Jack’s Winning Words 2/1/19
“The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team.  As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.”  (Knute Rockne)  In a couple of days it’s Super Bowl Sunday.  The winners will each take home $112,000, while the losers get $56,000.  Not bad for a day’s work! TV ads are $5M for 30 seconds.  Gimme the old days when the focus wasn’t on money, blown calls, TV timeouts…It was on teamwork, good coaching and the game, football!   ;-)  Jack

FROM HONEST JOHN:  I don't remember any such days.....pro football is a money sport... .===JACK:   That's my point.  I remember when pro football was played in Rock Island, in Decatur, and an exhibition occasionally in Browning Field.  I even remember when packers sponsored the Packers.  I watched my first Lions game, sitting in the leftfield stands behind the goal posts.  It was against the NY Jets with a young QB, Broadway Joe.  "Older than dirt."  The Lions were good back in that era...but they lost that game.===JOHN:  You do NOT remember the pro football teams being in Rock Island and Decatur...they left those cities around 1919.....and, you are not over 100.    My Dad's cousin, Hoot Ellinwood, played QB for the Rock Island Independents....Jim Thorpe was the running back.    I remember Hoot....great guy.    George Halss coached the Decatur Staleys who became the Chicago Bears.  I remember that great team in the 40s.....Sid Luckman, Bulldog Turner, Dr. Bill Osmanski, Joe Stydahar, Kenny Kavanaugh, etc.    tThe best team ever....the Hall of Fame in Canton is loaded up with those guys.===JACK:  I didn't write..."I remember SEEING them."

FROM RS IN TEXAS:  Amen===JACK:  Have you heard of the Amen Corner in football?  Here's the background.  There's an Amen  Corner in golf, too.  Just what was "Amen Corner?" In each year from 1964–1991, Auburn's final four games of the regular season always included Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Pat Dye, Auburn's coach from 1981–1992, called these three final conference games the "Amen Corner," comparing them to the make-or-break gauntlet of holes No. 11, 12 and 13 of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.===RS:  Knew about Amen corner at Augusta, but didn't know about the Auburn one.  Proves there's something new to be learned every day.  Have a great weekend, Jack.  Hope it warms up some!+++===JACK:  Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: “The world is so full of a number of things, I ’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”  Things can include new information and new thoughts.

FROM GUSTIE MARLYS:  Amen to that!===JACK:  To me, it's not "the game" when people tune into the Super Bowl to watch the commercials.===MARLYS:  I don’t even do that.  Even the commercials have gotten pretty raunchy for the most part!

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Yay===JACK:  Probably more than you want to know...Yay is simply an alternate spelling of yeah or yea, which have distinct pronunciations and meanings. (Yeah, an informal variant of yes, is pronounced “ya” and sometimes spelled that way; yea, which sounds like yay, survives as an affirmation in biblical contexts and as a counterpart to nay in voting contexts.)
Hooray is an alternate spelling of hurrah; both go back hundreds of years, and two other, less common variants, hurray and hooray, are nearly as old. (They all stem from huzza—emphasis is on the second syllable—which dates back to the time of Shakespeare and survives only at “faires” that recreate a Renaissance environment.) These words can also refer to a cheer or a fanfare, or excitement, and the oldest sometimes denotes a disturbance, as in “There was a big hurrah about something happening down the street.”

FROM STEVE IN WA:  Yeah I’m with you Jack. I’ve heard that the ball is actually in-play an average of 11 and a half minutes per game. The rest of the time is standing around getting ready for, or recovering from, a play. Soccer is two 45 minute halves and tennis has no clock, and pay isn’t even close. The highest paid public official in the country is a college football coach! I think Charlie Brown has it right; give it your best shot and then go hang out with a friend by the wall, because that’s more important than kicking a ball anyway. ;)===JACK:  I'd like to see football use the clock as in soccer, with stoppage time added.  Exciting!

FROM ST PAUL IN MESA: i agree with you, Jack, but we both must be showing our age... ===JACK:  Old or young, I see a growing resentment against "unfairness" on and off the field.  People are fickle and can change the channel on their TV.

FROM MARILYN OAKS:  It's become MUCH more BIG BUSINESS since Bill played for the
Bears under Geo. Halas! $5600.00 for the season for a rookie; Don't know what the Big names pulled, but compared to today, am sure it wasn't that much. All the home games  by 1950 were played
at Chicago Soldier's field.  I still enjoy the Pro games, in spite of all the money issues.===JACK:  I remember when the Monsters of the Midway played their games at Wrigley Field and the fans joined together in singing..
."Bear down, Chicago Bears,
make every play clear the way to victory.
Bear down, Chicago Bears,
put up a fight with a might so fearlessly.
We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation
with your T formation.
Bear down, Chicago Bears,
and let them know why you're wearing the crown.
You're the pride and joy of Illinois,
Chicago Bears, bear down."

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  Amen!!  Games were games and not about money!

FROM ST PAUL IN MESA:  if the rules of the game are not enforced fairly,  people will lose interest.   who wants to watch a game is "fixed" before it even begins.===JACK:  I don't happen to believe that games are fixed.  I believe that referees and umpires make errors just as players do.