So I got my second COVID-19 vaccination shot last Wednesday afternoon. For most of Thursday, I felt like I had been out drinking the night before and somebody punched me in the arm about 50 times. It was a miserable day.
But by Friday I was feeling much better. And over the weekend I felt good. I know we have a ways to go yet, but I’m really hoping that we are getting close to the end of this mess. I sound like a broken record, but so much has been lost already. I think we are all ready for this to be over.
POLITICS: 🤦♂️
A couple of years back, the Post took Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to task because she said of 9/11 “Some people did something.” I backed up my paper, even after (or especially after) the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen referred to us as “journalistically squalid” (The WM editorial meeting was particularly tense that week)
I never apologized for how I felt after Congresswoman Omar said that and I don’t plan to. Whatever point she was trying to make, that just pissed me off. And no, it has nothing to do with where she was born, I’d be pissed if someone in my own family was that flippant about 9/11.
Which leads us to this pea brain on the other side of the aisle Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who unlike Omar (who at least acknowledged something happened), suggested that no plane hit the Pentagon. And that’s not even the most offensive thing she said.
She also claimed that the shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland were staged, responding “That’s all True” to a Facebook post suggesting that “none of these shootings happened”
What kind of city or town would want a quackadoodle like that representing them?
And spare me the crap about political disagreements. Right-minded people can debate the Trump Tax Plan vs. the Biden tax plan, or immigration laws, or even whether to send our soldiers off to war. Those are political differences.
But putting a crackpot like this in the US House of Representatives is just lunacy that should transcend party lines.
But it didn’t. Yes, 11 GOP representatives voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments, but the rest of them voted to let her stay on the committees. I mean it’s not like this was a vote to kick her out of Congress, just off of a couple committees. And they didn’t even want to do that.
And this is why I keep saying Trump needs to be prosecuted. So that this behavior isn’t encouraged. I understand why they felt the need to impeach him again, though I don’t know how effective that is going to be. It’s painfully obvious that nowhere near close to 17 republicans are going to convict him.
And no, I don’t think Trump believes Parkland was a left wing conspiracy, but since this nut job is kissing his fanny, he’s not going to dissuade her from spouting her bullshit.
And my fear that someone is watching the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, and saying “That’s the pathway to get elected to the Federal Government” That’s the kind of thing that should keep us all awake at night.
BASEBALL: Bauer’s Tower of Bull
Trevor Bauer, the last of the big 3 free agents this off-season, signed with the Dodgers on Friday. I had wanted the Mets to sign him, but by the time he signed with LA, I was relieved. He would have been more trouble than he was worth at half the price.
But the way he and his agent carried on after the signing burned my a$$. And so did the baseball media covering this whole soap opera.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today is catching the most heat because he said that Bauer was definitely signing with the Mets. But John Heyman, Ken Rosenthal and others all made similar “Bauer made his decision” announcements only for them to turn out to be not true.
The quest to get it first overtook the quest to get it right. And us the fans were the ones who lost out.
Now it didn’t help that Bauer’s camp were sending out mixed messages. And Bauer did take to Twitter to apologize for the confusion and insist he wasn’t trolling the Mets.
Apology not accepted. He can take it and shove it.
First of all I hear a lot about how Bauer was looking to “build his brand” What? Who the hell does he think he is Kim Kardashian? I want someone who wants to win. I’ve never heard Jacob deGrom talk about his brand. His brand is to strike guys out and pitch to a low ERA.
And I realize that players using other teams to drive up their salaries has been going on since the dawn of free agency, but Bauer and his agent Rachel Luba took this to a new level of obnoxious. And Luba’s rub it in our faces tweet after Bauer signed with LA, in my mind, also negates the lame apology he gave on Monday.
They can both kick rocks. If anyone deserves to make $45 million, it’s our guy, the deGrominator. And with her lack of class and moral bankruptcy, if Rachel Luba can’t get any other clients, she can always run for Congress as a Georgia Republican.
And the Mets right now as presently constituted, aren’t good enough to win the NL East, never mind the NL Pennant. I’m sure they are not done making moves, but they still have a few glaring holes to fill. We’ll see what happens.
SUPER BOWL WRAP-UP:
Now, normally I live by the credo that I’d rather get blown out than lose at the buzzer. Indeed, the TV was off about halfway through the third quarter, and I was dozing off by the time the Bucs were getting the Lombardi Trophy.
But the biggest disappointment for me was the overall non-competitiveness of the game. I believed all the talking heads that this was going to be a game for the ages. Tony Romo said it was going to be the greatest game ever. He wasn’t the only one, even guys the like Post’s Steve Serby, (who unlike Romo had no skin in the game) was saying that Mahomes vs Brady was the most anticipated QB matchup in SB history.
My pal Ed Robinson said before the game that this reminded him of Super Bowl XIX in 1985, Joe Montana vs Dan Marino. On paper that looked like a dream matchup. I had no idea how right Ed was.
That game turned out to be a dud as well, also a 22 point blowout.
I’m not sure Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs ever recover from this. They completely came unglued on Sunday. Not having their offensive line in tact didn’t help, but the guys they had in there were awful. Mahomes was constantly on the run. Then there were the boneheaded penalties. At halftime, Boomer Esiason and Nate Burleson were complaining that the refs were calling ticky-tak penalties, but to me they looked legit. There was one pass interference call I thought was a stretch because I don’t think the ball was catchable, but other than that the rest were pretty flagrant. And the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was inexcusable.
As much as I hate to do it, I have to give the Bucs credit, they were the ones who looked like they had just played in the big game the year before. I know that Brady and Gronk have won multiple Super Bowl’s but the rest of the Bucs were composed and focused. The Chiefs just looked like a mess**
It might not have been the worst Super Bowl ever, but it was the most disappointing.
The only way I could ever root for Tom Brady is if he played Bill Belichick and the Patriots. I really can’t stand him. But at this point in my life, I realize he is just going to play forever and win forever. I had tried to tune out football for the past few years, but after going 4 months without live sports, I had found myself watching more football and more pro basketball. I now remember why I stayed away from football. For me, it’s just a losing proposition. My Jets will probably never win a Super Bowl in my lifetime, and guys like Tom Brady will just keep winning.
Mike Vaccaro called it our national addiction. I’m going to need to detox.
I wanted to get this out last night. Sorry for the delay.
Stay Safe, Wear a Mask
and Have a Great Week
**Editors Note: On WFAN Tuesday morning, Esiason was speculating how much of an impact the car accident involving Britt Reid, Chiefs assistant coach and son of head coach Andy Reid, had on the game.
I have chosen not to go there for two reasons. 1) I don’t believe that all the facts of the case have come out yet, or at least, not it enough to make an informed speculation. But more importantly 2) I really don’t feel comfortable using words like “distraction’ or “disruption” when speaking about this. For the Chiefs, that’s what it might have been, but for the family of the 5 year old girl who is fighting for her life, it is their world destroyed. The last thing that family is thinking of is a football game. The game took place, and I felt compelled to write about it, but what this family is going through is just unspeakable. I know the term thoughts and prayers is often overused, but sometimes that’s really all you can do. And if Britt Reid really did drink alcohol before he got behind the wheel, well.... like I said, let’s wait till we know for sure.
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