A Busy Time Ahead

  I’ve been watching the National Football League closely as the teams head towards Thanksgiving. And there is no clear cut favorite to win it all, let alone any team being an automatic for the playoffs. 

Going into this past weekend, Indianapolis appeared to be head and shoulders above the rest in the AFC, along with surprising New England. Not necessarily so.

The Colts ran into a determined Kansas City team which still has championship pedigree among its key players, with a coaching staff among the best on the league. Yet KC has struggled, amassing. 6-5 record and having not been able to win any close games. Until Sunday. 

Patrick Mahomes may look a little off this season. Don’t be fooled. He rallied the team when Indy took a lead that almost appeared to be insurmountable. KC got to overtime, and the defense played its role, having stymied Jonathan Taylor, the top running back in the NFL thus far and made QB Daniel Jones appear very average in the second half. The Chiefs dominated the fourth quarter and overtime—they deserved to win this game and Indy deserved to lose it.  

Look, I am far from guaranteeing that the Chiefs even make the playoffs. Denver still has a significant lead in the division. Plus the Broncos have a win versus KC under their belt. 

Yet I am hardly convinced that Denver will survive the AFC playoffs and reach the Super Bowl. They have a challenging schedule ahead, beginning with a Monday night contest at the Washington Commanders. Home games against playoff competitors like Green Bay, Jacksonville and the Los Angeles Chargers along with divisional foe Las Vegas are helpful. Circle Christmas night—the Broncos head to KC for a rematch—where the Chiefs will sorely want to exact revenge for an earlier loss and derail Denver getting home field for the playoffs.

Kansas City has to travel to play at Dallas on Thanksgiving in the marquee matchup. Not an easy game at all. Then hard-charging Houston comes in—the Texas downed an inconsistent Buffalo squad—followed by the Chargers, a road clash with a weak Tennessee team before ending the season with Denver and at Las Vegas. 

I didn’t mention the Chargers. Although the team is 7-4, they fail to overwhelm me with their play thus far. What makes me wonder if they will even make the playoffs is their remaining schedule: Las Vegas followed by Philadelphia, KC, Dallas, Houston before ending the season in Denver in a game which may hold major significance for both teams. LAC needs to step it up. 

With the loss to KC, the Colts find themselves one game ahead of Jacksonville and two ahead of Houston. The AFC South will be decided with Indy squaring off in four of the final six games against the Jaguars and Texans. Jacksonville has more breathers, as they have home-and-home games with Tennessee and host the New York Jets. 

In the AFC North, Baltimore emerged from the near-dead to take over first place with its win over the Jets on Sunday. The Ravens hardly looked formidable, with the Jets carrying the play to them and escaping real trouble when NYJ RB Breece Hall fumbled near the goal line and the Ravens recovered the ball. 

Pittsburgh gave the Chicago Bears a battle with backup Mason Rudolph replacing the injured Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. The Steelers fortunes will rise and fall on the ability of Rodgers to return to form and play to his Hall of Fame best despite the injury to his left wrist. 

The Steelers and Ravens meet twice, including for the final game of the regular season. Buffalo and Miami come in while the team travels to Detroit and Cleveland in late December. 

Baltimore has two games against division rival Cincinnati and games against AFC East leader New England and a trip to a very frigid Green Bay on Saturday December 27. Not an easy task. 

Finishing up with the AFC East, New England continues to confound, while Buffalo isn’t dominating like expected. The Patriots host the Giants on December 1, then are off 13 days before clashing with the Bills at home. Games at Baltimore and the Jets before hosting Miami on the cold of Foxborough round out the schedule. Beating the Giants while maintaining a two game lead should clinch the division for Mike Vrabel’s team. 

Meanwhile, Josh Allen and mates better get it together starting with the upcoming game at Pittsburgh. Besides playing New England away, games with Cincy, Cleveland and NYJ— all losing teams—and hosting the Eagles completes the Bills schedule. They should make the playoffs as a Wild Card.  

Sunday’s epic comeback by the Dallas Cowboys in winning the game with a field goal as time expired, showed that the Philadelphia Eagles are not the dominant defending champion their fans thought they might be. Still ahead of Dallas by 2.5 games, Philly should win the NFC East even with a game against NFC North leader Chicago on Black Friday, a trip to LA to meet the Chargers, and going to Orchard Park for what will be the penultimate regular season game in the old ballpark. 

The other divisions all have tight races which will go down to the end of the season to set up playoff seedlings. I was impressed with how the Los Angeles Rams mauled NFC leader Tampa Bay. QB Matthew Stafford has been playing unreal thus far—it is likely that he and Indy RB Taylor are the M.V.P. front runners. I give Stafford the edge as he has thrown 30 TD passes with only 2 interceptions. 

What remains for LAR are four away games at Carolina, Arizona. Seattle and Atlanta, with Detroit and Arizona coming to Inglewood. Except for a blocked field goal attempt in Philadelphia and a goal-line fumble against San Francisco, the Rams might have been 11-0. Are they that good?

The NFC West could send three teams to the playoffs: Rams, Seahawks and 49’ers. Then again, so could the NFC North. 

That division is tight, with Chicago clinging to a .5 lead over Green Bay and a 1.0 game margin over Detroit. Outside of a home game with Cleveland, the Bears meet the Packers twice in three weeks and end up with games at San Francisco and home versus Detroit. Starting with the Black Friday game, we will learn how much Chicago has improved, 

Nothing is close to decided in the NFC South. Tampa Bay and Carolina are tied atop the division standings. Atlanta looms just two games back. With QB Baker Mayfield suffering a left shoulder strain, the Bucs chances might be fading. Carolina has the opportunity to overtake the Bucs. It would not surprise me if the winner of the division is at best 9-8. 

I want to talk about the first team eliminated from playoff contention. That would be the New York Giants. They fought hard against the Lions in Detroit. Interim Head Coach Mike Pafka pulled out trick plays. The team’s downfall was that Detroit RB Jahmyr Gibbs was unstoppable, repeatedly roaring through the over-matched Giants defense. 

As a New York Jets fan on the verge of playoff elimination, having secured a 10th straight losing season with the loss at Baltimore, I feel the pain in East Rutherford. It is remarkably similar in Florham Park. 

Another player worth mentioning is Shedeur Sanders’ debut as the Cleveland starting QB. He performed well in the win in Las Vegas. He was the first Browns rookie QB to win in his debut since 1995. 

The Browns defense, led by all-NFL Myles Garrett, who made five tackles, sacked Raiders QB three times (the team recorded ten sacks in the game) and forced two fumbles. Maybe there is some hope for the future along Lake Erie. 

I want to briefly note that two teams in the NBA are really rolling to start the season. Defending champion Oklahoma City went out to a 17-1 mark, after opening the season with two back-to-back double overtime victories. The Thunder has been rolling. Their only loss was by two points in early December at Portland. Could they actually be better than when they won it all last season?

The other team on a roll is Detroit. The Pistons gave the New York Knicks a ton of trouble in their 2024-25 playoff series. They are currently riding a 13 game winning streak. Detract is young and hungry. There still remain a lot of games to be played. The Eastern Conference will be no picnic. BTW—OKC and Detroit don’t meet up until late February in Detroit with the return match at the end of March. 

College football devotees should know that the run to the FCS playoffs will be a mad scramble. The three unbeaten, Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M face traditional rivals to end the regular season. Can OSU reverse the apparent jinx they have when meeting Michigan in Ann Arbor? Will Indiana not stumble versus Big Ten doormat Purdue? And will A&M hold up enough to prevail over in-state rival, #17 Texas? 

The rest of the teams in the hunt for the playoffs have at least 1 loss and a few have lost three contests. None of these schools can afford another loss, as the rankings could shuffle dramatically as a result. 

I watched OSU host Rutgers. RU fought valiantly in Columbus but succumbed by a score of 42-9. While the talent gap is there, the Buckeyes didn’t play a real sharp game. That has to be rectified once they play Michigan and then face Indiana before heading to the playoffs. Otherwise, there will not be a repeat champion. 

And I checked on Penn State hosting Nebraska. The Nittany Lions dominated the Cornhuskers. The interim head man at PSU, Terry Smith, downed his close friend Matt Rhule’s team. Both had roots in Happy Valley. 

Smith has the team back on track. He has the support of his players. With a win at Rutgers on Saturday, the Lions will be bowl eligible in a tumultuous year which saw former head man James Franklin canned mid-season (Franklin has re-emerged as the new Head Coach at Virginia Tech, a school very much needing a program revival). I am pulling for PSU to take the interim tag from Smith, no matter what happens in Piscataway. 

And in two major rivalries, both Harvard and Lehigh entered their games undefeated. Yale rolled the Crimson at home, sending the boys from Cambridge home with a daunting loss. Lehigh won on the road in Easton and secured its bid to represent the Patriot League in the FBS Playoffs.

In Division III action, four Centennial Conference teams were in action. Muhlenberg won its play-in game against Union; the Mules now meet top-seeded Mount Union. Carnegie-Mellon and Ursinus won their bowl games in the Centennial-MAC series, with Dickinson suffering a two point loss at Delaware Valley. F&M hosts Eastern and Johns Hopkins has a  home game with Springfield, winners over Cortland. 

To end my recounting of a busy sports week, I went to Jersey Mike’s Arena and watched Rutgers down American in a very uninspired game. American played  better than RU but fell apart in the second half. 

RU is not going anywhere fast with this group. The home loss to Central Connecticut State, a NCAA team last year still was embarrassing. I see the bottom of the Big Ten beckoning. 

I remain of the belief that RU basketball Catch Steve Pikiell and football legend Greg Schiano might not be back next year. But what do I know? 

Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Whether it is with bird or birdless. Don’t be like UConn basketball coach Danny Hurley. He moved up his team’s celebration of  the holiday to Wednesday so that the #3 squad would not be suffering from tryptophan ahead of Friday’s game at Madison Square Garden against #8 Illinois. Would he qualify as a grinch at Christmas with this kind of attitude? 

A busy time ahead for sports fans. Don’t overeat. Indeed. 

A F&M Victory For The Ages...And More

  Let me open where I closed last week’s blog. With Franklin and Marshall football. 

Back from Pittsburgh with a win over Carnegie-Mellon, the #25 Diplomats hosted perennial Centennial Conference powerhouse, #3 Johns Hopkins on Senior Day. A large contingent of F&M rooters (including yours truly and my wife) nearly packed the home grandstand on a cloudy day with temperature hovering in the mid 50’s. 

This game marked the first time in CC history that two teams faced each other with perfect conference records in the final regular season contest. The winner would get one of 27 automatic bids to play in the NCAA Division III playoffs, with 13 at-large berths to be determined by a committee and announced on Sunday evening. While D III conferences don’t have championship games as part of their season, this was a de facto championship to decide which team would win the CC. 

Hopkins was the favorite to win this game. They had a high NPI ranking in their region—much better than F&M. And looking at the size of the players for the Blue Jays, there was a definite disparity between JHU and F&M. 

When I saw the schedule had F&M ending the regular season with CMU on the road and JHU at home, I felt that this was going to be too daunting for the Dips. Yet F&M showed moxie when they withstood a CMU run which put the Tartans ahead, and scored the winning TD and two point conversion to seal the victory. 

CMU had played Hopkins earlier this year in Baltimore. The Blue Jays won that matchup 28-27, but the CMU people I spoke to in the press box last week said that their team, not JHU, should have won the game. 

For much of the first half, JHU dominated F&M. They also received some help when the officiating crew awarded them pass interference calls while ignoring the same for F&M (they also didn’t call many obvious holding penalties agains JHU). F&M managed a late TD and extra point to make the halftime score 21-14 in favor of the Blue Jays. 

From there, the two teams battled. F&M finally knitted the score in the fourth quarter, as the defense continued to thwart a talented JHU offense. An offense which made a final spurt to get into field goal range with just over two ticks left on the clock. 

What would have been a heartbreaking loss for the Diplomats was saved by a blocked kick as time expired. Overtime loomed larger than ever, as it was a feeling of sudden death to determine the CC champion.

Hopkins scored a touchdown and converted the extra point. F&M was in the most critical place it could be in—score a TD or lose the game. The F&M side was in a frenzy. 

Then it happened. F&M met the challenge of the Blue Jays defense and scored the TD they desperately needed. A kick would tie the score.

Except that Head Coach Mike Phelan elected to go for the win. His team had rallied time and time again. Could they muster just enough to take home the trophy?

With a fake into the line, Diplomats QB Ty Tremba arched a pass to an uncovered Louis Paris. He caught it. Game over. F&M won. Delirium ruled in Lancaster. 

This was the first time since 1970 I had watched F&M play football in consecutive weeks. With a game like this, I don’t need to make the very hard trek to Lancaster any more. For this was the best F&M game I had ever seen—and likely will ever see. A win over a very solid team with NCAA championship ideations with everything on the line. 

It is F&M’s first NCAA playoff berth in school history. So well-deserved. If the teams played each other 10 times, I would guess that JHU would win 8 or 9 times. They just didn’t win the one which counted the most. 

On Sunday evening, the NCAA announced the selections for this year’s playoffs. Even with the loss to F&M, Hopkins was rewarded for its fine season with a home game on November 29th versus the winner of a play-in game between Springfield College and SUNY Cortland. If JHU prevails, they will host the winner of Salisbury University-Endicott College. 

Meanwhile, the Diplomats’ first NCAA football playoff game will be in Lancaster also on November 29th. Their opponent will be Eastern University, the winner of the Middle Atlantic Conference, sporting a 9-1 record like F&M. Should F&M win, they will likely face an undefeated Christopher Newport University on the road; CNU won the New Jersey Athletic Conference title and was rewarded with a bye and then hosting the winner of the Susquehanna University-Washington & Jefferson College play-in game.  

Hopefully there will be rabid F&M fans not too stuffed or hung over from Thanksgiving who will make the trek to Lancaster for the game and pack the home stands. I honestly have no clue how many Eastern fans will travel the roughly 55 miles to Shadek Stadium. 

While I am tempted to make another trip to Lancaster, there won’t be another game which could match the JHU-F&M contest in intensity or the outcome for all the marbles in the CC. The foot-stomping, vociferous crowd made it difficult for Hopkins to call plays at times. That was a once-in-a lifetime game. I’m good watching the Eastern game on my computer. 

Despite my fixation on my alma mater’s football team for the past two weeks, other things have happened in the sports world. Those events are far more important to a wider array of people than those interested in Division III sports. 

In major college football, I got my first look at Ohio State. They thoroughly dominated UCLA in Columbus. The defending champs look worthy of a top ranking and appear ready to defend their crown. Poor Rutgers, in search of one more win to be bowl eligible, will have to wait until Penn State comes to Piscataway for that opportunity. 

I have seen Georgia a few times. They are quite good; they throttled Arch Manning and  a ranked Texas squad. Manning has great potential but he is far from ready for the NFL. 

Even with Ohio State and Indiana at No. 1 and 2, the SEC seems to be stronger overall. Texas A&M survived a scare from South Carolina and overcame a 27 point deficit. Alabama was stunned by Oklahoma in Tuscaloosa, making the Crimson Tide’s to the playoffs that much more difficult. Add Mississippi and Vanderbilt to the mix along with Tennessee and the SEC could once more dominate the playoffs.

The big news in pro football was that the New York Giants finally pulled the plug on the misery created by Brian Daboll as head coach. It’s not going to right the ship immediately. But the intensity level versus Green Bay is indicative of a team that can succeed in the future. 

As for the New York Jets, another stumble in New England. New England’s Drake Maye looks like a solid quarterback, running a smooth offense behind a solid offensive line. Head Coach Mike Vrable has the team performing well. He looks so right coming back to the team he played for and assuming the reins. 

The top teams in the AFC appear to be Denver, Indianapolis and Buffalo, with nobody else really a contender. In the NFC, two divisions stand out. In the North, Chicago sports a 7-3 mark, closely followed by Detroit and Green Bay. Out West, the Los Angeles Rams downed Seattle for first place. San Francisco still looms large. 

Who may be on the outside looking in? How about the Kansas City Chiefs? The once-powerful team of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and company has lost all five of games decided by one score. That is not a recipe for success. Indy comes to town next week. A return match on Christmas Night with Denver, which defeated the Chiefs with a field goal as time expired on Sunday, may be the key to KC’s chances to make the playoffs. 

I will be seeing my first college basketball game of the season on Tuesday when American plays Rutgers. I spent a semester at AU in the Washington Semester Honors Program and I worked out with Kermit Washington, their All-American player while there; the weight room was a disgrace. I have attended classes at RU and did my pre-bar exam class there. You know I am rooting for the Scarlet Knights to prevail. 

Finally, the MLB Awards were announced this week. No real surprises. For those thinking that Cal Raleigh, Jr. would be the AL M.V.P. over Aaron Judge—that was foolish thinking. Judge had a way better year. Judge and NL winner Shohei Ohtani are the best players in baseball. 

As for pitchers, Tarik Skubal of Detroit repeated as the AL Cy Young recipient. Pittsburgh phenom Paul Skenes was the deserving winner in the National League. No doubts there. The bigger stories involved the Tigers and Pirates trading their star players, as they are unaffordable to those franchises once they become eligible for bigger contracts. Such a shame, especially in the Steel City, where the loyal fans yearn for a rerun of the glory days in the late 1960’s and ’70’s. 

For me, the storyline was trips to Pittsburgh and Lancaster on successive Saturdays to root my alma mater to victory. A F&M victory for the ages. The rest of the events in the sports world were just normal happenstance. 

Unfinished Business

  This weekend, I rectified a wrong that occurred just over 56 years ago. Let me explain.

Growing up in Highland Park, New Jersey, I did not long for much. What I did like was sports. Playing. Watching. Helping. Everything else was secondary. 

I was not very tall. I reached an adult height of 5’5”. I was heavy until the middle of 9th grade when I dropped 30 pounds and began a life-long love of weight lifting.  

Nobody told me I couldn’t play a sport. Baseball was easy for me. I thought I was good at football and basketball—until I learned that size and weight mattered. Being on the receiving end of a full blown hit from a 200 pound lineman during my freshman year playing football gave me pause about playing varsity. I ended my football career with one carry for a gain of five yards. 

From seventh grade on, I became proficient in keeping score and statistics in baseball, basketball and football. Which the coaches noticed. And it led me to being the football and basketball scorekeeper/statistician at Highland Park High School. I didn’t play baseball after my freshman year for reasons not germane to this blog. 

I loved my time as a statistician in high school. I became a necessary arm of the coaching staff for both sports. Which opened me up to strategy sessions when I delivered my morning after the game football statistics or post-game numbers in basketball. 

I knew I was destined for college. There was only one choice for me—if I could get in. That was my father’s school, Franklin and Marshall. At a young age, I avidly read the magazines sent to F&M alumni. I learned so much about the school. 

I devoured the sports section. I followed F&M football closely, with great interest in the undefeated 1964 team led by Seiki Murono at quarterback. 

It was that year that I set foot on campus. I fell in love with the beauty of the small school. I had my eyes set on F&M. 

I arrived in Lancaster with some athletic goals to augment my desire to graduate and attend law school. First, I fully intended to walk onto the freshman baseball team. Which started with my daily workouts in the gym and in the dusty dirt area called “The Pit.” I succeeded at that goal. 

Second, I wanted to do football statistics. So I approached a new freshman coach named Bob Curtis to volunteer my services. He said yes. Unlike basketball, which had no interest in my availability. Which worked out fine, as I could continue my studies without long road trips other than with football or baseball. 

Sophomore year I received a promotion to the varsity. Which placed me in the rickety old wooden press box atop Williamson Field, the home of Diplomats football. 

I was in heaven—even if the team wasn’t very good. I was given a sandwich of my choice, a drink and a spot on the 50 yard line to keep track of the plays. I ate with the team for the road games. I was glad to be part of the “training table’ and the older players adopted me immediately. 

My job was to tally the statistics and have them to the Head Coach by 8:00 on Sunday morning, which I did—except for the time the coach found my dorm room and woke me at 7:30, angry after a loss and wanting his numbers. I was accurate and honest in my job. 

F&M played an eight game schedule in 1969. Most of the games were at home. I did go to the first away game at Dickinson College on October 18th. We lost, as we would continue to do, except for the opener versus Ursinus. 

Next up was a road trip to Pittsburgh to face Carnegie Tech on October 25th. That would be my 19th birthday. I was excited about the chance to stay overnight with the the squad. 

Until I was called into the coach’s office. Without looking up, he told me I wasn’t needed and I wasn’t going. I should make myself available for the home game against Lebanon Valley the next week. 

I was crushed. It hurt big time. 

I continued my work, which included calls to the local media for some good pizza money, not only in my sophomore year but also for my junior year. I went to all the road contests. None were further than Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University. 

By my senior year, I had landed a summer internship in Congress as a Government major, which I parlayed into attending the Washington Semester Honors Program in Government at American University as one of the first to go from F&M. Coach Curtis, now the head coach, said it made no sense to travel to the games from D.C. My career as a statistician at F&M was over (I did fill in for Jersey City State College for two games in the 1980’s).

I had other pursuits to deal with, which included attending law school in Delaware and a career with the New Jersey Public Defender’s Office. I managed to see some F&M games. When they would come to New Jersey, which was rare, I would go. I went to basketball games at Muhlenberg and Moravian Colleges, easily accessible via Interstate 78.

I began to go to more home and away football games as my children got older. Of course, I go to baseball games—I did play two years before being injured my junior season. I watch F&M play on the computer. I guess I bleed Blue & White. 

Yet something lingered within me. With Carnegie-Mellon joining the Centennial Conference this year for football, the schedule had one date which leaped out to me. Saturday, November 8, F&M would be returning to Pittsburgh. My wonderful, understanding wife said sure to my craziness—said she would go to Pittsburgh to see this particular game which I have wanted to see since 1969. 

So with our daughter, who began her film and TV career in Pittsburgh, a city we are very at home with joining us for the trip, we drove the familiar route to the Steel City. The mid-Fall colors were as muted as they were bright. 

The loveliness and charm of Pittsburgh has never diminished. In fact, locales which were once warehouses are very trendy and upbeat. PNC Park is my favorite baseball stadium (and of all of the cookie cutter, dual purpose stadiums of the 1960’s and ’70’s, Three Rivers Stadium was the best). And I had been in the Steelers’ home field, then known as Heinz Field, to film a PSA spot as an extra. 

I visited Carnegie-Mellon previously and had driven through the area numerous times. It is one of the better-looking University Athletic Association campuses which includes a number of fine academic institutions (the UAA is the league CMU competes in with Brandeis University; Case-Western Reserve University; University of Chicago; Emory University; New York University; University of Rochester; and Washington University in St. Lous).

When I reached out to F&M Athletic Director Lauren Packer Webster about my adventure, she contacted Mark Fisher, the Sports Information Director at CMU and a good friend of hers, to make arrangements. I entered a press box for an F&M game for the first time since 1970, hopeful for a picture to document my presence. 

Instead, my wife and I were treated to the best time I ever had at an away venue. We were invited to sit in the second tier of the lower level of the press box, behind Mark, who was keeping the statistics on his computer, and adjacent to the live feed TV director and where the live stats were imputed. 

Everyone was so gracious to us. I was introduced to a Tartans sports institution, Donnie Michel, who once had my job as a CMU student. (Donnie played golf at CMU and stays jn touch with his coach, Richard Erdelyi—who was one of my coaches in Junior League baseball in Highland Park; Rich stayed in Pittsburgh after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh and then coached a young high school quarterback named Dan Marino as well at CMU)

Donnie assisted in a very necessary way—calling out down, distance and players involved in a play so Mark could enter the information in real time, to be swallowed up and regurgitated by a NCAA program designed to give coaches and fans comprehensive data they need and want. This was so far different than what I was doing in 1969. He also does basketball stats too; that’s true love and dedication to his alma mater.

What made it more fun was that at times, Mark of Donnie called for help and I was able to aid them with the number of a yard line where something had occurred at or which player(s) may have been on the play. Throughout the game I felt that surge of adrenaline which I had on Saturdays. The camaraderie in the press box was awesome. 

Oh, and by the way, jt was a great game. Franklin and Marshall went out to a significant lead, only to have CMU come all the way back to forge ahead. F&M then went down the field and scored the winning touchdown and two-point conversion to leave Pittsburgh with a crucial win and ruin CMU’s Homecoming. (In 1969, Carnegie Tech won 7-6)

This sets up a Centennial Conference winner-take-all matchup in Lancaster on Saturday between #3 Johns Hopkins (9-0; 6-0 CC) and #25 F&M (8-1; 6-0 CC). If I recover from this weekend and the long road trip with high speed crazy drivers out everywhere, my wife and I might just be inside Shadek Stadium on November 15th. 

Many thanks to Lauren Packer Webster, Mark Fisher and Donnie Michel for helping me relive the magic which a press box had for me all those years ago. And for allowing me to take care of unfinished business in the best way possible.