Extra - Bills Football Chat 20220117
A weekend of sports
The Inspiration
Tonight, in a special unscheduled edition I decided to write about sports just a bit. For those who would rather not talk sports, this is about sports as a means for people to connect. Sports have recently become a little more fun to me thanks to my cousins. Earlier this year, I started a Sunday morning discussion group with my brothers and cousins. The “original intent” was to talk about the Buffalo Bills, our hometown team, but quickly evolved into a way to connect with family over the distance. The broader theme is reconnection. This may become an occasional theme of a special Monday post if it is popular. Winding down on a Sunday evening is an avenue to explore such a “spontaneous post” so I decided to commit 20 minutes and see what I was thinking. This Newsletter has become a bit mechanized and I write when I can, schedule into the future, and RARELY post about what I am thinking when it is fresh in my mind.
The Setup
I enjoy sports but not with the fervor I did when I was younger. There are still some events that capture my imagination and it depends upon who is playing. When I set out to experiment with writing I only knew what I did NOT want my posts to be about. The world did not need another Fantasy Football analyzer. Politics is dangerous since like time immemorial people have their opinions. I think social media has played a part to create more monstrous behavior where even people who know each other have become okay with saying things that purposefully hurt others. I read many years ago a strangely worded phrase that stuck with me. I cannot find the source anymore but I thought it was insightful when I read it. Here is my version of what I read as I remember it:
When humans begin to impute MOTIVE in others, they no longer are in a discussion, they are in an argument. Discussion is meant to be civil and when we choose to make it otherwise, we are making a choice to stop the discussion and begin the battle. Not the right venue for me I am afraid as it will only hurt me and those I am engaged with in the long run.
The Details
Many years ago, in my project to learn more about my paternal Irish roots, an occasional connection over Zoom blossomed for a subset of my family. Genealogy can sometimes be cloaked in nostalgia and perhaps that is why when we connect on a video call the average participant is shaded closer to “Bingo Night” age. There were exceptions but I always retained an internal goal to draw the next generation into the discussion. What became of the effort was the rediscovery of a cousin “P” and later another cousin “B” of my youth. Each is a bit older than me but we are still close in age.
My cousin “P” and I have become close and that has been a joy in my life. I think that the secret of why that has happened is that we are like-minded in some ways, we openly share about things, and, most importantly have reached that Rubicon in a friendship where we can safely speak to each other and disagree without being disagreeable. I feel this is now a friendship that just happened to sprout out of a family connection.
After a lot of enjoyable banter, we decided to have a three-way call with another cousin of ours, “B” who I remember well from my youth. When I remember my father and the choices he made, I think he gravitated to his oldest brother John, the father of “B”. They were like-minded. This is not to say that Dad did not work at all of his other family relationships, rather, the connection was easiest and least complex with his brother John. When “P”, “B”, and I had a few 3-way Google Meets, the rapport was easy. I should go by my middle name in this discussion, James, as it would make for PB&J. Shortly after those couple of connections, the idea of a group of us male first cousins and a group call to discuss the Buffalo Bills was born!
Today is the right day to have this discussion because we never know how much time we have. One of my favorite commitments in a week is our Sunday morning 8a-9a Bills Football Chat. This last weekend with the blitzkrieg of the much-loved New England Patriots (at least in a 60-mile radius around Boston) was the best of times as Charles Dickens reminds us.
Our group now numbers seven invites and includes my two brothers, myself, and four cousins (including “P” & “J”). This morning (Sunday) we ended up talking about residential solar, wind farms, property taxes, and profiting from COVID. When the boys in blue manage seven TDs on seven possessions and finish by kicking dirt in the face with a short toss to an interior lineman, we were simply in hog-heaven. This may be the last week we meet with the backdrop of the Bills playing a game. That will be sad but makes it all the more worthwhile to call it out tonight.
Here’s my meme that captures how I felt about Saturday’s game. I only hope I might do the same next weekend in Kansas City.
As a Bills fan, I would be remiss to not record for posterity (lots of people become apologists for all sorts of things and will undoubtedly try whataboutism very soon) about Saturday’s game. Going back to the days of leather helmets this is what happened:
“They became the first team ever to have a perfect offensive performance. They scored touchdowns on every single one of their possessions (except the kneel-downs at the end of the game). They didn't face a single fourth down in the entire game, so they had no punts or field goals. They also held onto the ball when they had it, turning the ball over zero times.
Until Saturday night, no team in NFL history had played a game with no field goals, turnovers, or punts. And here are a few more fun facts: The Bills converted six of their seven third downs, with the seventh being the final kneel-down of the game. They gained yards on 49 of 51 plays, with the only negative yardage plays being the kneel-downs.”
Life is good and I’m thankful for my cousins and brothers who share Bills Football Chat with me. Loyal readers know that I never end a post without a song.