Taking No Offense …

We have all seen highly skilled athletes behave like children when they take offense at some sort of slight.  It is almost as if they believe that their athletic gifts and accomplishments should provide immunity to their psyche from any sort of belittlement or humor.  I suggest that NFL WRs as a class are most susceptible to this personality defect, but it does also appear in other categories of athletes.

How refreshing it is to find a top-shelf athlete with a sense of self-deprecating humor.  You did not hear much of the name Tyrese Haliburton over the last several weeks; that is because Haliburton was the 12^th man on the US Men’s Olympic Basketball team and for the entirety of the Olympics, he managed to see the floor only in “garbage time” when the game outcome was no longer in doubt.  For the entirety of the Olympics, Haliburton scored 8 points and played only 26 minutes.

Tyrese Haliburton is a quality player; he is a difference maker at the NBA level for the Pacers; in the NBA season just concluded, he was named as an All-Star and as the league’s Most Improved Player at the ripe old age of 23.  He could easily have “taken offense” at his place at the end of the bench for the Olympic Team – – but he did not.  Rather than trying to make himself a victim of whatever, he posted a picture of himself smiling and holding up his Gold Medal with this caption:

“When you ain’t do nun on the group project and still get an A.”

Well played, Tyrese Haliburton.  Well played…

Moving on …  Pre-season polls in any sport are meaningless.  Sure, it is possible to identify the top 3 or 4 teams for an upcoming season on the assumption that all goes according to Hoyle throughout the season.  However, in college football – – and basketball – – the preseason polls pretend to be able to identify the Top 25 teams – – in order no less.  The first pre-season poll for college football that I have seen hit the streets recently and had an interesting footnote.

• Colorado got one vote in the poll.  One of the people involved in the team rankings had Colorado as the #25 team in the country.

As I said, this is meaningless; but it seems to provide an insight into the thinking of that person who had that placement.  Recall last year that Colorado started the year at 3-0 and then the roof caved in.  When the dust settled, Colorado’s record was 4-8 and its conference record in the final year of the PAC-12 was 1-8.  With that as the backdrop, it is interesting to speculate how someone projects the Buffaloes into the Top 25 for this season:

• Colorado’s 4-8 record in 2023 is indeed a significant improvement over the 1-11 record it posted in 2022.  So, perhaps that poll voter is looking at 2024 as a year that continues a significantly upward trend.
• Colorado was active in the transfer portal, and it collected several top-rated high school recruits in this offseason.  So, perhaps that poll voter has put the pieces together constructively and in advance of other college football seers.

Since I am not that poll voter – – I am not a poll voter for anything anywhere – – I cannot explain his/her thinking here.  My observation is that the team improved under Deion Sanders in 2023 and that it seems as if the team has addressed what was a clear shortcoming on last year’s squad, namely the offensive line.  However, I did not see enough of the team or enough of their games last year to project them from a 4-8 record to Top 25 status which would probably require at least an 8-4 record if not 9-3.

So, let the games begin…

Switching gears …  There is a report at CBSSports.com that says Colin Kaepernick is still in training in anticipation of an NFL comeback.  All I can say is that one must admire his persistence.

• Kaepernick’s last NFL action was in January 2017; that was about 91 months or 7.5 years ago.
• Kaepernick’s last contact with an NFL team was a workout with the Raiders in 2022; that interaction bore no fruit.

Colin Kaepernick is 36 years old; the successes of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers at advanced ages ought to allow for the possibility that Kaepernick might – – I said MIGHT – – be able to play at the NFL level should he get that opportunity.  However, I would be shocked if that ever came to be.

Even before he became a PR nightmare with his kneeling during the National Anthem and his comparison of police officers to slave catchers in pre-Civil War America, Kaepernick was in the midst of a rough time in his career.  In his last 11 starts with the Niners, the team record was 1-10.  Yes, he had success prior to that difficult stretch taking the Niners to the Super Bowl where they lost to the Ravens; but that final season was hardly a springboard for his career aspirations.

Finally, a cogent observation from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“Not right: Paris 2024 is the first Olympics in modern history to have an equal number of male and female athletes. Though that depends, I suppose, on how one counts a couple of male-born transgender boxers controversially competing in the women’s division.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………