Give Up Play

I was in the stadium as my hometown Tennessee Titans eschewed a chance to tie the game at the end of the first half yesterday, and instead, ran a draw to set up a field goal that was good but left them down four points at the half. The play selection was real loser territory. Winners go for the end zone in such circumstances and do not settle for three points. Yes, maybe Ward would have thrown an incomplete pass or even an interception on the second to last play of the first half, but when you have back to back seasons of wretched futility, you must not try to stay close but do everything possible to win. The Eagles did ultimately prevail, and their margin of victory was the four points Tennessee left on the table at the end of the first half. 

The Vanderbilt Miracle

Some years back the Vandy basketball team earned the name "the cardiac Commodores" for the close games and late game comebacks. They rarely displayed the heroics that the football team did yesterday with the most improbable of all last second (literally) wins. Their young quarterback seemed to have cost them the game with an interception in the last moment that seemed to kill any hope the Nashville boys had, but they had a never quit attitude, and fought to the last play from scrimmage, forcing a fumble in the end zone that the defense recovered to stun North Carolina State, who looked like the superior squad until the momentous turnover that turned around fifty-nine minutes and 59 seconds of ACC dominance. 

Forgetting the Titans

I am afraid the Eagles will trounce my hometown Titans as Nashville hosts the mighty Philadelphia franchise on Sunday. It is too early to say if Tennessee made the wrong hire with Coach Saleh, but the problem has NOT been the head coach but an owner who will obviously NOT fire herself. As long as the tickets sell, dear Amy will remain satisfied, even if many are ultimately purchased by the visiting team's fans. The atmosphere, pre-game music, cheerleaders, halftime entertainment are always among the best the NFL has to offer, but the product on the field, that being the team itself, has not been a contender for years. Bud Adams had a genuine commitment to trying to win championships, and I am certain his daughter would love to deliver a title to Nashville but does not know what that takes. As long as she controls the franchise, the Titans will not be champs. 

Murder on Menu

I have been in a fast food restaurant where employees were calling each other everything but "child of G-d". When I was younger we drove up on a cafeteria where there was a stabbing of an employee by another worker. It does not shock me that violent situations might arise in a workplace, and I just read a Zaxbys workman shot another dead at a location in North Carolina. At a McDonald's near me, I asked an employee if he could cut my Mom's burger in half as per her request, but he said they could not because they were not permitted to have any knives in the kitchen. Sad that society has come down to such a knife-banning edict, but I bet that makes for a safer Mickey D location, and I did slice it in two for her when I brought it home for her consumption. 

Up Your Interest

The Federal Reserve raising interest rates is a proper tool when there is irrational exuberance on the part of consumers engaged in unrestrained spending on elective purchases. The inflation America has indeed faced recently is caused by market chaos due to petroleum prices and supplies being destabilized because of the conflict with the mullah regime in Iran, and all the downstream rise in cost of everything made with or transported using oil. The Fed upping interest rates does absolutely nothing to stabilize gasoline and diesel prices, nor the cost of goods made with oil or oil byproducts, nor hold down the cost of transport of virtually everything that is shipped at least at some point using petrol. The rise in rates just further punishes people who are already suffering from increased costs that were in no way their fault. This is the same stupidity as being punitive by raising interests folks have to pay when it is not them but government itself that is engaged in frivolous spending. Fiscal and monetary tools should only be deployed when Congress has already cut back their spree of spending like drunken sailors which last happened during the years Clinton was President but was forced to make deals with a Republican majority in control of Congress. Why make working people suffer more when it is a war of choice America embarked upon and crazy expenditures by the Federal government that have stoked inflation, not anything Joe or Jane is doing when they have already cut back spending everywhere else to be able to afford their drive to and from work?

Vance the Duck

If it walks like a duck and quacks like one, it is reasonable to conclude it is one. I am saddened to have to report that our Vice President is a Jew-hater. Vance declared that America will not be "subservient" to Israel. The Jewish State is a tiny democracy encircled by murderous tyrannies, being attacked on numerous fronts by folks that hate Americans and Christians about as much as they despise Jews. Israel is the world's front line against exterminationist jihad. The United States has never been "subservient" to Israel or the Jews, and JD is a Pat Buchanan-type instigator against the most beleaguered people on earth- who happen to be my people. Take a long walk off a short pier Vance. You will never have my vote. 

Chiefs Are Back

I attended a Kansas City game once that my hometown team was hosting. It would have been better from the Tennessee draft perspective if the Titans had lost that contest, so of course they beat the injury plagued Chiefs playing without Patrick Mahomes. Well, Mahomes was definitely back for the rgular season opening Monday Night football broadcast, and KC ripped up a Broncos squad thought to be contenders this year. One game does not a season make, but I would not be shocked if the Chiefs end up in the Super Bowl that will conclude this campaign.