Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin, Part III
The waiting is the hardest part … a weekly roundup of life lessons … shameless plugs … shoutouts … and breaking down fake Taylor Swift outrage
"Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin" is my weekly Sunday feature that's a tribute to the sports columnists I grew up reading who penned Herb Caen-inspired three dot columns. It's an excuse to shamelessly plug my other side projects, post my favorite Immaculate Grid from the week with a story about one of the players, link to stories I found interesting, and string together loose topics on my mind.
Tom Petty taught us the waiting is the hardest part, and that’s true whether it’s for Winter to end, an important message to get returned, or the Super Bowl to get started.
The 58th Super Bowl will be played one week from today. This year is the 51st time we’ve had two weeks of buildup before the game. The last time it was merely one week between the Championship Games and the Super Bowl was 2003. Going forward, it’s almost a guarantee it’ll continue to be a two-week wait.
Initially, the extra week was to hype the game to the hosting city. The NFL wasn’t always the behemoth that ruled all sports. Former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, a Public Relations man at his core, had the idea of bringing the teams to the host city to drum up publicity and sell tickets. Super Bowl I, which was retroactively called that two years later, wasn’t even a sellout.
In the seven years there was just a one-week buildup, it wasn’t planned twice:
In 1983, the players went on strike and seven weeks of games were canceled, leading to just a 9-game regular season. To recoup some money, an extra round of playoffs was added. A total of 16 teams made the playoffs, instead of 10. This extra playoff round eliminated the bye week before the Super Bowl.
In 2001, a week of games was canceled due to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Those games were made up the week after the regular season ended. With the Super Bowl date set, the decision was made to eliminate the bye week.
In the other five instances, it was based on the calendar.
NFL owners don’t want to begin the regular season on Labor Day weekend, theorizing that ticket sales and ratings suffer with people vacationing over the holiday weekend. And previously, they didn’t think fans would enjoy a Super Bowl played in February.
This wasn’t a problem when it was 16 regular season games in 16 weeks.
Then in 1990, the NFL added a bye week, playing 16 games in 17 weeks, and the two-week break would put the Super Bowl in February, a no-no. That’s why the Super Bowl bye week was eliminated that year. The New York Giants flew directly from San Francisco, after upsetting the 49ers, to Tampa for their game against the Bills. The traveling secretary told them all the logistics for the week aboard their chartered plane.
In 2000 and 2003, the February barrier also eliminated the Super Bowl bye week.
Once the NFL realized that fans didn’t care what month the game is played, that opened the door for a two-week buildup to the Super Bowl, and now a 17-game regular season over 18 weeks.
Don’t be surprised if the NFL pushes the season back even further, with a second regular season bye week, or an 18th regular season game, so the Super Bowl is played the day before Presidents Day for a three-day Super Bowl weekend.
My fanatical side is annoyed by the two-week gap. Unless I really care about the teams, I lose interest in the game. During the Super Blowout era, the one-week gap coincidence with a couple of the rare close games -- Giants-Bills in 1991, Patriots-Rams in 2002 – and I had this theory is was not merely a coincidence.
My reasonable side understands the two-week gap. It gives the teams more time to distribute tickets to their fans and players, fans to buy plane tickets and make travel arrangements, players to heal their injuries, all that signage to get printed with the teams’ names and get placed, and even for the grounds crew to paint the end zones.
The NFL Pro Bowl is pointless. But it’s not going away and found a better timeslot in the bye week before the Super Bowl. In fact, the NFL is so enormous these days you need two weeks for the events planned in the host city.
Again, the two-week gap is here to stay. As Petty sang, don’t let it kill ya, baby, don’t let it get to you.
Another reminder that Taylor Swift outrage is performance theatre
Remember when a bunch of dumb attention-seeking gasbags were convinced Taylor Swift was the reason the Chiefs were struggling?
Now that the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl, they’ve channeled their fake outrage to the narrative that they just want to watch a football game and it’s spoiled when Swift is constantly shown on TV during games. The problem is the facts don’t back it up.
New York Times writer Benjamin Hoffman crunched the numbers on the actual airtime for Swift. It’s less than 32 seconds, over three hours, in most games. The high was one minute and 16 seconds for the Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game on Jan. 13th.
This is a periodic reminder that people who are outraged by Taylor Swift coverage and sharing ridiculous conspiracy theories are either completely insane, or completely engaged in performance theatre. Even the stupidest of takes leads to click, page views, retweets and the constantly desired “interactions.”
Can we also think through this other knee-jerk narrative that Swift and Travis Kelce are only together for PR purposes?
Taylor Swift does not need Kelce, or any football player, or any athlete, or any man, for more publicity. She’s doing just fine on her own.
Kelce might be an international name because of Swift, but it’s not like he, or anyone, could snap their fingers and just decide to date her. And if he’s only after publicity, T-Swift is gonna see through that immediately and dump him.
Unlike the Kardashians, they are not shooting a scripted Reality Show. The relationship started private and it’s only public during Chiefs games. They aren’t trying to get us to watch something or buy something. I’m not saying it’s going to last forever. Relationships are hard, especially for people with demanding work schedules, but this doesn’t seem like it’s strictly for publicity to me.
I’ll admit, I did enjoy the brain soup of trying to figure out if Swift can perform a concert in Japan the day before the Super Bowl and get back to Las Vegas in time for kickoff. It reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from The West Wing.
Once upon a time, I remember engaging in a similar dialog with colleagues.
We were in Vero Beach, Fla. with the Dodgers and preparing for a trip to China for a couple exhibition games. The itinerary was provided to us and then we realized that Daylight Savings Time was going to begin while we were in the air and while crossing over the international date line.
We spent a solid hour trying to double-check if this detail had been forgotten or included. Aaron Sorkin would have been proud of our one-liners and the scribbled math on game notes to conclude that, indeed, trip organizers had it right the whole time.
This week’s random Immaculate Grid story: Elston Howard
When it comes to waiting, Elston Howard has quite the story. At age 19, he turned down football scholarship offers to sign with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. This was 1948, the year after Jackie Robinson re-integrated Major League Baseball.
Howard played three seasons in the Negro Leagues before the Yankees signed him. After one year in the minors, Howard had to miss two seasons due to military service. Then he restarted his minor league career and displayed his offensive prowess. But the Yankees thought he was slow, so they converted him from an outfielder to a catcher, and he returned to the minors for another season.
In 1955, at age 26, seven years after turning pro, Howard finally reached the majors. But he was a catcher and couldn’t get much playing time because the great Yogi Berra was blocking his path. The Yankees used Howard some in the outfield and at first base. Despite not having a regular position, Howard still made the 1957 All-Star Game, beginning a stretch of nine straight years making the squad.
In 1960, Howard finally became the Yankees everyday catcher. In 1963, he was the American League Most Valuable Player and won a Gold Glove. The next year, he was third in MVP voting. Howard played 15 years in the majors and won four World Series titles.
He’s credited with inventing the batting doughnut used by players to add weight to their bat for practice swings, so it feels lighter, and you have quicker bat speed when at the plate for real.
If it wasn’t for all the waiting, the Baseball Hall of Fame might have been attainable. Still, he was never jaded. He became the first Black coach in the American League and was revered for his work with players, plus his diplomacy when Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin had their battles. Howard died at age 51 of a heart ailment.
Wrote New York Times columnist Red Smith:
The Yankees organization lost more class on the weekend that George Steinbrenner could buy in 10 years …
He was a warm man and a gentleman whose quiet dignity made racial prejudice impossible.
This week’s “Where Ya At?” podcast guest: Tina Sturdevant
I host a podcast for San Diego State’s School of Journalism and Media Studies titled “Where Ya At?” Each week, I interview an alum to learn about their experience at SDSU, their transition from student to professional, and what they do now. The goal is to inspire students and connect alums. You can listen on all podcast platforms, including Spotify.
This week’s guest is Tina Sturdevant. We talked for about an hour about attending SDSU, getting experience in the Sports Information Department, moving back to the Bay Area, working for the Oakland A’s, then Bleacher Report, and her current job as the Talent Development Director for The Athletic.
At the end of these podcasts, I usually give my guests the floor to add anything else that I forgot to ask they think is important.
After pausing for a few moments, Tina discussed the important of mental health, how it’s not always easy for women of any color to work in Sports, how trauma almost broke her, to trust your instincts if you know something is wrong, that no job is worth your suffering, and the importance in her job of making sure that employees are not suffering in silence.
I can’t recommend this week’s podcast enough. It’s the longest one I’ve recorded. But I didn’t want to cut out any of it. Trust me, the wait is worth it for important messages at the end.
This week’s “proud of my friend” shoutout: Makayla Gwynn
Tony Gwynn, Jr.’s daughter is making a name for herself as a high school soccer player in San Diego. Check out this story from the Fox affiliate.
Man alive, seems like yesterday that Tony Junior was playing for the Isotopes and I’d see him light up when greeted by his little girls after games.
Wait no more, Orioles fans
We close with the story of Baltimore Orioles fans, who’ve waited a long time through dreary years to find happiness, and now they have an exciting winning team, more elite young prospects on the way, and a new owner who immediately signed off on a trade for one of the sport’s best pitchers.
Over at JoeBlogs, he noted the Orioles celebrity ownership partners.
I do think it’s kind of funny that Rubenstein has brought on some local partners like Cal Ripken Jr. and former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke… and also Grant Hill, who, I don’t know what his connection is to Baltimore, but maybe it’s there. When Peter Angelos bought the team in 1993, he brought on local partners, too, like director Barry Levinson and novelist Tom Clancy. To me, the most fun part of buying a team would be picking local celebrities. Like if I were buying the Cleveland Guardians, I would have Scott Raab**, Halle Berry, Trent Reznor and Drew Carey as part of my ownership group. I’d ask Tom Hanks, too, but I’m not sure; he’s definitely a 1970s Cleveland fan, but I wonder if he’s more Giants today.
This got me thinking about who I’d want for my celebrity partners in the Bay Area.
First, Oakland should get Tom Hanks. He went to high school in Oakland and was once a vendor at the Oakland Coliseum. I also want MC Hammer, a former A’s bat boy. Born Stanley Burrell, Reggie Jackson nicknamed him Hammer because he looked like Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. I’ll always want Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart part of my celebrity ownership group. Because he was noted for taking his bulldog to Lake Merritt, I’m rounding out my celebrity ownership with Klay Thompson.
For the San Francisco Giants, you might as well start with Buster Posey because he’s already part of the ownership group. Steph Curry is a given. I want actor Danny Glover with his deep SF ties and his deep voice for my commercials. Then let’s finish with Huey Lewis because he and the News seemed to sing every important National Anthem in the Bay Area for two decades.
Who is in your celebrity ownership group?
Based on my proximity now, I'd buy the Pirates with Michael Keaton, Jeff Goldblum and George Benson.
Also, John Carpenter is a Dubs fan and should be part of their ownership group!