Phased Recovery for Surrealistic Football

Some of you may have noticed yesterday’s blog was a little late in publication and several of the more astute readers correctly guessed the Saturday night frolicking was to blame.  Both the wife and I were too exhausted to clean the kitchen after the party and house rules dictate I’m responsible for the morning after cleanup (still trying to figure out who formed these rules but I’m guessing a short, cute, Panamanian lady was involved). 

In reality it’s something I readily agreed to early in our marriage.  I loved having parties and my wife was amenable as long as she could sleep in the day after since she did the lion’s share of work during the prep phase.  My tasks were usually confined to putting the beer on ice leading up. 

So yesterday morning was spent cleaning up the debris from a really fun Saturday night with my faithful assistant Buddy the Wonder Pooch.  I just had to get the crumbs onto the floor and I could cease worrying about them.  I thought my sterling efforts at a completely clean kitchen would get me out of church but my wife had other ideas. She’s very protective of trying to save my soul, despite the troubling prospects for success.

The Wife and I Yesterday Afternoon

I was consoled with a promise of complete freedom to enjoy couch potato position #1 for the entire afternoon for football.  She even declared that she was more than ready to assume position #2 at my side.  I spent the first half of the Patriots game on the computer which, given the way they were playing, was preferable.

I know Belicheck is a damned genius but why do his defenses make journeymen “has been/never was” quarterbacks look like all-stars week after week.  The game was as pathetic a showing by the Patriots as we’ve seen all year and early in the third quarter we lost Gronk to a season ending, devastating hit.  The Patriots were down 12 points with a minute left and no time outs. 

I’m as ardent a believer in Tom Brady as the next guy but I held scant hope of any miracle.  Then he went out and did it again.  Touchdown, recovered on-side kick, a friendly officiating call (finally), and a game winning touchdown, all in about 30 seconds; surreal does not begin to describe the ending of this game.

The Winning Touchdown - Unbelievable

My wife spent the entire game in a semi-comatose state at my side, only waking when I was yelling.  The funniest part was the on-side kick.  My son in law and I tried for the longest time with limited success over Thanksgiving to explain how the kick worked.  When I screamed in surprised happiness at the recovery she awoke long enough to learn she’d missed that rarest of football moments, karma.

The Patriots did not deserve to win this game, but they did.  Each injury seems to spell doom for their chances but they keep finding ways to overcome adversity.  They are starting to spookily resemble this year’s Red Sox team.  Dare I hope?!

My Son in the Midst of His Excellent NYC Adventure with the MEF and Daughter

We checked in with our daughter in New York City after the game where I had to shamefacedly admit to my son in law that my wife had missed the on-side kick.  Shame.  My daughter reported my son departed NYC with a severely compromised intellectual system. Apparently he tried to put his nascent pub crawling ability to the test in the big Apple on Saturday with his brother in law.  Despite the MEF’s excellent advice about drinking more water he decided he was going to ranger his way through the process.  He awoke yesterday staring at a five hour drive in a lot of pain.  It’s interesting to see him learning the lesson about paying more attention to and heeding the advice of his fiancé.  It took me a while too, so he’s bred true.