Perspective sighting

So apparently the Ravens and Steelers are going to play tonight ... no, wait, this afternoon ... no, wait, on the second Tuesday of the Month When Pigs Fly And Chickens Quote Shakespeare. Or something like that.

This is how it goes these days with the NFL, desperately trying to keep its season afloat even if it has to get ridiculous about it (See: Denver Broncos). So Ravens-Steelers will happen, yes, this afternoon, on a Wednesday.

And now you're asking "Mr. Blob, why are they playing on Wednesday afternoon instead of Wednesday night?"

As a proud graduate of a Mid-American Conference institution (Chirp-chirp, Ball State Cardinals!), the Blob would like to assume it's because the NFL was afraid of going head-to-head with the MAC tonight. I mean, I would be if I were them.

Alas, no. It's because NBC is airing the the Christmas tree lighting in New York tonight, and it wasn't going to bump that for some silly NFL game.

So, Christmas over football.

I have to say, the Blob finds this refreshing.

This may be especially true if you were a sportswriter for four decades, but sometimes it's easy to forget there is life outside the sports bubble. You spend all that time structuring your life around game times, you can't conceive there are whole piles of folks out there who couldn't care less that IU and Purdue are playing basketball on a given night. They're too busy with arguably more noble pursuits than spending two hours watching dudes with over-active thyroids try to put a ball through a hoop.

My wife, Julie, is one of those folks. She loves her some IU buckets and Red Sox baseball, but outside of that, she's got nothin'. Oh, she knows who LeBron and Steph Curry are, and she knows Patrick Mahomes because she watched the Super Bowl last year, and she knows, weirdly, IndyCar driver Will Power because one year her husband got her a pair of Will Power socks as a joke. But other than that?

Static, mostly. Radio silence. And one of her most endearing qualities, frankly. 

This is because sometimes you need a little perspective, and nothing provides more of it than saying "Did you see what Luka Doncic did the other day?" and hearing "Who's Luka Doncic?" in response. Or Lewis Hamilton or Dak Prescott or Fernando Tatis Jr. -- even if, in Julie's case, she actually saw Fernando Tatis Jr. play when he was a Fort Wayne Tincap.

And now we have NBC opting for seasonal tradition over Just Another NFL Game. 

So much for that War on Christmas you've heard so much about.