Many fathers are lousy daddies - just look at the statistics - as over half the men in America don’t take responsibility for the children they helped create. And you could even make a case that eligible men over 30 are either coming from the recycle barrel, are veterans of multiple failed rehabs or are toting enough baggage to fill a C-130 cargo hold.
I walked into Cape’s soon-to-be-demolished Little Big House last Saturday morning just to absorb the Yellow Jackets wrestling tournament and my observation was heavy duty emphasis on little combatants with dyed hair Mohawks and rattails and those were the mothers. Wrestling is a cult-type sport, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.
It’s just amazing how tough little boys can be but some of what you see reminds you of recess in North Korea minus the dummies and bayonets.
But dads and moms spending time with their sons and other siblings laying about whining “when is this going to be over” sounds pretty functional family to me.
I took my three boys through the youth wrestling wars and they were all pretty good, but when it came time to make their own decisions they voted no, so I moved on to other encouragements like, “Get a job!”
MEET THE PARENTS - AAU and college coaches I’ve spoken to over the last few months have all commented on today’s parents as being way over the top which means someone is sliding down and it’s usually the student-athletes’ personal identity.
As a journalist I hear this sentence quite a lot: “These kids have worked so hard, they really deserve some recognition.” My answer to this: “No, they don’t.”
What 10-year-old has a concept of hard work and success in sports that translates to well-deserved recognition in the newspaper?
That’s a parental perspective and at best it is odd. That’s not to say that a little guy being Athlete of the Week or a minor league team getting full-blown news coverage isn’t a good and positive happening, but there should be no expectation that it is deserved.
MUTED REPSONSE - The Eagles were running out of the tunnel as the results came across the internet that both Tampa Bay and Chicago had lost must-win games, making the Dallas at Eagles contest a winner take the final playoff berth game.
The crowd was left to figure it out and because there was no raucous reaction, one could only assume that season ticket holders had given up their seats for this “meaningless” game.
LOCKER ROOM LEADERSHIP - There are no Vince Lombardis left in the NFL. That’s why owners like Jerry Jones of the Cowboys and Dan Snyder of the Redskins have so many problems, because they fail to realize the character and leadership of a winning team comes from the players on the 53-man roster.
Andy Reid is loved by his players and the locker room is led by frontline players like McNabb, Dawkins, Runyon and Westbrook. There are no thugs or totally selfish and completely crazy players on the roster because they just don’t fit. Look at the Colts and Steelers as examples of consistent leadership using high-character talent to achieve success.
POLAR BEARS - The Lewes Polar Bears will begin their 26th year of plunging Thursday, Jan. 1 at Cape Henlopen State Park. The air and water temperature are both predicted to be around 40, which is only moderately uncomfortable in the short term; just don’t trip on the way out. Plunge time is 1 p.m. and, speaking of funky bottoms, the best advice is not to dive - it is just the Safeway which by the way was the only supermarket open on Christmas morning.
The hundreds of Harleys you will see in the parking lot are part of a club based in Seaford that makes the trip every year, but those risky riders don’t polar bear proving the different flavors of crazy don’t coalesce into one tutti-frutti.
“A whop bop-a-lu a whop bam boo! Where’s my towel?”
PURE TESTOSTERONE - Young males in football stadiums with many beers to the good simply screaming into the sky and participating in the largest spelling drill in the history of the universe: E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!
I have never been that lost in the moment in my entire life and there they are, tens of thousands raging against the machine as the Eagles pound the Cowboys into submission. But the boys want more stomping as the Dallas radio guy screams into his microphone, “Stop the fight! Stop the fight!”
POST TRAUMATIC T.O. - I know Terrell because I am certified in every behavior malady ever identified, so I knew he would step to the microphone after the Eagles’ 44-6 drubbing of the Cowboys on Sunday and say all the right things: “Good old-fashioned butt whipping,” and “Back to the drawing board” because, after all, he is the crazy guy and he controls the action. And something else - he is a player and a battler and the scary part is when he plays the role of reasonable guy, he is charismatic and intelligent and sounds like a leader. And that’s Owens in a nutshell - know what I’m saying?
|
