John Nieman
College, basketball and football are gearing up for their new seasons and I figure I’ll just continue the thoughts that I’ve been putting out here recently. As I’ve written before, all of the new protocols for college sports are just too confusing for an old guy like me. And it’s that kind of negative thinking on my part that all of the self-help gurus are advising that I stop. And so I’ve decided to embrace the new college sports culture and return to my previous fandom.
I think I’ve come across a way of doing that. Since I don’t have the bandwidth in my brain to keep up with the comings and goings of the players, I’m going to focus on the constant. The coaches.
Being a Carolina fan, that means I’ll be following the Hubert Davis era and the Bill Belichick era.
I have no doubt that Hubert Davis is as dedicated to UNC and its success and legacy as any Carolina fan. So that will be easy. I can’t say that I will be as devoted to him and his career as I was to Dean Smith, but then, as any reader of this space is well aware, that is a standard that is nigh impossible for any coach to meet.
Right now, I have my doubts about Coach Belichick. I have no doubt that he is a great coach. Ironically, that probably plays into my concerns. I’m still wondering what the heck he’s doing at Carolina.
I mean, we’re the same age and I can certainly identify with the attraction of Chapel Hill and its culture. But for many reasons that have been expressed in the media to the point of boredom, he is a different kind of guy.
But as I keep saying, I’m trying to be positive. If he is still the coach at Carolina at this time next year and continues the supportive comments he makes about our school, I’ll be more than satisfied.
I’m thinking if I closely follow the exploits of our coaching staffs, I might be able to get a handle on exactly who the players are. It just seems to follow.
Of course, all of these plans of mine are greatly endangered and make me very nervous when I hear people complain about Coach Davis and suggest he be replaced.
I know I’ll never get back to a point that I’m planning game days around getting to He’s Not Here for a good table in front of the big screen and watching the blue cups stacking up in the middle of the table, but I might find myself in my recliner in front of my own big screen whooping and hollering–maybe even with the grandchildren Burke and Larkin next to me.
On a similar note, I just read an article wherein Kyle Busch opines about the declining popularity of NASCAR. Quite insightful. He figures that in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s you had guys interested in fast, hot cars, and they grew up to comprise the mainstream and brought their kids to races. But now, interest in fast cars has greatly declined. He even referenced climate change in a sideways sort of way.
He pretty much said that he certainly wouldn’t spend 3+ hours in the blazing sun watching 40 cars whose emissions were only making the matter worse. And he talked about all of the other options families have for recreation.
Something to think about. I took it particularly to heart since I’ve got my tickets and campsite ready for Charlotte in a few weeks. I guess I pretty much agree since I purchased seats underneath an overhang so we could get some shade.
The Index situation is quite discouraging. At the behest of Martha and others, I have returned to Noom. We shall see. It has been over a month since I’ve been able to play with Dynamo and that has contributed. We get together this week and I started Noom 2 days ago. Hopefully much better news next month. Fat Boy Index: 293.