How To Fix The NFL

The NFL is considering changing some rules in order to prevent "devastating hits" on its players. I believe this was exacerbated by the terrible injury suffered by Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand on Saturday. LeGrand suffered a spinal cord injury and is currently paralyzed from the neck down. I have some thoughts on all this.

First, in the interest of complete disclosure, I'm a football coach in Texas where football is king. Having "admitted" this, my views might surprise you. I have no problem with punishing a player who launches himself at another player and leads with his head. This is dangerous and borderline criminal behavior. I feel there are some other things that are not getting a lot of attention that could, and should, be done if protecting players is truly a priority to the league.

First, coaches need to actually teach and insist on proper tackling techniques. We teach our kids to ALWAYS "see what you hit." This keeps the tackler from ducking his head and leading with the crown of his helmet. This protects both tackler and ball carrier. This, seemingly, is not emphasized by the NFL coaches. Besides making the league safer it would improve tackling in the league, which is currently absolutely pitiful. The terrible injury suffered by Eric LeGrand came as a direct result of his lowering his head and hitting the ball carrier with the crown of his helmet. Some players are going to be injured even when they use proper technique to make a tackle; however, I strongly feel that if LeGrand had kept his eyes up and was seeing who he was about to hit he would not have suffered a catastrophic injury.

Second, in regard to preventing concussions and head injuries, coaches and trainers need to actually fit the helmets on these players properly. A football helmet is not made to be comfortable. It is meant to be a protective device. I have never seen so many helmets flying off players as I have the last two years. It is ridiculous. In 15 years of coaching I have never had a players helmet fly off his head. NEVER. I realize the NFL players are bigger and faster and this needs to be factored into the equation but the fact is these player's helmets are bouncing around on their heads and far too loose-fitting. This is dangerous as an ill-fitting helmet is almost like not wearing one at all.

Third, and this deals with protecting quarterbacks specifically, get rid of the rule against intentional grounding. This would allow a QB to be proactive and protect himself. If the QB throws the ball away he has already surrendered a down. That is penalty enough as those downs are incredibly valuable. This would take the onus off of the officials to make some sort of judgment call as to whether the hit was too hard, high, low, or late.

I really feel that many of the issues football is dealing with now could be alleviated by paying attention to these three areas. Fines and suspensions are not going to do it.

Why The Gun In Civilization?

Lately, I have had to defend my decision to obtain a Concealed Handgun License (CHL). I could go into it all matter of reasons why I decided to do so but the following sums it up pretty well.

Why The Gun In Civilization?

By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)
...
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force.

If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.

The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed.

People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.

The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force.

It removes force from the equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

Classic Tune of the Week 16

I'm posting a song from my early teen years this week. The song is "Come Dancing" by The Kinks. "Come Dancing" was released in the U.S. in 1983 as the first single from the group's album State of Confusion and reached #6 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. The song marked a comeback of sorts for The Kinks and awakened a new generation to the music of Ray Davies and his band mates.

"Come Dancing" is a nostalgic look back by Ray Davies to his childhood when his sister would go to a local dance hall and dance the night away with her dates. The song transitions from these youthful days to the present where his sister now waits for her daughter to return from her dates.

I always loved this song. The horn section and the big band sound used in the song were very different than anything else being played at the time. I also enjoyed the sense of humor Davies showed in the video. It was so...English. It fit with my enjoyment of other British humorists such as Benny Hill, Monty Python, and Black Adder.

As I've gotten older I have continued to enjoy the song. Now, however, it is less the humor of the song that strikes a chord with me than the nostalgia for times gone by. Now I'm in my early forties and am waiting for my teen-aged daughter to come home from group outings. While I have no desire to be fifteen again, I do miss much about those days. The energy I had, how I felt physically, and the lack of responsibility are a few examples. This song takes me back to a time when I had all that. While I wouldn't want to go back permanently to those days I do enjoy visiting occasionally. "Come Dancing" helps me do that. I hope you enjoy it.



My best...

Turning Back the Clock at Turnberry

This past weekend I was riveted to my television, even more than usual, as this year's British Open unfolded. For the second year in a row there would be no Tiger sightings on the weekend. Last year, you will recall, Woods stayed home as he was recuperating from major knee surgery. This year he simply stunk it up on Saturday and failed to make the cut. The executives over at ABC/ESPN would have been dropping Titleists in their shorts had it not been for Tom Watson. Watson, you see, at 59 years old, was THE story and saved the ratings and the tournament by making an historic run at the British Open title.

Watson may be the best links golfer of all time. Coming into this year's tournament he had already won 5 British Open titles along with 3 Senior British Open championships. The guy knows how to play these seaside courses. Watson shot an opening round 65 and led after each of the first three rounds. Watson was a bit shaky on Sunday but needed only to par the final hole to win the championship. However, it was not to be. Watson's second shot trickled over the green and he was unable to get up and down for par. The bogey put Watson into a four-hole playoff with Stewart Cink. The air seemed to have left Watson's sails by this time and Cink easily defeated him in the playoff.

Watson's success, as a 59 year-old man, in this year's British Open, led to some interesting discussion. Many feel the fact that a man nearly ready for social security can still play golf at the highest level somehow diminishes golf as a sport. His success, after Greg Norman's unlikely run at the same title last year as a 50+ year-old has made the British Open laughable, in their opinion. How could it truly be golf at its highest level if an old man can compete with the best young players in the world? Could a 59 year-old come back and play in the NBA? No. The NFL? No. Major League Baseball? Of course not. It all goes to show, in their minds, that golf is not a real sport.

I could not disagree more. In fact, I think the fact that Tom Watson could have, indeed should have, won illustrates that golf is a great game and sport. Maybe the best of them all. Golf is as much mental as physical. Tom Watson not only outplayed the younger guys, he out thought them too. He had a plan and executed it to perfection for 71 holes. It shows that on most courses you don't have to be able to hit the ball 350 yards off the tee to complete. Hit it in the fairway, be able to hit a variety of approach shots, avoid the big mistake, and putt well and you have a chance. Tiger has a great mind and laser-like intensity. However, when he can't overpower a golf course with his length off the tee he struggles. It is why he avoids tournaments like the Byron Nelson and the Colonial. These tournaments are played on courses that demand accuracy. They don't play to his strengths so he avoids them. I feel like that there are a lot more of us out there who hit the ball 250-275 yards off the tee than hit the ball 350 yards like Tiger. That is what made it so interesting and so much fun to root for Tom Watson this weekend.

All of us who play the game recreationally can learn a lot from Watson. If we stay in decent shape and think our way around a course we can play this game well for a long time. That is what makes the game of golf so great.

Farrah and Michael Bow Out

What a day. Today both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. Two icons, one of the 70s and one of the 80s, gone. I can't remember a day where two such well known celebrities passed on the same day. Very strange.

Fawcett, of course, is the Texas girl who made it big. She started by doing toothpaste and shampoo commercials and became a major television star and pin-up legend. Fawcett became almost everybody's favorite supermodel detective as one of the stars of Aaron Spelling's Charlie's Angels (I always thought Jaclyn Smith was the prettiest one myself). Despite becoming, by far, the most famous and popular "Angel", Fawcett's stint on the show lasted only one season. She made a few guest appearances in subsequent seasons but never was a regular again. Perhaps Fawcett will be best remembered for her iconic pin-up poster. The poster was not the least bit risque. Fawcett wore a one -piece bathing suit for Pete's sake. However, it featured her famous smile and feathered haircut that was the "Rachel cut" of it's day. The poster became a sensation selling more than ten million copies. My good friend Henry had that poster in his room. I remember well thinking that while Farrah was never, in my opinion, the prettiest woman on television that, somehow, they caught lightning in a bottle with that poster. There was also something very cool about Farrah and her husband at the time, Lee Majors. Majors was a big television star in his own right at that time as the Six Million Dollar Man. They were Hollywood's television power couple of the 1970s. Fawcett tried for years to get away from her "Angel" image strove to be considered a serious actress. She finally achieved that, to some degree, when she was nominated for an Emmy for her television movie The Burning Bed about an abused woman. Despite a second Emmy nomination later in her career she never completely escaped the shadow of her pin-up/"Angel" days.

Fawcett's death is a sad thing but, somehow, doesn't strike me as tragic. She had problems and difficulties in her life to be sure but died of natural causes at the age of 62. The death and, for that matter, the life of Michael Jackson reads like a Greek tragedy. Jackson became a star at the age of 8 as the lead singer of The Jackson 5. The group exploded out of Gary, Indiana and became a sensation. Jackson would go on to record 13 number one singles and have the best selling solo album of all time with Thriller. His popularity reached a hysterical peak in the mid 80s with the release of Thriller and the subsequent videos that supported it. Jackson, almost single-handedly, made the music video into an art form. I was a huge fan of Michael Jackson back when I was in high school. Two memories really stick out in my mind in regards to Jackson. The first is his performance on the Motown 25 television special. He was simply awesome. I had never seen anything like his performance and the performance has become legend. The second memory is how I got to attend the Jackson's Victory Tour concert at the Houston Astrodome. The tickets were a gift from my parents for my 18th birthday. I was on crutches at the time due to a knee injury I had suffered playing basketball so my parents actually had to drive me and my girlfriend at the time, Susan, to the concert. It was not easy getting around and to our seats but it was well worth it. Jackson's entrance alone would have been worth the price of admission. Jackson was later dogged by accusations of child molestation, tax and financial problems, and the failure to ever make an album as popular as Thriller again. I don't know if Jackson was guilty of child molestation or not. I do believe that where there's smoke there's fire. There was always a lot of "smoke" with Jackson and, I believe, something inappropriate and weird was going on with all of his young male friends. Jackson's story is one of a little boy lost; a man who never got to have a childhood and spent his adult years trying to recapture that time. Seemingly, Jackson was never successful in that quest. With his numerous plastic surgeries, sham marriages, and bizarre behavior he became a caricature of himself. People, unfortunately, will likely remember the tabloid "Jacko" more than the musical genius Michael Jackson. That is Jackson's legacy and that is his tragedy.

Both these pop icons were, in their own way, a large part of my childhood. Now two more small pieces of that childhood are gone. I hope they rest well.

Quote of the Week 7

"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul."

George Bernard Shaw

Life and Death in Temple

Yesterday my wife and I drove to the hospital to visit a couple of friends whose new- born baby boy is suffering from an intestinal blockage. Initially, there was quite a bit of concern for the little guy, but to everyone's relief, things are looking much better. We concluded our visit and headed back to the elevators to leave. That is when we witnessed something we are not likely to forget.

As we waited for the elevator, my wife and I noticed a large wheelchair-bound man. He seemed to be quietly crying. He sat there alone near the nurse's station for Labor and Delivery and I wondered what was wrong. Though we did not exchange any words, I knew my wife had noticed him as well.

Where was that elevator?

As we waited, an older lady came out of the swinging doors separating the old man from the delivery rooms. The lady came out talking a hundred miles an hour about the birth she had just witnessed. I assume it was this couple's daughter that had just become a mom though that was never expressly stated.

"The baby is beautiful and looks just like her", she said.

"Momma", the old man said quietly while looking down.

The old lady seemed not to hear him or notice his tears or cracking voice and continued to talk excitedly.

"He's tow headed and strong", she continued rapidly.

The old man tried to interject again. "Momma."

Again, she did not seem to hear him but continued to relay the details of the miraculous event she had just witnessed.

"She did great! You would have been so proud of her. She's worn out now but is doing fine", she gushed.

This time, with more force, the old man got her attention. "Momma!"

It was obvious something was wrong. My wife and I both began to feel a bit uncomfortable. Where was that stupid elevator? I pushed the button again.

We were not able to hear the next portion of the conversation as the old man relayed his news to his wife quietly. We averted our eyes to give the couple a semblance of privacy though we were only a few feet apart. It was only when the old lady nearly shouted at the poor old man that we learned what had transpired.

"You mean to tell me he killed himself? My brother has killed himself? Today of all days?" She began to weep.

Where was that stupid elevator?

The old man tried to comfort her but she would have none of it. She turned away from him and came toward my wife and me. She stopped directly in front of us and pushed the same elevator button I had been pushing. The elevator did not cooperate with her either, however. She put her head against the wall and began to cry. I wanted to do something but merely stood frozen and stared at the motionless elevator doors. I could tell my wife wanted to reach out to her. I think she may have taken a small step toward the lady but about that time the old man wheeled closer and again tried to offer some comfort.

"Momma, let me hold you", he implored.

She turned away from him again and walked back the way she had come and left him sitting there to cry alone in front of two total strangers. The misery of this couple was overpowering. Finally, one of the nurses who had been watching these events unfold stepped out from behind her station and took the old woman and her husband somewhere behind the swinging doors of Labor and Delivery. It was only after they disappeared from view that the elevator finally arrived and the doors opened. My wife and I rode silently down to the first floor pondering what we had seen and heard.

I have found it difficult to get this old couple out of my mind. I can't even imagine the mixed emotions this family must be enduring. I don't think I've ever seen pure joy turn to absolute misery so quickly. It was a terrible thing to witness. I ache for this family. What should be a joyous birthday every year will now be, at best, a bittersweet occasion. It was a reminder of how precious life is and how we should appreciate every minute we are given on this earth. Even more so, it was a reminder of how we should cherish our loved ones. After all, tomorrow is not promised to us.

My best...