NFL Championship Weekend best watched on mute

Insulting intelligences - Speaking of sports, how many hours of programming do we need as a runup to a playoff football game? How many graphics and touchscreen demonstrations are overkill? When  did “laser focus” take the place of “locked in”? How many State Farm and Liberty Mutual commercials are too many? How many “Everybody gets the same deal” commercials for phones and credit cards?  And how many medical malady muppets hawking prescriptions featuring dancing fat people? “Cogitating TV commentators”: mostly what I read are complaints from fans who can’t stand Collingsworth, Romo and Aikman. Ravens tickets for Sunday's Chiefs game can be found for $600. Fans in the stands look to be over the top, either 100 percent happy or enraged; some are drunk but most are not; nobody is telling them what they just saw. I watched the fourth quarter of the Bills' demise against the Chiefs with the sound turned down. My wife Susan remarked, “When the sound is off, you talk more; well, not actually talk, more like incomplete incoherences (‘What the…?’).” 

Game of half-inches - Addison Bowman, a Cape junior, won the pole vault at the Henlopen Conference Indoor Track Championships with a school-record jump of 10-4.50. I originally left off the .5 figuring what does it matter, but I messed up. Then, at the Jan. 24 Bayside Meet at the Worcester County Recreation Center, Addison won by clearing 10-6. Bailey Fletcher, a Cape senior, just set a school record in the indoor pole vault by clearing 14-11 to win the Ursinus College High School Invitational Jan. 24 in Collegeville, Pa. Addison and Bailey are siblings, and I’m not chasing that ball.

Never-never land - The Caesar Rodney boys blew a 15-point second-half lead at Cape Jan. 23. Watching on the Delmarva Sports Network, I saw more turnovers than a Danish bakery, enough bricks to build a one-room schoolhouse. With fouls to give and trailing by two points after a made three-pointer by freshman Geordan Downing, Cape decided to foul one too many times, sending a Rider to the line with two shots and 13 seconds on the clock. I’ll let Kenny Reidel take it from here: “I've seen it all now. Cape led 51-49 with 13 seconds left in its game tonight with CR. CR went to the line and missed two free throws (plus another miss on a lane violation), rebounded a miss, got fouled again, missed two more free throws, rebounded a miss, got fouled again, and missed two more free throws. Yes, that's 0 for 7 from the stripe to tie the game (technically 0 for 6 due to the violation, but still). Cape also came back from a 15-point third-quarter deficit. The Vikings ran off 16 straight points in the final 5:41 of the fourth.” Here in the seaside village teeming with doodles, that is all the way wackadoodle. 

You happy, me happy - I have told my granddaughters who are athletes, “You happy, me happy,” and never led with sports questions, not wanting to contribute to hyper focus even though I am an actual sports photographer and writer. I apply the same rule to all the athletes I have covered. It's not important to me if you are playing next level somewhere, just most important that you are happy, and if in school you are doing well and stay away from the Samsonite people – the folks who bring their own baggage to a relationship.     

Jelly Roll Blues - Joel Embiid scored 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs Jan. 23 at the Wachovia Center, which is fittingly sponsored by a bank. The Spurs’ payroll per season is $138,762,763; that is how much it costs to play ineffective defense against the Cameroon Kid in South Philly. Coach Greg Popovich just signed a contract for five years at $16 million a year, and yes, that is $80 million. Did I mention Embiid scored 70 against all that money? But Embiid makes an average $53,320,928 per season for the next four years. When NBA teams talk about “load management,” they must be talking of carrying money to the bank, not sitting out games to rest their bones. Note: My granddaughter Katie Fred and Jacob Hopkins were at the game, the first NBA game either had seen in person.

Snippets - Sarah Naar (Cape) is a freshman attacker on the Massachusetts Maritime women's lacrosse roster, majoring in marine engineering. Lots of Cape kids have gone to maritime colleges and earned a four-year degree that mostly results in an actual good-paying job. Anna Stancofski (Cape), a veteran of four years of field hockey at Swarthmore, is listed as a defender on the spring lacrosse roster of the Garnet. Charlie Casas (Cape) is a freshman starter for the Hood College men’s volleyball team. Charlie had 10 kills and 13 total points in the Blazers’ first match, a 3-1 loss to Wilson College of Chambersburg, Pa. The Henlopen Conference Swim Championships are set for Saturday, Feb. 10, at Sussex Academy. If your hands are on deck, it means you slipped. Go on now, git!