Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Happy Thanksgiving – I’m Thankful for an Unexpected Message in 2013 that Came from an Odd Place

by Kent Sterling

Julie and I are happy as pilgrims in a pumpkin patch this Thanksgiving in Indianapolis.

Julie and I are happy as pilgrims in a pumpkin patch this Thanksgiving in Indianapolis.

Life can be complicated.  The bad things that happen to us wind up turning out for the best, and what seems good at the time can sometimes take you to a place you would rather have avoided.

For me this Thanksgiving, I’m thankful that my wife told me to come home.  It was the right thing to do, and my life is better for having done it.

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In June, 2011, I agreed to become the program director of a radio station in St. Louis that employed some of the best talent and people in media.  It was a great professional challenge, but my wife was not enthusiastic about leaving a job she loves where she works with people who have become family to her.

I had some unfinished business in radio, having been fired as program director of 1070 the Fan and WIBC in Indianapolis.  A career interrupted through means other than your own call left a bad taste in my mouth, and the gig in St. Louis was a chance to rinse it clean.

Almost two years passed with my wife driving back and forth most weekends because she said she enjoyed the driving, and I was working like hell to make St. Louis home.  Retreating to Indy each week would have made St. Louis an outpost from would I could happily escape on Friday if I had made the drive to Indy.

The money was good, and the programming staff was a special group, so I felt good about the job.  Despite spending a little more than I should have on rent, we were able to get rid of all debt minus our mortgage and a car payment.  I realize that car + mortgage is usually the entire debt load for a family, but our credit card obligations had grown over the years to an unwieldy level, and we were glad to shed it.

We tried to sell the house in Indy, and got an offer that wasn’t insulting, but it wasn’t the number we needed to be able to put a down payment on a house in St. Louis, so we passed.  I felt bad for the realtor, who invested a lot of time in trying to sell our home, but taking an offer out of guilt is even too stupid for me.

I have seen more commuter marriages end in ruin than survive, so I was resolute about Julie moving to St. Louis.  The town is a weird place, and frankly not very welcoming.  The people who live there come from families who have called St. Louis home for generations, and most err on the side of being parochial.  Some are absolutely wonderful and generous, but the overall vibe of the city is that interlopers will be gone soon enough, so why bother getting to know them.

My social calendar was filled with fun events with the staff, so regardless of whether people in Soulard bars didn’t like my answer to “Where’d you go to high school?” there were plenty of opportunities to get my fill of external interaction.

For Julie, it was different.  She didn’t have the chance to get to know people 50 hours a week at work in the same way I did, so when she told me in mid-February that she had been praying that I would find a way to come home, it was like a switch flipped.

There was a choice to not listen to her, and stay at the station, but continuing to put her through what had clearly become unpleasant for her would lead at some point to her making the decision not to drive to St. Louis one weekend, then another weekend, and pretty soon that would be that.

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The decision to leave St. Louis was made in a second, much like all really good decisions are.  I gave notice immediately, and three weeks later was back home doing very much the same stuff I was doing before I moved to St. Louis – writing constantly, hosting a weekend radio show on 1070 the Fan, and working hard to figure out who the Boilers, Bulldogs, Colts, Hoosiers, IndyCar drivers, and Pacers are.  How could a day filled with that suck?

What I’m really thankful for in addition to a great life with a wife and son who make me proud everyday, is getting to know some of the best people I’ve ever met in St. Louis.  I hope the hosts, producers, and board-operators at 101ESPN are friends of mine forever.  That’s well worth the two year interruption in my professional life, and the 60,000 miles my wife logged to keep us together three days a week.

The lesson gained through moving to St. Louis was that Indianapolis is home.  That’s not what I expected to be the resolution of moving to St. Louis, but I thankful for that wisdom no matter how it was delivered.

Indiana Football – After the Old Oaken Bucket Game, What’s Next for Kevin Wilson and Hoosiers?

by Kent Sterling

UnknownIf Indiana wins Saturday against Purdue, the case can be made that another step toward the building of a winning culture will have been taken.

The Hoosiers will be 5-7, a red zone turnover against Minnesota from a trip to a bowl.  There was also a close Navy game, but no sane person could claim Indiana should have won a game in which they earned no defensive stops.

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The Bucket Game will be the final game for ten seniors, half of whom contribute significantly.  There will be others with a year of eligibility who will choose to graduate and move on with their lives.  The program will also recoup some scholarships from former walk-ons who were awarded a scholarship for the 2013 season.

Returning players will need to improve, and another solid recruiting class will need to be gleaned from high school and junior college programs to make the crucial year four in the Kevin Wilson Era bear the fruit that might activate a mostly inert fan base.

Boosters, alums, and students have waited a long time for any small measure of success, and the passion that hopefully one day make Memorial Stadium a vibrant place.  Fans are as likely to roll out at halftime as stay, but I think that’s about to change.

Maybe I’m nuts, but I believe Indiana is close to the tipping point that is going to turn losses into wins, and establish the Hoosiers as a good Big Ten team.  When I listen to Wilson talk about the team every Monday, I see a zeal for continuing the process of removing Indiana as a consistent punch line in college football.

Wilson sounds like a coach who is demanding progress rather than hoping for it, and that tenacity will pay dividends because that is the way life works.  The spoils go to those who pursue their vision with tireless resolve, and regardless of whether you appreciate Wilson’s game management, no one can doubt the guy is eager to ram brick walls until they fall.

So how will Indiana go about getting better between the end of the game against the Boilermakers and National Signing Day in February.  Wilson spoke about that this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2AYJE-f8OA

Indianapolis Colts – Ryan Grigson and Chuck Pagano’s Mistake Was in Succeeding Too Quickly

by Kent Sterling

Colts GM Ryan Grigson continues to be aggressive, waiving David Reed and Justice Cunningham while signing safety Corey Lynch.

Colts GM Ryan Grigson continues to be aggressive, waiving David Reed and Justice Cunningham while signing safety Corey Lynch.

There are few things that get good coaches and general managers fired more quickly than not controlling and then meeting expectations.

It should have taken the Indianapolis Colts three years to rebound from the pit of despair in which they cratered in 2011.  That 2-14 campaign was an exercise in misery from which many franchises never rebound, but the prize for their woeful performance was the #1 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft and he made a profound difference.

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Choosing once per generation quarterback Andrew Luck at number one set the course for one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the history of professional sports.  Finishing 11-5 in 2012 set the stage for fans to buy into the myth that 2011 was a simple aberration.

They believed – despite the spare parts gathered on both sides of the ball to accompany Luck – that the Colts would take a step forward this season.  Early season performances, and a 6-2 record at the season’s halfway mark caused fans to indulge in dreams of a deep playoff run.

Never mind the injuries and holes all over the field (and not those created by an offensive line), the Colts were 6-2, and that’s halfway to 12-4 – likely good enough for a first round bye come January.

The Colts were then exposed by an improving Rams team in a 38-8 drubbing.  Three days ago, the Arizona Cardinals embarrassed the Colts 40-11.  With five games left in the 2013 season, the once very secure stranglehold the Colts had on the AFC South suddenly appears tenuous.

Fans are getting nervous, and that means they begin looking for someone to blame, and those accusatory eyes usually land on the guys in charge.

The problem isn’t that the Colts aren’t very good right now.  No, it’s that fans were duped by the 6-2 record into believing they were.

Smart executives make certain that winning can’t occur before a team is ready.  Look at Chicago Cubs President Theo Epstein.  During the past two seasons, as the Cubs started to play with some cohesion and purpose, Epstein dealt all the valuable parts.

Gone were Matt Garza, Scott Feldman, Alfonso Soriano, David DeJesus, Geovany Soto, Ryan Dempster, Paul Maholm, and others during the last two seasons in July sell-offs.  Some brought solid prospects, and others not so much.  What the Cubs really did was manage the expectations of the media and fans who are now conditioned to hope for 70-92 in 2014 as they await the arrival of the kiddie corps expected to make the team competitive in 2016.

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Success in 2016 will likely equate to a .500 record for fans, and given that 2016 is the last year in Epstein’s five-year deal, that makes a lot of sense.

The Cubs have virtually no pitching at all – no one posted double digit wins in 2013 – but they are shopping the reliably mediocre Jeff Samardzija.  Building for the future at the expense of the present is a good way for Epstein to motivate owner Tom Ricketts to throw a couple of extra years on his deal at $5-million per.

The Colts are building for the present at the expense of the future.  Worse, Grigson and Pagano not only have made moves that have fans excited, but have made owner Jim Irsay a believer that they can win now.  Yikes!

Grigson and Pagano need to be right or the chorus of fans led by their mercurial owner will rise in volume.  The Colts need wins beginning this Sunday at home against the only AFC South team that has any chance to catch them.  A loss will pull the Titans to within one game with four to play, and the fans calling for a coaching change will begin to sound less like kooks, if only because there will be more of them.

The sins of the Colts front office aren’t in the drubbings the team has suffered at the hands of the Rams and Cardinals, but in the unexpected wins that gave fans hungry for wins hope that they would continue uninterrupted, just as they did from 2003-2009 when the Colts never lost more than four games in any season.

The final five games of the season will either bring redemption for the Colts, or see the season that looked like it might end with a Super Bowl  completely unravel.

That’s what makes an NFL season so much fun for fans – the narrative of a season is unknown until it ends.  What seems a sure thing never is.  It might drive coaches and front office types crazy, but fans look forward to each week’s games like the next chapter of a great novel.

Meanwhile, we will amuse ourselves with the tweets from the guy leading the band of crazies into hysteria:

Indiana Basketball – Kelvin Sampson’s Show Cause Elapses; Fan’s Anger Shouldn’t

by Kent Sterling

This is what the combination of arrogance, stupidity, and amorality looks like.

This is what the combination of arrogance, stupidity, and amorality looks like.

Regardless of what the NCAA has to say about it, former Indiana University basketball coach is an unrepentant mope.  That his penalty for brazenly ignoring rules regarding contact with recruits is lifted today does nothing to ameliorate the damage his hubris, stupidity, and amorality caused at Assembly Hall.

The five-year period NCAA member schools would have had to show why Sampson should be allowed to work as a coach is over, but the lifetime of disdain Indiana fans should feel for him should outlast his physical presence on this plain.

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The NCAA has forgiven Sampson as of today.  I have not.  My hatred for this indifferent oaf will persist forever and always.

Despite my heritage as the son of a man who held enough longstanding grudges, I had no idea how he kept them straight.  I’m a big forgiver.  It always seemed to take so much energy for Dad to keep track of which stores and restaurants he would allow himself to frequent that forgiving them seems like the prudent choice.

Maybe it’s my laziness, less strict sense of justice, or understanding that everyone learns and evolves, but refusing to go to a pharmacy for 20+ years because Chuck Willms refused to allow Dad to pay cash for a purchase seems a little excessive.

The one behavior I will not forgive is hubris.  Arrogance in the face of logic is a bugaboo with me, and no one – maybe in the history of college athletics – exhibited a loftier sense of self without reason than Kelvin Sampson.

The rule that Sampson broke regarding contact with recruits no longer exists in any real way because circumventing it with throwaway phones was so simple.  Sampson didn’t trouble himself with buying throwaways at Indiana after being pinched for the same violation at Oklahoma.  Hubris times laziness usually equals disaster, but Sampson was too obtuse to adapt to that simple truth.

As a result, Indiana’s previously record of excellence in NCAA obedience went down the crapper, as did the Hoosiers program.  Careers and lives were changed.

For that, I hold a grudge.

All collegiate programs should exist as examples for student-athletes of how a professional life should be led.  The ends should not justify the means when it comes to college students.  For Sampson, setting an example was not on the agenda.

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Sampson not only broke the same rule that the NCAA nailed him for when he ran the Sooners program, he made IU vulnerable to disaster through a lethal combination of indifference to rules, stupidity, laziness, and hubris.  This is a rule it is almost impossible to get caught breaking.  Ivy League programs violated the rules repeatedly, and they don’t offer scholarships!

Indiana has come out the other side of the problems that Sampson created, but it took three years of tenacity from Tom Crean, the commitment of Cody Zeller, and the work ethic of Victor Oladipo to get it done.

The worst part of the whole twisted story is that it really wasn’t so much the action of Sampson, but the entirely avoidable decision to hire him that caused the dominos to start falling.  Whether it was IU President Adam Herbert or AD Rick Greenspan who was ultimately responsible for inviting the slow-witted fox into the Hoosiers henhouse doesn’t really matter.  At the minimum, Greenspan is responsible for allowing Herbert to exert his will.

A man who cared about Indiana University would have packed a box rather than stand by as Herbert instructed him to choose Sampson.  If I knew that Sampson was in trouble at OU, and was a rogue when it came to matters of compliance, Greenspan sure as hell should have.

Greenspan’s career is likely at an end after being kicked to the curb by Rice after making a series of bizarre and insensitive remarks to student-athletes, and Sampson continues to work as an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets.  Neither is of any use in my world, and I only wish to be in a position of power one day so that I can bring upon them both a measure of the misery they brought to Indiana University.

Forgive and forget?  Not in the hearts and minds of those who give a damn about right and wrong.

Someone is likely to hire Sampson because he didn’t get fired for losing, and in today’s world of college athletics, that is the only unpardonable sin.  Good luck to that school.  They will get what they deserve.

[polldaddy poll=7597007]

RG3 Learning Lesson About Media Overexposure as He Struggles on the Field

by Kent Sterling

If you want to see RG3 smile like this, you need a time machine. If RG3 had a time machine, turning it back to the moment he flipped on the national spotlight would be a good destination.

If you want to see RG3 smile like this, you need a time machine. If RG3 had a time machine, turning it back to the moment he flipped on the national spotlight would be a good destination.

If you want to be forgiven for mediocrity, don’t celebrate your excellence.  If that isn’t already attributed to someone in Bartlett’s Quotations, I’ll take credit.

That’s the lesson Robert Griffin III has learned over the past few weeks as his Washington Redskins have struggled to a 3-8 record.  At least that’s the lesson that is being served to him.

The quarterback to whom he is most often compared is Andrew Luck, who has followed a completely different path by shunning the national spotlight and appearing to be an entirely normal guy who happens to play football for a living.

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RG3 has inked deals with Adidas, Castrol Motor Oil, EA Sports, EvoShield, Gatorade, Nissan, and Subway.   Mark Heligman, Griffin’s marketing agent at Creative Artists Agency, answered the question of why CAA broke it’s own rule about limiting RG3’s national exposure in an interview with the Washington Times, “A variety of factors came into play as to why we decided to put him out there a little bit more than other rookies in the past. Truth be told, the primary factor is that Robert had the desire to do it. He was interested in marketing from Day 1.”

Luck has slow played his marketing with deals that include Klipsch and Bodyarmor sports drinks.  I haven’t seen Luck appear in a commercial of any kind, and RG3 has been ubiquitous.  There have been some Luck sightings in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” but always with teammates.

The sports media machine enjoys building a narrative for the best known athletes and coaches that involves discovery, ascension, decline, pitting, and if they make it through the grind of the first four stages, finally redemption.  RG3 is in the midst of his decline after a meteoric rise.

In his post game presser, RG3 spoke of “character assassination” in the media in response to a story about his request that negative plays of his be eliminated for film study seen by the rest of the team.  The Redskins have denied the veracity of the report, but RG3’s response in concert with that of coach Mike Shanahan has painted him as weak, sensitive, and petulant.

Andrew Luck had one of his worst games in Arizona Sunday, and the number of seconds ESPN devoted to Luck’s career low 4.18 yards per attempt, and season low quarterback rating of 60.1 was zero.  Today’s coverage of RG3 is above the fold in the lead block of the oft repeated Sportscenters through the morning.

When RG3 used the media and his partnership with endorsers, he elevated public interest.  All of that is fine when the road is smooth, but as it gets a little bumpy, the winds of sentiment change.

For Luck, who still uses a flip phone that he had at Stanford, people aren’t nearly as critical.

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When you shine a spotlight on yourself, sometimes you can’t control what it reveals.  That’s especially true when you were acquired in a trade that may turn out to be one of the worst in history, if the Redskins earn the #1 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.  That pick, along with the Redskins first round picks in 2012 and 2013, and the second rounder in 2012 could wind up building the foundation for a long run of excellence for the St. Louis Rams.

America loves watching the fallen rise, but also are thrilled to see the mighty tumble.  Tough lesson for a young man to learn, but it was entirely foreseeable and avoidable.

Indianapolis Colts – Fans Calling for Heads to Roll Need to Relax

by Kent Sterling

He helped turn 2-14 into 11-5, and is on the brink of clinching the AFC South in his second year, yet some fans want Chuck Pagano gassed.

He helped turn 2-14 into 11-5, and is on the brink of clinching the AFC South in his second year, yet some fans want Chuck Pagano gassed.

Did you really think it was going to be that easy for the Indianapolis Colts?  Did you think 2-14 could instantly become consistent championship level football?  Do you believe the men running the other 31 NFL franchises are morons?

The answers are – it isn’t, it can’t, and they aren’t.

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On the morning of Monday, October 21 – the day after the Colts ended the undefeated dreams of Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos – fans saw the Colts as a potential Super Bowl contender.  Thirty-seven days later, there are angry callers to sportstalk radio stations who want changes made to the coaching staff.

One rube tweeted, “We allowed the wrong coach to leave for Arizona.”  #FirePagano isn’t trending, but that it exists at all is both an indictment against the intellect of fans, and a salute to their passion – as misguided as the results might be.

They say head coach Chuck Pagano is an ineffective leader, offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton is too conservative, and defensive coordinator Greg Manusky’s is not putting players in a position to succeed.  Just 37 days ago, these same fans were ready to book flights to New York City for  Super Bowl XLVIII.

Did Bill Belichick feed the Colts brain trust a big bowl of dumb soup?  No, these are the same guys playing the same game by the same rules, and the coaches are all smart people.

Sure, the Colts have been brutally bad for six of their last eight halves, but in those four games they have won two.  Granted, both victories required comebacks after miserable first halves, but they were both road wins against divisional opponents.

Pagano and his staff have been through the ringer before, so they know as Rick Venturi says, “every locker room is three straight losses from imploding,” and the fans are evidently a 2-2 stretch from losing their minds.

There is no point in reciting the well-documented litany of injuries that have ravaged the offense.  Every team has their share of physical maladies, and excuses in the NFL are for the unemployed.  Everyone else works to win next week’s game.

The Colts are 7-4 with a mediocre offensive line, a front seven who – minus Robert Mathis – isn’t going to scare anyone, a schizophrenic defensive backfield, and more playmakers rehabbing than playing.  They have Andrew Luck, a great kicker, and one of the top five punters in the game.

You want to take a shot at getting that active roster to 7-4?

Didn’t think so.

This weekend at Lucas Oil Stadium, the Colts play the Tennessee Titans, the only team with any chance at all to challenge them for the AFC South crown.  Win and the Colts advantage balloons back to two games with the head-to-head tiebreaker in their pocket.  That would represent a de facto three game bulge with four games to play – two of which will come at home against the equally putrid Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Coaches get more praise than they deserve, and much more criticism.  No coach has missed a tackle, blown a blitz pickup, or overthrown a pass. NFL coaches can’t coach the slow to be fast, the weak to be strong, or the stupid to be smart.  They can’t heal the infirmed, and they can’t kick a ball through the uprights.

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Fans need to blame someone, and with so much going in the crapper so quickly against two mediocre teams like the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals, the fingers are most easily pointed at Pagano, Hamilton, and Manusky.

The best advice for fans – and the Colts coaching staff – control what you can, and relax about the rest.

They say you can’t argue with stupid, but I can’t help but try.

[polldaddy poll=7595959]

Kevin Wilson Knows Importance of Old Oaken Bucket Game for Both Hoosiers and Boilermakers

by Kent Sterling

UnknownA guy who cut his teeth on the Oklahoma vs. Texas game at the Cotton Bowl knows rivalries, and Kevin Wilson sees the Indiana vs. Purdue game this Saturday as very important for state bragging rights.

From a national perspective, this game hasn’t meant much for a very long time, but football – just like politics – is local.

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Two programs who have struggled this season will tee it up Saturday at Noon, and regardless of the number of wins these two teams have notched, they are going to leave it all out on the field of Memorial Stadium.

No, the winner won’t earn bowl eligibility, but many of the seniors have only this game to play in football careers that began when there were seven or eight years old.

Whatever happens during the Old Oaken Bucket Game will be the final memory of taping, putting their pads on, warming up, and looking in the eyes of teammates ready to join you in battle.

There is something about being a teammate that is different than any other feeling people have through their lives.  Many hope to replicate it in business, but that’s impossible, so this will be it for that band of brothers who have come a long way since their first year at Indiana under coach Bill Lynch.

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Before you look at this Old Oaken Bucket Game as unimportant, remember that importance is based upon context.  In 10 years, only a few non-participants will remember the result, but for the player.

What does this game mean to Wilson?  As you’ll see that he’ll see it through the eyes of his seniors, and so should you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYKb_HrH_BU

Indianapolis Colts Need to Find Another Couple of Good Quarters to Salt Away Division

by Kent Sterling

A smiling Andrew Luck hasn't been seen on the Colts sidelines in almost a month.

A smiling Andrew Luck hasn’t been seen on the Colts sidelines in almost a month.

Last week, everyone with a brain looked at the Indianapolis Colts three game lead over the Tennessee Titans and a favorable remaining schedule, and declared the race for the AFC South Division crown over.

This week, it’s not even close to over.

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The Colts looked like a lot of things in yesterday’s loss to Bruce Arians and the Arizona Cardinals, but a division champion was not among them.  After being dominated in every phase of the game, the Colts need to find a way to produce first half points as they return home to face the Titans in a game that will either salt away the division for the Colts, or throw the season into total doubt and chaos.

The first hurdle for the Colts is to play a first half that isn’t an embarrassment to the meeting of the original NFL ownership at that Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio, who decided the NFL was worth its effort.

The past four first halves have resulted in halftime scores of 21-3, 28-0, 17-6, and 27-3.  That the Colts have managed two three point wins in those four games is nothing short of miraculous.  The aggregate of 93-12 is evidence of miserable football not entirely explained by the injuries that have landed five offensive starters on injured reserve.

The Colts need to find were the weak links are, address them, and keep themselves in games long enough to allow the splendid Andrew Luck a chance to rally his team back from the dead.

Great games are not without a price in the NFL.  It was obvious during the game against the Denver Broncos that the  Colts laid it all on the line. They put themselves in harm’s way again and again, and looked exhausted following the win.  They haven’t caught their wind again yet.

There are problems on the offensive line, in the defensive backfield, and among the remaining parts of the receiving corps.  One of those weaknesses will be difficult to address in the 2014 NFL Draft because of the first rounder that now belongs to the Cleveland Browns, in return for the services of Trent Richardson.

The defensive backfield might be improved this Sunday with the return of cornerback Greg Toler, whose presence instead of the much picked upon Cassius Vaughn will make throwing the ball a little more difficult for Ryan Fitzpatrick.

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At receiver, the Colts will have to be who they are, and without a legitimate pair of hands behind T.Y. Hilton and Coby Fleener, they are easy for defenses to scheme against.

With mediocrity in the middle of the Colts offensive line, pressure is added to the chaos Luck has been forced to deal with.

And there is some responsibility to bear for the coaching staff.  Yes, they have done a good job of making halftime adjustments, but the inexperience of offensive coordinator might be exposed a little more each week.  He’s a smart guy, but his initial game plans have resulted in an average of a field goal being scored during each of the last four first halves.

The questions are many, and the answers are few, but GM Ryan Grigson and coach Chuck Pagano need to find some during the next six days.

The Bible says God created heaven and earth and the plants and animals in six days.  Let’s see if the Colts staff can create more than first half field goals for Adam Vinatieri.

Sam’s Club VIP Event Turns Adversarial as Credit Card Bait and Switch Attempted

by Kent Sterling

Sure, it's a big deal at Sam's Club, but for whom?

Sure, it’s a big deal at Sam’s Club, but for whom?

Shopping at Sam’s Club is always a little strange, but tonight was especially ugly as the cashier and customer service desk offered two very different realities in presenting the option to open a credit card account that would result in an immediate savings of $40 for my family during a VIP shopping event.

My wife likes bargains – and that’s a good thing because I’m not much of a comparison shopper.  One of us needs to be a bargain hunter, and sure isn’t going to be me.

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We go to the store together sometimes because my wife continues to harbor the hope that I will one day mature enough to not discover new ways to annoy her.  For me, finding brand new things to say that she will react to with exasperation is the great challenge of my life.  We both end up laughing, and tonight our son joined us for bargain hunting, so all the better.

The typical mockery about Sam’s Club’s mammoth portions of food was relentlessly performed with energy until my wife looked at me in a way that communicated her exhaustion with my act.  That coincided pretty closely with our trip to the checkout line.

The cashier offered my wife $40 off our haul of $360 if she signed up for a credit card that could only be used at Sam’s Club or WalMart.  Julie asked all the right questions, and when the guy said that we would never have to charge a dime on the card, Julie decided that $40 was worth the pain of waiting in the line at the customer service desk.

So off we went with our little form to customer service where the line took 25 minutes, and as the ordeal the the clerk named Sarah began, we were hopeful that everything would go smoothly and quickly despite watching the previous three or four people take 15 or 20 minutes to conduct their business.

When it was our turn, the clerk told my wife that the $360 minus the $40 would be assessed to our new card.  My ears perked up, and Julie told her before I could open my mouth that it was her understanding based upon her conversation with the cashier that nothing would be charged to the card.  My unease was disengaged.

Then the clerk said that she could run the initial charge on the new card, and we could immediately pay it off with our bank card.  Because this was a material change from the promise made by the cashier, I said, “To hell with the 40 bucks.  Let’s settle up.”  Julie had decided that was the right call before I said a word, “We’ll just pay with the bank card and go.”

The cashier then said, “Instead of arguing with me, we could have had you checked out and gone 20 minutes ago.”

Uh-oh.

There is really only one thing that can cause me to get angry enough to raise my voice, and that is something or someone that impugns the behavior of a member of my family.  “Arguing? just who was arguing?” I demanded.  Julie might be the best mannered person on the planet.  She loathes causing discomfort in others, so the accusation that she had argued, or even been mildly contentious was outrageous.

Our son laughed in disdain at the clerk, and said, “Wow.”

What I should have said was that a representative of the store making one offer and then another materially changing the terms in the advantage of the store is called bait and switch.  Not only is it wrong, it’s illegal.  While I have a tough time believing that this episode was anything other than an incompetent recitation of the terms by the cashier, he certainly had no problem presenting a litany of details about the deal, so who knows.

The truth of the thing is that two employees at Sam’s Club during a VIP shopping event presented an offer in a fundamentally different way that presented an advantage to Sam’s Club.  Because of the enormity of the chain of WalMart and Sam’s Club, it might be worth a look from the attorney general of Indiana to see if WalMart’s motive was as insidious as it might have appeared to a consumer more cynical and suspicious than me.

Playing the Games on Sunday After JFK Assassination – Pete Rozelle Made the Right Call

by Kent Sterling

Pete Rozelle did the right thing 50 years ago, and those who doubted that should have lived with regret.

Pete Rozelle did the right thing 50 years ago, and those who doubted that should have lived with regret.

A lot of attention has been paid over the past 50 years to the decision to play NFL games 47 hours after the murder of the leader of the free world.

NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle called it the biggest mistake of his life.  Given his death from lung cancer, I would guess that he regretted smoking more than the call that allowed Americans to come together to mourn in our cultures biggest gathering places, but I’m in no position to choose another man’s regrets.

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Any excuse for people sharing misery is a good one, and the games that Sunday in 1963 allowed people to embrace, commiserate, and assure one another that they would all survive that loss together.

How could that be viewed as a bad thing?

If the decision was that NFL games trump the importance of grieving, than it would be wrongheaded and inappropriate.  But football is not the biggest part of NFL Sundays isn’t the actual games; it’s the feeling of camaraderie among people feeling passionately about the same thing.

It isn’t a love of football that drives attendance for NFL games, just as affinity for the games themselves doesn’t drive the decision to attend Major League Baseball, NHL, or NBA games.  It’s a desire for people to spend time together, and having their passion affirmed.

A nation mourned in 1963, and its people needed to see one another.  Churches serve that purpose, but for some it isn’t necessary to hear a monologue from a messenger of God make sense of it all.  They take great comfort and affirmation for doing what normally would be done with those who do the same.

The NFL saw a surge in attendance on November 24, 1963, because some people needed to stand with brothers and sisters, sing the National Anthem and participate in some loud venting at a forum where emotional imbalanced would not be assumed.

Some people need to stop and recalibrate.  Others respond to grief by moving forward and allowing for grief on a different schedule.  To only serve only the needs of those who respond to grief by embracing it would have been a bigger mistake than hitting a national pause button.

For many, it’s best to mourn without relentless reflection.

The day my Dad died, I coached the basketball game of a team my son was on.  That was how I dealt with loss – investing the love I felt into my son and his friends.  I cried six weeks later.  You can’t mandate a mourning period.  Each does it differently, and to assume a nation undistracted would have been healthier would have been narrow-minded.

Rozelle made the call after consulting Pierre Salinger, and getting input from the Kennedy Family, and both were smart enough to know that healing happens in many venues and takes many forms.

That Rozelle regretted that decision was unfortunate because it was unwarranted.  It was the right call 50 years ago, and it would be the right call today.

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