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POWER COUPLE OF THE LAST NFL GAME OF THE YEAR

Power Couple? You and who you’re with. But there are others of note, especially today. What day? Super Bowl Day, or the last time my wife says, “Is there a game on, a big game, a REALLY BIG GAME,” dripping with fake enthusiasm. My answer (with authentic hype-man energy): “They’re all big, honey. It’s the […]

WINNING NOW: PHIL KNIGHT vs JERRY JONES

Winning now, right now, is more important the older you get. It’s like that when you have more seasons behind you than you do ahead. Phil Knight is eighty-five; Jerry Jones is eighty-one. Would it be too much to ask that they go out winners? First for the Ducks:

SPORTS FAN REVIEW: IN THE BEGINNING

Sports fan knows one thing: Rivalry. Without rivalry, sporting events resemble theater without the curtains. With rivalry we feel something deeper, way deeper, way down there. If you come from a certain time and place the only rivals that mattered were the Marshfield High School Pirates. But, everyone grows up. Right?

WORTHY ENOUGH: OREGON DUCKS

The Oregon Ducks were worthy enough in 2011 against a team with suspicious recruiting. Maybe not so worthy against another team with suspicious recruiting in 2015 Today NIL money cures all of the suspicious recruiting. And Oregon is more than worthy enough.

PEOPLE UNITED BY GIVING WRITERS

Needy people? You see them all over the place? So do I. I’m one of them. Oh, and so are you. We need things we don’t have. Writers give some of those things, or at least the feeling of giving. So what?

SENIOR CLASS FOOTBALL: CHANGING OF THE GUARD

The senior class of 1973, way back when, came into a difficult football situation as sophomores. We’d spent freshman year pounding it out over all comers. We had size, speed, and some of us were still growing. You could say we had high hopes moving forward. Instead we got stuck. The high school coaching was […]

ADVERSITY TRAINING ONE BLOG POST AFTER ANOTHER

Adversity training comes from two sources: Those who have faced adversity, and those who will face adversity. Pro Tip: We all face adversity. How we deal with it tells others who we are. While I’m not an adversity trainer, or in adversity training, I am a man and therefore qualified to add senseless context to […]

WRITING ROOM: FROM FAMILY ROOM TO SICK ROOM AND BACK

A writing room is any room where writing is done. It’s a bedroom, a classroom, or living room. It could be a bar or coffee house; a bus or train. Some writing rooms belong to writers who need ‘consistency of place’ to be productive. How can you be sure your writing room is right for […]

EMOTIONAL SCOREBOARD, TALLY OF ANSWERS TO BIG QUESTIONS

Emotional Scoreboard doesn’t explain who wins, who loses, or the odd tie. It says more about effort, determination, and sportsmanship. As Robert DeNiro explained so eloquently in The Deer Hunter, “This is this. Not this, this.” Emotional scoreboard defines the argument of who won what without any details of what the winner won. (51-49, right […]

WINNING MINDSET STARTS EARLY FOR WINNERS

A winning mindset starts before anything else. Get it locked in as soon as possible. I heard a variation on sports talk radio where a host and guest talked about professional athletes on losing teams. Big time pros never consider themselves losers; they’re good players on bad teams that don’t win. In other words, it’s […]