Common cause

 The stadium lights were ablaze at Fremont High School the other evening, even though it wasn’t Friday night and the Eagles’ next football game was a few days off.

Ninety miles to the south, meanwhile …

Ninety miles to the south, there is a vacancy this week that cannot be filled.

There is, this week, an ache in a communal soul, and a hole in a communal heart. There is an empty locker, an empty uniform; an empty place in the hallways at school, and an empty place on the practice field as the South Adams Starfires prepare to play a 1A sectional championship game tomorrow night.

The opponent is Fremont High School.

Whose stadium lights drove back the November dark to remind us that some losses, some vacancies, are universal. And that they bind us together no matter what the circumstance or occasion.

And so the lights were on at Fremont, and down in Adams County they were on, too, at Bellmont High School, where they held a prayer vigil to honor the memory of  South Adams football player Gabe Steiner, who was 16 years old and a bright light himself until Saturday night.

At a little after 10:30 that night, see, someone  sped through a stop sign at an Adams County crossroads and plowed into Steiner’s car. He was airlifted to Fort Wayne, where the docs brought the unimaginable news that Gabe Steiner — football player, wrestler, all-around all-American kid — had no brain function.

Wednesday afternoon, his parents had the machines turned off, and let him go to God. And tomorrow night, Gabe Steiner’s teammates will play a football game without him.

It’s been a grand season for the Starfires. They’re 9-2, and the only two games they’ve lost were against Eastside, an undefeated 2A team, and Bluffton, an undefeated 3A school. Ranked No.1 in the state in 1A, they’ll be the favorite against Fremont, who’s ranked 8th.

Not that it matters so much, after this week. Not that what happened at that crossroads last Saturday night hasn’t lent a different aspect to what will happen this Friday night.

When two excellent football teams will battle it out for a sectional title. And when two small communities will rediscover the common cause that knits all small communities together, no matter how fiercely they compete on 100 yards of Indiana turf.

Your home truth for today.

Some election thoughts

 So Election Day is in the rearview now, and thank God for that. No more ads from Candidate A accusing Candidate B of cheating on his taxes, rooting for the Yankees and  throwing little Timmy down the well.

Whew. Enough of THAT nonsense. Besides, everyone knows it was Vivek Ramaswamy who threw little Timmy down the well (and poisoned Lassie!)

And speaking of governor’s races …

Looks like Tommy Tuberville will not be on the list for the Florida State football job.

Instead, the old ball coach was elected governor of Alabama last night, riding a Crimson Tide of loyal  ‘Bama fans, presumably. Anything to get Coach Tommy somewhere he couldn’t beat them anymore.

See, back when Tuberville was coaching Auburn before heading off to say goofy stuff in Congress, he used to beat ‘Bama like a dusty rug. Whupped the Tide six straight times, in fact, on his way to an 85-40 record in 10 seasons with the Tigers.

Now he’s in the governor’s office — where, in honor of the late George Wallace’s time in that chair, he’ll be standing in the schoolhouse door of coherence or some such thing. This is based on his track record in Congress, where he would periodically surface to call American Muslims terrorists, praise white nationalists and say transgender Americans were mentally ill.

But, hey. At least he won’t be coaching Florida State next season. Or Auburn, for that matter.

Which is surely cause for celebration in Tuscaloosa. 

The state capitol (Montgomery) is 103 miles away, after all. Not even Coach Tommy can kick the Tide around from there.

Youth is served

 Formula One racing may or may not be on your radar these days (“Formula what? Formula who?” you’re saying now), but the other day something fairly significant, and even historic, happened.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli clinched the world championship.

He’s not a high school kid, But he’s not much beyond it, either.

At 20, he’s already in his third season in F1, which kinda officially makes him a prodigy. And, at 20, he’s the youngest F1 champion by a staggering three-plus years.

Know what else?

He!s also the first Italian driver to win the F1 title in 73 years.

Hard to believe? Of course it’s hard to believe.

I mean, you’d have thought Enzo Ferrari would have put fellow Italian in one of his smokin’ Italian Ferraris enough times in the 73 years to put an Italian atop F1 before now. But, nah. Hasn’t happened since 1953, when the great Alberto Ascari won the title in, yes, a Ferrari.

Ascari and Giuseppe Farina, by the way, were the only Italians to win an F1 title before Antonelli came along. Again, hard to believe.

Not anymore. Antonelli won five straight Grand Prix early in the season and nine of the first 19 to outdistance the field. He’ll likely do it again before he’s done, given what an early jump he’s gotten.

Hats off to him. And to youth, once again served.

Your Little Guy news for today

 Raise a glass this morning East Texas A&M University, a school of which you’ve never heard from a place of which you’ve never heard — Commerce, Tex., which sits northeast of Dallas pretty darn close to the Red River that separates Texas and Oklahoma.

Speaking of the latter, here’s why you should raise a glass to ET A&M:

‘Cause the Lions went up to Norman last night and beat the mighty Oklahoma University Sooners in men’s basketball.

Yes, sir. Took down the Sooners 68-64. Never trailed after the 12:59 mark of the first half. Entered the game as a 28.5-point underdog.

Which figured, because Oklahoma has an enrollment of 40,000 and had been playing D-I basketball for 118 years.

East Texas A&M has an enrollment of just over 8,000. The Lions have been D-I for just five years.

So here’s to the little guy. May he always loom large.

A few brief thoughts on NFL Week 8

 And now this week’s edition of The NFL In So Many Words, the bookish Blob feature of whose many titles critics have said “Why doncha have a book titled ‘The Day This Feature Exploded In A Million Tiny Shards’”, and also “How ‘bout I drop this copy of ‘War and Peace’ on your foot?”:

1. Lil’ Jerry And The Sad, Sad Day (In which Jerry Jones watches his Dallas Cowboys blow a 14-point lead at home in the fourth quarter and lose in overtime to, oh my God, the Arizona Cardinals.)

2. Your Indianapolis Colts And The Even Sadder Day (In which the Colts, infested with dry rot, lose 42-7 to the Jaguars, prompting Colts fans to realize their season is over with nine games to play.)

3. The Hungry, Hungry Lion (In which the Detroit Lions, after much scratching and clawing, devour the NFL’s last unbeaten team, the Minnesota Vikings, which causes ancient Dolphins like Larry Csonka to cavort merrily in their Florida home.)

4. Baker And The Rainy Day (In which Baker Mayfield fails to complete a single pass but his Buccaneers beat the Atlanta Falcons anyway in a massive Florida deluge.)

5. Beware! Beware! It’s An Angry Bear!  (In which the Chicago Bears attack Seattle, devour the Space Needle, ravage the Pike Street Market and tear the Seahawks a new one on Monday Night Football, 34-17.)

6. Magic Beans? Magic Beans? (Bleep) Your Magic Beans!  (In which the Pittsburgh Steelers dine as usual on the mysteriously resurgent Cleveland Browns, knocking them down, kicking their schoolbooks into the gutter and, yes, stealing their magic beans.)

7. The Jets! The Jets! What An Awful Mess! (In which the New York Jets lost again, blowing a nine-point third quarter lead at home to the LAs Vegsas Raiders, themselves had lost four straight games.)

8. The Very Happy Bronco (In which the Denver Broncos run wild and free past rival Kansas City as the chiefs blow an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter.

9. The Very Unhappy Chief (See above.)

10. Bengal Joe And The Very Close Call (In which Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals need overtime at home to beat the, oh my God, Tennessee Titans.

Sis-boom-BLAM

 Gray Monday morning in November — is there any other kind of Monday morning in November? — and the Blob is feeling a bit nostalgic. Remember when your college won a big football game, and your first reaction was this?

Woo-hoo! My college just won a big football game! Let’s tear down the goalposts, parade them through campus and then drink until we barf!

Ah, the memories …

Now?

Now, apparently, the reaction is somewhat different.

Woo-hoo! My college just won a big college football game! Let’s grab our Glocks and go shoot somebody!

Which is what happened down on Kirkwood in Bloomington  Saturday night, after Indiana escaped unranked Minnesota in overtime to win its Homecoming game. Everyone spilled into the night to celebrate, and then, because this is now America the Insane, some lint brain pulled out his piece and started shooting.

Seven people were wounded. Thankfully no one died.

That wasn’t the case outside Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala., where, also last weekend, HBCU schools Alabama State and Alabama A&M  played the Magic City Classic, a tradition that goes back over a century.

Afterward, in the adjacent bar district, some other lint brain pulled out his piece and opened fire. One person died and eight more were wounded.

And here is where I want to shout, for the umpteen-hundredth time, “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??”

I want to shout that. But I’ve found it does no good, and, besides, I already know what’s wrong.

What’s wrong is this country lost its mind over guns decades ago, and the butcher’s bill just keeps coming due. Columbine. Sandy Hook. Uvalde. Virginia Tech. A McDonald’s in California … a cafeteria in Texas … a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. … a synagogue in Pittsburgh … 

On and on. And on. And on.

Used to be people owned firearms to hunt and sport shoot and, yes, as personal protection, but it was considered bad form to parade around with them in the local Piggly Wiggly. But that was when we still had the sense God gave a goose.

Now, though, we’ve got politicians wearing AR-15 pins on their lapels next to their American flag pins. We’ve got them sending out Christmas cards — Christmas cards!  — in which the whole family is posing with military-grade ordinance, like some loony mashup of “Leave It To Beaver” and “Full Metal Jacket.” 

We’ve got open carry laws and concealed carry laws and police geared up like Seal Team Six, and masked federales disappearing people to God knows where with the full authority of the government.

The other day, instead of arresting her like a real law enforcement officer would, one of these goons sent a woman armed only with an umbrella flying six feet through the air because she was blocking a government vehicle. And half the country thought it was greatest thing they’d ever seen.

When did we become that kind of country?

When did we become a country that cheered for the bully, scooped up its Sig Sauer as casually as the car keys for a trip to the supermarket, thought it was just part of the fun to shoot people after the big game?

 When did sis-boom-bah become sis-boom-BLAM?

I don’t know. And at this point, I’m too tired and  disgusted to care much anymore.

You do you, America the Insane. Me?

Excuse the language, but I’ll just try to stay out of your crazy goddamned way.

Last gasp-ing

 Some questions for this morning, as everyone in Bloomington, In., searches for the breath they ran out of last evening …

* Is Paddy McAteer the new Keith Smart?

* Will your Indiana Hoosiers score more than two touchdowns against Bye next week?

* Did someone mistakenly leave an extra numeral off the “4” in the Hoosiers’ ranking?

And the most intriguing question of all …

* Did the Bucket game just get a lot more interesting?

I say the last because the Minnesota team Indiana needed a 60-yard field goal and overtime to escape yesterday is the same Minnesota team Purdue trucked 41-13 less than a month ago. Yeah, the Boilermakers lost  31-17  at Penn State yesterday, but they’re obviously a much better football team than the tarpaper shack they’ve been the last couple of years.

During which they lost to Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers 66-0 and 56-3. I’m guessing it won’t be quite the same annihilation this time around.

Because, yes, this is not the same Purdue team, but it’s not the same Indiana team, either. Fernando Mendoza is no longer there to save every day with a surgical strike to Elijah Sarratt or Omar Cooper Jr.; yesterday it was backup quarterback Grant Wilson who had to do that.

Wilson came on at halftime to relieve Josh Hoover, who as knocked out of the game after taking a brutal shot to his already-injured throwing arm. So when the Golden Gophers cashed a long field goal with 19 seconds to play, it was Wilson who trotted out to pull off a miracle.

Be honest now. Is there anyone out there, no matter how much cream and crimson was pumping through their veins, who didn’t think the Hoosiers were finished?

Well, they WEREN’T.  

Because here came Wilson, immediately winging a 31-yard strike to Charlie Becker. Then he escaped a collapsing pocket to find Nick Marsh. And when the drive stalled, here came McAteer to do his Keith Smart thing.

Not with a baseline jumper, though. Oh, hell, no.

This time Indiana was 60 yards away and done like disco. Except McAteer stepped up and blasted the football straight down the pipe as time expired to force overtime.

After which (of course!) Wilson immediately threw a touchdown pass to Becker. And the Indiana D sacked the Minnesota quarterback on fourth-and-goal from the 4 to end it.

Indiana 23, Minnesota 16. And another round of last gasp-ing from what’s apparently God’s favorite football team these days, Notre Dame notwithstanding.

Cignetti joked that his Hoosiers were just trying to be entertaining, seeing how it was Homecoming and all, but he surely knows this team isn’t championship material. They’ll likely move up to third after USC clotheslined No. 2 Ohio State last night, but objectively that’s a good deal more lofty address than they should be occupying.

However …

Now they’ve got a bye week to heal up. And to refocus. And it couldn’t come at a better time.

Because you know who the Hoosiers get in two weeks?

The same USC team that beat Ohio State last night.

In other words: Buckle up.