OK, so I just watched my wife start the Roomba robot vacuum thingy from an app on her phone. Did you know this could happen? She said she could do the same thing from the basement or down the block or, you know, from Australia or Madagascar. A cool thing about being old is you can be amazed by stuff younger people take for granted.
Now, then. . .
I PLEDGED SEVERAL MONTHS AGO to abandon the political soapbox and I’ve been mostly faithful to that. Today, I fall off the wagon, sort of. The current COVID-19 situation isn’t political, at least not for me, but it’s not sports either. So here’s your warning in advance should you decide QBs Against Vaccinations isn’t your thing.
LAMAR JACKSON HAS HAD THE VIRUS TWICE in eight months. He’s just now returning from Bout II. He isn’t saying he’ll get vaccinated. "I got to talk to my team about this and see how they feel about it. Keep learning as much as I can about it. We'll go from there."
Jackson called it a “personal decision’’ and it is, if all you think about is your personal self. Family, friends, teammates don’t matter, certainly not as much as your personal decision.
Best to talk to “your team’’ about it. Surely, that group includes doctors and scientists.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said this in response:
“Lamar’s gotta get [vaccinated]. With the rules the NFL put down, I can’t imagine a team wanting to forfeit a game or lose a chance at the playoffs and none of the players getting paid because someone won’t get a vaccine.”
Meantime, Vikings QB Kirk Cousins just returned from missing five days of practice after being in close contact with a teammate who tested positive. Cousins isn’t vaccinated and doesn’t plan to be.
“I’m at peace with where I’m at. I’ll be following the protocols vigilantly,” he said.
So happy to hear about your peace, big guy. I’m sure that makes everyone around you feel so much more, you know, peaceful. Maybe it’s a coincidence that, per a Washington Post report, the Vikings are the least-vaxxed team in the league, at less than 70%. The Bengals, by comparison, are over 90%. The Men play Minnesota in their season opener Sept. 12.
Jackson and Cousins represent the selfish craziness that has us where we are today with the virus – i.e. spiraling back toward last winter. You’d like to think that pro jocks – especially high-profile pro jocks such as starting NFL QBs – would serve as role models to the 50% of Americans who aren’t vaccinated.
As NFL media maven Peter King notes, “In Florida, you need to show proof of vaccine to work at Disney World. You do not need a vaccine to work at a hospital in Florida.’’ That state’s Gov. Ron DeSantis is doing everything he can to scuttle mask-wearing, even as Florida leads the country in new cases. Shame on him.
It’d be nice if the mega-rich/lucky/blessed/spoiled man-children such as Jackson and Cousins were leading the fight against the plague that continues to kick our aspirations. Instead, they’re at peace with their personal decisions. So happy for them.
BUT AT LEAST WE HAVE OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT. Mike VII, LSU's live tiger mascot that lives in a habitat near Tiger Stadium, has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, LSU announced Monday. (AP)
THE REDS FELL TO EARTH in Cleveland Monday. Team radio voice Tommy Thrall suggested a reason might have been that the club’s travel routine was thrown out of whack. Instead of flying to Cleveland after Sunday’s game here, the team stayed in town and flew up Monday, going directly from the airport to Progressive Field.
That could have been a factor in its 3-9 L.
Ah, c’mon.
They could have flown up Sunday. Or, like most of the rest of the real world, boarded a couple buses and rode them for four hours. Instead, they had to go straight to the ballpark from their chartered airplane, after which they went straight to the airport to their next chartered airplane.
Oh, the misery.
THE 33RD TEAM is a relatively new website/think tank about NFL football, created by former GM Mike Tannenbaum. Today’s topic was Joe Burrow’s comeback from knee disaster:
On a call with the 33rd Team back in June, former NFL offensive coordinator and analyst Chris Palmer discussed how he thinks Burrow will bounce back from his ACL injury.
“This is a situation where Burrow is going to be rusty,” said Palmer. “He is going to be a little skittish at the beginning, but I think if he gets confidence in the offensive line, he will grow in leaps and bounds as we go along.”
Palmer talked about the confidence issue that can arise with a significant injury to a quarterback. The trust in an offensive line is very important to a young quarterback like Burrow. The Bengals have taken steps to retool their line this offseason, so it will be interesting to see how they perform with the responsibility of protecting their franchise quarterback again.
Anybody else worried about the “retooled’’ line?
The Bengals don’t play for real for a month and two days. Lots of time to calm the musical chairs at guard and, hopefully, for center Trey Hopkins to be all healthy. But since my wife threw out my Ouija board, I can’t predict that will occur. I know what I see today and what I see/hear is that 2nd-round draft pick (and supposed starter) Jackson Carman has been less than impressive.
On the radio Monday, Tony Pike observed what insiders have whispered: Carman looks to be out of shape. Huh? How does that happen? A rookie, all but handed a starting position on draft day? Out of shape?
The 33rd Team:
Burrow will need to be protected at a better rate in order to feel more comfortable in the pocket and put the injury behind him.
Yes, he will. The Bengals aren’t there yet. We always hear about the importance of a line playing together, developing a 6th-sense cohesion/comfort on who’s doing what and when. That ain’t happenin’, either.
I’ve said this is the Verge Season for the Men, as in on the verge of being special. That assumes big progress from last year, which demands Burrow be guarded like the Hope Diamond. We’ll see.
THE KID HASN’T PLAYED A QUASI-AM DOWN. ESPN.com:
Ohio State quarterback Quinn Ewers has his first endorsement deal. The newly reclassified No. 1 overall recruit in the 2021 cycle released a 45-second advertisement on his Twitter page for Holy Kombucha, a Texas-based drinks company. Holy Kombucha,
He enters camp with a heated battle to replace Justin Fields already underway among C.J. Stroud, Kyle McCord and Jack Miller -- the first two of which were also one-time five-star recruits.
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST. . . Good thing the W&S Open has a women’s event. Novak Djokovic was the latest huge name to blow it off:
In a social media message, Djokovic said, “Dear fans, I wanted to share with you that I am taking a bit longer to recover and recuperate after quite a taxing journey from Australia to Tokyo.
Gee, maybe he should have flown on the Reds charter.
TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Happy 77th birthday to Ronnie Spector, former wife of Phil Spector, creator of the Wall of Sound music style popularized by girl groups such as the Ronettes. You don’t have to be an OG to appreciate OG tunes. I’m a big doo-wop guy, too.
Here’s some Wall magic, used in one of my all-time favorite movies, Father of the Bride. On lead vocal, the incomparable Darlene Love.
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