Water Cooler Musings

It's been eleven years since the Miami Dolphins have started 3-0 so you'll have to bear with me for one moment...okay...let's move on.

What?  You thought this would be a giant love-fest over the Miami Dolphins?  Don't get me wrong--I couldn't be prouder and for a long, long time it's in the offense more than the defense.  My little Fuzzby, Ryan Tannehill, is growing up and dare I say trying to reach Furby status.  I'm proud of his composure, I'm proud of his ability to lead game-winning drives in perilous situations but the thing that I'm most proud of is that...well...if Miami has the ball and is one score away from winning it I officially have full faith in my little Fuzzby.  I trust him to get it done.  I am officially off of "here's where we blow it" status.

But I'm not on "WOOO! SUPER BOWL TIME! XOXOXOXOXO! GO DOLPHINS!"

And hopefully I'll never be that guy but I'm a grounded individual and it's a tough sport we're playing here and it's going to get tougher before it gets easier.  What have the Dolphins achieved in starting 3-0?  Well for one, they've made me tremendously happy.  I haven't been excited like this for football in over a decade.  But that's where it ends for me.  I'm excited.  Miami heads to New Orleans next Monday night for our first national stage game in over a year in enemy territory against the also undefeated Saints.  This is a tough game here for the 'Phins.  Win this and then I'll start using the Studly Pastures for our official Super Bowl or Bust campaign.

Speaking of things that haven't happened in a long, long time...the Kansas City Chiefs are also undefeated at 3-0!  I don't think Denver and New England are nervous just quite yet but they are definitely scratching their heads and thinking, "What? No cake walk this year?"  Nope.

I like Alex Smith.  He was drafted No.1 overall in an 'eh' draft year and never seemed to really be accepted by his team even though he started doing 'eh' and then grew into a consistent player.  Then he got hurt and never retained his job because Jim Harbaugh is still searching for his next Andrew Luck.  So he got traded to the Chiefs, the 'worst' team in the league last year (Jacksonville) and now he's got this awesome 'Screw you, I'll show you all!' attitude and it's paired with Andy Reid's 'Screw you, I'll just stand here with the same expression on my face' and it appears to be working so far in Kansas City.

And now here's where I completely disavow the Cleveland Browns as an NFL franchise.

Are you kidding me?  What's your deal?  Do you like completely tormenting your fan-base year after excruciating year?

Let's step back for a second: last year you drafted Trent Richardson with the third overall pick and then you traded back into the first round to get Brandon Weeden.  I never liked the Weeden pick, considering he's almost two years older than me and got to throw passes to Dez Bryant in college (making his numbers look a lot better) but you thought he was your saving grace, right?  Well things didn't turn out so well last year and you brought in a new regime this year.  They don't think Weeden is the answer either so they want to stockpile some draft picks and move up and be able to take one of the college quarterbacks coming out this year (the Teddy Bridgewaters and Johnny Manziels of the world).  So...your solution was to trade Trent Richardson to the Indianapolis Colts.

Richardson had a very productive year last year but at the very least was your most dynamic playmaker on offense.  The CEO of the Browns who doesn't deserve to have his name listed here came on after the trade and said that the Browns were looking to be successful in the future...by trading their best weapon.

Okay, sure, let's assume they were actually trying to get better like he says by getting the Colts' first round draft pick.  Indianapolis was a playoff team last year and should at least contend for a spot this year.  That puts their pick at around No. 23 to about No. 25.  Cleveland, hopeless as all Hell, could have a top five draft pick if they keep losing.

But there it is, kids, they can't even LOSE correctly!

If you are telling your fanbase that you are laying down the rest of the 2013 season to make for a better future then why did you go and defeat the hapless Minnesota Adrian Peterson's?  Couldn't you have beaten them and still retained Trent Richardson?

That's a rhetorical question, Cleveland, and since you don't know what that word means I'll just spare you and say, YES, you could have won that game, kept Trent Richardson, and still been shitty enough to get a top five draft pick to get one of those quarterbacks.  Now we're just running in circles chasing our own asses.

Well that's it for now, kids, gotta save some stuff for later to stay relevant (oxymoron).  By the way, if the line for the Dolphins-Saints game is Saints +7 or above, put your money on the 'Phins.

Those Left Behind

For those loyal readers of the Studly Pastures, I apologize, this post will not be as light-hearted as most of my normal work is.  90% of the time I strive to make you laugh and the other 10% I actually encourage you to think.  Due to the events of earlier today, this post will be in the 10%.

Anybody who hasn't heard yet, Kansas City Chiefs Linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend after an argument and then drove to his home stadium and committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager who were trying to talk him down from more acts of violence.

As if the dual tragedy wasn't enough, it branches out further.  The couple had a infant child, his mother apparently witnessed the first shooting, and let us not forget the other family members of the victim, the shooter's teammates, the impact this will have on the two men that got to know him and tried to talk him down, and of course, anybody else who has ever been affected by a suicide that has their stitches ripped out every time a suicide pops up in the news.

I know that was a run-on sentence.  Grammar be damned tonight.

I'm not a religious person but I am a passionate person.  I care and love for things and those things are mostly people.  The other three are sports, beer, and pizza. (Okay, I'll tell some jokes, it's still ME after all)

And for those that I love, rest assured, I've been mad at you.  I've been completely and utterly pissed off with those closest to me and they've known it.  The reason you have never known it before is because it doesn't make the news because I'm a rational human being that understands the impact of life and the impact of loss.  Anger is an emotion and emotions are ever-changing.  The only people that stay angry forever are Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson...and Gibson's is due to a chemical imbalance.

Suicide is the most selfish form of death there is.  For one, it's self-inflicted at any given time and interval.  For two, the release is typically quick and painless...for yourself.  No thought is given to those left behind except in a letter containing a weak apology.  Suicide victims are usually parents, children, spouses, friends, and whoever else you managed to encounter in your life.  The victim is never you.  You checked out, what do you care?

I'd like to say that there was something clearly wrong in the brain of Jovan Belcher but I never knew the guy nor am I a doctor.  All I can see right now is that Belcher is a thief.  He robbed the family of his girlfriend their precious baby girl.  He robbed his own family of their son.  He robbed his child the experience of growing up with PARENTS.

And if there was something wrong in Belcher's brain that caused him to commit these acts, where were the warning signs?  He works closely with the same twenty or so people EVERY single day.  Nobody once thought that Jovan was acting a little weird lately?  He started for a team that plays in the NFL.  He's on national television for Christ's sake and NOBODY saw anything?

Did he just snap?  Reports say that he was unhappy with how late his girlfriend stayed out with friends after a concert.  That's what started the argument that eventually ended both of their lives.  To me, that's a five-minute tiff and then I'm over it.  Why did this guy ruin lives because of it?

That's the other horrible thing about suicide.  There are questions that will never be answered.  Everybody that's left behind is left in a state of limbo, unsure of how to move on with their lives because they aren't sure about what exactly just happened to shake up their entire existence.

So what now?  We study his brain, find some dark spots on it and attribute the whole thing to that?  Does the NFL concussion committee have some new evidence?  What happens to the state of the game?

Is Jovan's son going to care?  Not a chance.  His world has affectively ended before it's even begun and that makes me incredibly sad.  How do you stand a chance when there is nobody in your corner?

Back to Romeo Crennel and Scott Pioli, the two men that were trying to get Jovan to put down the gun and stop all the violence/madness: Jovan thanked them for everything and then shot himself.  How sadistic is that?  How do you not realize that you are about to make these two men, who are trying to help you, endure the rest of their lifetime with the thought of, "What if?"

How did everything lose it's meaning?!  Boyfriend, father, son, teammate, friend...none of these labels registered anymore?  WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!

In the end it's just really, really sad.  All my years of journalistic training and honing my writing skills and all I can come up with is that it's just really, really sad.  Always remember kids, you are bigger than you think you are.  There is someone that thinks about you even when you don't.