Finally, the Start of the NCAA and NFL American Football Seasons!

Monday - Monday,

September 7 - 14, 2020

It was a week full of anticipation with the first weekend of Power 5 (Power 3?) college football and the start of the NFL season.

Not to mention . . .

The beginning of another season of

Varese Skorpions American football!

Speaking of EuroBall . . .

 The Europe Warriors 2020

season MAY start with this

U-19 game in Poland

Things do not look good for me helping in this sixth Warriors experience unless the European Union lifts their current travel ban on Americans entering the E.U. due to our country's dismal showing in controlling the Coronavirus pandemic.

 The Warriors program is

such a great experience for all

the players and coaches

Covid-19 also looms negatively over my participation in our Warriors Women's game in Barcelona and our Men's game in Mexico City, both in December.

News from the internet . . .

 I agree

The 1968 St. Louis Cardinals

baseball team

A little hard to read, but the total salary for the eight starting players, their top pitcher plus their manager that year was  a then whopping $805,000!

To put things in perspective, over the weekend New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara signed a five year contract extension worth $75,000,000.

 We bought one of these

Barbacoa Platters on Friday

It was a good lunch!

As I said, the college football season started in earnest over the weekend.

Unfortunately, there is currently no college football being played in the Far West including our Washington Huskies.

Most of the games we viewed on TV featured either no fans or a limited few live spectators in the stadiums.

It got me to thinking about the many things that I'll miss this football season . . .

 Going to the Holiday Bowl with

the Bruckers

 Seeing old friends reunite

at games at the Rose Bowl

The Las Vegas Bowl with our

two sons and grandsons

Crazy looking Alabama fans

at a National Championship Game

also at the Rose Bowl

Joining my top two blog groupies

at the PAC-12 Championship Game

at Levis Stadium

That's Mike D'Antuono on the left and Paul Sabolic in the middle with me at the new San Francisco 49ers Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

With the Kadletz Clan tailgating

before a Washington Huskies

game in Seattle

 Husky fans fully decked out at

the PAC-12 Championship Game

A wet Conteras foursome with

Mike and Susan D'Antuono in

Boulder, Colorado

This historic downpour occurred while tailgating before the Huskies took on the University of Colorado Buffaloes.

Father-Son bonding

Paul and Jason Sabolic at a 

Husky-UCLA game in the Rose Bowl

With Mark and Susie Johnson

when the Huskies were sacrificed

to the great gods of American football

in Baton Rouge, Louisiana vs. LSU

Just having a GREAT time tailgating

at the Rose Bowl before the

Huskies-Ohio State Buckeyes game

As you can see, I believe that there is a LOT more to college football experience than just the game itself.

I'll miss all of it this season.

 So how did the Skorpions first

workout go on Saturday?

 Pretty good from all accounts

 Our Women's flag team showed

their usual swagger

Coach Pye and LB Filippo

Did Filippo go swimming before practice?

Love this photo posted by the

Stockholm Mean Machines

The Mean Machines were Sweden's Superserien Champions in both 2018 and 2019.

On Sunday, Mary asked me,

out of the blue, to make her a

hat out of the newspaper

One just does not fail to heed the wishes of a Princess.

 On Sunday night, the Rams started

their 2020 Season in a Covid-19 empty,

brand new state-of-the-art $5,000,000,000

SoFi Stadium

That's a LOT of zeroes!

 The Rams were taking on

"America's Team" . . .

. . . in hideous uniforms

The only explanation is that their coach got the order in too late and had to settle for in stock JV jerseys.

They would have looked better

in these uniforms

It was a solid win despite

the uniforms

Back to the internet . . .

Those are Northern California

wildfires this weekend blazing

below the cloud cover

 Not an LBJ fan in the 1960s

and I do not know if he really

said this but I think the thoughts

are accurate unfortunately

Monday we were back in school . . .

I supervised Jacob's Third Grade

recess activities while . . .

 . . . Laurie has become the World's

Best Classroom assistant!

Reading Is FUNdamental!

I spent much of the last eight days enjoying these three books.

 Dreaming about moving to Italy

Another fine read about crime and

culture in Venice

Murder and wine in France,

what's not to like?

Who knows what adventures await us this week . . .