I think today was the hardest day so far.
Perhaps it was the rainy weather.
Perhaps it was the realization that after being in quarantine with my wife and kids for the last 10 days, this is just the beginning.
Perhaps it was the realization that my wife and I aren't totally prepared to have our kids at home as much as they are about to be, without the aid of camps or friends or playdates or indoor playhouses on which to lean.
Perhaps it was just the fear of the next two weeks and what might await us, especially with regards to our health care system, hospitals and medical field workers.
Perhaps it was because Kenny Rogers died.
Perhaps it was just the fear of my own mortality, as a person that might not be in the age group of those most impacted by the coronavirus, but certainly someone that lives in the next area code over.
It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know that it was obviously a combination of all those things and more. This Coronavirus thing isn't easier or getting any easier. We're living in unprecedented times, a moment that will live on in the history books for all-time and it's impossible to know exactly what the end of this thing is going to look like.
There will be moments in all of this that will prove to be quite heavy on our heart and souls, which means that if we're not all careful, there's a chance we'll get pulled under by the riptide of daily news that comes at us in nonstop social media fashion.
I'd be lying if I tried to pretend the riptide wasn't pulling on me strongly on Sunday morning. All I was feeling was an overwhelming sense of sadness.
And then I saw a video that completely changed my mood.
Fifty-two Cuban doctors were boarding a flight to Italy to join a fight halfway across the world because the moment called for it. These healthcare workers were jumping headfirst into a war zone that is absolutely taking the lives of healthcare workers because as horrible as we can be as humans at times, the truth of the matter about the human condition is that we often don't see the best of our species until the shit truly hits the fan.
Oh, we'll fight each over so many silly things, but if a baby falls into a well, we'll put it all behind us in the blink of an eye to save that child. Same with a neighbor that's in need. Or in the case of Orangebloods.com, an entire message board of occasional in-fighting can turn into the most beautiful weapon against adversity for anyone of us that might be in need.
For all of the negative names I'm occasionally called, the truth of the matter is that I'm a hopeless romantic. I'll watch An Officer and a Gentleman just to see Zack Mayo carry Paula out of the plant. I love Christmas movies because of the uplifting moment that occurs in each one that will make me feel better about the world. I'm a sucker for any video of an animal pretty much doing anything that's cute, courageous or loving.
Those doctors instantly sent the jolt or inspiration that I needed to remind me that the human spirit is one hell of a powerful thing when it's motivated to be at its best and that's where we are right now. The human spirit is being challenged and by God, if the doctors from Cuba are any indication of what is inside of all us across the global society, we're not going to come up short.
It won't be easy. There will be moments when the stress gets to all of us, but we'll be there to pick each other up because that's where our instincts take us when the shit hits the fan. For most of my lifetime, I've listened and read about the "greatest generation" and its unflappable will to persevere through hard times.
Eight years later, this is our chance. Faced with a crisis never quite seen in the history of our planet, this is a chance for us as people to create a new standard for which we'll hold future generations up to. We're already seeing the rise to the moment attitude throughout our country and the rest of the world, as nurses and doctors everywhere work against relentless hours and conditions in the name of leaving no person behind. We've seen it with stories of scientists making waves in the battle against the disease. Heroes are doing heroic things.
For a moment today, I had forgotten about all of that and let myself get lost in some of what my piece of discomfort in all of this might look like.
Yet, those Cuban doctors snapped me out of that funk real quick. There's work to be done and we all have to be willing pieces of the machine that attempts to accomplish that work. One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, the romantic inside of me tells me that we'll talk much more about the heroism we'll witness in the coming days, weeks and months than any selfishness over toilet paper that has sometimes dominated recent headlines.
Of course, that's the romantic in me telling me that.
And our history, too.
No. 2 - Let's talk about the 2020 season ...
I don't have any idea what kind of time frame we're on with regards to the upcoming season, but there is one thing I'm 100-percent certain of ... we're going to have a 2020 season.
It might start on schedule or it might start a month later or it might start five months later, but we're going to have a 2020 football season.
There's just too much money at stake.
If there's no season in the fall, then none of the TV partners committed to paying hundreds of millions in TV contracts will have to pay those funds and while there are insurance policies connected to these contracts that would help the colleges depending on this TV money to fund all of college athletics, it's a mere fraction compared to the overall revenue being counted on all across the country.
When you consider that football pays the bills of every non-revenue sport for almost every college in the country, losing that television revenue would leave potentially critical financial damage everywhere. It's one of the reasons why the Premier League in soccer is committed to finishing out its season, no matter when the season might continue ... it simply doesn't want to forfeit the TV revenue that will be lost if 20 percent of its schedule (and TV programming around the world) goes right out the window.
So, while the details might remain fuzzy for months, just know that by hook or crook, we'll have a football season at some point in 2020.
Or else.
No. 3 - Story-time with Uncle Ketch ...
Although I can't quite recall the exact date, I can remember exactly where I was.
It was in the final week of 1998, less than seven days from Texas playing Mississippi State in the Cotton Bowl when I received a 10 a.m. phone call from a recruiting reporter working for David Garvin by the named of Gerry Hamilton. At the time I was working as a sports producer/content creator for the local CBS affiliate KEYE-42 and Hamilton and I had hit it off as young people just getting our start in the recruiting industry.
Hamilton had heard from a source that the single biggest recruiting news in the history of Texas football recruiting was about to go down - quarterback Chris Simms was going to flip his commitment from Tennessee to Texas.
More than 20 years later, it's almost hard to describe how much bigger the world felt when Simms was the nation's No. 1 recruit in 1999 and the recruiting industry was dominated by 900-number content that generated nightly recruiting updates for only five bucks a minute. Without social media and the explosion of Rivals.com in the early 2000s, the reputation of big-time recruits was often reported with nothing more than the written or spoken word. It often felt like out of state players were the second coming of Paul Bunyan when compared to the mere mortals you'd happen to have seen in person or perhaps in a 10-second highlight clip.
Simms was like Lance Harbor X 100. In the aftermath of Peyton Manning's historic career at Tennessee, here was the next son of a former Super Bowl MVP, ready to take the torch as college football's next golden boy star. Hey, did you hear about the time at an Ohio State camp when he threw the ball so hard that it broke the hand of his intended receiver? Did you hear about the time he practiced with the Giants and some of the players felt like he was ready for the NFL? Had you seen the NFL Films feature with Simms and his old man?
It's impossible these days to stress the amount of hype that was on Simms as a high school prospect and when he announced in early December on a regional news channel in New York that he was committing to Tennessee, there was a deflating feeling in Austin because there was a definite sense from those on Mack Brown's staff that the Longhorns had very nearly nabbed him. As Brown was primed to go on a recruiting heater in the final eight weekend of his first recruiting class, the only thing missing was the national-level difference-maker that would create the avalanche of momentum that was needed to kick-start it all. There's no question Simms would have been that guy, but Brown appeared to have been the bridesmaid on the most important prospect of his lifetime.
Except, Hamilton was confirming the rumors that we had been discussing for the last week or so, which centered on Simms regretting his decision to commit to the Vols.
The word was about to get out.
Over the course of the next two weeks, Simms' reignited love for the Longhorns became the worst-kept secret in recruiting.
On the day that future Texas All-American Rod Babers announced his commitment to Texas at a press conference in front of the school in early January, Babers, Hamilton and I were all talking afterwards about the looming flip of Simms to Texas when Texas assistant coach Tim Brewster motioned for Babers to come over to him. When Babers went over to talk to him, Brewster told him not to talk about Simms with us.
Too late, Tim. He was worried we might have learned about something that we had not only known about for weeks, but talked to all of his recruiting targets about it as well. It was just impossible for that secret to stay under wraps.
About a week later, it happened. Simms flipped to Texas. Combined with Ricky Williams winning the Heisman about six weeks earlier, the commitment of the USA Today's Offensive Player of the Year cemented Brown's goal of turning the Texas brand from something that was regional into something that could pull in the most famous quarterback prospect of all-time out of New Jersey.
Less than 10 days later, the USA Today's Defensive Player of the Year, a prospect named Cory Redding from North Shore High School, committed to the Longhorns as well.
The avalanche had occurred. Brown had signed the greatest recruiting class that any Texas college had signed in the modern era of college recruiting in the Lone Star State.
What's funny about the Simms flip is that he did it with so much less fanfare than when he originally announced for Tennessee that I barely remember much from the day he officially committed to Texas other than using the highlight film from that announcement again for our 10 p.m. sportscast that night for KEYE. Instead, what I remember most about it all was the conversation that Hamilton and I had.
It was probably one of the first true insider moments of our career and I remember us both just being excited by the sheer mind-blowing nature of it all. The only thing missing from that moment was one of these.
No. 4 - Speaking of all-time great prospects ...
After seeing this on Sunday afternoon, I figured a few minutes of Vince Young highlights from the 2001 high school football players deserved its own section.
Enjoy.
No. 5 - The season Shaka has waited his entire life for ...
I know that it's easy to get down on Texas basketball. God knows that the last decade has given you lots of reasons for pessimism.
Still, there's a part of me that can't help but look at all of the returning pieces from this season, along with the possible addition of Greg Brown III, and wonder whether Shaka Smart might have the roster of his dreams.
We're talking about a team led by a senior point guard that has already saved his coach's job once, a freshman sensation that might be as talented of an incoming freshman as the Longhorns have ever seen outside of Kevin Durant, and an assortment of sophomores, juniors and seniors that have all contributed in a lot of different ways this season.
On paper, it looks very promising.
If it can't happen next year, I guess it just isn't ever going to happen.
No. 6 – BUY or SELL …
(Buy) Is that Greg Brown III's new nickname? I like it.
(Buy) I'll go on a baby limb with this one, not a big one .... but ... buy.
(Buy) I feel like I'm stepping further out on that limb.
(Buy) Nice job finding a silver lining in there!
(Sell) I think we're going to emerge from this sports blackout with a newfound thirst and respect for just how much we love them. Maybe we've taken everything for granted for too long. We won't when this is over.
(Sell) I don't believe in the NCAA to do anything smart. They'll make this way more complicated than it needs to be.
(Buy) Of course. Texas has a big edge this year with not only having the best quarterback in the league, but maybe the best player in the conference. It should matter.
(Buy) Hey, man ... whatever it takes to whet the appetite ... do it.
(Sell) I think we'll actually see the opposite. Elite coaching will prove to be more important than ever.
(Sell) Give me Brackens over Kindle and Akins over Ford. I'm going to need a week to consider the Davis vs. Rogers battle royal because that feels like an absolute coin flip.
No. 7 - Eternal Randomness of the Spotty Sports Mind ...
... Perhaps the NFL should have moved its year back a month or two, but I have to admit that the news from this week was sorely needed from my standpoint. It made the world feel normal at a time when very little is normal. Has it been strange? Oh yeah. Have I enjoyed it? Yes I sheepishly admit to enjoying all of it.
... I don't know what we're supposed to expect of Tom Brady in Tampa in 2020, but I am 100-percent here for it. It's absolutely fascinating.
... Don't get me wrong, I don't hate what the Cowboys have done in free agency thus far, I'm just not sure what difference it's supposed to make. Forgive me for not being a believer.
... Darius Slay arriving in Philly feels problematic for Amari Cooper and the Cowboys when you consider that Slay has mostly put Cooper into his hip pocket the last few times the two have played against each other.
... Kyler Murray has zero excuses. The talent around him is obscene.
No. 8 - Three Things I did in Quarantine this week...
a. I knocked out all of season one of "Hunters" on Amazon Prime in less than two days. I'm not sure how many stars I'd give it, but I liked it enough to stay up until after 3 a.m. to finish the final two episodes instead of waiting until the next day to finish it. It's kind of a poor man's version of Inglorious Bastards, but it turned out that a poor man's version of Inglorious Bastards was right up my alley.
b. Watched 11 episodes of ER's first season this weekend on Hulu. Man, I forgot how much I loved all of the characters on the show. From John Carter to Peter Benton to Doug Ross to Susan Lewis to Carol Hathaway to all of the quirky little characters surrounding them. It might take me the entire Coronavirus timeframe to watch all 11 seasons, but I'm in.
c. Listened to 10 different Kenny Rogers albums.
d. Only crossed paths with only two people outside my home all weekend (basically one per day) and still felt really icky about it.
e. Joined a virtual Club Party on Instagram.
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Kenny Rogers songs ...
One of the great connections I had with my great grandmother as a small kid growing up in Waco was a mutual love of Kenny Rogers.
Growing up in the 80s, Rogers was one of the coolest dudes in my world. Not only was he The Gambler, but all of the women loved him. Not only did he have one of the best beard games of all time, but he was close friends with Lionel Richie. Not only did he do duets, but he did the BEST duets.
And my grandmother and I loved him in the movie "Six-Pack." I can't tell you how many times I've seen the movie, but I can tell you it was a lot and every time we watched it together, we laughed together. Honestly, it's one of the favorite memories I have with her.
So, yeah, I was sad to wake up Saturday morning to lean that Rogers had passed away at the age of 81. They just don't make them like Kenny Rogers, any more. With that said, here's my top 10 Rogers songs.
10. Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
9. Don't Fall in Live With a Dreamer
8. Lucille
7. She Believes in Me
6. Coward of the County
5. We've Got Tonight
4. Love Will Turn You Around
3. Islands in the Stream
2. Lady
1. The Gambler
No.10 - And finally...
The time Kenny Rogers and Michael Jordan went to toe to toe in the greatest exhibition game of basketball ever played.
Enjoy.
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