. . . . a little football humor . . . .

Some of you may know that athletics have always been a big part of my life. I played football and baseball all through high school and college. I coached for a year before going back to graduate school. I even spent a little time as the "color" analyst for radio broadcasts of one of our local high schools. By buddy John was the play-by-play man and certainly the boss. (I know you're reading, counselor) We had some nights where we were pretty darn good, and some nights where I'm sure our listeners wanted to chuck the radio at the wall. But we always had a blast.

So I mention all this to point out that I still keep up pretty intensely with the wide-wide world of sports.

A few quick comments I have:

1. Small college sports (Division II and Division III especially) are more fun to watch and become passionate about than most people realize.

2. Major League Baseball is rapidly slipping away from the heritage that made it America's game. That makes me a little sad.

3. College baseball looks like a video version of the game. Let's ditch the aluminum bats.

4. The first weekend of March Madness may be the best TV viewing weekend of the year. It should be declared a national holiday so we can legitimately stay home from work.

5. Major college football needs a playoff system. This BCS junk is like watching an athletic version of VH1's Best Week Ever.

So with that, I'd like to share an email I just received from Al Michaels . . . . I mean my buddy John. It's a pretty funny dig at the way the BCS determines which two teams play for college football's national championship. Thanks, John, for sending me this. It's one of the best ones yet.

BCS DECLARES GERMANY WINNER OF WORLD WAR II
US Ranked 4th

After determining the Big-12 championship game participants the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II.

" Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland , France , Norway , Sweden , Denmark , Belgium and the Netherlands . Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work--including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule--our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking."

Questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner stated "The US only had two major victories-- Japan and Germany . The computer models, unlike humans, aren't influenced by head-to-head contests--they consider each contest to be only a single, equally-weighted event."

German Chancellor Adolph Hiter said "Yes, we lost to the US ; but we defeated #2 ranked France in only 6 weeks." Herr Hitler has been criticized for seeking dramatic victories to earn 'style points' to enhance Germany 's rankings. Hitler protested "Our contest with Poland was in doubt until the final day and the conditions in Norway were incredibly challenging and demanded the application of additional forces."

The French ranking has also come under scrutiny. The BCS commented " France had a single loss against Germany and following a preseason #1 ranking they only fell to #2."

Japan was ranked #3 with victories including Manchuria, Borneo and the Philippines


Take care. Have a great holiday season!

~wj