Author Archives: Kent Sterling
Indianapolis Colts – Many question marks; can they overcome them & make playoffs? Pacers Sumner out!
Indiana Basketball – Favorable schedule = 24 wins + NCAA #iubb! Today’s #Colts injury report key! #Cubs win – Happ rakes!
Indianapolis Colts – Bad news for Big Q & X! IU Basketball releases schedule – will Hoosiers win 20?
Colts and NFL’s Opening Night Party in Indy had a star 14 years ago, but it wasn’t Faith Hill or Peyton Manning
My wife Julie is very smart and funny, and a great mom too. It goes without saying she is an incredibly patient woman. But as the NFL kicked off the 2007 season in downtown Indianapolis after the Colts won the previous Super Bowl, she was more than that. She briefly became a star among stars.
Most of the NFL’s celebration is part of a made-for-TV extravaganza with mini-concerts and choreographed fan engagement, but there is also a party where NFL executives and hall of famers might have a cocktail or two and connect before heading over to the stadium for the game.
That party in Indianapolis was held in the lobby of the Hilbert Circle Theater, and somehow I stumbled into two credentials along with Eric Wunnenberg and his wife Andrea. I was the program director at the radio station that served as the Colts flagship, and Eric is still the sales manager for the station. Our bosses must have decided not to attend, so there we were.
Hall of famers were everywhere but the friendliest of them was former Los Angeles Ram Deacon Jones, one of the most disruptive defensive linemen in NFL history. Julie did what she does so well, which is assess the needs of those around her and try to help. Deacon’s glass was empty, and Julie asked whether she could get him some water. The glass has obviously (for a variety of reasons) been filled with vodka and cranberry juice, and Deacon was offended Julie offered water.
“What, and ruin my cool vodka buzz?” Deacon admonished. Former Oakland Raiders wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff nodded toward Julie indicating her suggestion was appropriate. I sat with former Raiders and Patriots quarterback Jim Plunkett as he told me about his daughter’s volleyball exploits, but my attention kept drifting to how easily Julie got along with these football icons.
A little later, Eric and I stood in the middle of the room awe-struck by the sheer wattage of the football star power that surrounded us. There was one guy toward the corner of the room, standing alone. Clearly, he was an athlete, or former athlete, but we could not place him. I told Eric I had a solution that didn’t involve us embarrassing ourselves by asking him who he was. I grabbed Julie, “Hey, can you find out who that guy is?”
Julie walked over. Within seconds, she and the lanky guy were thumb wrestling and laughing. This went on for several minutes, and was interrupted when he yelled at all-time NFL tough guy Jack Youngblood, “Jack, you gotta thumb wrestle Julie.”
Youngblood lost, as does everyone Julie thumb wrestles, and she returned to us. “His name is Jack Ham.” Ham, of course, was a member of the vaunted Steel Curtain defense that led the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl championships. “He’s a really nice guy!”
Still salty over Julie’s superiority, Youngblood stopped by for another loss, then told former Cincinnati Bengal Anthony Munoz, perhaps the best offensive lineman to ever play, that he needed to get his butt kicked by Julie. Munoz held up his hand. His fingers pointed in most unusual directions. A lifetime of football mangled any opportunity to even clasp Julie’s hand, much less thumb wrestle.
NFL great after NFL great, cajoled by Ham and Youngblood, accepted the challenge of thumb wrestling my wife. Former Steelers and Bears quarterback Kordell Stewart was the only guest who refused their invitation – other than Munoz. Julie dispatched all opponents – many of them more than once.
The NFL is hosting another of its annual soirees in Tampa tomorrow night as Tom Brady and the Bucs are heralded as the NFL’s latest champions. A group of NFL greats will enjoy a few cocktails and reconnect before the Bucs take on the Dallas Cowboys to open another season of NFL football.
The only thing missing will be the star thumb wrestler from that party 14 years ago.
Indianapolis Colts – 5 players whose health is critical for success! Pacers TJ Warren still on shelf
Indianapolis Colts – Five matchups that must go their way to beat the Seahawks! Fisher might play!
Indiana Football goes all Indiana Football in Iowa City – which really ain’t that bad!
A college football fanbase accustomed to comical levels of disappointment had a good laugh at it’s own expense Saturday – and it had nothing to do with bad football.
The recency bias that enticed Indiana fans to buy into the belief that their football program had turned a corner toward repeatable respectability was flawed – as is the case with most recency biases.
The Hoosiers were outclassed, out-executed, and out-fought by Iowa Saturday afternoon in their season opening 34-6 debacle.
Now, Indiana fans need to fight another recency bias – the one that syncs with the historical bias that has driven college football’s lowest expectations for the past 70 years. The Hoosiers are supposed to suck. Fans are supposed to leave Memorial Stadium at halftime to return to their tailgate or walk to Nick’s Bar a mile south of the stadium.
There have been a few successes that led Hoosiers to the brink of optimism, and last season’s 6-1 Big 10 record qualified, but the overall pattern since the Korean War has been short bursts of winning followed by extended droughts of misery.
But if one magical season during a pandemic was not a reason to invest significant hope in the Indiana’s future, why would one pathetic effort destroy it.
Fans should rein in their self-loathing for darting to hope the Covid season was a real approximation of the quality of Tom Allen’s program. We are all looking for a reason to believe in goodness rather than argue about vaccines and politics, so forgive yourself for this apparent gullibility. This was only one game of a regular season that will feature 11 more, including a visit from the Idaho Vandals Saturday night.
Idaho beat Simon Frazier 68-0 in its season opener, but until my research determines whether Simon Frazier is a college or bespectacled lab assistant, I will reserve judgment of IU’s next opponent’s capacity to cause problems.
This is a long season and it won’t be defined by a single game – even one as unimpressive as Indiana’s against the Hawkeyes. There are three opportunities for vengeance against ranked opponents coming up. Cincinnati, Penn State, and Ohio State offer Indiana chances to make good their promises for continued ascension.
The loss in Iowa made apparent IU’s inability to create holes for running back Stephen Carr or pockets for quarterback Michael Penix. It’s hard to imagine that being fixed in time to provide a challenge for Cincinnati on September 18th, but giving up hope is not an option.
Indiana fans have been living on a diet of hope, beer, and stromboli’s for longer than we have been alive, and I wouldn’t change a thing. If disappointment is defined by an Indiana loss being experience by old friends being served delicious food and cold beverages – sign me up.
I can live with another season of losing like that, so why not hope for the best as we acknowledge that losing is so enjoyable.
Indianapolis Colts – Eric Fisher activated! Indiana misspelled and miscast in loss! Cubs win again?
Covid and the Colts stitched together brings misery to fans – and media
There is nothing about Covid-19 I like. Obviously, the deaths, illness, fatigued-beyond-words health care workers, and tremendous fear among many top the list. But I also hate the way it has intruded upon sports.
Sports serves as both a mirror of our society and an escape from it. Watching our city’s teams is really the last thing we do together, and can agree upon. In whichever city you live, you see people on the street, train, bus, or in a restaurant and say, “How ’bout the (insert team name here)?” Strangers connect, and we make new friends.
I do that twice everyday on social media. With Breakfast with Kent each morning, I trying to make friends by talking about the Colts, Hoosiers, Pacers, Bulldogs, Boilers, and even the Cubs a little bit. In the afternoon, I do the same on Inside Indiana Sports Now. It’s all sports – or at least it has been until now.
Here is this morning’s Breakfast with Kent:
That a lot of Covid talk, right? Not so much a diversion from our day-to-day troubles, but a full on embrace of this endless nightmare. And why did I talk so much about Covid?
Here in Indianapolis, the Colts have one of the NFL’s lowest vaccination rates. Those who have not been vaccinated include new quarterback Carson Wentz, All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard, All-Pro left guard Quenton Nelson, Pro-Bowl center Ryan Kelly, and receiver Zach Pascal. The unvaccinated are held to a protocol by the NFL that shutters them in a five-day quarantine if they have close contact with someone who tests positive.
That is exactly what happened this week to Wentz, Kelly, and Pascal, and happened last week to Nelson. That’s how we know they have not been vaccinated. If it happens during the season and these players are unavailable on Sunday, the Colts chances of competing successfully will be greatly diminished.
So you can see how Covid and the NFL have been welded together as one. Talking about one without mentioning the other, especially for a team like the Colts with a 75%-ish vaccination rate, is impossible. People don’t embrace each other over Covid talk – they lose friends because of it. If you take the vaccine, some see you as an eager-to-comply fool. If you refuse, some see you as a selfish fool. Yikes!
On my YouTube channel, comments are offered by a growing group of subscribers who enjoy discussing our teams. It’s one of the rewards of hosting the shows. I enjoy the comments – or at least I did until the need to talk Covid intruded upon our fun little sports haven.
Over the last few days, angry screeds have been authored by vaccine proponents and detractors. Few agree with me or each other. We’ve gone from a happy group of sports fans whose biggest dispute was whether Jacob Eason or Sam Ehlinger should be Carson Wentz’s backup to a collection of judgmental and impatient individuals.
I hope that the Colts stop falling prey to NFL protocols and we can come together as we watch each weekend. My fear is again and again this season the toxic debate between vaccine proponents and detractors will rage as one Colt after another is forced to sit.
That’s life – and media – in 2021. And we also need to steel ourselves for whatever misery Covid brings to other diversions like the NBA, college football, and college basketball. Oh, and don’t forget the Winter Olympics. If that’s as much fun as the Summer Games, I won’t mention it at all either.
Just remember – as much as you loathe Covid talk sprinkled into your sports, I enjoy talking about it even less. If I ever figure our how to separate the two – you will see me smiling ear to ear as the happiest guy on YouTube!