Football begins

The NFL season began this week with the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs playing the Houston Texans. Most of the other teams will start on Sunday. The Philadelphia Eagles will play the Washington Football Team at 1 p.m. I expect this first game to be high scoring and probably quite ugly to watch. But even with that being said, I think the Eagles should be able to pull off a win.

U.S. Open tennis is winding down to the end on the men’s side. There will be a new Grand Slam champion as Novak Djokovic defaulted in the fourth round of play. He made a terrible mistake and hit a ball in anger toward the back fence that hit a lines person. This was an automatic disqualification that forced him to default. I was disappointed that he even tried to talk them out of the disqualification. I think this was a good move because you can’t give the best player preferential treatment in this situation. Being both embarrassing and dangerous, I hope Novak will take heed and never do it again.

The competitors who are left that I think can now win are Dominic Thiem, who is the second best clay court player in the world, and Daniil Medvedev, who made it to the U.S. Open final last year.

Serena Williams was the favorite to win on the women's side, but she fell to Victoria Azarenka from Belarus Thursday in the semis. Naomi Osaka from Japan is likely the favorite now. This should make for some fun tennis to watch this weekend. I hope all are competitive and exciting matches to watch under the oddity of the pandemic with no fans in the stands. It's certainly better than no sports at all!

In golf last weekend, Dustin Johnson won the FedEx Cup Championship by three shots over Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele. Dustin deserved to win the entire thing because he was clearly the best player over the three weeks of playoff events. I like that this year’s golf season doesn't have the typical close to the season. The U.S. Open actually begins next Thursday. It will be held at the incredibly difficult Winged Foot Golf Club in New York, where Jeff Ogilvie won with a score of six-over par, by just one shot over Phil Mickelson, all the way back in 2006 when the U.S. Open was last played there.

Of course, I have to mention the Phillies. They have a very busy schedule this week, playing the Florida Marlins seven times in the next five days. This is being done to make up for the games they weren't able to play at the beginning of the season because of the virus. There are only three weeks left of the regular season, so this series will be a determining factor of how the the Phillies season will close out. Being in second place in their division looks promising, but a seven-game series will be a big test. Go Phillies.

And I can't end this week's effort without acknowledging 9/11. The memories of that awful day will not be something I will ever forget. So please take some time to remember those who lost their lives and may we never revisit something like that again. Have a good weekend everyone. Stay safe and well.