Bowled Over

  The furor over the College Football Playoff selections is justified. Even if the committee may have gotten it right. 

The tumult deals with Florida State and Alabama. The Seminoles did everything right—to the point of going undefeated in the regular season. 

On the other hand, Alabama lost in the early season to Texas, a squad which went 12-1 and won the Big 12 Championship. For their efforts, the Longhorns were given the #3 seed. 

Yet Alabama got the nod from the Committee because of their win over Georgia, a stronger strength of schedule from being in the Southeastern Conference. Atlantic Coast Conference Champion FSU was penalized for its strength of schedule, even if it included wins over SEC schools LSU in Orlando and arch rival Florida in Gainesville, plus the loss of the star quarterback to injury doomed the Seminoles chances to overtake the Crimson Tide. 

What was Alabama’s big accomplishment? Knocking off top-ranked and twice-defending National Champion Georgia in Atlanta on Saturday. This ended the Bulldogs 29 game unbeaten streak and plummeted the ‘Dogs to a #6 seed and a date with those Florida State Seminoles in the Capital One Orange bowl on December 30. 

Detractors say that Alabama barely beat its arch rival, Auburn, winning with a 4th and 31 miracle pass to stay in the playoff picture. And that Texas soundly beat the Tide in Tuscaloosa. 

Look, I get the angst which FSU fans and the team has. A win over Georgia might help ease the pain. Or, conversely, enrage the fan base even more, especially if top seed Michigan soundly defeats ‘Bama. Even if Alabama should surprise the Wolverines, the FSU faithful will still claim that they were more deserving, having remained undefeated and having taken down Georgia. 

This mania exemplifies why the playoffs are being expanded in 2024. To rightly determine a winner, teams like Florida State need to be included. However, the Seminoles would still be unhappy with a #5 seed, as they would have to play an extra game against the #12 seed, which could weaken the team heading into the next contest versus the #4 seed. 

Whatever way the playoffs play out, some school and its fan base are going to be unhappy with their seed. Ohio State dropped to #7 after its loss to Michigan and Alabama defeated Georgia. The Buckeyes now have to play #9 Missouri from the SEC in the Cotton Bowl on December 29, without their starting quarterback, who opted to enter the transfer portal with a record number of over 1,000 other student-athletes looking for a better fit—playing time-wise or for greater NIL money. 

Will the playoffs be enough for me to watch? Yes. For others, maybe not so much. 

What I can tell you is this: when the Direct TV broadcast of the College Football Playoff Show aired on ESPN while my wife and I were airborne Sunday on our flight from Atlanta to Newark, a big cheer erupted in the cabin when the announcement of Alabama as the #4 seed was made. Either there were a good number of Crimson Tide alumni and fans on board, or the Committee got it right. On New Year’s Day, with the Rose and Sugar Bowls as the settings, the quest to be the top team will begin. 

I looked at some of the bowl matchups. For openers, USF and Syracuse clash in the Boca Raton Bowl. Georgia Tech and UCF meet in the Gasparilla Bowl, named after a mythical pirate who operated in the Tampa Bay vicinity, and which will be held in Tampa.  Neophyte FBS school James Madison gets to prove it belongs with the big boys when they meet the Air Force Academy at the Armed Services Bowl. 

Meanwhile, the Holiday Bowl will lose some of its attractiveness with the absence of probable top 2024 NFL draft choice and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, who opted out of the game against Louisville to avoid injury and the loss of the payday which awaits him in the pros. QBs at Ohio State, Oklahoma, UCLA, Kansas State Duke, Oregon State and Coastal Carolina either are sitting out the bowls or are in the transfer portal. I wonder how this sits with their (former) teammates?

New Mexico State plays in the New Mexico Bowl at the University of New Mexico; I am picking Fresno State to win the game despite the handicap. A curiously different matchup is Georgia State playing Utah State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Two teams which would be highly unlikely to ever meet. 

Northwestern tangles with Utah in Las Vegas. An all-Texas affair will be held in Dallas when Texas State and Rice get together. Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, two former Southwestern Conference members, lock horns in Houston—not too far from College Station. 

Another two nearly home field advantage bowl games involve SMU and Boston College at Fenway Park and Rutgers hosts Miami (FL) in Yankee Stadium. With the RU-UM game, it pits Rutgers Greg Schiano and his former assistant, Mario Cristobal. 

Some interesting bowls with funny names have some quality teams. It’s NC State and Kansas State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl and Notre Dame and Oregon State in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. 

Penn State and Mississippi headline the Peach Bowl. Iowa and Tennessee made the Citrus Bowl. Bowl craziness begins on December 19 and ends on January 8 with the College Football Playoff National Championship in Houston. It’s a real odyssey. 

Three players are the finalists for the Heisman Trophy. Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr., LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, Oregon quarterback Bo Nix and Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. made the cut. Each one could win the award. I think that either Daniels or Harrison will walk away holding the prestigious trophy. 

On to the NFL. The Jets and Falcons played a stinkeroo in the Meadowlands. Starting QB Tim Boyle was benched for his ineffectiveness, then waived by the team. The word is that deposed QB Zach Wilson may return to guide the team. What a dysfunctional bunch. 

A battle of backup QB’s ensued in Jacksonville when Trevor Lawrence suffered a high ankle sprain. Cincinnati outlasted the Jaguars in OT. Is Jake Browning going to head the Bengals to an unlikely playoff berth without Joe Burrow at QB?

Taylor Swift as a good luck charm fizzled Sunday night in Green Bay. The suddenly resurgent Packers defeated Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs. KC’s offense isn’t as potent as they would like it to be. Jordan Love is emerging as a solid NFL quarterback; the Green Bay fans aren’t missing Aaron Rodgers so much anymore. 

San Francisco was motivated in its game at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles. It was Philadelphia that eliminated SF en route to winning the NFC. This time the Niners could do very little wrong, and even when they did, it hardly hurt the team in a beat down of the Eagles. Let’s see if these two powerhouses can renew the new rivalry in the playoffs. 

What has become the norm is inconsistent officiating. In the three games mentioned, officials made a number of really good calls, but they were either overshadowed by some very questionable ones, or mysterious non-calls. One hopes that this zebra flu goes away by January, but I am thinking it’s a prolonged illness. 

While in Northern Georgia last weekend, we traveled to Kennesaw State University. A beautiful, new campus looks like the wave of the future for the Metro Atlanta student. Over 45,000 undergrads and grad students attend the school, just 15 miles outside of Atlanta. The athletic teams are poised to join Conference USA in 2024. Keep an eye out for the rise of the Owls. 

I close with this; UConn fell out of the top 15 in the recent women’s basketball poll. This is the Huskies worst ranking in 30 years and ends a 357-week run within the top 15. Only Tennessee had a longer stretch, and that was for a remarkable 428 consecutive weeks. 

All good things have to end sometime. Somehow, I feel sadness with this. Probably because I liken the Huskies women’s teams to the New York Yankees dynasties. I hope that they don’t fall upon the harder times the Yankees have had since 2009.

A great program in an era where women’s college basketball began to thrive. Look at Tennessee. When Pat Summit no longer ran the program, the Lady Vols became more ordinary. Should UConn icon Geno Auriemma decide that he’s had enough, could that mark the end of UConn’s the great run?

On Tuesday, the Hughes brothers—Jack and Luke for the New Jersey Devils and Quinlin for the Canucks will all be on the ice in Vancouver. This marks the 9th time in NHL history that 3+ brothers have played in the same game. 

New Jersey is in the midst of a Western trip. Tuesday in Vancouver, Thursday in Seattle, then Saturday afternoon in Calgary, where my son and I will be. A lot of flight time for this one game trip, our sixth of seven Canadian cities. Next year it’s Montreal. 

That’s it. I hope I haven’t bowled you over too much. 

Just Ask Tom Brady

  I admit that I have not watched much college basketball this season. Nor have I gotten into pro basketball either. Which really isn’t like me. 

I have been into football since baseball ended. I have watched more hockey than Steph Curry, largely because the Warriors continue to disappoint and even my favorite NBA player went down briefly with injury. 

The NBA In-Season Tournament? I saw my first game on Tuesday night when Golden State visited Sacramento. Only for the first quarter. Not exactly scintillating basketball—even if the players professed the importance of the game. Naturally, I missed the Warriors going up on the Kings by as much as 24, needing to win by 12 or more in the point differential formula the NBA had devised to eliminate teams from the next round—only to awaken and learn that the Warriors had frittered away that lead and Sacramento had advanced to the quarterfinals with a 124-123 victory. 

The Knicks actually made the quarters as a wild card; Phoenix was the fourth team from the Western Conference. The good teams mostly advanced and there is plenty of star power—Boston, Milwaukee, Indiana, the Lakers and New Orleans also made the second round. 

Maybe it will become more interesting now. To make up for missed games, the league has devised a way to ensure that each team plays the requisite number of games it would have during the regular season. While the survivors are playing for that $500,000 top prize, no one goes home unhappy, I guess. 

Are Lebron or Giannis motivated to win the inaugural championship after earning a trip to Las Vegas where the semi-finals and finals will be played? Might we see Kevin Durant in the finals again? Could an upstart team like Sacramento, New Orleans or Indiana come out on top? 

It’s an NBA marketing coup. Will the ratings be commensurate with the risk of implementing this tournament? We shall see if it is thrilling enough to capture the attention of the masses. After all, this is prime football season in the college ranks this weekend and certainly in the NFL as the schedule winds down. 

Speaking of the NFL, His Eminence, Tom Brady remarked about how mediocre the league is. I then saw former Dallas Cowboys star and Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman comment on Brady’s statement. Aikman said he once was mediocre on bad Dallas teams when he first came into the league. Moreover, compared to Brady, who else measured up anyway? 

So is the NFL mediocre as Brady says? Sure, there are bad teams. The New York Jets are currently horrendous. The big news was that Aaron Rodgers was cleared to practice. The amount of interest on his repaired Achilles tendon almost rivals what is going on with the lovebirds in Kansas City now that Taylor Swift has completed her South American tour and is with beau Travis Kelce and double-dating with Patrick and Brittany Mahomes. 

The Chicago-Minnesota snoozefest was not a good game—it was plagued by turnovers by both teams and the Bears won despite not scoring a touchdown. New England is not vey good and G.O.A.T. Bill Belichick might be gone. Frank Reich was again canned in mid-season, this time for not making the Carolina Panthers into a respectable team. Then there are the New York Giants, led by a QB who sleeps in his childhood bed; Cincinnati is below average as is Cleveland without their starting QB’s. 

There are a bevy of teams which are exceptional—Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco in the NFC; Kansas City, Miami, and surprisingly good Jacksonville are the best of the AFC.  Denver, which you recall lost 70-20 to Miami in Week 2, seems to be on the rise. I am not sure how good the Detroit Lions are, as they win too many close contests, nor am I convinced that Pittsburgh and Cleveland, both with 7-4 records are playoff worthy.

Yes, there are ten more teams with five or more wins, placing them in contention for a playoff berth. Unless they suddenly get hot, most won’t make the post-season. And there is the NFC South, where Atlanta and New Orleans are tied at 5-6. Not very good, indeed. 

I think that Brady was also ruminating about the level of play overall. Defenses are either very good or very bad. Ditto with the quarterbacks, with so many starters not playing due to injury. Plus the number of penalties seems to be at an all-time high—stupid ones at that. Look at Jason Kelce collecting two straight penalties—he’s a Hall off Fame center—then he blows up a defensive back allowing Jalen Hurts to waltz into the end zone for the winning score in overtime on Sunday versus a very average Buffalo Bills team.

I find myself drawn to watching the good teams—KC; Philly and SF which clash on Sunday before the Eagles head to Dallas. There is excitement when those teams take the field. 

Every league has bad teams. The NBA has eight teams with six or less victories, led by woeful Detroit which has lost fifteen straight games, a franchise record. Ten NHL teams have below .500 marks. 

I still find many NFL games to be entertaining. Even if the play was lackluster, the Bears won the game at the end of regulation by stepping up just enough to squeeze the winning field goal in in the past seconds of play. That was exciting. 

I guess Brady had to say something to pivot attention to him. I don’t think that Tiger Woods, Sidney Crosby, Steph Curry or Lebron James would be so critical about the product which allowed them to star. Then again, they aren’t retired, either. 

Reverting back to college basketball, I really don’t know which teams are that good. Sure, Purdue is number one; but I am never enamored with Big Ten schools playing basketball. Only Illinois, at #24, is another Big Ten in the Top 25. They take on Rutgers at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Saturday. And I have seen Rutgers beat lesser lights and lose badly to Princeton in the teams’ opener. (Why isn’t Princeton ranked after last year’s ride to the Sweet 16?) After six games and before conference play starts, eleven ranked teams are unbeaten. One unbeaten is defending champion UConn, which gets no real love with a ranking at #4. 

Evidently at James Madison, the football and basketball teams are pretty good—the Dukes are 10-1 on the gridiron and the men’s basketball team, which beat Michigan State in East Lansing, is 6-0. The same can be said at Arizona, Kansas (who would have believed that the football team might be good when the losing always abounded in Lawrence), Duke, Kentucky, Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma. Good football and good men’s hoops can co-exist. 

I watched a dreary end to the Franklin and Marshall-Gettysburg game the other night. F&M defeated the Bullets after having lost seven straight to G-burg. It was sloppy, foul-plagued and bad shooting basketball. F&M is now 5-0, which is maybe a promising start to a decent season. 

It is certain I will slowly get into college basketball. The sports channels are bloated with games every day and even more on the weekends. With conference play kicking in, there will be some more interesting matchups which will change the rankings. I doubt that there will be an unbeaten or even one loss team when tournament time rolls around. 

Have to close this up. We are headed to Atlanta for a family bar mitzvah for the weekend. Where it will be full of Alabama and Georgia fans in town for the SEC Championship Game on Saturday. Hartsfield International Airport will be buzzing. 

And when we fly back on Sunday, our plane might take us over Met Life Stadium while the Atlanta Falcons and New York Jets are beating on each other. It was the right thing to not fly back early on Sunday to make it to the game. 

Odds are I would get sick. That’s just from the product on the field. Just ask Tom Brady.

A Proverbial Turkey

 

The college football regular season has ended. It seems like it lasted for an eternity, even if the teams could only play 12 games maximum. 

I watched very little this weekend, although I saw the very tantalizing and bizarre end to the Alabama-Auburn hostilities. Auburn held a 24-20 lead in the final minute of play. Alabama was set at first and goal on the Tigers seven yard line. A bad snap and a penalty for an illegal forward pass left the Crimson Tide with a fourth and goal at the Auburn 31 yard line. Alabama QB Jalen Milroe had loads of time behind his offensive line and somehow found Isaiah Bond in the left corner of the end zone where Bond made a leaping grab for miraculous touchdown to put the Tide ahead. Auburn subsequently had its own miscues, which landed the Tigers at their own 2 yard line with one second left to play. A subsequent game-ending interception by Alabama was later overturned, resulting in a 27-24 final score in a wild ending, akin to the wild ending at Jordan-Hare Stadium ten years ago and the four overtime thriller the last time these two bitter rivals met on the Plains two years ago.

Nothing has really been decided as to the College Football Playoffs, nor have bowl game matchups been etched in stone. When the CFP rankings come out for this penultimate week, the only real movement will be for Ohio State and how far the Buckeyes drop after the loss at Michigan. The Wolverines will assume the second spot behind Georgia, which had a more difficult time at Georgia Tech than expected. Washington, another top team, struggled against in-state arch rival Washington State in the Apple Cup, winning on a late field goal by a kicker who was rewarded for his heroics with a scholarship. And unbeaten Florida State, minus its starting quarterback who was lost last week due to injury, managed to survive the Florida Gators in Gainesville. 

So now most of the college football world waits while conference playoffs begin. In the Southeastern Conference, Georgia and Alabama clash in a battle of the titans. A rematch in the last Pac 12 championship looms when Washington and Oregon clash again. Texas draws troublesome Oklahoma State, victorious over BYU with some luck on Saturday. Louisville, a loser to Kentucky, will face Florida State in the ACC finale. And Michigan draws Iowa, a good defensive team in the Big Ten title game. 

Improbable losses for the top teams could create havoc for the CFP committee. It could conceivably open the door for Alabama, which has consistently been underrated and penalized for its loss to future SEC foe and Big 12 powerhouse Texas in week 2. Beating Georgia in Atlanta with a probable hostile crowd on hand would be a big boost to the Tide’s resume. To reach the Final Four, Michigan, Washington, Florida State and Texas need to lose, and even then, the  question remains whether the Tide would have enough quality points with a win over the Bulldogs to overcome Oregon, too. It’s going to be interesting this coming weekend. 

Meanwhile, a whole lot of teams which achieved at least six victories over the course of the season await their bowl eligibility fate. Some teams, like fast-fading Rutgers, which has gone from 6-2 to 6-6 with its home loss to Maryland, should not even be in a bowl game. RU’s first week conquest, Northwestern, managed to win seven games after the off season turmoil, and has righted the ship and led to the interim tag being removed from David Braun’s title. Deservedly so. Rutgers may have attained the prerequisite to play in a bowl game, but the program still has a long, long way to go before it can be considered respectable. 

For those following the Division III football playoffs, tiny Alma College out of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, pulled off a shocker on Saturday when it defeated perennial power #2 Mount Union in Ohio. Alma College is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college with an enrollment of 1,288 full-time undergraduate students.

Alma has won two straight outright MIAA football titles. The team is a veteran group and it needed all its noise to overcome a 10-0 deficit on the road entering the fourth quarter. The final score was 24-20, just like Alabama-Auburn, and the Scots needed some last minute scoring to overcome the Purple Raiders. Next up for Alma is a home game against SUNY Cortland. 

The rest of the DIII field is this: Centennial Conference champion Johns Hopkins rolled over Union College and hosts Randolph-Macon, which has steamrolled all its opponents this season; Wisconsin-La Crosse and North Central tangle—both high-powered offenses have put up whopping scores in their two playoff games, with La Crosse having dropped 71 points on Trinity (TX); Wartburg and Wisconsin-Whitewater also meet in the quarterfinals. 

Notice that I haven’t gone with the NFL as my lead. While the Kansas City Chiefs did themselves in with a fumble by Travis Kelce in the red zone and bad drops of Patrick Mahomes passes, the San Francisco 49’ers and Dallas Cowboys looked good in their Thanksgiving Day wins, while Detroit stumbled over themselves in a loss to suddenly surging Green Bay on Turkey Day.

Call it a gimmick. Amazon, left out of the NFL Thursday spotlight, paid a whopping sum to the league for the rights to the first Black Friday telecast. In return, the match was a good one when the schedule was announced. Miami, with its lethal offense, would take on Aaron Rodgers and the tough New York Jets defense. A potential ratings bonanza. 

Except that Rodgers remains on the sidelines, recovering from his Achilles tendon surgery (he still crazily hopes to come back for the December 24 Washington game—which I have tickets for) and former QB starter Zach Wilson was replaced by Tim Boyle, a former Green Bay back up to Rodgers.

The Jets fared no better with Boyle at quarterback. In fact, on a Hail Mary pass to end the first half, Boyle’s throw was intercepted and returned the length of the field for a touchdown. This may have outdone the Butt Fumble which so ignominiously defended the Mark Sanchez era not so long ago. 

Both New York franchises are bad. At least rookie Tommy De Vito, living at his childhood home in Cedar Grove to save expenses, showed up on Sunday and led the Giants to a road victory over the Commanders. 

The team with its headquarters in Florham Park, New Jersey is in free fall. Fingers are being pointed everywhere. So many are blameworthy. Most of all, my astute wife pointed out, there has been absolute silence from team owner Woody Johnson, who does not normally shy away from the spotlight. Does this mean heads are going to roll? Or is he waiting to see whether Rodgers plays and what happens then? 

There is so much wrong with this team that even a full remake next year might not be enough. As I conclude my 47th year as a season ticket holder, my angst grows stronger, especially when the promise at the outset, including watching the HBO show Hard Knocks gave me reason to falsely believe that this would be the year the franchise turned things around. 

I was only fooling myself. The plight of the New York Jets is a sad one. Being a fan of this team is even a sadder scenario. It is likely that the Christmas stockings for the team will once more be filled with coal. 

As the NFL season winds down, I will have to be content to watch the Eagles, Chiefs, Niners, Cowboys, Lions and others head to the post-season. Fans in those cities must be having fun. 

I guess it is time to have the last slice of pumpkin pie and wait for next Thanksgiving to see if the Jets are any better. Or if, once more, they remain a proverbial turkey. 

Happy Thanksgiving

  I like Hubie Brown. I really do. Hubert Jude Brown has a wealth of basketball knowledge from his experience in the National and American Basketball Associations, as well as Cranford and Fair Lawn High Schools here in New Jersey. Although he has a career record under .500, Brown has an ABA championship with Kentucky in 1975 and was chosen NBA Coach of the Year twice. His resume is so dynamic that Brown is enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor a well as in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. What makes him most remarkable is that at age 90, Hubie Brown still works games as an analyst for ABC and ESPN. He has almost become iconic. 

Yet as good as Brown is, I still like the late Dr. Jack Ramsay more as a man who understood the game. Ramsay’s career highlights are similar—he won his NBA title with Bill Walton leading the Portland Trail Blazers, while Brown had Artis Gilmore on his Kentucky team. What separates the two is that Ramsay made the list of the Top 15 NBA coaches when the league celebrated its 75th anniversary. What makes that list impressive is that three head coaches are still coaching teams—Steve Kerr with Golden State; Gregg Popovich in San Antonio; and Eric Spoelstra keeps on running the show for Pat Riley, another Top 15 coach, in Miami.

Why am I addressing this subject? Because I had a reader feel that I did not adequately recognize how impressive Brown is broadcasting at his age. But I do. I just don’t like gravel-voiced analysts. No matter how much they know the game. 

P.S. Neither one is among my favorite ex-jock/coach commentators in the NBA. I am not going to elaborate on this now. Suffice it to say that I believe I answered my critic. 

I had thought about going to State College, Pennsylvania this upcoming weekend to take in the Rutgers-Penn State football game. It would have been a two-fold bucket list day—watching RU away from Piscataway, which I failed to do and finally seeing a Nittany Lions home game, something my wife and I did not do while our daughter was a PSU student. 

While I was gung ho about the prospect of fulfilling two wishes,  my decision not to go was affected by a few other things. First, we attended a Columbia University home game at the Baker Athletic Complex. The Lions play in Lawrence A. Wien Stadium which houses Robert K. Kraft Field. You might have heard of Mr. Kraft—he is the owner of the New England Patriots and a major benefactor to the university. 

This locale was 18 blocks away from where my wife spent much of her childhood years at the Dyckman Houses. Those buildings sit on the site of the old Dyckman Oval, once a venerable sports venue until the landlord could no longer pay the bills and the City of New York took over the property. 

It was a blustery day on West 218th Street in Upper Manhattan. The clouds obscured the sun enough to make the 50 degree temperature feel at least 10 degrees chillier. 

The stadium is not much to look at. A lot of concrete with a turf field  and track encircling it. The visiting stands have coverings, as the Lions rarely fill the stands to the listed 17,000 capacity. 

The beauty of the location is that there is so much to look at outside of the fences surrounding the complex. Rising high above the stands are the bridges for the Henry Hudson Parkway. To my right were apartment towers in the Bronx, with a bubble for indoor use. On my left were older apartment buildings and a view of Hill Park and the trees with the different colors on the leaves making it feel truly like a fall setting.  Sports Illustrated was right in calling this stadium the nicest in the Ivy League and one of the most picturesque in the United States. 

So what were we doing there on a frosty early November Saturday? I have no direct ties to either Brown University, the visitors that day, or Columbia. In fact, I know one person who played football many years ago and I haven’t spoken to him in nearly 20 years. 

It couldn’t be the rich history of Columbia football. Signs across from the home stands where we sat reminded us that the Lions won the 1934 Rose Bowl and were the Ivy League champions in 1961, their only title. 

Even with the game going to overtime and Brown hanging on for a 20-14 win, the play on the turf was less than scintillating. My mind wandered in many directions—watching the multitude of trains on the Metro North line of the MTA pass by the baseball and softball fields behind the north end zone—to watching two middle infielders on the Columbia baseball team, which last went to the NCAA’s in 2022, work on their double play skills. 

Or maybe it was taking in the sights and sounds of the Ivy Leaguers, dressed in all sorts of gear to insulate against the elements (except for the one guy who had to wear shorts to the game), reminding us that they were, in fact, regal Columbia graduates though their mannerisms and selective forgetfulness that others were in the stands who wanted to see the game rather than being repeatedly blocked when the consistently stood. 

My real reason to attend this meaningless game (both teams could not win the Ivy League title and Columbia remains winless in the conference heading into Saturday’s clash with Cornell in Ithaca) goes back to my childhood. I devoured the sports pages on weekdays and especially Sundays. I would read up to five New York newspapers in addition to the New Brunswick paper. I was really enthralled reading the historical and highly descriptive articles in The Sunday New York Times. The colorfulness of the prose resonated with me, just like the classiness of the ads in The New York Times Magazine.

I had seen Columbia play at Rutgers twice, bicycling to Rutgers Stadium, parking my bike free of fear that it would be taken, then finding a discarded ticket stub which an usher on the visiting team side would look at for a second then waive me through. The battles between the Lions and Scarlet Knights were hard-fought, with RU winning in 1962, then coming up losers in 1965 to Archie Roberts, who was drafted by the New York Jets in the seventh round (as much a star as he was in high school and for the Lions, Roberts graduated from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and is credited with having performed over 4,000 open heart surgeries before retiring). 

Columbia always wore its powder blue uniforms, which contrasted with the red of Rutgers. I loved the atmosphere at the Rutgers games, and with the prose enticing me, I made it a goal to some day see a game at Columbia, to experience what the writers were so enthralled with. 

The spectacle wasn’t what it might have been nearly 60 years ago. Robert Kraft wasn’t there—he felt it was better to tag along with the team he owns which was playing the Indianapolis Colts in Frankfurt, Germany; his fiery speech to the team the night before didn’t help much, as the listless Patriots fell to the Colts. 

Nor was Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce at the game. He felt it was much better to travel 5,600 miles to Argentina to see his mega-star girlfriend sing love songs to him. To each his own, I guess. 

Having been in Allentown, Pennsylvania the week before for the Franklin and Marshall-Muhlenberg game and with prospect of more cold weather the day after Thanksgiving when the fast-sinking New York Jets host the Miami Dolphins in the first Black Friday NFL game, I felt it wasn’t prudent seeing Rutgers, another team adrift, get demolished by an angry Penn State team, whose offensive coordinator was fired by Head Coach James Franklin after no progress was made against a fired up Michigan squad, whose head coach, Jim Harbaugh, was suspended by the Big Ten for his team’s sign stealing fiasco. 

Sitting in cold weather for this game and driving over 7 hours was a non-starter for my wife and daughter. Their intelligence and foresight trumped my eagerness to go. Rightfully so. 

How might I get rewarded for not doing the stupid thing? Probably by listening to Hubie Brown. Oy. I guess it could have been worse. 

Happy Thanksgiving.