Pumpkinfest Revisited

October 6, 2006

 

 

The hardcore football fans are going to be sick of me. I’ve been slack in my coverage lately, and now I go on another rant, this one having pretty much nothing to do with football. I guess I will try to hit some football near the end, so be patient.

 

I think back a year ago to when, for the purposes of easing the tension during the week before #1 D Walton met #4 C Delhi, I posted a bunch of pretty funny stuff I made up, mostly about Walton being full of hillbillies. While most people that responded thought it was great, there was enough of a backlash that I decided I wouldn’t do it again this year. I’m not so much worried for what people think of me…..I just don’t want to hurt the reputation of the team, the coaches, and the community.

 

It’s ridiculous that I should have to worry about this. Why do people take such offense at stupid things? Why can’t people see the danger that offense leads to. I don’t think we have the slightest notion of how far we could go to solving so many big problems if we could just not let things penetrate us the way we do. All the way from global problems like racism down to personal issues like dealing with your wife – if we could just let the bad stuff bounce off of us, things would be immeasurably better for all.

 

Look where it leads. Look at how some idiot Islamic fundamentalists got angry when the Pope quoted a writer (from HUNDREDS of years ago!!). They decide that they’ll go and shoot an elderly Nun in the back while she is praying, then go on to say how basically the world has a choice – turn to their way or die. Is that the direction we want to head? Funny, because I don’t see a whole lot of people being offended when a helpless old Nun gets shot, but people get offended when I make a redneck joke. The problem of a group of people wanting to kill you because you are a non-muslim American is for some reason far less significant than the problem of a guy writing a joke about your town.

 

The funniest part is that the stuff is so far off the wall that it is obvious to everyone that it isn’t true. It’s one thing to make fun of an amputee for having no legs or a obese person for being heavy or for a eunuch for having “a few things missing from his life” (only my wife will get why this one is funny). It’s another thing to be offended by an obviously untrue joke that is just a good ribbing.

 

Personally, I say the jokERS keep on making the stupid jokes that are just funny, and stop the mean-spirited ones. I think the jokEES should simply laugh at all of it, even if it does hurt inside. If you take away the pleasure of seeing you hurt, the joking is going to slow considerably. It may not stop, but it will slow, I guarantee it. And just think of the fun you can have with it. I’ve always had a deep admiration for our president, but I laugh my head off when Letterman does his “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches” bit, where he shows FDR saying “we have nothing to fear but fear itself”, then JFK saying “ask not what your country can do for you…..”, and then goes to W doing a speech and bumbling like crazy to get his words out. I think it’s hilarious. I’ve got money that if W saw it he’d be laughing pretty good as well. It doesn’t have to hurt.

 

OK. Got that out of my system.

 

As for Saturday, I certainly hope no one thinks this is going to be easy. I could see us winning again like we did last year, where we fight a bitter defensive battle and come up with a few timely big plays. If we win, that may very well be how it happens. I’d love to see some first downs though. We haven’t done very well with that in years, especially with the running game. If we get 15 first downs, I say we win by 2 TD’s. One way or another I think we get some yards and some points. We absolutely must not have a defensive letdown. We’ve been doing so well against Walton for quite a while now on defense. My 2 TD assumption is based on this continuing. If it doesn’t, they have both power and speed, and we could be in a good bit of trouble. I think most people have us to win, but anything can certainly happen. The whole is NEVER equal to the sum of the parts in high school football, and Delhi vs. Walton is one of the best examples of this.

 

Picks. I went an outstanding 21-2 (0.913) last week, missing UVE and Norwich winning. For the season I’m 90-32 (0.734). Still a ways to go to 0.800. This week I’m going with Vestal, Chenango Valley, Waverly, END, Unatego, UVE, Candor, Lansing, Tioga, T-burg, Oxford, Newfield, Horseheads, Southside, Corning West (good game), Corning East, Forks, Windsor, Owego, Sidney, BG (good game for 4^th place in the division), Greene, and UE.