Posted on by Dick

Uncertainty knocks me silly like a left hook from Smokin’ Joe Frazier

This afternoon I started off writing about the death of Smokin’ Joe Frazier — so long Smokin’ Joe. I also mentioned how things aren’t very happy in Happy Valley with the Penn State football program embroiled in scandal and it looking as if 84-year-old head coach Joe Paterno may soon find himself doing something else for the first time in almost a half-century. The latter stems from the indictment of former assistant Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky for his alleged serial abuse of young boys.

I didn’t work today so I listened to some of the sports shows on radio a little more than often. Check out the links I have provided and you will key in on what I have thought about today. Maybe you can make more sense out of things, more explicitly the Penn State controversy, than I can.

This afternoon I also heard one of the guys on The Blitz, a sports talk show out of Houston, complain about the excessive number of playoff spots in Texas high school football. I haven’t really thought about it but I read the University Interscholastic League — or UIL, the governing body for high school athletic and academic competition in Texas — rules and Fred or A.J. or whomever was griping it was was right. The amount of playoff spots are insane.

 “Conference 4A and 5A the top four teams from each district advance to the playoffs. The two schools with the largest enrollments automatically advance to the Division I bracket. The remaining two schools advance into the Division II bracket. There are two state champions per conference in Conference 4A and 5A.”

The numbers advancing to playoffs are reduced to three team for all divisions of 3A, 2A, and 1A, and top two teams for the two divisions of six-man football.  I noticed some of the area schools headed to post-season play. Check out the win-loss records of some of these schools:

Port Arthur Memorial (9-1) vs. Pasadena South Houston (3-7)

Kirbyville (2-8) vs. Rusk (3-7)

Port Arthur Sabine Pass (2-6) vs. Burton (8-2)

Burkeville (1-6) vs. Milano (9-1)

What the hell was the UIL thinking? I will be the first to tell you that practically anything can happen in Texas high school football although the sport and where it is played is not completely immune to the laws of probability.

I have given thought to these stories and this complaint about high school football, which may only piss off a certain number of Texans, although more high school football and not less usually reigns supreme in the Lone Star State. A common thread that I have unsuccessfully tried to weave this afternoon runs through these stories. Perhaps it is apparent to some and not others or to none at all. Yes, a link exists but putting these varied thoughts into one.
But I will not provide that bond. Not today at least. Somewhere along the way, the line broke. Or it went all a-which-a-ways. That happens sometimes. S**t happens. That is an inelegant term but it is true, as much so to a writer as to a beggar man-thief and perhaps even a street car conductor.
I wish that I could leave this little box with something of greater certitude but my certitude has just lost altitude.