Augie

My family had season tickets at both stadiums. I went to a LOT of games back when we were losing a LOT. My numbers are not very attractive, I’m sure. More troubling, I’ve started going to more games again over the last decade or so. I try to do one home game (preferably the opener) and one road game. My winning percentage is atrocious. I think I may be part of the problem. Please don’t hate me, I mean well. 🤷‍♂️ P.S. - I can be bought.

Well, I came here to see what the erudite among us were reading. I didn’t expect to see this. Is it a signed first edition?

I’m sure a policy of nudging games one way or another would never leak out. Let’s think of how many different people will have to know about this arrangement, and how many people come and go every year, and how it has never come to light. Not one of those countless persons has ever spilled the beans after one drink too many. This is secret keeping in line with covering up the studio where they filmed the moon landings! 😋 .

Yeah, I could check off most of the things you mentioned. We saw a lot of that over the years, and it was indeed unsavory. Our son was a top 3 player on a soccer team and he was playing up a year. For some reason they no longer let you play up so he had to try out for the team his age. But they already had tryouts (no, they didn’t), and their team had been together for years. Everyone just expected to be on the team. It sucks for somebody, because my son thought he deserved a chance to try out and some kid was gonna get bumped after like 3 years on the team. The only positive aspect of that part is kids are learning how the world works. It might not be a pleasant lesson, but at least it’s something. When the adults go crazy, there is zero redeeming value. You are always teaching your children, even when you don’t mean to. They can learn proper behavior….or something else. Full disclosure, I was a hot head when our kids first started playing sports. I admit it, but I came to see how awful it is. By the time we got to high school sports I had mostly grown out of that kind of obnoxious yelling at refs and such and by graduation I was the calmest person there. I’m still a bit embarrassed by the way I behaved early on.

RIP I had no idea he played in the NFL. Quite a life.

Care to expand on this? I’ve been there, but what happened behind the scenes was mild compared to what the parents were up to. We had our sons in travel league sports for years, and there were embarrassing moments for sure. There are behind the scene drama regarding who gets more minutes, etc, but the biggest problem, BY FAR, was with the parents. Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, this was not people “popping off” or getting “mouthy” from the stands with something to say. These were adults rolling around on the floor. At an AAU hoops tournament one of the dads (a coach even!) had to be held back by the other adults or he would have been arrested for assaulting the clock operator, a guy at least 100 lbs smaller. It was embarrassing just to be there. We had one dad banned from high school campus because his roid rage was out of control and he was pinning people up against the wall by the throat in the gym. His son went on to Va Tech to play football, but it was pretty clear he was juiced up, just like his dad. Kids learn this shameful behavior from the adults, they don’t invent it.

I love the 25 (light beers) before 5:00pm challenge. But I want no part of the “explosive diarrhea” that may come with it. 😂 I’d have to be wearing a life preserver before I got half way.

What fine examples we set for our children. My son played in an AAU hoops game in Miami where the refs stopped the game until they could get police in the gym. In so many ways those were great times, but also cause for shame at times. It’s a game, played by kids. Chill.

A ball gets caught, a ball gets dropped, a guy fumbles reaching for the end zone……you have ample points of interest. I just call it sports.

I apologize if I came in late and missed something, but gambling would be my first response. You don’t even have to decide the winner, maybe just be sure the spread isn’t covered. There’s a LOT of money involved as the NFL embraces gambling sites while crushing players for using them. I don’t see a league conspiracy, but I’ll never bet that human greed will not surprise.

The title asks if the league is fixed. No, there is no script for how the season will play out because…….ya know. But, college basketball games and Tim Donaghy in the NBA remind us that anything is possible in a single situation. Having said that, I worry about incompetence FAR more than corruption.

I don’t want Pee Wee Herman throwing to Marvin Harrison Jr in the AFCE.

We are all human, and we do our best. That’s all any of us can do. She is at peace now, and I hope you can find peace as well. Instead of remorse, try to turn it into enlightenment. That way there is more good to come of this tragic event, like the people who will benefit from the donated organs.

As we know, human beings were not meant to play football. It’s as simple as that!

I bet he’s a smart guy with an agent and advisors. I think he knew his best path.

But he’s got to be willing. That is the hard part.

Yep, look at the timing. He may have gone synthetic to get past testing, and have no idea what effect it’s having on him. My buddy whose kid had experience with it said it can be really bad. .

This isn’t about me, but it sums up how I feel here. We got this from a friend of ours who happens to be a priest after our son died unexpectedly. I think it’s beautiful, and true. We seem to give Michael back to you, dear Lord. You gave him to us. But just as you did not lose him in giving, neither do we lose him in returning him to you. You do not give things in the way the world gives. What you give, you do not take away. You have taught us that what is yours is ours also, if we are yours. Life is eternal, Lord, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon, and a horizon is nothing but the limits of our sight. Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we might see farther. Cleanse our eyes, that we may see more clearly. Draw us closer to you, O Lord, that we may find ourselves closer to our loved ones who are with you. And while you prepare a place for them, prepare us also for that heavenly place, where you are, and Michael is, and where we hope to be forever. Amen.

But he’s old enough to buy a beer. 🍺

Thank goodness Kraft’s massage parlor wasn’t mentioned. 😋 (I like to get that in when I can.) How people think they can get away with stuff like this kills me. We sold our first house to a husband and wife who were both attorneys. They wanted to do something funky with the contract, the details of which escape me now. WE didn’t do anything wrong, but I think they were trying to improve their mortgage options. It was just…..odd. A decade later he’s disbarred for dipping into client escrow funds. I just don’t get some people.

It’s probably a little like watching your kids grow. They change so slowly that if you are with them every day there isn’t much to notice. But if it’s weeks or months it’s more likely to jump out at you. Ahh, excellent point! I have a buddy whose son used that in high school. I mean, an ambulance was called for this kid he was with after they smoked that stuff at lunch. That was not the first or only time, but it did present some super bizarre mental issues.

So, was this brand new a few weeks ago, or did it just get worse? Was he “normal” before? Does he seem to be a danger to himself or others? We’ve dealt with a lot of mental health stuff, and there are always far more questions than answers, unfortunately. .

I have never heard that term before, but I hope he keeps up with counseling. Our son went thru years of counseling, and the top layer of the onion doesn’t tell you much. You never know what you might learn if you stay with it. You also never know what is mental health and what is a real threat, or how much of each. P.S. - At home drug tests are not hard to get around. The best route is testing hair, but our son’s hair was very short so they had to pluck it from his armpit. He did not enjoy that at all, but it was court ordered to maintain custody of his son. Small price to pay.

I wonder if he didn’t get one, or if there wasn’t one he wanted. Regardless, anything that depletes the Ravens can’t be all bad.

THAT’S the spirit! 😋