In a Football World

It seems that the older I get the less I enjoy cold weather. I know a lot of people who really like snow and go skiing whenever possible. I’m not a skier and I can’t say that I have been sledding for a long time.

But I do know snow is a good thing for the winter crops and we need the snow in the mountains for sure.

I’ve said for a number of years if snow would fall on the fields and in the mountains and stay off the roads I think that would be a good thing for a lot of us. I don’t ask for much do I?

Weather has been an issue a number of times this winter as games have been postponed due to bad roads, schools have started late and on a few occasions even closed for the day.

I know the kids like a day off now and then but making those days up in June can’t be much fun either. But safety first is the most important thing for everyone concerned.

Weather had a big effect in Portland last weekend when the Gonzaga-Portland basketball game was postponed and the Portland Trailblazers game was delayed by one day.

Even I took a snow day on Monday. I figured if the schools were closed there was a good chance the roads weren’t a lot of fun even though I would have been driving my 4X4.

I’ve seen too many 4X4’s that ended up in the median or off the side of the road because as everyone knows 4X4’s aren’t supposed to leave the road on a snowy day when traveling at over 70 mph! You can laugh here.

The cold and snowy weather did allow me to watch a few football games around the New Year. The Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl games were pretty good as the matchups were great.

If you didn’t like the Rose Bowl as a game you don’t like college football. I’m not talking about the team that won but the intensity and big plays made all afternoon. More often than not the Rose Bowl is the best bowl game year in and year out.

I wonder if there was any person that watched every bowl game, which of course means some games, would need to be taped and watched later. A person would have to really like watching football to do that.

Or maybe they have a serious gambling problem and had money on every game. Well, let’s hope not.

There was a disappointing effort from the WSU Cougar offense against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Holiday Bowl. Not sure why other than it seems like the more time WSU has to prepare for a game the worse they look. Just saying!

NFL Wild Card weekend wasn’t so wild when it came to great games. The home teams took care of business and dominated the visiting teams.

But you had to be impressed with Seattle’s Paul Richardson. One-handed catches are seemingly the norm every week.

Richardson caught a touchdown pass with the defensive back holding on for dear life, holding being the definitive word here.

Well Richardson caught the ball with one hand reaching around the Lion DB who was flagged for pass interference, which was declined in favor of the TD.

Seattle will need more plays like that in order to keep winning and reaching their goal of another Super Bowl berth.

It’s not going to be an easy task but when you’ve been there before you should know what it takes to make another trip there.

The FBS college football championship game was a good one.

After Alabama took 14-0 and 24-14 leads the Clemson Tigers used tough defense and a good passing game to take their first lead 28-24 with 4:38 left in the fourth quarter.

Alabama drove 68 yards to go ahead 31-28 with 2:07 to play. Clemson answered the Crimson Tide with a big drive with huge catches and finally scoring the winning touchdown with one second left to avenge last year’s heartbreaking loss to Alabama.

It was a great game and a lot of credit needs to be paid to Clemson for coming back after being dominated early in the game.

Was it worth watching and did it live up to all of the hype? Yes it did. And it sure was a great way to spend a cold snowy night in the country.