REAL COOL STORIES (week ended 1/26/19)
In sports – The outcry over the blown call (or calls) on a play late in the game between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams has been staggering.
If you missed the play, I will recap. With 1:49 to go in the game on a third and 10 from the Rams 13-yard line, Rams DB Nickell Robey-Coleman clearly interfered with Saint WR Tommylee Lewis. In addition, Robey-Coleman launched himself to make a helmet-to-helmet hit – another penalty. NEITHER ONE WAS CALLED. By the way, the NFL fined Robey-Coleman $26,739 for the helmet-to-helmet hit this week.
The Saints kicked a field goal to take the lead but left plenty of time for the Rams to tie the game late and ultimately win in overtime.
NFL representatives acknowledged the blown call to Saints coach Sean Payton.
Since the game lawsuits have been filed, the governor of Louisiana (John Bel Edwards) has sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell complaining about the call and every talking head in the sports world has dropped in their two cents. A New Orleans fan has bought billboard space in Atlanta (home of the Super Bowl) with “Sainted got robbed” and “NFL bleaux it”. ,Just today, news reports noted that four members of the officiating crew have southern California ties.
My thoughts – there is no way to completely take the human element out of the game. The NFL has continued to make changes, use instant replay on scoring plays and turnovers, and has a coaches’ challenge system on other plays. Can they do more? Maybe, but the flow of the game is suffering to “try to get the right call”. The reviews talk way too much time which counters what the NFL has been trying to do to shorten game times. Adding more rules, challenges, reviews will only increase the game times and reduce the game flow.
Good luck to the NFL in making positive, good changes! For the Saints the result must be tough to swallow.
A real cool story for the Rams and their fans. On to the Super Bowl!
In life – I had dinner last night with some out of town friends. It is always fun to catch up and discuss life, kids, vacations, memories, etc.
We had a conversation about their daughter, Jamie. She is a dance studio owner and fabulous instructor. We were just chatting about how the studio is doing and some of the challenges of running the daily operations.
Then, we hit a great human interest story. Growing up Jamie had a family that was almost like a second family. The dad in that family was Joe. Joe loved dancing.
Unfortunately, Joe has early onset Alzheimer’s disease. As Joe’s mental capacity diminished, he asked Jamie to visit him every week to dance. Jamie goes to the nursing home every Friday to dance with Joe. It is truly a pleasure for him (and Jamie!).
A real, cool story! Way to go Jamie!