Sun.-Mon., January 1-2, 2023
The first two days of 2023 were action packed American football game days to be sure.
Thankfully, my Mother rested comfortably these two days in Pasadena as I was not able to visit her. The original plan was to be with her on Sunday and stay home on Monday due to the insane driving and parking issues due to the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game.
On Saturday I had received my second shingles vaccination and was warned that most people's reactions to this shot were worse that to the first dose which I received two months ago. Since I had not had any negative reaction to that first shot, I felt confidant that I would be just fine.
WRONG.
I spent most of Sunday in bed with severe flu like symptoms. By Monday I was much closer to my normal, physically fit self.
Monday was also a special day in the Contreras family as . . .
. . . former Rio Mesa H.S. QB/FS . . .
. . . and current Las Vegas soccer referee,
coach, husband, father and our son
turned 49 years old on Monday!
Happy Birthday Andrew!
Normally, Laurie and I go out to Las Vegas for a few days to celebrate Andrew's birthday with him, Jenn and Kevin but with my Mother's health issues we all agreed that we would stay home and celebrate his birthday sometime in the near future.
Instead, we spent Monday putting away most of the Christmas decorations.
Our Christmas tree left an
interesting pattern of needles
The mushrooms continued to
flourish in our front yard
New Year's Day offered another
chance for the Rams to also flourish
Nope
Good news from Stanford football
Stanford's long time Head Coach David Shaw resigned at the end of the 2022 season and was succeeded by Sacramento State Head Coach Troy Taylor.
When a college changes head coaches there is usually also wholesale changes in the assistant coaching staff.
Pete Alamar will remain on the Stanford staff as their Senior Special Teams Analyst. He has been at Stanford since 2012 and is considered to be one of the best Special Teams coaches in the country.
This was great to hear as Pete was a great Offensive Guard for us at Thousand Oaks H.S. in 1976-77. After graduating from California Lutheran University he started his college football coaching career as a Graduate Assistant at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1983.
As with most college coaches, he has led a somewhat nomadic career with stops at Cal Poly-SLO, Louisiana-Lafayette, Cal Lutheran, James Madison, Arizona, Mexico's Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Eastern Michigan, California, Fresno State and Stanford.
His niche is as a Special Teams Coach. He coordinated these teams at Arizona, California, Fresno State and Stanford with tremendous success.
I have taken many of his great Special Teams concepts and drills to heart and have been able to experience lots of success with what I learned from him.
It's great to see that the old T.O.H.S. Lancer is still in the game.
The hype has begun BIG TIME!
It would be wonderful if this National Championship game between #1 Georgia (14-0) and #3 Texas Christin (13-1) was anywhere close to as exciting as the two Semifinal games were last Saturday.
We watched two Monday bowl games with PAC-12 teams vying for improved national prestige.
Another GREAT game to watch
The American Athletic Conference Champion Tulane Green Wave (12-2) scored 16 points in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter to stun the PAC-12's representative Southern California (11-3) in a barn burner of a Cotton Bowl game in Dallas, Texas.
The Rose Bowl was not as exciting
but an interesting game nonetheless
Monday was not a good day for the PAC-12 as Conference Champion Utah Utes (10-4) lost to the BIG-10's #3 team, the Penn State Nittany Lions (11-2).
The PAC-12's bowl season was again not a great one as the "Conference of Champions" only managed a 3-4 record.
Here are the PAC-12 Bowl results with PAC-12 teams in italics:
Las Vegas Bowl
Oregon State (10-3) 30 - Florida (6-7) 3
Los Angeles Bowl
Fresno State (10-4) 29 - Washington State (7-6) 6
Holiday Bowl
Oregon (10-3) 28 - North Carolina (9-5) 27
Alamo Bowl
Washington (11-2) 27 - Texas (8-5) 20
Sun Bowl
Pittsburgh (9-4) 37 - UCLA (9-4) 35
Cotton Bowl
Tulane (12-2) 46 - Southern California (11-3) 45
Rose Bowl
Penn State (11-2) 35 - Utah (10-4) 21
Damar Hamlin
The frightening experience that this young man, a DB with the Buffalo Bills, had to go through during the Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals was simply chilling to watch.
After making what I would say was a routine tackle with no excessive force or head contact, he got to his feet and then passed out seconds later. Apparently both his breathing and heart had stopped and the medics on hand started CPR immediately. According to reports, he was defibrillated twice on the field before being sent to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
The game was eventually suspended for, perhaps, a future date.
It was unquestionably the right decision as no one wanted to continue on this night after what they had witnessed.
It was all incredibly disturbing.
On a much brighter note . . .
. . . I came to my senses
Reading Is FUNdamental!
The "Classics" are always good to read
As is usually the case, the book story line was quite different than one from one of my favorite movies, 1934's The Thin Man starring Myrna Loy and William Powell as that fun loving, crime solving couple, Nick and Nora Charles.
Both the book and the movie are well worth your time in my opinion.
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