NFL Regular Season is Over

Now that the Lions have lost yet again in Green Bay, we can put this season to rest. Better than last season? Perhaps. The home record was 5-3 and that was fun.

Although this is the first single-digit loss season in the Millen era, this season may be worse. If the Lions were in the middle of the pack and improving, I would say we have to look forward to next season. But that is not the case now.

This is a team that is on its way down, one which found the players at midseason holding a 6-2 record and reading THEIR OWN quotes about how they were headed to the playoffs and believing them. And they are headed there--as observers. They over-acheived the first half and played as we should have expected the remainder. I am not going to attack the players--they are what they are. Starters are weak, depth is shallow. They work hard, I'm told, but isn't that a given? They are outmanned at about every position.

Who put this team together? Matt Millen. Poor drafts. Three first picks are wash outs. Second and lower are not contributing. Unwilling to trade high picks for multiple lower picks--where will they get the players they need to fill all their holes? Frustrating to think this administration is so bull-headed to keep on doing the same things they have show are failing.

But we'll still order our tickets for next season.

Basketball Season Has Begun

Three games in five days.

Jim Bade, Ken Dupuis, Craig Morris, and I went to U of Detroit to see them play Butler last Thursday. Butler came in undefeated, including wins over U of M and Ohio State, and ranked in the mid-teens. Butler won a low scoring, defensive struggle 53-46. I was especially impressed by Butler's Matt Howard, a 6-7 freshmman from Connersville, who scored 20, some on twisting, acrobatic layups; he also had 12 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots.

On Saturday, Kathy and I went to Oakland U to watch the Grizzlies play Southern Utah. It was Kathy's first visit to the O'Rena which is the reconstructed fieldhouse where Kathy graduated back in the day. She tried to call them the Pioneers, their original nickname! A seesaw battle most of the game, Southern Utah pulled ahead late to win by nine. Oakland's Matt Kangas shot 8 for 16 three-pointers and wound up with 27 points, and Geoff Payne from SUU scored 32. Very entertaining evening. Tee shirts thrown into the crowd by swimming and diving team, putt a golf ball the length of the court into a small opening for a semester's tuition, free pizzas, dance and cheer teams performing, shoot three-pointers for gift certificates. And a great place to watch basketball.

Then Monday up to Romeo High School to see the Bulldogs take on Dakota HS. (Strange to have boys basketball on other than Tuesday or Friday, the traditional days for as long as I can remember. But with girls now having their season in winter instead of fall, boys and girls will share those days.) Blake Cushingberry led Romeo to a 73-62 win with 36 points and 18 rebounds, his second consecutive 30-point game. Blake is the third Cushingberry brother we've seen play and he appears to be the best. A little taller and much stronger than his two brothers he can dominate physically as well as skillwise. Others on the team are very good players in their own right. And I suspect without Blake they would have a fine season. They are quick, run the floor well, and pass. By midseason, after they've played together for awhile, they will be very good. They will be fun to watch the rest of the season.

A Moral Victory

Though the Lions lost to the Cowboys with 18 seconds left on the clock, it was one of the most exciting games we have seen this year. Leading the whole game, they bungled a couple opportunities to "put the game away." In particular Dallas fumbled with less than two minutes left in the game, but a Lion player tried to pick the ball up instead of just falling on it--lack of attention to detail. At that time Dallas had no timeouts left and Detroit could have taken a knee and run out the clock. After seeing our tape of the game, I find the referees were biased in favor of the Cowboys (missed two interference calls on Dallas, a delay call when Marion Barber spiked ball after a play (they called one against Johnson later), and a couple face mask infractions. Considering all circumstances the Lions did well to stay ahead for so long.

Many Dallas fans at the game including a couple who bought our other two seats. Young couple from near Altoona, Pennsylvania came in for the weekend, stayed downtown Detroit. Very serious and intense Cowboys fans. He leaves for Iraq in April. Seemed like a very nice young couple. I am glad for his sake that the Cowboys won.

I see some significant improvement this season in the Lions. If only Millen can begin to pick better in the draft (only two of Detroit's four first and second round picks are contributing). Time will tell.

The Season is Over

For the Lions. (And earlier for Emerald Lake.)

To those players who said, when they were 6-2, they could not understand why fans did not believe in them: Do you now understand?

You can't help it. You do not have the talent or skills, no matter who coaches you up, to compete at the top level. You played well to get to 6-2, and you should be proud of that. And then what? The weaknesses we all saw during the first half of the season are still there. But now teams are exploiting those weaknesses--special teams, offensive line, defensive secondary. During the first eight games John Kitna was sacked, knocked down, hurried so much so that by now he must be shell-shocked, bruised, and injured to a point that if you did give him protection he could not perform at 100 percent.

Any real difference between this team and the others of the Millen era? Don't think so.

You have four games to prove me wrong.

They Did It Again

The top college football teams lost yesterday, Missouri to Oklahoma and West Virginia to Pittsburgh. A great college football season. Every week had playoff-type games that knocked teams out of contention. Especially the top-ranked teams. And now the cry for two-loss teams to advance to the BCS championship game.

Surprising no one is promoting ND since they beat UCLA and won their last two games!

Good Books

I just finished my third book by Homer Hickam, this one titled The Coalwood Way. It is a memoir of Homer's last years in high school in Coalwood, West Virginia. More interesting, in my view, is Rocket Boys which describes growing up in a mining town and some boys' amateur rocketry.

Why do his writings appeal to me? First, we are the same age, both graduated high school in 1960, then college. Second, we came from working class families, though Hickam's must have been a little better off since his father was a mine supervisor while mine was more a laborer. Third, we both have roots in coal mines. My grandfather on my mother's side worked the mines near Uniontown in southwestern Pennsylvania supplying coal and coke to the steel mills of Pittsburgh.

I have become attracted to Hickam's description of life in a coal town, thinking perhaps I too could have grown up in one had my folks not left. I wonder what it would have been like for me to grow up in a mining family. Since I have no direct knowledge of conditions of families and workers, I us Hickam's writings to fill me in on how it might have been, to have a vicarious experience through his writings.

Homer's father stayed in Coalwood to continue in mining. Then Homer left his coal town for college, the military, and an engineering career. My family was a generation earlier, moving to get work in automotive industry. My mother "got out" a generation earlier than did Homer's (as did all her siblings moving to Cleveland and Detroit).

I find Hickam's writings most interesting. I will have to watch the movie movie version of Rocket Boys called October Sky , and am looking forward to his next book.