believe for such  heritages are not known for frivolity. Germans, I am sure would be pleased to have measuring metrics as it goes against the whole mirthfulness of the occasion. Being measurable it brings precision and math to an event that is otherwise very questionable, particularly in Punxsutawney. Looking up the stereotype of Germans as precision oriented, I found even the business school in Munich recognizes such. 

This has me thinking there is a market for a prognosticator on the flip side, as we move from autumn to winter. at around Halloween time, for perhaps a chipmunk or a opossum to let us know when winter really will begin. The opossum may well play dead and hence fail to give a forecast when most needed. Is a sign of spring when chipmunks come out from their hibernation behind my rock walls?

I had thoughts of developing a metric, but thought it could get out of control, so now I am willing to let NOAA, although not sure of their metric, to be the judge over what groundhog is the best forecaster. My wife can now rest easier knowing that a higher authority than me has already developed a metric to rate the accuracy of the rodent forecasters. 

Dream

In April 2009 a frumpy middle aged woman appeared on the television show, Britain's Got Talent. After some odd antics that left the judges shaking their heads in disgust, she said she was going to sing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. The audience found it incredulous that such a frumpy woman could sing this rather difficult song. Then she started singing, and, within a few seconds the attitude in the auditorium changed. Susan Boyle was wanting to fulfill the dream her mother had for her, to be a professional singer. Last week the wife had Alexa playing some music and after a few songs, I heard Susan Boyle singing "I Dreamed a Dream." The lyrics are rather appropriate to our world today where dreams are being upended for some by aggressive tactics. 

Follow along as Susan Boyle sings "I Dreamed a Dream" at this link (starting at the 1:44 mark). 

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving

And I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live our life together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream
I dreamed

Aspirations are part of our human condition. Those that are on the lower ends of the socio-economic ladder in particular face difficulties. During his last public address on Easter Sunday, 2025, the day before he died, Pope Francis added to his many comments on migrants (for example, see 10 Feb 2025 letter to US Bishops): "...how much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants! On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas! For all of us are children of God!"

This nation was built on the premise of basic rights as first identified in the Declaration of Independence (250 years ago): "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

One program that is now essential in the nation is social security, as one example. With the nation now  continuing to experience historic low birth rates and with births near equaling deaths. Growth in population has to come from migrants. And, the nation needs growth, as social security and other programs depended on a standard population pyramid, which is now a rectangle.

Susan Boyle, that then frumpy middle-aged Brit, inverted the audience's opinion of her. She would get some fame and would release varied music titles. That is not the case for many of those affected by governmental actions.  Has the nation cut out the ability of people, whether legal or not, to realize their dreams?

Hoosiers

Forty years ago the movie Hoosiers came out. Starring Gene Hackman, it is thought of one of the better sports films in the United States. It is loosely based on  a 1954 Milan, Indiana High School basketball team who won the state championship. It is a story of grit and determination for the few members of the team. A new Hoosier film could be made today but not about the basketball team. Fifty years the Hoosier basketball team went undefeated and won the National Championship under coach Bob Knight, the last team to do so. The Indiana football team did the same feat this year.

The Play of the Game, 4th and 5, 12 yards from end zone,
QB draw for a TD

Congratulations to the Indiana Hoosier Football team. Under second year head coach Curt Cignetti the team won the National Championship, often referred to as the Natty. Why they have to create references like the Natty, I don't know but I while go with it since it is easy to type. If three years ago someone would have predicted that Indiana, the football bowl subdivision team with the most losses for that division, in history, I think everyone would have laughed at them. Indiana has been the doormat of the Big Ten for almost, well, forever. 

In another great sports movie, "Miracle", when selecting the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team, they have the committee complaining that they had no say in the selection for the team, and that some great players were left not selected. The coach, Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, responded he was not looking for great players, but the right players. That is what Cignetti has done, taking two and maybe three star recruits and building them to a team where the chemistry worked. Cignetti built a team with the right players for his system. 

Curt Cignetti

For many years, the Big Ten needed a team like Indiana to make teams like Northwestern, Illinois, and (dare I say) Wisconsin look good. Before this season, Indiana had 528 wins to 719 losses. They were the first D1 team to reach 700 losses over their history. In 2022, the Hoosiers were 4-8 overall and 2-7 in the Big Ten. In 2023 it they were even worse, 3-9 overall and 1-8 in the Big Ten, good for last place in the East division and the worst record for the whole Big Ten.

At the end of the 2023 season they hired Cignetti away from James Madison. Cignetti became famous for a now viral statement at his introductory press conference when he said, "It's pretty simple, I win. Google me." He certainly does as in his first year his team went 8-1 in the Big Ten with the only loss to Ohio State (who would become National Champions) and they lost to Notre Dame in the playoffs. By any standards, that is a remarkable turn around.

Clever of Google, when searching Curt Cignetti (see circled area)

In its 16-0 run, it had five wins over teams that made or were in the playoffs (two against Oregon one regular season and one playoffs), none of those victories came at home. They could well be one of the best teams of all time. Its victory over Miami came at Miami's home field. Miami may have won at the line of scrimmage with several tackles for loss, but they lost the turnover battle, and the Hoosier block punt for a touchdown well takes out some of the tackles for loss. 

Of course, Paul, ESPN mouth piece for the Southeast Conference (SEC) Finebaum, has dissed Indiana and its coach. Yahoo Sports for example reported this snotty comment by the SEC mouthpiece: “'It will be a cute story, and it will get some attention on Tuesday morning map, but it really won’t get that much,' Finebaum stated on The Matt Barrie Show." He is not alone, former Alabama coach, Nick Saban said that unless they are paid no player from the south would want to play in the north. This is a dig at both the north and the Name, Image and Likeness deals for players. Others simply say, that the playing field is now level since the north can do what SEC teams have been doing for years, paying players.  Quite frankly, if I were a player in the north, why would I want to even go through Alabama? Finebaum and others have claimed the Indiana victory was luck. That is degrading to a team that has worked through the whole season. 

Heck, even this year, five SEC teams made the playoffs. Only one advanced to the semi-final, losing to Miami, who lost to Indiana. The SEC Commissioner said they should have had seven of their 16 teams in the Natty. The SEC and Paul are proud of the five teams that made the tournament. They went 4 and 10 in bowl games this season. Two of those wins came against another SEC team, one against second tier Tulane and the other against Michigan, whose coach had just been fired. Indiana played SEC powerhouse Alabama who lost to Indiana 38-3. Showing disrespect to other teams, four loss Alabama was, in the final rankings, ranked ninth. Alabama does not even have to show up to make the tournament or get ranked.

I have figured out why people are so enamored with the SEC. They play lower competition in non-conference games, four in 2025 (to move to 3 in 2026), where they generally play patsies. Hence, when they play each other many of the teams are ranked for beating lower level competition. When one loses to the other, they remained ranked, because they played a good team. What the ranking people do is to place a priority on the blueblood SEC teams, not realizing that, particularly with NIL, the stock market motto applies, past performance does not guarantee future results. But like stocks, they play up past results. The Big Ten teams played nine conference and three non-conference games.

Indiana had the SEC card with a generally weak nonconference schedule, but many teams are scheduled are made years in advance. Remember, the team was 3-9 overall in 2023. For some reason, this causes lack of respect to Indiana, but not to the blue-blood SEC teams. Indiana has one very prominent alumnus, Mark Cuban who is said to be worth $6 to 9.6 billion. He is said to be a major funder of NIL for Indiana. 

Even with Mark Cuban helping their NIL bank, all but one talking head on ESPN, picked their opponent to win. Pat McAfee who lives in Indiana (played for the Colts) was the only one to pick Indiana in each of their three playoff games. Indiana is the only team who had a first round bye to win their first game. The ESPN (which is also a mouthpiece for the SEC) talking heads had 2 to 1 in favor of Alabama (who lost to Indiana 38-3); 5 to 1 against Oregon (56-22); and 3 to 1 in favor of Miami (who lost 27-21). It really makes one suspect of the talking heads and how they value program prestige over reality.

Indiana got the last laugh. They chose a coach who knows personnel and preaches the fundamentals of football. That is why a team with so few supposed five and four star recruits won. It reminds me of a comment my brother Steve, a long time high school coach who viewed a number of Wisconsin practices, said about Barry Alvarez, that he coached and emphasized fundamentals. Many teams in the NFL and many colleges forget about fundamentals. It is why the Packers lose games with poor tackling and poor angles, and penalties, it is why the Bears had so many drops, and a missed route, in the NFL divisional game. 

Fernando Mendoza, the QB for Indiana plays with smarts. And he found Cal (was going to attend Yale, but got called by California), and then Indiana after 130 schools told him no. He failed to get a walk-on at Miami, a school his parents attended and where his mother played on the tennis team, and his dad was a rower on their National Championship Crew team. The University is only a couple miles from where he grew up. Mendoza attempts to avoid turnovers, unlike Caleb Williams. He has been criticized as a "game manager" nor worthy of a pick in the NFL draft, much less a first round pick. This same thing was said about Sam Darnold when he was with the Vikings last season, and he now leads NFC #1 seed Seattle to the Super Bowl  (a feat Jordan Love has yet to even get close to).  There is a general consensus that his fourth and five QB draw for a twelve yard touchdown was a masterpiece, even if Fernando looks like a baby giraffe running away from a lion. Fernando made about $2.6 million in NIL including winning the Natty. The opposing QB, Carson Beck, made $4-6 million, depending how incentives are calculated. I saw last Thursday that overall Miami spent almost $19 million on NIL for the season compared to about $5.2 to 5.7 million for Indiana.

L: Carson Beck, Lower R, Fernando Mendoza

Fernando Mendoza is the wholesome All-American guy most every parent (I can't every, because I heard of someone who it seems would not want have wanted a daughter to date him.) wants their daughter to date, and Carson Beck is the guy every daughter wants to date--the bad boy. At the end of the game, shortly after the game sealing interception he threw, Carson ran off the field lacking sufficient sportsmanship to shake hands and congratulate his opponents. He had the temerity to say they would have won if had not thrown the interception. Well, he threw the interception. He is even worse than Ben Johnson. Although he may be better than his running back Mark Fletcher who congratulated Mendoza, but later (or before) tried to punch an Indiana player. He apparently was reacting to a comment made by the Indiana player about his father who died the previous year. Miami played dirty and was given the benefit of the doubt by the referees, who seemed to favor Miami. Maybe they tried to fix the game, but were unable to do so.

It is being said, and I tend to agree, that the run by Indiana for the football National Championship is the greatest and most improbable story for college football. I tend to agree with them. It is the first 16 and 0 run since Yale in 1894. Heck, even the favored SEC teams, and Miami had losses. So, there Paul Finebaum. There is a new champion in Hoosierville, and it is the once lowly football team.

A Tale of Two Coaches

It was a cold and windy this past Monday morning and while waiting the floors to dry after mopping them, I sat down at my laptop to see what was up in the world. Much to my surprise I read that the Buffalo Bills had fired their head coach, Sean McDermott. This was surprising, because while he failed to get the Bills to a Super Bowl, he did have better success than Matt LaFleur in Green Bay, who had just been resigned to a mega deal of $15 million or more annually and for what some have said is another four to five years. This tale of two coaches will provide a comparison into how organizations view the desire for a Super Bowl.

With the release of McDermott, Matt LaFleur now  becomes the longest tenured coach in the NFL to not have advanced his team to the Super Bowl. (He is now the fourth longest tenured coach in the NFL, behind Andy Reid (KC), Sean McVay (LA Rams), Kyle Shanahan (SF).) With his new contract, it seems the Packers are intent to extend that streak another four or five, or who knows how many years. The Packers were recently said to be somewhat of a mom and pop organization when it took a week for them to resign Mediocre Matt. Perhaps, if they were more mom and pop, they would be listening more to the fan base who seem to be sick and tired of the softness of the Packers which is now embedded in their culture. Instead of doing to other teams, they let other teams do unto them. One only need to look at the second half collapses the team has had this year, twice to the Bears, to perennial doormat Cleveland, to Carolina to Denver and then there was the tie in Dallas. High priced QB Jordan Love has failed to deliver and seems, in many games, to fade in the second half. After most every loss, Mediocre Matt takes the blame, but for years now has failed to fix the issue. His common complaint when they lose is that he failed to properly prepare the team. For example after the loss to Cleveland, this was part of his comments: "When you have 14 penalties in a game, that's going to be tough to overcome that. We have to do a much better job coaching the fundamentals, the details, and we have to lock in at a high level in regards to the controllable penalties." This begs the question of why they have not been doing a better job of coaching fundamentals? Well, if after several years, that is not fixed, it is time to look elsewhere. For a few years now I have said that Matt has reached his ceiling. I am sure he will say the same old, same old next year, and it is not just getting old, it is old.

Matt, 2020 photo
With his new contract he has even more money to spend on his hair

I think the Bills felt the same way about Sean McDermott, and hence the reason for his being released. Anyway, let us compare the two coaches, and from this comparison one can judge which organization is looking forward and which one is looking to continued mediocrity.

McDermott has coached the Bills for nine full seasons, going 98-50 for a .666 winning percentage. He has won five AFC East titles, which means competing with the Patriots, placed second in the division three times, and third one time. He had five consecutive AFC East titles, from 2020 through 2024. He has made the playoffs in all but one year as a coach and overall posted a record of 8-8 in the playoffs for a .500 winning percentage. In the AFC he has had to face the normal power house Kansas City Chiefs, and they lost to the Chiefs twice in the AFC Championship game and twice in the divisional round. 

Sean McDermott, 2019

Now, let us look at Matt LaFailure. Matt has coached the Packers for seven seasons, going 76-40-1 for a winning percentage of .654. He has won three NFC North titles, where few teams posed a threat in the first few seasons, when the team was QB'd by Aaron Rodgers. All three first place finishes came in his first three years. After the first three years, he has placed second twice and third twice. He has made the playoff for six of his seven seasons. He reached the NFC Championship game twice (first two years) and both years the team had late collapses due to poor play calling and dumb decisions by coaches and players, a trend that has continued. The next two years he lost in the Divisional round, and the last two years in the Wildcard round. 

In other words, Mediocre Matt is trending down and flat. Some blame it on loss of key players to injury this season, but the last Packer Super Bowl team had a number of injuries to key players too. By this point in the season all teams deal with injuries. 

Looking at the last five years you can see that Matt has come into his own in regard to mediocrity. Starting in 2023 Jordan Love took over and the team's mediocrity has allowed the organization to stall. McDermott, over those five years had a regular season winning percentage of .714, whereas the Packer head coach's winning percentage was .588. For playoff games Matt even fails in his mediocre moniker, as he is 1-4 thus a winning percentage of .2, compared to McDermott who was 6-5 with a winning percentage of .545. 

Comparison of Two Coaches, last five seasons

When at the YMCA in Madison using the exercise bikes, they have two of like five televisions tuned to sports, one has ESPN (otherwise known as the Mouthpiece of the SEC), and the other I don't know the channel but when there it plays a Good Morning Football broadcast. Anyway, it is amazing that last week Thursday the talking heads were whining about Matt not yet getting resigned at GB and wondered if they were looking at John Harbaugh. Pretty much, they all thought Matt should be resigned. This past Tuesday (1/20), I did not see the reaction to the McDermott firing on the GMF broadcast, but did see the ESPN and most of the talking heads thought McDermott should be fired for wasting Josh Allen and not getting the team to the Super Bowl. Stephen A complained that they did not have enough around Josh. Same complaints we heard about Aaron Rodgers with the Packers. So, if as Brainless and the Packers feel, Jordan Love is a top tier QB, are they wasting his years, too? I wonder why the double standard, is it because they feel that Allen is a much better QB and they are wasting his talent?  One could say that Green Bay is where, due to poor leadership, talent goes to die.

The problem with the Packers is, in my opinion, is one thing. The organization has been controlled by two persons with little vesting in Wisconsin. First, was Mark Murphy, who was more concerned about being a real estate developer in the Titletown District than about bringing titles to Titletown. Second, Mark Murphy hired the Brainless Gutekunst as GM who would not know good talent to draft if it fell in his lap. The team is now controlled by Ed Policy, who is in his first eight months of running the team, and whose father ran the 49ers for a number of years. Neither are Wisconsinites, and were only transplants for jobs with the team. They seem to think of the team as their little sandbox and as long as fans are in the stands, and they make money, they do not care about titles. With the two of them the Packer moniker will need to change to "Titlelesstown" Quite the opposite of the Bills organization. Ed has found the coach he wants, just good enough to get to the playoffs, and lose in the Wildcard, but no more. Mark was happy to make a lot of money off the Packers to buy a golf course in Door County.

Because of its unique status in the NFL the team needs to be run by a person more invested in Green Bay or Wisconsin. In the situation of Green Bay, they need more mom and pop in the operation because the outsiders who come in are not fully vested with the community and its team. They need someone who knows and feels the pain of the fanbase. The outsiders, like Murphy and Policy are not embedded in the Wisconsin culture. If they were, they would know how the recent decision to continue with Mediocre Matt LaFailure is met with disdain by much of the fan base. Where are the Board of Directors on all of this? Matt LaFailure got the better of Ed Policy, but getting the long-term contract which some say is four years (five with a year remaining) and others say five year extension (six?).  This long-term extension is a pricey bet, as Dairyland Express wrote this week. If, and it is certainly not a big IF, Matt continues with his mediocrity when will the Packers make a move for a new head coach? Wait to his contract is almost up, so years more of mediocrity? Or will they have to eat say $30-$45 million or more for his contract and then also the pay for the new coach? In a sense, it may well be, and if so is unfortunate, that the lack of one owner is working against the Packer organization. 

Packer fans like to say "The Bears suck." But, the Packers have collapsed in two games to the Bears in a matter of weeks. If the Bears suck, what does that make the Packers?

With the NFL being rigged to a certain degree, there perhaps is not much they can do. The NFL favors large market teams, or those with star power. The Chargers and Rams have trouble filling a stadium, not to mention Jacksonville, but the Roger Goddell likes Tinseltown. Think  also of Taylor Swift, the biggest star, and the KC Chiefs. The color of the referee jersey's in KC games was not black and white, but red and white. Clearly calls were or were not made to benefit the Chiefs. This has been attributed to Patrick Mahomes and later the pop singer Taylor Swift who was dating, and now is engaged, to Chief's tight end Travis Kelce.

Meme on referee's favoring Kansas City

My prediction is Matt will continue with his mediocrity, not able to get players to perform, to have regular collapses in the second half, not clean up special teams, not to mention the many dumb penalties that result in stalled drives. After all, how often does a team get a delay of game penalty AFTER having used a time out? The definition of incompetence in professional football is not the Raiders, but the Jordan Love, and the Packer coaching staff. Reporting on the contract extension, nfl.com reported: "Lost leads characterized LaFleur's seventh season in Green Bay. The Packers became the first team since the 1970 merger to lose three tilts when leading by 10-plus points in the final five minutes of the game, including playoffs -- Week 3 to Cleveland, Week 16 and Wild Card Round to Chicago." Matt has a good record of the Packers getting records, just the wrong ones. Leave it to the poorly coached Packers to do that (Wildcard game in Chicago). Brainless Gutekunst will continue to over pay certain players leading to poor performance (think Jordan Love who fails when he is needed to succeed). This then leaves little for other players that matter. Gutekunst has a habit of forgetting about the O-line. And, his top defensive backs leave much to be desired. Gutekunst and coaches wasted Aaron Rodgers, and perhaps Jordan Love (if he is as good as they think he is to make him one of the top five QB's in the NFL). The Bills do not wish to do the same for Josh Allen, who is truly regarded as one of the best. As Green Bay found out with Aaron Rodgers, the QB cannot do it alone, and for twenty years, until 2025 never used a first round pick on a wide receiver. Which may be well given Gutekunst's inability to properly realize talent out of college. Gutekunst has lacked a strong record of success. 

When LaFailure continues his lack of success for the next few years, I believe it time for a revolt of Packer fans to force wholesale changes first in the Board of Directors, and second in the whole management and coaching staff of the organization. Ttitletown is but a long ago memory, and it is time the organization takes its self-imposed moniker seriously. Sixty years later they are still living off Vince Lombardi. Unfortunately, with a tale of  two coaches we see what team takes getting to a Super Bowl seriously, and it is not the Packers. LaFleur and this organization from the chair of Board of Directors on down is no Dominic Olejnicczak and Vince Lombardi (Lombardi was 9-1 in the post season). Of course, we cannot expect outsider Policy, who is the de facto chair, to remove himself, it will have to come from the bottom up. The organization, like the coach on the field, is not willing to make the right call at the right moment, instead it revels in a melodious mediocrity.

Wolf

My wife was doing some downsizing and came across my Wolf Cub Scout handbook (1965 printing). Cub scouting has five different levels, and can start in kindergarten as a Lion, then first grade is a Tiger, and second grade is Wolf.  Bear and Webelo round out the ranks to fourth grade. A bobcat badge, is the one of the first earned badges and can be earned in one meeting. While she is perturbed that I do not join her in her downsizing journey, I have not decided whether or not to keep the handbook. Both of our sons were in cub and boy scouts, both became Eagle Scouts, and they now each have a son.

Maybe Howie and Simon will get into scouting, maybe not. But, if they do it would be interesting to compare their requirements to what I was required to do when I was in second grade for the Wolf rank. The requirements from 60 years ago today have changed, maybe they will change again in the next several years. They may be able to see how much more successful they were than grandpa was when I was their age, and what I chose to do verse what they choose to undertake.

I completed 1, 3 and 5

The Cub Scout promise I had at age 8, seems similar to when I was a den leader when my kids were in scouting. My second to last line was "To be Square" and do not recall that being used when my boys were young. I have to say, sixty years later, that to be square part still fits. I am about as square as one can get. I do not fit well in a round hole. When my wife bought a couple new swim suits for me, I told to her not to get anything to flashy, because, well, that is not me. She got flashy swimsuits, due to what she said the pickings in November are slim. Oddly, my sister-in-law did not think the suits flashy at all. 

The first thing that struck me in this sixty year old book is in feats of skill section where I had to complete three of five skill sets. One skill, which I did, was to climb 12 feet up a tree. Looking on-line, this no longer seems to be a requirement, or even an elective. This is hard to fathom. Really they do not wish to allow a boy to climb a tree and possibly fall out and break their arm, leg, or get a concussion. Happy to say, I, so far, have never broken a bone (cartilage yes, bone no), so I was not the cause of the Boy Scouts of America dumbing out this requirement. Today, I look back at this and realize that even then my middle name was "Careful." Perhaps tree climbing is out of vogue today. I do not recall which tree I climbed, but think it must of been the willow tree we had near the garage which fast growing enough to get big enough for a young boy to climb, I doubt it was the box elder in the far corner as that lacked limbs to use, and its trunk was way too big to get my little arms around.

Another task for feat of skill I completed was doing three rolls. Front, back and a falling-forward rolls. I would probably hurt myself if I tried any of those today. My body is not just as limber as it once was. I asked my wife what she thought if I tried, and she had her expected response: "No, I do not think you should try that." That evening, when I was doing my evening stretches, I got into a position to to the forward roll, and at that point realized I probably should not do it. The final task completed involved walking on the edge of a 12' 2x4 (down and back) forward, reverse and side to side. I am thinking, at 68, that my core strength is not quite as good today as then. My mom signed off on my feats of skill. I biked outside yesterday, and not once did I try to bike without hands to test my core strength. When I mentioned this to the wife, she said no one should be riding a bike without hands on the handle bars.

Another thing I did was to whittle, and that was signed off by my dad. I think today they have to be in third grade to earn the whittle chip. This makes me wonder what happened to my old pocket knife. 

Then there was the elective to dress up as an Indian, yes dress up as an American Indian. This may seem odd, but many of the skills for scouting are tied to Native American tribes, and their culture. Think about it, use of knives, climbing trees, lashing, way-finding, respecting the outdoors all derive from the Nation's indigenous peoples. Even the way they are referred to is much different and more respectful, Indigenous Peoples, Native Americans, or the specific tribe name, as compared to Indians which was in use many years ago. In Canada, First Nations is the preferred term.  

My wife may be quite surprised that one elective I completed was to cook breakfast, and it involved more than simply cereal, as the requirements stipulate "Fix your own breakfast with at least one hot dish and clean and put away the dishes."  Five options for the cooking arrow point were available, earning me one point for each option completed. I completed #1 (hot breakfast) and #3 which was "Help make an orangeade, lemonade, or hot chocolate drink for the whole family. We had a machine that would grind oranges for fresh orange juice, and it was fun to use. I completed these tasks in the fall of 1966.

Another task I completed was to float for two minutes without touching bottom and remaining still. Remaining still would be the difficult part of the task. I am sure the wife would also be surprised that I could remain still for two minutes. One time, as the assistant scout leader I took a week of vacation to lead the troop, that was not at Philmont, to summer camp. Most of the time it was me and another male leader (Robin Roberts), but near the end of the week several other dads showed up. Unbeknownst to me Robin had placed a bet with the other dads as we were sitting around the campfire at night, telling them I would not be able to sit for more than five minutes as I would find a reason to get up and do something. Robin won the bet. I did not know it until coming back when I saw a dad handing over some cash to Robin. Kudos to him for what he realized during the week, something of which the idea that I did this never occurred to me that I was getting up so often. The wife has tended to look at this event as one of my defining characteristics. I should never have told her the story.

Safety First

Scouting challenges grow as the boy (and now girl) grow. They become more complex and require greater skill, as if floating for two minutes without touching bottom with minimal movement did not take a great deal of patience and tenacity to complete. One thing we had to learn was fire safety. If John O'Leary (whose life the Netflix show "Soul on Fire" is based) was in cub scouts he would never have been burned over his whole body, and burned the family house down and been the subject of such a documentary. So, yes scouting has many upsides, and perhaps it is good if for no other reason than it gets children away from their electronic devices. Although, I suppose the Wolf handbook is now online. 

Images from 1965 Wolf Cub Scout Book