So, my daughter got married this weekend.

If you know anything about weddings, then you know that plans were made well in advance. Of course, this being 2020, the Year of COVID, plans mean nothing. Steeped in the Scots' tradition as my  family is, these concepts are in our DNA. Where it's common for people to say, "Man plans, and God laughs," we are well-versed in the vicissitudes of life: "The best laid schemes of mice and men/ go oft awry..."

There are two parts to a wedding, when you get right down to it. There's "the thing," which is the legal/ceremonial joining of a couple, and there's the celebration. In the here and now, with COVID restrictions being what they are, it is neither legal nor responsible to have the second part. The first part, however, can be had, with sacrifice. My daughter, much like her parents, cares more for how things are than for how they appear. And like her parents, she wanted to be married to the man she loves when she wanted it. The end.

We love our children, and the only thing that has ever mattered to us is their happiness. So we did what we needed to do to help make sure that she had the day she wanted. And she was happy. I've never seen her smile so much as she did on her wedding day, and that's saying something, because she's a pretty happy person.

She was married outdoors, in a gazebo in a park near where she grew up. With COVID restrictions being what they are, her entire wedding consisted of her and the groom, their attendants (one each), the officiant, and a photographer.

My wife and I watched from our car, in a parking lot, over 100 feet away. We listened to the ceremony over a phone.

It was lovely. We were very happy.

It wasn't what our daughter had planned, but, at the end of the day, she got what she really wanted, what was really important, which was to be married to her guy, the man she loves.

She's happy. We're happy.


The problem with freedom is that a great many people don't know what it really means. Freedom isn't doing whatever you want whenever you want. In a civilized society, freedom comes with rights and responsibilities. If you really want something, sometimes you have to compromise. If you really want something, sometimes you have to sacrifice. Smart, responsible people get this.

My daughter is married. She is happy. My new son-in-law is great.

I helped raise a smart, determined, responsible, happy person.

At the end of the day, what more should a father want?



Week Fourteen Picks
Winners in Bold:

​Sunday
 
Minnesota at Tampa
Arizona at NYG
KC at Miami
Tennessee at Jax
Dallas at Cincy
Houston at Chicago
Denver at Carolina
NYJ at Seattle
Indy at LV
Washington at San Fran
NO at Philly
Atlanta at LABolts
GB at Detroit
 
 
Sunday Night
 
Pittsburgh at Buffalo
 
 
Monday Night
 
Baltimore at Cleveland

It’s not uncommon for people to be resentful of those who achieve great success. This is especially true in the tribal world of football fandom. One team’s success comes with an immediate price; the failure of another team. Each game has a winner, and a loser. For every division winner, there are the also-rans. Playoff berths, playoff wins, championships; in each situation, a team, and its fan base is left bitter, wanting.
 
When you achieve the kind of historical and unprecedented success that Bill Belichick’s Pats did during the Tom Brady era, you leave a lot of embittered fans in your wake. Probably the only fan base in the entire NFL that has no legitimate right to hate the Pats is that of the New York Giants. The rest of the league’s partisans can and do hate New England with fiery passion. Most fans, I’m certain, see it as their duty, to hate Brady and the Pats as much as they love their own team.
 
I never bought into all the New England/Tom Brady hating. As a football fan with no real team affiliation, I viewed the Belichick-Pats success with rapt fascination. As the years went on, and the team kept winning, it became clear to me that I was experiencing something truly special in sports history. With an ever-changing cast of characters, no real superstars, and the one constant of Brady behind Center, Belichick’s Pats managed for almost two decades to maintain a peak level of success in spite of a league that is programmed towards parity. All of this was due to an opponent-specific guiding philosophy that I will sum up thusly: On offense, take what you can, and on defense, take AWAY what THEY can.
 
This season, many football fans are reveling in the struggles of New England, and of Brady in Tampa. The Pats, bereft of Brady, victims of a free-agency exodus, ravaged by injuries and opt-outs, are but a shell of their former selves. Meanwhile Brady, in a setting of his own choosing, surrounded by elite receiving talent, has underachieved for reasons that are subject to much debate. Myself, as a football fan, I am merely fascinated by the situation, and am interested in how it plays out.
 
Or at least I was. COVID, and the manner in which the league has handled it, has cast a shadow of illegitimacy over this entire season. As a result, my interest has waned, in just about everything NFL-related.
 
With regards to New England, or Brady, when it comes to football fandom, to team loyalty and player adulation, you’re either going to love them or hate them. Me, I don’t care, in the context of football.
 
As people, however, that’s another matter.
 
I’m sure you all remember the incident almost two years ago when Pats owner Robert Kraft was swept up in a massage parlor sting in Florida. Several men, including Kraft, were accused of paying for sex acts. Specifically, Kraft was accused of paying for hand-jobs. There’s video footage apparently. News outlets have to use the term “alleged,” but I’m sure most are pretty confident it’s true. Can they, or any court prove that? Of course not. Although there is video footage, because Kraft is mega-rich, and can afford top-level legal representation, the charges against him were dropped. However, employees of the spa, including those who had Kraft as a client, were subjected to extreme legal consequences, including mandatory STI testing, and fines in the tens-of-thousands of dollars. All, mind you, for a crime that, from the perspective of Kraft, never happened. Think about that for a hot minute.
 
As for Brady, news broke late this week that his company, TB12, received almost a million dollars from the government’s Payroll Protection Program (PPP), an economic stimulus measure enacted to assist small businesses. As I understand it, the application for the loan was made in the Spring, at a time when TB12 was expanding into new locations. As I also understand it, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50% of businesses that applied were turned down. Brady, personally, has an estimated net worth of around $200,000,000. His wife is worth twice that.
 
Now, I’m not suggesting that the personal relationships that Kraft and Brady have with Donald Trump had anything to do with either of these situations. I just think that all of this, Trump’s presidency, Kraft’s immunity, Brady’s graft, are all indicative of the rot of American society, where money, power, access, so starkly divides the haves from the have-nots.
 
Even as we near the end of the sad travesty of the Trump presidency, power and access still rears its ugly head. It’s bad enough that the outgoing, lame-duck president has granted pardons to dubious recipients, but now there is discussion of the legality of his granting “pre-emptive pardons” to family and allies for crimes not yet charged.
 
That’s life in America for you, folks. A billionaire, a rich sports idol, a sociopathic con-man and his vile criminal family, soak up all the sunshine, and when it rains, they walk between the raindrops.
 
And we just sit idly by and watch.
 
No more, I say.
 
Ask yourself, “How will I resist?”
 
 
Week Thirteen Picks
Winners in Bold
 
 
Sunday
 
Cleveland at Tennessee
LV at NYJ
Jax at Minnesota
Cincy at Miami
Indy at Houston
Detroit at Chicago
NO at Atlanta
NYG at Seattle
LAAries at Arizona
NE at LABolts
Philly at GB
 
 
Sunday Night
 
Denver at KC
 
 
Monday
 
Washington at Pittsburgh
Buffalo at San Fran
 
 
Tuesday (FFS!)
 
Dallas at Baltimore
​