TERRY MOSHER
Wow, the world seems to be crashing in on me. We can’t seem to get normal in this world anymore. I’m not sure if there is a normal. I guess normal to me would be to have more than a few days of actual peace in the world. But it’s not going to happen.
I started off thinking last night that I got to talk about the Seahawks and how they seem to get themselves all tied up in knots for a half before they can get untied and play like we all think they should. Then I wake up and find out that a deranged shooter declared a personal war on thousands in Las Vegas and my world, as well as others, spins out of control once again.
One of our three sons lives in Las Vegas and he was nowhere near the shooting and is safe. But the damage one person can do if so inspired is frightening, which is on top of what Donald Trump is doing to this county, so that makes it even more terrifying.
I know people are praying for those who have been shot and while I pray a lot, I think it’s a little too late for that. What bothers me is how one guy can carry what appears to be a small arsenal (10 rifles I hear that could be fire automatically) into a major hotel without somebody suspecting something. At least he didn’t have a rocket launcher.
You probably don’t wonder like I do what the heck is going on with this? Is God angry at us? An Earthquake in Mexico and hurricanes battering Texas, Puerto Rico, Florida and Virgin Islands. Climate change, anybody?
And now we have a shooter firing away like one would at sitting ducks in a barrel. It’s crazy and terrifying wrapped in a horrifying explosive night.
As tough as it is to me to change course here, I want to talk about the Seahawks. I don’t understand how in the world they can be so bad starting out a game and then be completely different in the second half. It’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and being bi-polar all at once. And this has been going on for some time now. It’s not just one game, as it was again on Sunday when they trailed a bad Indianapolis Colts team 15-10 and then just exploded the second half en route to a 46-18 rout, scoring a franchise record 36 points in a half.
Two immediate things occur to me. First, it’s that opponents do a great job scouting the Seahawks and exposing weaknesses to open a game and the first half becomes a struggle for the Hawks as a result.
Second ‑ and I have felt like this since Pete Carroll arrived as coach ‑ is that the Hawks’ coaching staff does an incredible job making good second-half adjustments to exploit weaknesses in their opponents (I feel the same way about Chris Petersen at Washington and his coaching staff, and the best example of that was Saturday’s second half against Oregon State when the Huskies exploded from a 7-0 halftime lead to a 42-0 lead).
But if you are a fan of the Seahawks, and I assume most of us are around here, it’s stressful watching them play in the first two quarters of games. I would throw out there that if that trend continues this coming Sunday when they play the Los Angeles Rams in California, they might fall so far behind in the first half that they can’t recover against a recharged Rams’ team that is the surprise of the early NFL season.
Is there a bigger local high school football game this season than the one that is scheduled for Friday at Bremerton Memorial Stadium? That game will pit two unbeaten teams – Bremerton (5-0) and North Kitsap (5-0) – against each other in the 7 p.m. contest that will likely settle who wins the Olympic League championship.
I would venture to guess that the underdog here is Bremerton. North has been a pillar of strength in the league for years now and based on what has happened so far seems likely to win this game.
They have had two common opponents. North beat Olympic 49-6 and Sequim 42-0. Bremerton beat Olympic 37-23 and Sequim 30-22. Based on Mosher’s unofficial rating system, Bremerton would have to be given 28 points to start the game to be equal to NK. So look for a 42-14 victory for the NK Vikings.
I know I’m repeating myself, but I can’t get past how bad South Kitsap football has been these last few years. They are the biggest school in the state by enrollment and just based on that plus having three middle schools feeding it they should have a winning record every year.
But they not only don’t win, but they are getting clobbered. So there is something else going on that I’m missing. If you have 2099 students (classified by the WIAA a year ago before 600 freshman came up to the high school) and a team like Olympia has 1287 students, that gives SK a 400 student advantage (considering the 800 student difference is half male and half female) and out of those 400 difference in students, you would expect that would give you maybe 10 percent that would be good football players. So based on that theory, South should have at least a 40-student advantage on the field.
Yeah, I know you can only play 11 at a time, but with the 40 student advantage, wouldn’t you expect to find several that would be exceptionally on the football field?
I would.
My oldest brother lives in the Southwest part of New York State where there are countless small towns and in recent years many of them have unified into one school district. He lives in Richburg, NY and years ago Richburg joined with Bolivar, which is a mile away, to form Bolivar-Richburg, and it is his contention that the schools that have joined together like that are better on the football field than schools like Portville, where I grew up, that have not. And his reasoning is that two or three very good players from each of the two schools give the unified school an advantage over a school like Portville that stands alone.
I don’t buy his argument simply because if a unified Bolivar-Richburg has the same enrollment as Portville, there is no student advantage between them. However, South Kitsap should have an advantage over every school it plays. And therefore should win more than it loses.
So why does it keep losing?
I believe that in order to take advantage of the enrollment edge, a team like South Kitsap should make sure that all three middle school football programs are on the same page as the one at the high school, and that there should be plenty of coordination between them so that when ninth-graders reach the high school they know the football system and are in tune with it.
If that is already being done, then I don’t have an effective answer. But there has to be one. There has to be an effective answer to everything, even Trump.
You know, the recruiting scandal unearthed by the FBI that has resulted in charges against coaches and the firing of Rick Pinto at Louisville should be no big surprise. For years, big shoe companies have developed close ties with people and coaches as they pursue burgeoning markets for their products through endorsements and bribes that follow kids from an early age through AAU teams to colleges and then the pros.
Money is the basic foundation of our capitalistic system and it is used for good and for bad. If a shoe company can get an inroad to a major college program by tossing a hundred or so thousand at the family of a kid who is a top prospect, then that is going to happen even if we don’t think it is right.
I don’t have a good answer for this, either. If we fix the problem by paying college athletes for their service, as many have suggested, will that stop all the underhanded stuff that is going on?
No.
And the reason I say that is because human nature is to find a solution to problems, perceived or not. We create rules and laws to govern ourselves and, yet, people and corporations, find ways around those rules and laws. And they always will. It’s human nature to do so.
That’s why I find it amusing when Trump and the Republicans want to lower the tax rate on corporations and small businesses because, they say, it prevents big companies from operating here. They take their jobs to an overseas country where the tax rate is much lower.
But that is not likely to fix that problem because corporations find ways to lower their tax bill (again, human nature) and do not play the rate of 35 percent and, indeed, some don’t pay any tax. So lowering the tax rate will not do much of anything except make the effort to avoid paying tax that much easier.
That answer to forcing people and corporations to pay the correct rate would be to make sure no deductions can be used to lower the tax rate. If you are taxed at 35 percent, then that is what you pay on gross revenue.
But that won’t happen, either, because law makers are like the 16-year-old kid with unlimited potential on a basketball court whose family needs some help. They give the corporations a break in return for a quid pro quo and human nature being human nature they both play the game – the lawmaker gets something and in return the corporation gets something.
So the “game” continues on.
And me? I get to go to Gorst once in a while. But I’m not allowed to stay for long.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.