Save for a few more games, the sports have completed their sportsing this weekend. Let’s look back together at all the happenings in this week’s SSM.
The Albert Pujols show, big episode this week
Joined the 700 club, not bad for an antique
He did it in style, two bombs out in LA
The Yankees home run record keeping Aaron Judge at bay
Tough week in Miami, The U indeed not back
MTSU came to town, Hurricanes blue and black
First year, new coach for the ‘canes, so this isn’t the end
Another upset like this though, things may just start to bend
TB12 and A-Rod, who’s your favorite old QB
On field goat debate, what a thing to see
Could not care less who won the game, what matters to us most
Was how the hell did a bee swarm end up on the goal post?
Colts and the Chiefs, thought this would be easy
By the end of the game Kansas City fans were queasy
Big upset for Indy, Matt Ryan won a big one
Tough loss for the Chiefs, Andy Reid had no fun
Author: Chris Cook
Grandfather Finds Exciting Hobbies in Retirement
No matter the profession, it’s hard for anyone to transition from professional life to retirement.
Your mind can wander, finding things to fill more time than you’ve ever had, and keeping active can become a whole job in itself!
Brett Favre, a 52-year old grandfather of three spent 20 years working an extremely physical job. His career took him from Atlanta, Green Bay, New York, Minnesota, and everywhere in between. An expert in his field, Favre put his body on the line for years with a competitiveness and excitement rarely seen in his industry.
When he decided to retire in 2010, Favre decided to keep his mind and body active. While he may not have been able to perform at the physical level he did pre-retirement, the want-to to remain mobile is quite the admiral feat.
Technology
We’ve all heard the jokes about the elder generation and the ever-evolving world of technology. Laptops, iPhones, Twitter; who can keep track?
Mr. Favre can! Getting a start right after retiring in 2010, Brett sat down and learned all about his iPhone. He even mastered how to send pictures via text, which he really enjoyed. After the picture texts were conquered, he gained a following on Cameo and did great there as well.
Politics
One of the most admirable thing one can do is give back to where they came from. Mississippi, much like many places in America, can use all of the help they can get.
Favre, seeing a weakness, dedicated himself to get involved in local politics. His actions showed a sincere vision for how to manage the Mississippi Department of Human Services Welfare Fund. On top of his passion for those in his state sincerely needing assistance, he’s a family man.
With those two passions in mind, he fully threw himself into a project that lead to diverting millions of dollars from poor families to build a new volleyball facility at a local university. By sheer luck, the university just so happened to be the same institution his daughter attends. Even crazier; she actually plays volleyball!
It’s great when people help people. Local southern gentleman Brett Favre is both the ultimate competitor and unifier. We should all be so lucky to live amongst such altruistic, selfless being. A proud Mississippian that exudes self-sacrifice, decency, and nobility.
Sunday State of Mind: September 12th-September 18th
Another week of sports has come to an end. Another edition of SSM is about to begin.
New York Jets a huge comeback, the Browns just could not close
Jets fans feeling the win, there are so few of those
Down two scores, two minutes left, Cleveland had it all but won
Mental errors and screwups, all their hard work undone
Another comeback winner, Fins Up Dolphin fans
Ravens thought they had the win, Tua had other plans
Six touchdowns, a ton of yards, Miami 2-0
Coach McDaniel and the Fins putting on quite a show
All rise for Aaron Judge, just continues to rake
Fifty nine home runs this year is clearly no mistake
He should catch Ruth, Maris, and Sosa, probably not Bonds
Sixteen games left on the year, let’s see how he responds
The Las Vegas Aces, WNBA champs
Took the series 3-1, put Connecticut in clamps
Becky Hammon, rookie coach, didn’t mean a thing
Did what she does best, coached hard, and got herself a ring
Friday Dump: Juan Soto in San Diego
So, you wanted to mortgage your organization’s future, huh?
Since being traded from the Nationals a month and half ago, Juan Soto’s time in San Diego has been…bad.
No other way to say it. The Padres gave up five players, including major league talent, to acquire Soto. The deal seemed to make sense contractually at the time, as he won’t be a free agent until after the 2024 season. But if things don’t get better in a hurry, it’s going to be a short two years in San Diego that might seem like a lot longer than that.
Just for some context here, Brandon Marsh, a career .247/.301/.370 guy is outperforming Soto in almost every way:
That’s pretty damning…especially the height.
Soto’s only gone deep three times, knocked in seven runs, and lead the Padres to a 18-19 record since the trade.
Don’t want to dump on the guy too much, but one more example of what a dumpster fire this trade has been:
Oof.
I’m sure this eventually will work out and Soto will get back to his old ways. There’s not a chance this will keep going on he’ll regret turning down a 15-year, $400M contract, right?
Nah, no shot.
Sunday State of Mind: September 5th-September 11th
We continue a longstanding tradition here at UDS by dedicating an entire SSM to Week One NFL action.
Big start on Thursday night, Rams and the Bills
Pregame program was legit, full of fluff and frills
The game was in LA, but plenty Bills fans there
Josh Allen and the boys came out and won the game with flair
Sunday start in the dirty, Falcons and the Saints
Start of football season, we have no complaints
Something so familiar, Falcons had an early lead
They coughed it up and lost, almost guaranteed
Browns and the Panthers, Baker revenge bowl
He wanted to win this game with his entire soul
Browns came out and played, got a surprising win
Panthers almost came back, there’s a positive spin
The San Francisco 49ers are used to good weather
The conditions in Chicago, they were different all together
It rained and rained and rained some more, really came down strong
A nice win for the Bears in a season that might be long
Steelers and the Bengals, an AFC North tilt
Bengals came in walking tall, like a man on stilts
Five turnovers for Joe Burrow, not like him at all
Even so, we had OT, but the Bengals did fall
Eagles and the Lions, closer than we expected!
Coming into the day, thought this game would be neglected
Lions got down early, then almost came back
Lot of money on the Eagles, banks almost attacked
Texans and the Colts, folks we have a tie
Same score in regulation, OT, and then the game died
Feels like a win for Houston, Indy can not be psyched
Have to think a blowout win is what they would’ve liked
Patriots and Dolphins, Miami’s brand new look
Mike McDaniel’s offense had Bill Belichick’s D shook
Tua looked OK, Tyreek and Waddle balled
Dolphin fans ecstatic, Pats fans are appalled
Ravens and the Jets, Flacco revenge game
Cool Joe did play pretty well, can’t give him much blame
Lamar Jackson’s on a mission, wants to get that big money
Three touchdowns and Ravens win, L-Jack sweet as honey
Jags and the Commanders, this game just seemed weird
First game for Carson Wentz in DC, brought his big red beard
Jaguars were close to grabbing a week one win
At least until week two for victories to begin
Giants and the Titans, King Henry and Saquon
The Titan bruised along, Giant looked like a swan
Another crazy comeback, as New York did their job
Titans played tough in the first half, but ended like slobs
Cardinals and the Chiefs, and a new look KC
Went to Arizona, first opportunity
To see if they still had it after losing some big stars
Five tuddy’s for Pat Mahomes, he did not go too far
Chargers and the Raiders, matchup in LA
Justin Herbert is a stud, and he was on display
Three touchdowns and no picks, his team is 1-0
Raiders have a nice roster, only upwards to go
Vikings and the Packers, A-Rod needs to some talent
He can’t go out and win himself, they guy’s only so gallant
Story is not about him though, Vikings looked pretty good
Kirk Cousins was really sharp, was he misunderstood?
Buccaneers and Cowboys, Sunday night in Dallas
Jerry Jones must love it when we’re focused on his palace
Tough break for Big Jer, as Tom Brady is still here
TB12 wins again, will for 100 years
An Exhaustive List of Things Better Than the NFL Being Back
Bills, Rams, us, our couches…collision course.
What a start to the NFL season. A potential Super Bowl preview on Thursday of week one? Why the hell not?
Everybody’s preseason MVP Josh Allen and Bills Mafia heading west to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, it doesn’t get any sweeter.
What a hors d’oeuvre for the rest of week one. With an absolute mega beginning to the season, we took the time and research to put together an all-inclusive list of things better than the NFL being officially back.
Please find our list below:
1. Nothing
That’s it, folks.
Enjoy the football.
Sunday State of Mind: August 29th-September 4th
It’s a special Labor Day edition of SSM! Take a break from the unofficial end of summer and look back at the week that was in sports.
The biggest story of the week, college football is back
Full slate of games during week one, games we did not lack
We’ll dive in more below, but are just glad to see
Tailgates, school bands and football all over our TVs
Weirdest and most on brand game, the Iowa Hawkeyes
Worst offense of the week, they surely won the prize
A final score of 7-3, a close game with no ease
Even stranger, no touchdowns, one field goal two safeties
Biggest matchup of the week, Irish and the Buckeyes
Game was closer than we thought, ND a nice surprise
Ohio State overwhelmed, finally pulled away
Won 21-10, but both teams came to play
Poor Virginia Tech, upset city in week one
Old Dominion hosted them and got the job done
The Hokies may have overlooked and thought it’d be a breeze
The Monarchs took advantage, brought them to their knees
Our final note this week, we saved the best for last
Serena Williams is now done, her career in the past
She lost the US Open, made it to the third round
Even without a tourney win, she still deserves a crown
Aaaaand We’re Off
We made it.
It’s the first Thursday of college football season, and we’ve got 16(!) games to watch/cherish/bet.
The buffet has plenty of options, with the best options of the night being a B1G Conference matchup between Penn State & Purdue and The Backyard Brawl between Pitt & WVU.
Sure, we had a little appetizer of Northwestern and Nebraska (lol) last week, but this feels a little more real. A legitimate rivalry game and conference game between a historical program and a team who always seems to bring their best in big spots.
Whether it’s Kedon Slovis giving an old fashioned clean rah-rah speech or Purdue’s head coach Jeff Brohm Jeff Brohm’ing, football is back and so is our joy.
So stock your mini-fridge, order the wings, and fine tune those parlays, folks. Welcome back college football.
Sunday State of Mind: August 22nd-August 28th
The dog days of summer are about to come to an end, and this week’s SSM is about to begin.
Week zero college football, back in a minor way
Next week all of the big boys, will come out to play
Still great to have real games, that actually count
I think we all missed college football quite a large amount
The sad downside of football, injuries occur
The rough part of the game that none of us prefer
You never want to see a player get carted off the field
But Poe was hurt, really bad, hope he will soon heal
A monster baseball contract, pen to ink this week
Julio Rodríguez wins again, continues his hot streak
Fourteen years, $200 mil, that much is guaranteed
Seattle is a great sports town, this is the guy they need
Big weekend for the Mariners, and their GOAT Ichiro
Inducted to their Hall of Fame, should’ve happened years ago
The baseball Hall of Fame is not far down the road
An incredible player with everything he showed
A bad break for the Thunder, and their big draft pick
Chet Holmgren’s gonna miss the season, Oklahoma sick
It happened in a pro-am, trying to guard The King
LeBron hit him a little hard, made Chet’s little foot sting
Tiger & Rory Announced The TGL and LFG
Suck it, LIV Golf.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy launched TGL Golf on Tuesday, with a pretty exciting promo video.
So, to recap: we’ve got top PGA golfers teaming up to play on simulators. This is honestly a great idea and should be pretty watchable.
We are here for it, and are here to help as much as possible. With that in mind, we want to provide some ideas to Tiger and Rory if they are looking for some interaction, as the above video implies.
So let’s list details that have been released for The TGL so far (in bold) with our thoughts & suggestions.
- Two hour competitions: pretty good amount of time, could push it to three hours if needed.
- Fifteen Monday night matches: great start, feel free to spread this out to Sundays, maybe some Thursdays. Also, could stretch this out to 17 weeks.
- Three vs. three team competition: kind of small, maybe move this up to 11 on 11?
- Eighteen players total (six teams of three): this seems low, need to pump these numbers up. Maybe 32 teams with 53 man rosters each, just spitballing some figures here.
- Begins January 2024: this seems a tad off. Potential suggestion here would be to start training in August, with competition starting in September through the fall and winter, with the season ending in early February.
- Using a golf ball: while this sounds smart on the surface, maybe think about moving to a lemon shaped ball with unpredictable bounces. Golfers could potentially also run & throw said ball.
Sounds great right? We’re super excited for The TGL, and think with the above suggestions, this new golf league could really take off and grab America’s attention.
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