Clarify but don’t question - Coach Chris Mattioni, a 30-year veteran who’s always composed but competitive, got banged with an unsportsmanlike penalty for questioning an official’s call – a one-point team deduction – during Cale Baker's 126-pound match that ended in a 5-3 loss to Nicholas Papiro of Delaware Military Academy. The team score had been tied 26-26 with four bouts remaining, including Baker’s. Cape ultimately lost 45-25. A coach can call an official to the scoring table to clarify a call, but he cannot question a call, at least not two times. It’s just like baseball. You can't question balls and strikes without risking ejection. Football has the flag system, while in soccer and lacrosse there is the color-coded card system. Basketball has the technical foul, often two shots and the ball. Fans in all the sports are expected to be enthusiastically tame. Without dropping names, some of my close friends who are way nicer people than I am have been tossed from venues, including scrimmages.  

Name dropping - Dan Cook and I covered Ravens, Eagles and Redskins home games for 10 years. Dan was on the field taking photos and I was in the press box schmoozing in the ZZ Top section, “I’m bad, I’m nationwide.” I never dropped my name because no one was interested. I was just a sportswriter from the Cape Gazette with a Monday morning homeroom back in Lewes. We were never denied access (a credential), even to playoff games, including conference championships. The teams knew us, knew we delivered the goods, knew our demographic was at the intersection of three NFL fan bases. I made sure they knew that Seaside Sussex put more fans in the water starting Fourth of July and ending Labor Day than an NFL team did over eight home games. Twice in Baltimore I sat next to Doug Williams, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback from the Redskins’ 1988 team. Williams was the director of pro scouting for the Tampa Bay Bucs. I called Williams “Coach,” as he had coached Grambling State University to the Black College National Championships in 2000 and 2001. Williams is now with the Commanders as a senior advisor to President Jason Wright. He talks to Jayden Daniels almost every day. Once, after a strange and complicated trick play by the Ravens that blew up in disaster, Coach Williams turned to me and broke it all down. I have no idea what he said as he was saying it, only responding, “For sure, for sure.” I am wondering why Commanders fans aren’t seeing and hearing more of Doug Williams during this magical season. 

An Officer and a Gentleman - Spencer Brittingham, Cape Class of 1983, a former Marine, correctional officer, businessman and owner of Spencer for Hire – his son later started a business called Lawn and Order – celebrated his 60th birthday last week. I saw a photo and knew all the 1983 people by facial recognition, but what was even more weird was that I also knew the couple at the next table not trying to be in the photo or celebration. They were Marylou Hanley Warren and Wayne Warren. Wayne was on the Cape state championship spring track team in 1976. I don’t have a roster, but also on that team were Jay Reed, Lance White, Kerwin Street, Ron Jefferson, Dennis Robinson, Tyrone Gibbs, Vaughn Trammel, Bilbo Dunning, Gilbert Maull, Randy Johnson, Jon Doney, Guy Wilkinson, Quinton Phillips, Eddie Parker, Angelo Shugart, Hiram Carter, Chico Beckett and Mike Price.  

Personal - Go to the roster page of any NFL team and just read the paragraph with the heading “Personal” to get a sense of the extraordinary sports journey all these players have been on. Almost everyone was identified as tremendous by their freshman year in high school, and quite often there is a genetic component to their athletic success. And that is why in the playoffs, every athlete is just crazy good. 

Snippets - The NFL is down to the divisional playoff round. Let's look at quarterbacks. In the NFC, you have Jared Goff, Jayden Daniels, Mathew Stafford and Jalen Hurts. In the AFC, there are Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and CJ Stroud. I haven’t encountered one sports person who freely boasts about betting on games, which means it's kept secret like other addictions, but to quote Sinbad, “At least try to fool somebody.” Monday, Jan. 20, is a federal holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and also Inauguration Day and the NCAA Division I football national championship game. To quote Bob Dylan, “I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready to fade into my own parade.” Go on now, git!