Bowled over

 So now we know the truth, or at least MY truth.

(Because we've all got our own truth now, apparently. It's like those personalized coffee mugs you see here and there, with BRENDEN and KATEE and CAYDEN and MADYSON printed on them. Choose the truth with your name on it and let's go!)

Anyway ... my truth says this: The Bastard Plague hates all these useless bowl games, too.

This after the Holiday Bowl was canceled because too many UCLA Bruins players showed red for the Plague, and the Bruins pulled out hours before kickoff. This reportedly annoyed their opponent, North Carolina State, which apparently really, really, really wanted them some Holiday Bowl.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 issues have also canceled the Hawai'i Bowl, Military Bowl, Fenway Bowl and Arizona Bowl. This meant eight more deserving schools, some proudly  carrying the laurels of 6-6 campaigns, did not get their postseason reward -- although one hopes the players still scored their bowl swag, which now will have added value as collector's items.

And, yes, the Blob is making light of all this, and it probably shouldn't. The schools, even the 6-6 schools, actually do relish playing in these games, even the Cricket Celebration Bowl and the PUGB Mobile New Mexico Bowl. And even if some of the 6-6 schools (ahem, the Blob's alma mater, Ball State) subsequently demonstrate they had no business being within a nautical mile of a bowl game.

Nevertheless, they consider these games a reward for an almost-successful season, so who is the Blob to make light of that. Nor should it make light of this new surge in COVID-19 cases, which have not only wreaked havoc with Sportsball World but are again overwhelming our beleaguered health-care system.

The worst of it is this new variant (known as "Omicron," or "Fresh Hell") has taken advantage of America's Bastard Plague fatigue, and the fact the anti-vaxxers and other fringe loonies appear to be winning the war for hearts and minds. They've gone full Braveheart mode over employer vaccine mandates, turning a simple work rule in the face of a national health crisis into some sort of soul-crushing tyranny.

Only people who've never known actual tyranny can do this, of course, and by God are they good at it. Meanwhile the national death toll is up over 800,000, and Cincinnati's mayor has declared a state of emergency because the Plague has so depleted the fire department.

In Indiana, meanwhile, where hospital beds are down to nothing again and new 'rona cases are at levels unseen in nearly a year, Gov. Eric Holcomb seems to have lost his patience with the loonies in his own party and elsewhere.

In the statehouse, Repubs are pushing a bill that would outlaw private employers mandating vaccinations, a mandate in itself. And Indiana, in its usual bullheaded way, continues to have one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation -- which seemed to particularly frustrate Holcomb the other day.

One could almost imagine, listening to him, that after his news conference he went off to  a soundproof room and screamed "What the (bleep) is wrong with you boneheads?!"

Goodness. It seems I've strayed down a rabbit hole here.

("No s***," you're saying)

In any case, the Bastard Plague is wrecking stuff again, even the Fenway Bowl. But at least it couldn't stop the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, where a team that went 3-6 in the Big Ten (Maryland) ball-peened a team that went 4-4 in the ACC (Virginia Tech), 54-10.

Perhaps that's a bowl game that should have been canceled. Or at least played with a running clock, please.