Day: January 23, 2023

Got sloppy with the publish button again. Sorry about that. I can draw a correlation to how late I post to how often I miss the publish button. I’m not the night guy I used to be. I’m listening to the Madden Academy cast in the background as I write this. I’m trying the basic 101 to get some of the basic mindset back as opposed to falling into relying on the glitch game like the kids. I cannot abide that. I gotta get better at fundamentals and teach them that this is how you win the game–stick skills. Beyond that the fundamentals of a solid game plan and knowing what the opponent is doing and giving you. In other words, I’m back to the basics and back to the lab–trying to get good again; first at running the rock and then short passes and then longer. This is the way.

Some Thoughts:

1. Week two of 18/8 for school and I am excited to get back into it. This slate of classes is challenging, because these students are hungry and the majority of the material is new build. I’m teaching three entirely new classes and that makes me a hard working man in the classroom for the first time in a while. I’m definitely feeling it.

I keep having this moment where I think that the people and programs I love are on the edge of a breakthrough and then… collapse. I just finished watching the Giants do it. I watched my youngest do it earlier today. I realized in him that he doesn’t want to play football, he wants to be the star without grinding. It is a difficult thing to recognize in a kid. He begged forever for a chance to play seven on seven and I found him a spot and the first ting he said was, “Is there a better team I can play for?” He isn’t willing to be on a bad team anymore. he just wants to be on a spotlight squad winning championships. That makes me feel like he isn’t going to make it through high school and certainly not college ball. He isn’t the guy who is going to grind from the ground up to earn that smoke.

On the other hand, the Giants just aren’t there yet. They don’t have the talent and may not for another year or two. Yet they have the foundations and they have the people who want to work their asses off to be good. That matters the most in my book.

Some Thoughts:

1. On a major losing streak in Madden. Cannot win against the boys anymore. I’m struggling to even make the games competitive. I’m finally resorting to deep research to figure out the best plays to run and pass the ball and I’m trying to put those together into a cohesive system, but these sure fire plays just don’t work for me. I have to face the fact that I am predictable as a play caller and not very good at the game.