I Fall Down . . . And Go Boom

For my frequent readers, you may be aware of the ice rink I built in my backyard, mostly for the kids to skate.  And boy, do they love it. So much so that I decided to take some lessons this winter. Even got my own skates a couple of weeks ago so I could join them on the ice.

Which I did this past Saturday morning. Then it happened: I slipped and fell.

And immediately knew that I was hurt...and heading to the emergency room. The diagnosis? A broken left wrist and a broken right thumb. The thumb will probably heal itself with a splint, but the wrist needs surgery, which is hours away.  So my skating season is over...

...and so is my blogging, for now anyway. While I may have the time, I don't have the ability to type much with only four working fingers. Eventually, I'll get that to five, but even then, I'll need to focus on my "real world" job with my typing,

I don't know if I am going dark for a week or a month or what. I just know that I'm not able to do this at this time...and after ten years of blogging, a break may be in order.  But I feel that I do owe my readers an explanation for my absence here and at CornNation.

Take care, friends. Go Big Red and Go Mavs! Hopefully Nebrasketball and UNO hockey will give me an incentive to return sooner rather than later.

National Signing Day - or more accurately - The Worst Week Of The Year

It's coming. Neither rain, snow (#snOMAhog), sleet or hail can stop it. (Let alone my complaints...)  National Signing Day is Wednesday.  Which makes this week THE WORST WEEK OF THE YEAR.

It's not that recruiting isn't important.  It is ... though it's not as important as the recruitniks will tell you. For every Alabama, there's a Texas.  Some teams recruit well, and win big.  Other teams recruit well, and don't win.  Other teams don't recruit as well, and still win anyway.

But the bigger issue is the attention this process gets. It warps kids opinions and perspectives as they go to school; it creates the equivalent of divas. It almost sets some players up to fail when they don't live up to the star expectations that the so-called experts throw on them.

One of the most disturbing trends I've seen is that the worse your coaching staff coaches, the more publicity the school throws towards recruiting. It's how Bill Callahan survived initially, and now we're seeing it with Mike Riley.  Is this a sign that Riley is going be another "all hat, no cattle" coach?    Perhaps.  At least with Bill Callahan, he had a top-five class in his first full signing.  Mike Riley is going to have a top-25 or top-30 class (about the same as his predecessor, it would appear) this season, but suddenly, the coach's defenders are going to talk about how great it was this year.

Sigh. It's just too much to bear...so I tune out.  I have every year, and have no plans to change this year.  I'll make my own opinions about these players when I see them take the field in a year or two.