New Week: Easy As 123

 

This was my Instagram post (@swollendome) on Monday, January 23rd. That’s right. It was 123.

There were a number of cool anniversaries on Monday:

- 80 years for “Casablanca”

- 40 years for “The A-Team”

- 38 years for “ThunderCats”

- Tiffani Amber Thiessen’s birthday

- WWE RAWXXX (more on this one in a forthcoming post)

And the celebrations/fallouts from the weekend’s NFL action … and personally for me, a trip home through the remembrance of DJ Lin Brehmer in Chicago. 

In the midst of massive celebrations and the setup of NFL Championship Weekend, the anger and scapegoating bubbled from (most of) the losing locker rooms. 

Jacksonville and the New York Giants achieved great heights, but save a “Why not us?” bit of prognostication, their seasons ended as expected. The Jaguars build toward a big future, while the Giants do have big questions surrounding their most important positions. 

Let’s face it. The majority of fist-shaking and anger (broken tvs) fall to two teams.

The Cowboys lost to the 49ers, and all eyes and poison pens turned to kicker Brett Maher, Dak Prescott & Coach Mike McCarthy. Hell, the team’s social media account went after the QB and Coach.

In Buffalo, roster design and frustration from the team’s top receiver signal a need for a pivot this offseason. Both the offensive and defensive lines need work, and there needs to be some leveling up in terms of the weaponry around QB Josh Allen. 

The NFL has expanded its playoffs to include 14 teams. While we can argue that some teams don’t need to be included and that the tournament is too watered down, hope at the end of a season for cities and their fan bases can’t be discounted. Even if it’s a one-and-done situation, it’s a building block. 

Hope. 

The other 18 teams can talk about building and draft picks and offseason transactions. 

It’s just selling Hope on a different timeline.