Forgiveness.
It's a word I found myself thinking about quite a bit over Easter weekend. As someone that is always trying to evolve as a person, forgiveness might be one of the last remaining hurdles I have to clear if I'm ever going to achieve some level of "best version of myself" before my time is eventually up.
Typically, I find myself subscribing to the "forgive, but never forget" line of forgiveness thinking, which when you really think about it, really isn't forgiving at all.
After all, I'm the person that hasn't gone into a Mighty Fine Burgers location in 12 years after there was an attempt to fix the great Best Burger in Austin contest of 2010 when I still worked at The Horn in Austin. I suppose there are a number of examples of my grudge-holding over perceived misdeeds or slights that have accumulated over the years, but this is always the one that sticks out in my mind.
Mighty Fine didn't actually do anything to me. It just didn't want to lose a Best Burger contest on a radio station that it spent money with to a burger joint that didn't advertise on the station. On the surface, that's really not a crazy request or concern, yet I convinced myself in the summer of 2010 that the purity of the contest and the grass roots campaigns of a few of the places involved was critically important to protect.
Twelve years later, I find myself asking how on earth such a perceived slight could still live inside of me?
Maybe I'm not nearly as good at the idea of forgiveness as I apparently pretend to be. More than anything, having such a hard-line position over something so trivial feels more like pettiness and I can safely say that I don't want to be a petty person.
Yet, I have blind spots inside of me that definitely bring a side of pettiness out of me. I'll give you another example. I've got a very good friend of mine that I've known for almost four decades, but we've barely talked in the last year since I moved to The Woodlands because I realized that I was always the one that called him on the phone and not the other way around. I got into my feelings about it all because I felt like I deserved to be checked on from time to time, and not always the one doing the checking on. Therefore, I decided that I wouldn't call him again until he first called me.
The result? We just haven't spoken at all in almost a year, which feels like a big loss as I write this sentence. All because I couldn't forgive him for being the type of person that isn't wired to pick up the phone and call me, for whatever reasons.
You're probably wondering where I'm going with all of this. Well, it has a lot to do with former Alabama wide receiver Agiye Hall, who visited Texas this weekend with his family after departing the Crimson Tide program last week.
As a teenager in the Alabama program, Hall struggled to make the adjustment to college football and the expectations that come along with being a scholarship athlete under a head coach that doesn't put up with a lot of shenanigans. Understand that while Hall displayed maturity issues that seemed to leave Nick Saban incredibly frustrated with him, no actual legal issues appear to be on his life resume.
Did he struggle to buy in to the Saban way? Yes. Did he frustrate his Alabama teammates? Yes. Does he need to grow the hell up some wherever he makes his next stop? Without question.
Is any of that stuff such a misdeed that it can't be forgiven and forgotten (to a degree)? Probably not.
What would have happened to me if I had lived in a world that wouldn't forgive back in October of 1993 when I started a fire in a trash can in the stands of a JV football game in an attempt to stay warm, only to see the out of control toxic fireball blow onto the field, leaving a trail of scorched earth behind it until one of my McCallum coaches could put it out with a bucket of Gatorade as about 100 people watched from the stands in horror?
I could have gone to jail that night. Maybe I should have. Instead, I found a world without social media that was willing to give me a chance to not to be defined by my own immaturity and stupidity.
Look, there's a case to be made that Texas already has enough immature teenagers and young people in its football program, which is one of the reasons why it has been unable to get out of its own way for the last 12 seasons. In a vacuum, adding another player with immaturity issues seems to be the kind of decision that could get the current Texas coaching staff in trouble.
But, let me let you in on a little secret ... almost every teenager has maturity issues and "needs to grow up" when he or she heads to college. Just this weekend, I spent time with a teenager that called her dad on the phone from college and told him that she was in jail. She hung up and turned off her phone. It turns out that she wasn't in jail at all and was likely crying out for some form of attention. Or help. Was her father going to never speak with her again? Shun her from the family?
Of course not.
Likewise, part of the job of a college football coach is helping young men turn the corner of this whole "trying to grow up" phase of their lives. When the rest of the 2022 recruiting class arrives on campus on June 1, it will almost certainly include a few young men that will struggle with a variety of issues that the Texas coaching staff will have to help them manage. Again, it's a big part of the job.
It's up to the coaches to know whether a young man can be tamed and whether they are part of the thing that can ultimately help tame them. Believe me, the coaches know the stakes, especially when they are coming off a 5-7 season. If Hall comes into the Texas program and proves to be a problem, it'll be on the coaches that miscalculated the situation and the circumstances that came with it.
For now, I find myself rooting that Hall figures it out while he still has time. It has been said that the saddest thing in life is wasted talent and there's no doubt this young man has a lot of talent. I don't know about the rest of you, but I want the dreams of all these young people to come true.
Even after they've made mistakes.
If it doesn't work out for Hall, let's not let our inability to give him forgiveness be the reason for it. Instead, let's allow forgiveness to be the launching pad for his ability to succeed. It's exactly the kind of thing that he'll be able to pay forward one day when he's an adult and using his own life history to determine what kind of person he's going to be.
Signed,
The teenager that set a football field on fire while a game was taking place and didn't have his immaturity become the thing that ultimately defined him.
p.s. - You'll have to excuse me for a moment while I have a phone call to make.
No. 2 - About the transfers ...
Things are looking mighty fine right now with TCU defensive end transfer Ochaun Mathis and Hall, so much so that it will probably be a big surprise if they don't end up in a Texas uniform in the fall.
Just as a reminder, the Longhorns are allowed by NCAA rules to take up to 32 incoming players for the 2022 recruiting class because of the new NCAA rule that allows you to take up to seven more (25 +7) incoming players if you have at least seven outgoing players in the portal, which Texas does. When you add in the extra scholarship that the Longhorns had left over from the 2021 recruiting class, it gives the Longhorns a total of 33 scholarships to work with.
That's it. It's not a number that becomes fluid if you have more departures. More departures will help the program get under the 85-man scholarship number, which has to be done by August, but it doesn't change the fact that the Longhorns are restricted to 33 incoming players.
The Longhorns signed 28 high school prospects in December/February and brought in four transfers in January, which has them sitting at 32.
If the Longhorns choose to add more than one more player from the portal, it'll likely need one (or more) of the remaining freshmen that hasn't yet enrolled into school to delay his enrollment until January of 2023. I've called the NCAA directly about this in an effort to learn any information that might allow for some wiggle room and I've been told there isn't any.
Here's a look at the scholarship board as it currently stands.
(Note: Redshirt freshman Ishmael Ibraheem is currently suspended from the program and isn't listed on the scholarship board, but there are signs behind the scenes that he could soon return if/when he resolves
his current legal issue. As it stands (without Ibraheem), the Longhorns will need four players to depart the program in the coming months in order to get under the 85-man number and that's before you add in another transfer to reach the maximum 33-man number for incoming players).
View attachment 2558
No. 3 - Scattershooting on Texas football ...
... Agiye Hall has four career catches under his belt, will have missed the entire off-season and will need to learn a new offense/terminology if/when he arrives on the 40 Acres. It's not exactly the profile of a kid that will definitely push the duo of Marcus Washington and Isaiah Neyor out of the way for playing time, which means he appears to be an investment for the future more than a search for an immediate super contributor. With Washington scheduled to depart following his senior season, along with Neyor and Jordan Whittington eying the NFL if they can post big numbers this season, it's possible that only Xavier Worthy will return from the team's top four receiving options in 2022. That means that Hall could be in a position to be the no-doubt-about-it starter in eight months.
... Kudos to Marcus Washington for performing at a high enough level this spring, including Saturday's scrimmage, that it's probably not a slam dunk that Neyor takes his j-o-b by week one of the season. It might be long overdue for us to give that young man ... wait for it ... some damn respect.
... The value of Ochaun Mathis? Let's start with the fact that if he comes to Texas, I'll set the number of sacks for him this season at 7.5. On the other hand, I'm not sure there's another player on the team that I'd set 3.5 as the number for this season with expected sacks. Maybe Ovie Oghoufo, but I can't say that with much certainty.
... Ja'Tavian Sanders is having a better spring than I imagined he'd have. I'll admit now that I was a little concerned about him following last season, but this young man is starting to spread his wings and soar.
... Players on the team seem very excited about the progress being made this spring by both Quinn Ewers and Hudson Card. That's a good thing.
No. 4 - The state of Texas and the upcoming NFL Draft ...
I took a look at a couple of mock drafts this week, including
one from former Orangebloods contributor Lance Zierlein,
another from TheAthletic's Diante Lee and a final
one from ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr.
The only Texans I could find projected in the first round in all three mocks were the following:
I don't really have a lot of commentary on the findings other than to say...
a. It's not a monster year at the top of the draft with talent from the state of Texas.
b. Recruiting elite prospects matters a lot.
No. 5 - Get the hell out of Kansas as fast as possible ...
What are we supposed to say about what happened to the Texas baseball team this weekend in Manhattan after the worst team in the conference took two out of three games away from a team with conference championship (and higher) aspirations?
Maybe the first thing we should acknowledge is that this has been a bit of a crazy year in the world of college baseball. Ranked teams have struggled every weekend in the sport and this weekend wasn't any different. In fact, there were so many upsets that those that do the rankings weren't even sure how to make a Top 10 when this happens.
Establishing that the sport is a bit upside down as a whole this season out of the way, there's no question that the Texas baseball program is in a bit of a funk. After starting the season 11-0, Texas has sported a 15-12 record in its last 27 games, including a 6-5 record in Big 12 play, which isn't exactly the stuff of champions.
Nine of the next 10 games are at home, including three-game series against Baylor and Oklahoma State. While I’m not putting a time frame on when this team needs to put Humpty Dumpty back together again before the post-season arrives, this window over the next two weeks is probably as good of a time for this team to rediscover its winning ways or it's possible that it just won't happen this season.
It's kind of as simple as that.
No. 6 - No Moral Victory this time ...
Coming into this weekend, the Oklahoma softball team was putting together an all-time great resume. Hell, coming out of this weekend, the Oklahoma softball team is still having a potentially all-time great resume.
The defending national champions had entered the weekend with a 38-game winning streak going back to last season. The string of greatness ended on Saturday when the No. 13 Texas Longhorns sent a statement that they will be a formidable team when the post-season rolls around by beating the Sooners 4-2 in the closing game of the series on the day that Cat Osterman's number was officially retired.
Considering that the Longhorns hadn't beaten the Sooners in softball since 2014, you'll have to forgive the Longhorns if the team parties like it was 1999 when a 23-game losing streak comes to an end.
If you're Mike White, you simply can't accomplish what you want this program to accomplish without being able to go through the Sooners at some point. It was just one win, but you can't win a second until you win the first.
An important baby step was taken.
No. 7 – BUY or SELL …
(Sell X2) Yes, I expect a receiver or two to hit the portal in the next few months, but I think that would likely be the case, regardless of what happens with Hall. As for being worried about Ewers, I'd tell you not to worry about getting worried in the spring.
(Buy) The strength of this team is in the skill position on offense. The rest of the program is "meh" at best from a collective vantage point.
(Buy) The offense averaged 35.25 in 2021. That's a very modest bump.
(Sell X3) I'm not so sure I see the outcome of the season as cut and dry as that. Also, if PK loses his job by mid-season, Sarkisian isn't likely going to make it to the SEC move if that happens. It's hard for me to see a move like that taking place without a disaster or two leading to it. I don't see Texas pushing for its move to the SEC earlier than 2025 unless it knows it can survive without embarrassing itself in year one. It does not know that about itself yet.
(Sell) I'm not quite ready to go that far. If Texas gets that from its quarterbacks, it will play in Dallas in December. 3,500 yards passing in a season has happened only three times in the history of the program and playing in 14 games was a major reason for the number being reached each time. Meanwhile, only two different times in the history of the program has a player thrown for 20+ touchdown in a season. You're essentially talking about one of the best seasons by any quarterback in the history of the program, despite having zero game experience. Slow down.
(Sell) I fully expect Quinn Ewers to be the week one starter.
(Buy) Yup.
(Sell) I don't think it's going to have much of an impact on that decision at all.
(Sell) Nah, I don't believe that to be true.
(Sell) Kind of a bullshit way of framing the question from my perspective. I wish the local media would ask more relevant questions than they already do. Frankly, they waste more time than they usually make the most of with their access. I'm certainly not going to approve of you pretending like asking the players about the culture in the program is a problem when the head coach of the team told the media that if it wanted to know about such things, it literally needed to ask the players. The Texas media doesn't have a "gotcha" problem as much as it has an issue with some reporters just getting in the way of those that actually ask good questions.
(Sell) Nothing has come close to happening that would warrant giving anything remotely close to benefit of the doubt on this subject.
(Sell) It's nice to be able to care about something as a fan without the cloud of my profession hovering over it. This job kills the fan inside of you very quickly.
(Sell) No, man, no.
(Sell) I already think all of things might happen and I'm still at 8-4.
No. 8 - Scattershooting on the sports weekend ...
... Forgive me Dallas Cowboys if I'm not completely comforted by the fact that Kelvin Joseph "didn't pull the trigger" in a drive-by shooting that saw him riding in the car responsible for an alleged murder.
... Do the Texans
really believe they can win with David Mills?
... Jayson Tatum flat out outplayed Kevin Durant in game one of the Celtics/Nets series.
... My confidence level for my Sixers coming into the NBA post-season is not especially high after the end they had to the regular season, but I'll take a blowout win over the consistent-pain-in-our-ass Raptors in game one of their seven game series. Game two is Monday night. Baby steps.
... I'm 10 games into the MLB season with my Phillies and the team already has me on tilt and questioning how invested I should make myself.
... Austin FC actually ended Saturday night as the points leader in the Western Conference in the MLS. Well done.
... I'm thinking Matt Turner should be in goal for the USMNT when the World Cup rolls around.
No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Elton John songs ...
Because I'm in a bit of a time crunch, I've decided to pull out one of the Top 10 lists that I first did back in 2013 when Mack Brown was still coaching at Texas.
My Elton John list.
Here's what it looked like when it debuted ... does it still hold up?
"Last five songs out: The One, Candle in the Wind, Sad Songs (Say So Much), I've Seen That Movie Too and I'm Still Standing.
Ok, let's get on with the list… (
Listen to the entire list by Subscribing via Spotify
10.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
It's a beautiful, catchy little ballad that has been stuck in my head for two full weeks.
9.
Your Song
Historically, this is probably the first great song that Elton ever recorded and it's one of the best ballads ever recorded. You can make a case that I have this song too low on the list, but this is where it ranks personally for me.
8.
That's What Friends Are For
We're talking about a song that features Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer-Sager, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder. That's called bringing the heat.
7.
Can You Feel The Love Tonight
Yes, it's pretty hard to ignore one of the greatest songs from a movie soundtrack ever performed, as this 1994 recording won both an Oscar and a Grammy. Plus, I love The Lion King.
6.
It Ain't Gonna Be Easy
This my favorite under-the-radar song in the Elton catalog. From the 1978 album A Single man, this bluesy classic features Elton showing off on the mic. In fact, if you ever want to know just how skilled his singing chops were back in his prime, just listen to the incredibly high falsettos at the end of the song. I'm serious, he just showing off in this one.
5.
Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me
You can make a case that the best version of this song is his duet with George Michael, but it was written in the 70s and is one of the songs he sings he sings that is much better live than it is in album format.
4.
I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
The 1980s represented a strange period of music for Elton, but this easily my favorite song of his in the entire decade if for no other reason that Stevie Wonder is playing on the harmonica.
3.
Bennie and the Jets
Elton took this bad boy to Soul Train (see the video) and after he was done, he had created his first song to pop No. 1 on the R&B charts. This is one of the three songs that jump out in my mind when I think of Elton John.
2.
Rocket Man
It's the man's signature song and arguably his No. 1 song, but I had to go with another …
1.
Tiny Dancer
I'm not sure if it's because of the movie Almost Famous or not, but if I could only listen to one Elton John song for the rest of my life, this would be the song I'd choose. It's Elton in his prime and at his best."
p.s. - I'd have I'm still Standing somewhere in the Top 10 just because it makes me think of my eight-year old son Hendrix, who sings this song to himself all the time.
No. 10 - And Finally....
Just wanted to wish one of our own - D-Mo - nothing but well wishes as he enters a very new phase of his life.
This video kind of made my weekend.
