Post Super Bowl Thoughts

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Post Super Bowl Thoughts

The big game is over, and fans of the Indianapolis Colts are experiencing emotions that range from disappointment to anger, embarrassment to frustration, and just about everything in between. I am one of the very few people living in Indianapolis who is not a Colts fan. I'm originally from Cincinnati, which makes me a Reds fan. Yeah, that's my point exactly -- baseball, not football.

But I went to a Super Bowl party and watched the game, and like every red-blooded American male, I cheered and jeered at the plays and calls by the officials (and the lack of several penalties that should have been imposed against New Orleans). But that's not what I'm writing about, believe it or not. I'm writing about people.

My wife and I were invited to a Super Bowl party by some friends of hers. I've met some of these people, but really barely know them. The women all belong to a group which is supported by one of the local churches. Most of the people in this group go to this church. My wife and I do not -- we attend a different church.

Now maybe I shouldn't be writing about this, because there will certainly be a certain type of person who takes great satisfaction in what I'm going to write. But, here I go.

LANGUAGE ALERT

This group of people who attend the same church and get together quite frequently for similar events has some strange characters in it. One in particular was sitting next to my son and I during the game. At one point in the game he had the same reaction that probably millions of Colts fans had: he began cursing. He used words like -- pardon me while I censor myself -- PU&@%*S and PI$&@D, and at one point just barely stopped himself from using the grand-daddy of all four letter words, well, you know which one. But not soon enough for others to be fooled.

The problem is, his language was wholly inappropriate for the company he was in (not that there is ever an appropriate time to use such language). I was shocked. Others in the group who probaboy know him better just ignored him. I don't know how. If I knew him better, I would have chastised him for using such language period, much less at a gathering of a small church group with very young children in the room.

I guess I really don't have much to say about it. And certainly someone somewhere is saying that it's not at all surprising because all Christians are hypocrites. Well, we aren't, and it is.

I'm not a big fan of Super Bowl parties. Or other similar gatherings. It wasn't what I would call a great time. And, deep inside, I feel a nagging sense of guilt for exposing my six year old son to the foul mouth of the one bad apple in the group. If my boy heard those words, and I can't imagine how he wouldn't, that's something I can never undo.

Send me your thoughts.

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Bearcats: Good Riddance BK

My complete Cinch Audioblog.

Send me your comments. Joe

AJA Press

Go BUCKEYES!

GO

BUCKEYES!

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/

Close, But Not Close Enough

The Ohio State Buckeyes fell to the Florida Gators by nine points Monday night in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game. The Gators became the first repeat champs in fifteen years.

Yes, I'm a little disappointed.

Joe

Ohio State to the Championships!

No. 1 Buckeyes Advance To NCAA Title Game With 67-60 Win Over Georgetown

Ohio State will play in the national championship game for the first time since 1962.

Joe

Opportunities Not Taken

Sometimes, it's amazing how things work out in life. Have you ever considered how the choices you've made throughout your life have impacted who and what you are today?

Driving to work today, somehow, my mind started wondering to just such a thing. I was thinking about the Ohio State Buckeyes playing tonight for a spot in the NCAA Championship game. I thought of how I once had thoughts of attending Ohio State.

I grew up in Cincinnati, and the college that I had always been interested in attending was Ohio State University. After graduating from high school, I took a year of working before making any major life decisions. I graduated at the age of 17, so it didn't seem to be a waste of time to spend a year deciding what I really wanted to do with my life. Did I want to go to college? Where? Or did I want to do something else?

The answer turned out to be both. I wanted to go to college, but I didn't plan my high school career out as well as I could (and should) have, so I was not offered any scholarships. And I never thought it would be right for me to ask or expect my parents to foot the bill for me. So I had to come up with some cash to go to college.

Back then, in the Reagan era, there was one simple way to earn college money: The Army College Fund and Montgomery GI Bill. So I enlisted for three years in the Active Duty Army, for $35,000 in college money.

Eight years later, I finally came home. Eight years, and a lot of life. I had made many choices during those eight years, some stupid, and some maybe not so stupid. I reenlisted once -- for another three years -- and extended my enlistment twice for an additional year each time. The Army took me to Germany for three years, and it was a good experience.

But when I came back home, five years later than I had originally anticipated, everything was different. After such a long absence from school, I couldn't even picture myself starting college at the age of 26. Plus, I had to have full-time employment -- I really couldn't ask my parents to support me at that age!

So I never made it to Ohio State. Or any other college. And I was thinking about that this morning, and you know how that goes some times -- you find yourself wondering What If?

While I was in Basic Training in the Army, my instructors were so impressed with my entrance exam scores that they asked me to take another exam. It was the strangest test I have taken in all of my life. I basically found myself trying to interpret a made up language with very little knowledge of what the made up language was supposed to be. That's right, it was a linguistics test.

The shocking part was that I scored so well on the linguistics test that they wanted to send me to USMAPS -- the United States Military Academy Prep School. The plan was that I would then go on to West Point -- the United States Military Academy -- probably the most distinguished military academy in the country. At West Point, I would spend five years learning to become an Army Officer. I would then go to a different specialty school than I had enlisted for -- I would spend up to three years training in linguistics, learning Russian, or whatever other language(s) the Army needed me to learn.

After roughly ten years of training, I would have a five-year service commitment to pay my country back for my college education at West Point. Fifteen years: that's some commitment to hit an 18-year-old kid with during his first month in the military.

This morning I was thinking about my career now, and how different life would be if I had been an Officer in the Army with training as a linguistics expert. It seems I might be making considerably more money, and be better able to provide for my family.

Then it hit me: what family? It was my retail career that relocated me from Cincinnati to Indiana, where I met my wife and started the family that means the world to me today. What would have brought me to Indiana if I was a linguistics expert? Certainly not relocating to grand open a new retail store.

If I had taken that unbelievably great opportunity some twenty years ago, I don't know where I would be today, but I know where I would probably not be. I would probably not be in Indiana. I would most likely have never met my wife, with whom I am raising the two most wonderful kids the world has ever seen.

So you see, sometimes a good thing might not be as good as it sounds. Some times you have to pass up some great opportunities in life if you want to stumble onto the opportunity of a lifetime. There is no job in the world that could be more important than being a good Daddy to my kids and helping my beautiful wife nurture them into fine adults some day.

So don't be too quick to jump for the money when opportunity comes knocking, because sometimes the real opportunity is just around the corner, and if you answer the door too soon, you might not even be home when your life shows up to meet you.

Joe

Ohio State Goes to the Final Four!

No. 1 Buckeyes Rally For 92-76 Elite Eight Win Over No. 5 Memphis

Ohio State will return to the Final Four for the first time since 1999.

Joe

Buckeyes Advance

The Ohio State Buckeyes Erase 20-Point Deficit En Route To 85-84 Sweet 16 Victory Over Vols. The top-seeded Buckeyes fell behind by 20 points before halftime.

Ohio State will take on Memphis today tomorrow. The winner advances to the Final Four.

Joe

Go Buckeyes!

Ohio State topples Xavier in overtime!

Joe

Why I Didn't Watch Even One Down of Super Bowl XLI

-vs-

If you haven't already heard, the Indianapolis Colts have won Super Bowl XLI. Oops, can I even say that? "Super Bowl," I mean.

From SportsIllustrated Online:

The NFL has nixed a church's plans to use a wall projector to show the Colts-Bears Super Bowl game, saying it would violate copyright laws. ...

Initially, the league objected to the church's plan to charge a fee to attend and that the church used the license-protected words "Super Bowl" in its promotions. ...the NFL objected to the church's plans to use a projector to show the game, saying the law limits it to one TV no bigger than 55 inches. ...

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league's long-standing policy is to ban "mass out-of-home viewing" of the Super Bowl. An exception is made for sports bars and other businesses that show televised sports as a part of their everyday operations. ...

"It just frustrates me that most of the places where crowds are going to gather to watch this game are going to be places that are filled with alcohol and other things that are inappropriate for children," [the church's Pastor] said. "We tried to provide an alternative to that and were shut down." ...

Furthermore, my own church ran into a similar problem. In a message they sent out to members, they cited the following for canceling their Super Bowl party:

...the NFL has stated that churches hosting Super Bowl parties are in copyright violation if:

1. They use the copyrighted name "Super Bowl."
2. Charge an entrance fee.
3. View the game on a screen larger than 55 inches.

While we have disagreements with the policy of the NFL, we are finding it difficult to get clarity on the true legalities on such short notice. We would be in violation of #3.... We are choosing to do what we always teach: do the right thing and take the high ground. We are canceling the party....

So, if you didn't catch it in there, as far as the NFL is concerned, it's okay to watch the Super Bowl in your own home, or the home of a friend, or at a bar. Places where you might be tempted to drink to excess and make a public nuisance of yourself if your team should win (or lose, even). But it's not okay to gather together with other members of your church inside the church building and watch the game. Does anybody else see anything wrong with this?

If you got those same people together that planned to watch the game inside the church building and took them to the local bar to watch the game, allowed them to eat all the free peanuts they can hold and not buy one drop of alcohol, the NFL would presumably be okay with that, but I'll bet the bar owners would be pretty upset.

So, the Indianapolis Colts have just won Super Bowl XLI, and I watched exactly none of the game. Not one minute. Not one down. Not one touchdown or interception. Not even one of the extremely over-priced commercials that gets so much hype every year. And I'm sure the NFL didn't miss me. But you know what, I didn't miss the game, either. Instead, I got to enjoy some time with my wife and son watching the "Scooby Bowl" on Nickelodeon.

Go Scooby!

Joe

Nothing But Net

It can't all be about politics.

My son's fall basketball season came to an end tonight, and he was presented with his first ever trophy at just three years old. It was a pretty exciting event (maybe more for me than it was for him).

The picture is a bit grainy, but I had to snap it with short notice using my Palm Pilot, so I'm lucky I got the picture at all.

His winter basketball season will be starting up soon. It's amazing how much he has improved in just eight weeks. Tonight he actually made his first in-game basket ever! He can hit the basket in practice, but has always passed the ball during a game rather than shooting. Tonight he took his first shot and -- SWOOSH! -- nothing but net!

I'm so proud of him! And to think I almost didn't make it there in time tonight.

Joe
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Toddler Basketball

My three-year-old son started his first attempt at organized sports yesterday: basketball. He's in a three- to five-year-old group at the local sports center.

My son is tall for his age, and of above-average intelligence (if you ask me), but he's still three. And he still has some of the hyperactivity of any three-year-old. He wants to do his own thing and doesn't completely understand the concept of a team yet. After forty-five minutes of dribbling and shooting lessons, they played a couple of five minutes games. My son kept asking where his ball went when there was suddenly only one ball on the court.

It's going to take time, of course, for him to get the idea of teamwork and how the game is played. It's going to be great fun, though!

Joe