An NFL Reflex

I don't think I've alluded to it since my initial 'blog post, but I spent 25 years, full-time and part-time, as a newspaper journalist/sportswriter/photographer. Concurrently (in part), I also have been a charter, season-ticket holder of the Tennessee Titans since their advent in this state as the Oilers in 1997, and was one of their 'beat writers' for four years. Thus, I have some experience that, while not integral, does make me conversant with the league and team, and their players.
That said, here's what I expect from the 2009 final weekend (albeit, played in 2010), and beyond:

• Titans running back Chris Johnson, who likely will be the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, WILL break the record for yards from scrimmage (rushing and receiving), but is 50:50 to gain the 128 running yards needed to achieve the 1,000-yard plateau (he would be just the sixth back to do it) in Seattle Sunday (the Seahawks' rush defense is pretty good!); his odds are no better than 1:5 of gaining the 234 he'll need to eclipse Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing mark.
• The New York Jets will benefit from two 'bye' weeks -- competing against 'resting' Indianapolis and Cincinnati -- to gain an AFC wild-card berth, and will become the tangible evidence that charging full NFL ticket prices for both pre-season and post-clinching football games is a leading factor in lengthening the NFL schedule. If the fans are going to pay 'meaningful' (to them) prices, the games better damn well be meaningful, too!
• The Detroit Lions will become the most-improved team in the history of the league, winning two games after a winless season in 2008. That's a .125 winning percentage, against one of .000 last year. Thus, the Lions are infinitely better than they were. But, wait till next year!

'Happy' New Year! (sigh)...

...Yeah, that's the definition of a day late and a dollar short, isn't it? Really, I wish I could do better.
There are a bunch of factors in my personal dread of the coming year:

• personally, one year ago, I was debt-free and putting aside a full one-third of my income monthly as savings and/or discretionary spending! Today, after buying a house last March -- and taking on the accompanying mortgage -- trading in my car for a newer model in August, and acceding to a couple of low-limit credit cards amidst all that, I have more debt than ever (though more assets, too!). Don't get me wrong, I love my house and feel lucky to be here. It's the best place I've ever lived besides the farm I grew up on. But, my financial options are tied in knots...
• I'm as un-enamored with our current federal administration as I expected to be when Barack Obama was elected president. He is everything I thought him to be: inexperienced, and arrogant about it (meaning he doesn't realize how out-of-his-league he is)!; left-wing to the border of Socialism; personally aloof, which along with his arrogance, almost makes you want him to fail until you realize it's MY COUNTRY, too, he'd be failing!; his failings are coming into view early, giving him plenty of time to recover before seeking re-election (Americans have such short, optimistic memories!) -- and 8 years of this sort of government may be fatally irreversible.
• I truly don't know what to do about money, which I fear will soon be almost worthless with the inevitable hyper-inflation that so many protest today won't really happen. Well, yes, it will! We've been pumping up the money supply since at least 1994, at a rate far out-stripping employment and productivity. I don't blame it on Obama, specifically -- it began with George H.W. Bush's 'no new taxes' dishonesty, and has continued through three presidencies since! -- but the current lack of realism about budgets and deficits is beyond scary. So, I don't know whether to hold cash in the safe, buy canned goods and non-perishables, lay in more ammo, or just spend it all and man the barricades! I DO have a long-tenured, public-employment job (teaching), so I may be able to ride out the high unemployment -- which will allow me to pay back my mortgage with worthless dollars! Alas, you might also find my starving, dessicated body on the living room floor.
• We've spent eight years and thousands of American lives opposing an implacable, Islamist foe to Western democracy, and are now led by political entities who think if you play nice and fair with it, it will respond in kind. If we wind up suffering terrorist victims in large numbers at home or in allied lands, how will we stand the guilt and regret that it would have been better to spend those lives gaining ground on some foreign battlefield toward irradicating the threat for future generations?
  

All in all, I expect 2010 to be a regrettable year. If I am wrong -- and I hope almost beyond hope that I am! -- I pray that I am around at its end to make amends. That is, I'm afraid, my best wish for you and yours, too.