Art
October-22nd-2006, 12:08 PM
This blog will be dedicated to victory and uplifting achievement as cynicism and anger and depression after the last couple of games just kind of sucks :). TK and I are in the dome. Out come the high school band/bands.
Saturday, 7:30 a.m. -- Pregnant wife informs packing husband she's tired and he must go get awake child. And so I do. I'm greeted with standard morning rendition of words she knows and would very much like. Doog -- stuffed dog. Mak -- any thing she drinks, though, typically milk. Minkie -- Blankie. Kiki -- cookie, and this one is most urgent. Chz -- Cheese. Up -- Get me out of this damn crib. Of course, "Mommy" as we go upstairs, and pregnant mom is up.
Saturday, 8:15 a.m. -- Insistent child thinks it is outrageous for mom to lay on the couch when she could be standing, looking down on adorable child. Hormonal fit of crying and fatigue racks her, further delaying dad's packing efforts. Fortunately we have this thing called the "oogles" or Wiggles and that buys us actual minutes of rapt attention :).
Saturday, Noon -- Immediately sense difference between travelers to New York and travelers to Indianapolis. Jerome FFA, the Idaho Champions for livestock judging are in the house and in full effect with matching jackets, and assorted John Deere or Cat shirts with jeans. I know little of the FFA organization or Jerome FFA. Turns out these guys are wicked good. As of 2/2/05, when the Jerome Tigers web page was last updated, "Go FFA!The Jerome High School FFA Chapter remains undefeated in regional competition after four events this year." I see descriptions of tree identification and compass reading, but no livestock judging. These kids are getting shafted.
Saturday, 3:50 p.m. -- In Indy. I now know how important this FFA stuff is, as there are banners, and tons of FFA folks in town. Some kind of competition. Fortunately FFA folks don't need rental cars, as I am able to slip right in to Avis even before my bag arrives. Another difference in Indy is people talk to you and think you wish to talk to them in return as I'm met by a friendly Indy Colts season-ticket holder, who's drawn to my Redskins outfit and tells me all about urban renewal in Indy, where he lives and why, how much he liked Washington when he was there, blah, blah, blah, blah and all I could think was, "Knife or gun, I don't know, but one of the two would be ideal." Message on phone tells me TK is stuck in Hotlanta.
Saturday, 4:15 p.m. -- Have bag. Call one Larry Michael. Tell him I could only get a 10:15 reservation to St. Elmo's Grill. Team just leaving Washington, so he tells me he'll call back.
Saturday, 4:45 p.m. -- Driving through streets of Indy. Have to give them credit. They have some nicely laid out downtown stuff going on, with a good mix of street level activities and skyway access stuff. This reminds me of home. Well, until the damn horse drawn carriages start getting in my way. the Conrad is one nice hotel. I'm impressed right away, but, am doubly impressed when I get in to my room and discover a television in the bathroom. Obviously a man designed this hotel with that concept in mind. Of course, he let a woman make the room or something as the television is angled for the bath and shower, not the toilet and this creates quite a neck cramp. That's all I'm saying.
Saturday, 6:45 p.m. -- Larry calls to inform me I am on my own for dinner. One of his more prepared buddies has St. Elmo's reservations already. Ditched by the great Larry Michael. May he misprounce Salave'a. :). Wander down to the lobby where lots of stuff is going on. But, area is small and team is hustled out of sight really before any mingling. Many hotels have kind of longer walks to get players secured. Not here :0.
Saturday, 9 p.m. -- TK lands. It's about the same money to get car out of Valet as it is to take a cab. So, TK cabs it :). This is a reasonably boring blog night for me. We drink at the bar a bit and close up shop around 11 p.m. TK braves the mean streets of Indy without me.
Sunday, 1 a.m. -- A very loud alarm goes off. Emergency, but, stay calm they say. They say it twice. Then, almost instantly, it's all clear. Of course, the beeps and repeated all clear lasts like 10 minutes. I can't help but think a Colts fan, maybe Manning himself, called the hotel with a bomb threat to keep us awake. They swear it's a real fire in the kitchen, but, who's cooking at 1 a.m. Seriously. Maybe Dan Snyder set it off smoking a cigar :).
Sunday, 9:30 a.m. -- Room darkening blinds, combined with wife without child on bladder causing 32 restroom breaks a night, equals one hella good sleep. I almost cursed when woken by wife on cell. Seems baby woke up at 6:15. Still a bit too stimulated by circus on Friday, then baby disco with mom on Saturday. She gives rare sentence in greeting on phone with actual, "Hi Daddy." Then an immediate, "kiki". Mom is mean. No kikis in the morning. But, indeed, she can have deep fried flour drenched in sugar. :).
Sunday, 10:45 a.m. -- In lobby looking for passes for game. Sonny is there as always. Sam is around talking with some other guys. Sonny asks me -- and he KNOWS MY NAME :) -- "Art, you been outside yet?" I said no, as I was in shorts and a t-shirt and he said, "Must be cold. The doorman's wearing that hat." I assured Sonny it was not cold and put Minnesota trained body to use, going outside and determining a lovel 45 degree temperature.
Sunday, noon -- In lobby again, ready for game. Meet TK and a Redskins official who loves the fans showing up for the team. Wants to make sure all of them are wearing Redskins hats and shirts. Huly and Pez will be getting a package with some gear soon I think :0. Then, we walk to the stadium, which is about four blocks away.
Sunday, 12:35 p.m. -- In the dome. Finding our seats, cold chillin, listing to Bust a Move by Young MC. And who does not remember, "My best friend Harry has a brother Larry. In five days from now he's gonna marry." Ahh, classic rap. Band arrives.
Sunday, 1:15 p.m. -- Band is STILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL THEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Make it stop. Honestly, they are still tuning their instruments. First, they are band instruments. Tuning isn't that hard. It's not like they are real instruments. I played cello. I know what music is. Blowing into a tube is just not it. OH NO. NOW THEY ARE ACTUALLY PLAYING. MAKE IT STOP. Oh, and Jason LaCanfora arrives. I always enjoy the fact we always beat the real pros into work :).
Sunday, 1:19 p.m. -- Ok, now this is pissing me off. The band has this guy/girl team with batons. First, there's NOTHING ON EARTH more wrong than a guy with a baton. It's just a sickness we must rid. And, if you're a parent with a boy who is in the band and all he can do is do the baton, please, beat some sense into him. Anyway, I'm thinking these guys have never actually seen a baton, as they keep throwing it to one another and just not even coming close to the catch. I'd feel sorry for them if I wasn't so amused by them.
Sunday, 1:45 p.m. -- Band still playing. Seriously, I'm going to start stabbing my eyes out. Or TK's. Food is served. I grab my seasonal vegetables, risoto and chicken and sit with the ESPN radio guys and Sonny. Sonny is complaining that risoto is not football food. I tell him I can track down some cous cous. I think he said eff you after that. Not sure :).
Sunday, 2:00 p.m. -- Chilling out with the Redskins.com TV guys, Larry, watching some football, just enjoying a nice day. I explain we will win this game by 20. Why? This is the type of game this team's personality thrives in. This team hates success. It soaks it up and believes in itself, losing the edge it can only have when everyone thinks they are horrible. Most teams that become consistent and good transition from this attitude to consistent play at some point. We did last year. This is the start this year. Trust me :).
Sunday, 2:30 p.m. -- Comcast guy wants to know who we have covering the Gibbs pressers on Monday. John Pappas baby :). Your blogger for Dallas in two weeks.
Sunday, 2:47 p.m. -- The Dome is freezing cold and wide open. Even with the music playing and fans starting to arrive, you can still hear Jason LaCanfora's first highly professional F-bomb. Once again, I can't compete with this level of professionalism.
Sunday, 3:32 p.m. -- Dome is warming up as people are filling it. Derrick Frost is the finest punter I've ever seen, in pregame. The man is ROCKING perfect spirals 60-yards in the air with precision. I keep watching it, and think I should ask people who No. 4 is because if he did this in actual games, he'd be a hero :). 40 minutes from kickoff. Still lowkey out there. The Colts are stretching and like the Giants are destined to out stretch us, as our stretch line is hurried. For us, only the skill positions are out, with Rabach and Albright. Khary Campbell is starting at middle backer as Marshall is inactive.
Sunday 3:50 p.m. -- Going to be busting a move down to the field shortly. Bad news is you get second rate, OR NO, pictures today, cause I don't have the bomb lens everyone else has :).
After Colts first drive -- It really is amazing watching an offense like the Colts. Manning knows where everything is going to be. Everything is layered to be on time. On the first pass to the tight end, the ball was out so early it's almost impossible to cover. The second to the tight end was supposed to go to Harrison short, but, Springs jumped it. This is a well coordinated team.
After second Colts drive -- They ran the same look on third down. Harrison short on the in. Tight end further out. Taylor SERIOUSLY jumped it. If that was the same timing pass, it's a touchdown for us. Instead, the tight end stuck outside and cut back up and almost was a touchdown against us. Timing offenses are fun to watch when the work :).
7-7 -- The Colts are selling out against the run. Single safety constantly. If we have any actual blocking, we should be able to pick this defense apart because they are crowding the line. I was happy to see us attack the end zone to Moss as that is going to be open whenever we want it.
Moss penalty -- You could see he was going to do something. That the defender flopped isn't really the issue. We're a team that just refuses to let things be easy. That missed kick changes the game again. Moss is our star, but, he needs to play with better smarts than that.
Parting of the red sea -- As soon as he caught that ball, you saw it was a touchdown. Not sure what the Colts were doing, or if we did something to them, but, that was the easiest thing I've ever seen. Another unsportsmanlike. Again, anything good, tempered by something just dumb. Still, that was beautiful. ARE kept looking in to know when he could set Smith up for the cut. Lovely.
Frost -- So, THREE unsportsmanlike penalties in, oh, minutes. Losing us 3 points, and perhaps putting them in position for points. I understand why Frost was unhappy. That's the finest kick he's ever had :). Still, the Redskins are now deciding they should help the Colts. I'd prefer to think they'd rather not do that.
Ok refs, enough -- It's the Colts. They really don't need the help guys. That was a horrible call. Washington is allowed to rush the passer. The Colts man fell down taking both players low. How we can get a penalty is ludicrous.
1-2-3 Cooolts First Down -- First on the 5. Colts fans trying to have something that stands out does this little dopey chant every time they get a first down. They get a lot of first downs. Boring :).
Halftime update -- In all, a reasonably good first half. Carter is destroying Glenn, getting good quick wide pressure. The defense is starting to get a jump on things. This is a very good offense we're playing and the defense looks somewhat more clued in than in recent games. Offensively we are starting to get traction. It was a bad call on Rabach on the hold, but you can see the delays opening up for the team as they get quick pressure, and we run behind them. The penalties are frustrating as the Colts are too good to be messing about this way. The band is back on the field and hot dogs are football food, so I'll be back :).
Novak miss -- And the wheels have come off entirely, haven't they. What do you call a team that can't cover, can't tackle, can't pass and can't run? A bad team. That is what we are now. We're not good. It feels bad. I'm here in Indy and I doubt I'll even go into the lockerroom. Why would I? I don't relish watching guys I root on miserable while I'm miserable. They aren't nearly as fun when we lose. Like you, I want to throw something and hit someone but only Rick would understand, and, well, he's just so adorable I can't hit him that hard. Maybe I'll write more. Maybe I'll stew in my own juices with additional juice added upon departure. I've said before, the worst part about doing what we're doing is when the team is very far down. And, now, we're VERY far down. I don't think it's Brunell's fault. But, I do think you have two weeks before Dallas. Use it to get Campbell ready, because, why not at this point.
Saturday, 7:30 a.m. -- Pregnant wife informs packing husband she's tired and he must go get awake child. And so I do. I'm greeted with standard morning rendition of words she knows and would very much like. Doog -- stuffed dog. Mak -- any thing she drinks, though, typically milk. Minkie -- Blankie. Kiki -- cookie, and this one is most urgent. Chz -- Cheese. Up -- Get me out of this damn crib. Of course, "Mommy" as we go upstairs, and pregnant mom is up.
Saturday, 8:15 a.m. -- Insistent child thinks it is outrageous for mom to lay on the couch when she could be standing, looking down on adorable child. Hormonal fit of crying and fatigue racks her, further delaying dad's packing efforts. Fortunately we have this thing called the "oogles" or Wiggles and that buys us actual minutes of rapt attention :).
Saturday, Noon -- Immediately sense difference between travelers to New York and travelers to Indianapolis. Jerome FFA, the Idaho Champions for livestock judging are in the house and in full effect with matching jackets, and assorted John Deere or Cat shirts with jeans. I know little of the FFA organization or Jerome FFA. Turns out these guys are wicked good. As of 2/2/05, when the Jerome Tigers web page was last updated, "Go FFA!The Jerome High School FFA Chapter remains undefeated in regional competition after four events this year." I see descriptions of tree identification and compass reading, but no livestock judging. These kids are getting shafted.
Saturday, 3:50 p.m. -- In Indy. I now know how important this FFA stuff is, as there are banners, and tons of FFA folks in town. Some kind of competition. Fortunately FFA folks don't need rental cars, as I am able to slip right in to Avis even before my bag arrives. Another difference in Indy is people talk to you and think you wish to talk to them in return as I'm met by a friendly Indy Colts season-ticket holder, who's drawn to my Redskins outfit and tells me all about urban renewal in Indy, where he lives and why, how much he liked Washington when he was there, blah, blah, blah, blah and all I could think was, "Knife or gun, I don't know, but one of the two would be ideal." Message on phone tells me TK is stuck in Hotlanta.
Saturday, 4:15 p.m. -- Have bag. Call one Larry Michael. Tell him I could only get a 10:15 reservation to St. Elmo's Grill. Team just leaving Washington, so he tells me he'll call back.
Saturday, 4:45 p.m. -- Driving through streets of Indy. Have to give them credit. They have some nicely laid out downtown stuff going on, with a good mix of street level activities and skyway access stuff. This reminds me of home. Well, until the damn horse drawn carriages start getting in my way. the Conrad is one nice hotel. I'm impressed right away, but, am doubly impressed when I get in to my room and discover a television in the bathroom. Obviously a man designed this hotel with that concept in mind. Of course, he let a woman make the room or something as the television is angled for the bath and shower, not the toilet and this creates quite a neck cramp. That's all I'm saying.
Saturday, 6:45 p.m. -- Larry calls to inform me I am on my own for dinner. One of his more prepared buddies has St. Elmo's reservations already. Ditched by the great Larry Michael. May he misprounce Salave'a. :). Wander down to the lobby where lots of stuff is going on. But, area is small and team is hustled out of sight really before any mingling. Many hotels have kind of longer walks to get players secured. Not here :0.
Saturday, 9 p.m. -- TK lands. It's about the same money to get car out of Valet as it is to take a cab. So, TK cabs it :). This is a reasonably boring blog night for me. We drink at the bar a bit and close up shop around 11 p.m. TK braves the mean streets of Indy without me.
Sunday, 1 a.m. -- A very loud alarm goes off. Emergency, but, stay calm they say. They say it twice. Then, almost instantly, it's all clear. Of course, the beeps and repeated all clear lasts like 10 minutes. I can't help but think a Colts fan, maybe Manning himself, called the hotel with a bomb threat to keep us awake. They swear it's a real fire in the kitchen, but, who's cooking at 1 a.m. Seriously. Maybe Dan Snyder set it off smoking a cigar :).
Sunday, 9:30 a.m. -- Room darkening blinds, combined with wife without child on bladder causing 32 restroom breaks a night, equals one hella good sleep. I almost cursed when woken by wife on cell. Seems baby woke up at 6:15. Still a bit too stimulated by circus on Friday, then baby disco with mom on Saturday. She gives rare sentence in greeting on phone with actual, "Hi Daddy." Then an immediate, "kiki". Mom is mean. No kikis in the morning. But, indeed, she can have deep fried flour drenched in sugar. :).
Sunday, 10:45 a.m. -- In lobby looking for passes for game. Sonny is there as always. Sam is around talking with some other guys. Sonny asks me -- and he KNOWS MY NAME :) -- "Art, you been outside yet?" I said no, as I was in shorts and a t-shirt and he said, "Must be cold. The doorman's wearing that hat." I assured Sonny it was not cold and put Minnesota trained body to use, going outside and determining a lovel 45 degree temperature.
Sunday, noon -- In lobby again, ready for game. Meet TK and a Redskins official who loves the fans showing up for the team. Wants to make sure all of them are wearing Redskins hats and shirts. Huly and Pez will be getting a package with some gear soon I think :0. Then, we walk to the stadium, which is about four blocks away.
Sunday, 12:35 p.m. -- In the dome. Finding our seats, cold chillin, listing to Bust a Move by Young MC. And who does not remember, "My best friend Harry has a brother Larry. In five days from now he's gonna marry." Ahh, classic rap. Band arrives.
Sunday, 1:15 p.m. -- Band is STILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL THEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Make it stop. Honestly, they are still tuning their instruments. First, they are band instruments. Tuning isn't that hard. It's not like they are real instruments. I played cello. I know what music is. Blowing into a tube is just not it. OH NO. NOW THEY ARE ACTUALLY PLAYING. MAKE IT STOP. Oh, and Jason LaCanfora arrives. I always enjoy the fact we always beat the real pros into work :).
Sunday, 1:19 p.m. -- Ok, now this is pissing me off. The band has this guy/girl team with batons. First, there's NOTHING ON EARTH more wrong than a guy with a baton. It's just a sickness we must rid. And, if you're a parent with a boy who is in the band and all he can do is do the baton, please, beat some sense into him. Anyway, I'm thinking these guys have never actually seen a baton, as they keep throwing it to one another and just not even coming close to the catch. I'd feel sorry for them if I wasn't so amused by them.
Sunday, 1:45 p.m. -- Band still playing. Seriously, I'm going to start stabbing my eyes out. Or TK's. Food is served. I grab my seasonal vegetables, risoto and chicken and sit with the ESPN radio guys and Sonny. Sonny is complaining that risoto is not football food. I tell him I can track down some cous cous. I think he said eff you after that. Not sure :).
Sunday, 2:00 p.m. -- Chilling out with the Redskins.com TV guys, Larry, watching some football, just enjoying a nice day. I explain we will win this game by 20. Why? This is the type of game this team's personality thrives in. This team hates success. It soaks it up and believes in itself, losing the edge it can only have when everyone thinks they are horrible. Most teams that become consistent and good transition from this attitude to consistent play at some point. We did last year. This is the start this year. Trust me :).
Sunday, 2:30 p.m. -- Comcast guy wants to know who we have covering the Gibbs pressers on Monday. John Pappas baby :). Your blogger for Dallas in two weeks.
Sunday, 2:47 p.m. -- The Dome is freezing cold and wide open. Even with the music playing and fans starting to arrive, you can still hear Jason LaCanfora's first highly professional F-bomb. Once again, I can't compete with this level of professionalism.
Sunday, 3:32 p.m. -- Dome is warming up as people are filling it. Derrick Frost is the finest punter I've ever seen, in pregame. The man is ROCKING perfect spirals 60-yards in the air with precision. I keep watching it, and think I should ask people who No. 4 is because if he did this in actual games, he'd be a hero :). 40 minutes from kickoff. Still lowkey out there. The Colts are stretching and like the Giants are destined to out stretch us, as our stretch line is hurried. For us, only the skill positions are out, with Rabach and Albright. Khary Campbell is starting at middle backer as Marshall is inactive.
Sunday 3:50 p.m. -- Going to be busting a move down to the field shortly. Bad news is you get second rate, OR NO, pictures today, cause I don't have the bomb lens everyone else has :).
After Colts first drive -- It really is amazing watching an offense like the Colts. Manning knows where everything is going to be. Everything is layered to be on time. On the first pass to the tight end, the ball was out so early it's almost impossible to cover. The second to the tight end was supposed to go to Harrison short, but, Springs jumped it. This is a well coordinated team.
After second Colts drive -- They ran the same look on third down. Harrison short on the in. Tight end further out. Taylor SERIOUSLY jumped it. If that was the same timing pass, it's a touchdown for us. Instead, the tight end stuck outside and cut back up and almost was a touchdown against us. Timing offenses are fun to watch when the work :).
7-7 -- The Colts are selling out against the run. Single safety constantly. If we have any actual blocking, we should be able to pick this defense apart because they are crowding the line. I was happy to see us attack the end zone to Moss as that is going to be open whenever we want it.
Moss penalty -- You could see he was going to do something. That the defender flopped isn't really the issue. We're a team that just refuses to let things be easy. That missed kick changes the game again. Moss is our star, but, he needs to play with better smarts than that.
Parting of the red sea -- As soon as he caught that ball, you saw it was a touchdown. Not sure what the Colts were doing, or if we did something to them, but, that was the easiest thing I've ever seen. Another unsportsmanlike. Again, anything good, tempered by something just dumb. Still, that was beautiful. ARE kept looking in to know when he could set Smith up for the cut. Lovely.
Frost -- So, THREE unsportsmanlike penalties in, oh, minutes. Losing us 3 points, and perhaps putting them in position for points. I understand why Frost was unhappy. That's the finest kick he's ever had :). Still, the Redskins are now deciding they should help the Colts. I'd prefer to think they'd rather not do that.
Ok refs, enough -- It's the Colts. They really don't need the help guys. That was a horrible call. Washington is allowed to rush the passer. The Colts man fell down taking both players low. How we can get a penalty is ludicrous.
1-2-3 Cooolts First Down -- First on the 5. Colts fans trying to have something that stands out does this little dopey chant every time they get a first down. They get a lot of first downs. Boring :).
Halftime update -- In all, a reasonably good first half. Carter is destroying Glenn, getting good quick wide pressure. The defense is starting to get a jump on things. This is a very good offense we're playing and the defense looks somewhat more clued in than in recent games. Offensively we are starting to get traction. It was a bad call on Rabach on the hold, but you can see the delays opening up for the team as they get quick pressure, and we run behind them. The penalties are frustrating as the Colts are too good to be messing about this way. The band is back on the field and hot dogs are football food, so I'll be back :).
Novak miss -- And the wheels have come off entirely, haven't they. What do you call a team that can't cover, can't tackle, can't pass and can't run? A bad team. That is what we are now. We're not good. It feels bad. I'm here in Indy and I doubt I'll even go into the lockerroom. Why would I? I don't relish watching guys I root on miserable while I'm miserable. They aren't nearly as fun when we lose. Like you, I want to throw something and hit someone but only Rick would understand, and, well, he's just so adorable I can't hit him that hard. Maybe I'll write more. Maybe I'll stew in my own juices with additional juice added upon departure. I've said before, the worst part about doing what we're doing is when the team is very far down. And, now, we're VERY far down. I don't think it's Brunell's fault. But, I do think you have two weeks before Dallas. Use it to get Campbell ready, because, why not at this point.