October 28, 2024
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Phil Bengtson was a longtime assistant to the legendary (key word – “legendary”) Vince Lombardi with the Green Bay Packers. When Lombardi retired in 1967, his loyal assistant was a logical in-house replacement. Alas, Phil Bengtson was not Vince Lombardi.
Three years of mediocre success and constant comparison to the legendary Lombardi and Bengtson was out and Dan Devine was in. Devine’s record was a bit better but he left after three years for Notre Dame followed at Green Bay by several of Lombardi’s former plsayers. …. none of whom were Lombardi.
What came out of Phil Bengtson’s unpleasant tenure as Packers’ HC was the sports adage – The Phil Bengtson Rule …. “
“Never Follow The Legend … Follow The Guy Who Followed The Legend”
But wait a minute BobLee. What about Dean Smith & Bill Guthridge?
I knew that was coming. Dean engineered his retirement in such a way that it insured his longtime “Tonto” would be elevated to HC. Guthridge inherited a very talented team that knew him very well and he them. Having helped Dean perfect his “system” over 30+ years there was no way Guthridge was going to tinker with it.
Plus, Guthridge as HC would receive a much higher salary that, after three years, would be used to determine his UNCCH pension …. much higher than had it been based on his salary as an assistant. A well-deserved gift of appreciation from Coach Smith. The Guthridge Era was simply a continuation of The Smith Era.
Guthridge retired after those three years with the comfortable pension …. THEN the actual “follow the legend …” took place with Matt Doherty.
Roy turned down the opportunity to replace Smith/Guthridge … letting Doherty shoulder that burden. OUCH! Doherty came in and replaced many of the Smith/Guthridge support staff and recruited a “different” type of player than his predecessors … and it ended in a train wreck …. which Roy came in to save the day replacing the guy who actually replaced the legend. VOILA!
I’m not saying The Phil Bengtson Rule applies in every case … but often enough for it to “be a Rule”.
Ask Kalen de Boer if there is a Phil Bengtson Rule.
Several other Sports Rules:
* Any time a pitcher fakes a pickoff throw to 2nd or 3rd SOME FAN will yell “BALK” even if there is only one fan in the stands. Pitchers are allowed to fake throws to 2nd and 3rd but not to 1st.
* On EVERY incomplete pass involving the slightest perceived contact between the receiver and defender both sets of partisan fans will scream INTERFERENCE by the opponent.
* In Basketball, ANY contact between the ball handler and defender is either charging or blocking depending upon which color jersey you are pulling for. …. AND, of course …
* Regardless of the level of competition be it Pee Wee FB, Little League or the pros … the umpires / referees are – for reasons unknown – obviously and always in cahoots with the “other team”.
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Despite all the yadda yadda re: NIL and The Portal … this has been a very exciting and compelling Big Time College Football Season. Every Saturday has Juggernauts playing Juggernauts playing havoc with those trying to figure which Juggernauts will make the Final Twelve.
Another Sports Rule …. fans of the #13 team will file innumerable lawsuits and melt down 100s of monkey boards whining about how “The Committee” HATES our school because “our bell tower and our sticky-floored bars are sooooo cool…” It will be called “The Florida State Rule”.
Speaking of Kalen de Boer and his current game-to-game status as a worthwhile human being in Tuscaloosa … do you know who Alabama had as their #2 choice if de Boer had turned them down ro replace the Legendary Nick Saban? Can you say Florida State’s hapless Mike Novell boys and girls? YEEEEE HAA!…….. Lets hope Lincoln Riley was not their 3rd choice.
Unconfirmed Rumor …. Southern Cal’s President Carol “Chancellor Chihuahua” Folt has NOT sent East Carolina an encrypted message that they can have Lincoln Riley return to Greenville if they pay for his one-way bus fare from Los Angeles. Ya think Riley has had enough of being HFC at a Juggernaut program?
Did Mack2.0 earn himself another year by whuppin’ the Hoos last Saturday? Can he scratch two more wins out of FSU / WFU / BC / and NCSU and provide UNC Tru Blues with a Christmas In Shreveport experience?
Dour Dave also needs two more Ws for NC State to be “bowl eligible” with his four remaining games all being “toss-ups”.
Howsabout THIS Possibility …. Suppose NC State and UNCCH are both sitting at 5 Ws on November 30 “amid Kenan’s lofty pines”. Both needing the 6th W to be “bowl eligible” and the afore-mentioned “Christmas In Shreveport (or Hooterville or _____) prize (????). The thought that either fan faction would consider 6-6 and a Whozit Bowl a “prize” is depressing.
Not exactly the level of competition that would impress The SEC or BIG18 ….
Interest in that game would be confined to a 15 mile radius of I-40 and Miami Blvd. … I’m going out on a limb and guaranteeing that College GameDay will NOT be set up on Franklin Street.
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WARNING: The following IS hard-core political blow torch material.
With Election Day only 8 days away, I might not meet with you guys before then … do not feel you have to read further.
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For the past nine years the #1 – and only – agenda item for the Democrat Party has been The Demonization of Donald J. Trump.
When you concentrate 100% of your efforts to ONE objective for nine years you should be successful at it. And the Democrats by every measure HAVE indeed been successful at Demonizing Donald Trump. Whether that success translates into their successful take-over of America and re-structuring it into a quasi-socialist state with the Dem hierarchy as the all-powerful Politburo remains to be seen.
An indication of their success was the CDC’s certifying TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) as an official communicable disease with no known cure. Putting it in a category with toenail fungus, halitosis and mange. “Watching MSNBC” is the most likely way to “catch it” … being overtly gullible also helps a lot.
Demonizing Donald Trump was necessary as they see him as the only serious threat to their Master Plan … dismissing all others as simply more Republican “empty suits”. Trump’s unorthodox public persona – being, admittedly, “an acquired taste” – offered various strategies to “demonize” him.
That Trump does not “act presidential” has always been an odd criticism considering pretty much every overtly flawed POTUS since Ronald Reagan. Which of that motley bunch of “empty suits” … horn dogs … silver spoons … race-baiters and traitorous reprobates should DJT emulate to “act presidential”? Should Trump chop down a cherry tree and act like George Washington? I digress …
For their Demonize Trump plan to work two elements were needed ….
- The continual “dumbing down” of the American public. They thought they had achieved THAT in 2016 but not enough to elect The Wicked Witch of Chappaqua. Eight more years of “dumbing down” thru a corrupt public education system might have reached their goal now? TBD …
- The complete and aggressive full cooperation of a hopelessly corrupt mainstream media was necessary … and achieved. The significant rise of “alternative media” however might have negated that somewhat. …. also TBD.
With November 5 less than 10 days away … it appears the Dems efforts to create a mythical Kackles2.0 to substitute for the quite demented Ol’ Joe has not quite panned out ….
Even “Hitler-Hitler-Hitler” has become just “static”.
Try as they might with the full cooperation of their afore-mentioned media toadies …. Kackles2.0’s total inability to fake coherency and convey a single rational thought has reduced her candidacy to an embarrassing clown show … leaving her only value as a candidate being she is “sorta” black and a female and might save the Dems a few %s of their bought & paid for “black vote”.
The addition of “Tampon Timmy” served only to make Kackles2.0 appear slightly less comical by comparison. Somewhere Dan Quayle is laughing his butt off.
Ergo … as of October 28 … pretty much 99% of the legitimate votes Kackles/Walz might get will be HateTrump votes. That might reach 35-40,000,000 … kinda scary that that much toxic HATE is floating around our country. … sigh.
As for the to-be-expected “3:00 AM votes” received on November 6 … TBD … but be assured there WILL be a significant number of those. But hopefully NOT as result-changing as in 2020. “Mitt The Trump-Hating RINO’s” niece is no longer running the RNC. Laura Trump has Vivek and Elon on her team. Not so easy this go-round, Dominion.
20 or so years ago I literally did not know, or care, about the political affiliation of ANYONE in my personal and professional orbits. Today I probably know “the politics” of EVERYONE in those orbits and factor that into my level of involvement with them. I don’t expect that to change regardless of the outcome on November 5.
If the above has offended you, you were warned. These be unusual times. Indeed …
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