January 12 2014

Some Thoughts on Divisional Sunday

1. Going for it on fourth down. The first big decision in the game came at the end of the first quarter. The Panthers had the ball fourth-and-goal with only a yard to go for the touchdown. Trailing the 49ers 6-0 at that point, to go or not to go was the question. At least, some people thought it was a question.

Going for it is an emotional decision. It will be interesting if this emotion is rewarded. Panthers showing inexperience so far.
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) January 12, 2014

GO FOR IT, RON! (okay, just playin…take the 3.0
— Bomani Jones (@bomani_jones) January 12, 2014

I didn’t think there was a question there. You absolutely go for it. The best case scenario is you take the lead. The worst case scenario is you back your opponent deep in their end of the field. As they changed sides for the second quarter the Panthers ran a quarterback sneak, a shit play call I thought, and Cam Newton was held out of the end zone. The 49ers still led 6-0.

shoulda taken the 3.
— Bomani Jones (@bomani_jones) January 12, 2014

No, because what happens next happens because they went for it on fourth-and-goal. The 49ers gained only two yards on their drive including a third-down throw that was nearly intercepted for a touchdown. San Francisco punted from their own end zone, and Panthers returner Ted Ginn ran the punt from the Carolina 45-yard line to San Francisco’s 31-yard line. The first Panthers play was a long 31-yard Cam Newton throw to Steve Smith in the end zone for a touchdown. With the extra point the Panthers take the 7-6 lead. Sure the Panthers might have taken the 10-6 lead had they went for the field goal in that critical play. But what if the 49ers scored on their drive? What if the Panthers got the ball back but deeper in their own side of the field? The variables and possibilities multiply from there. 2. Not going for it on fourth down. Later in the second quarter the Panthers were faced with the same exact decision. This time they had the 7-6 lead, and they seemed to have all of the momentum after proving they were “in it to win it” or something like that. I thought it was a perfect time to go for a play-action pass on fourth down since each time there had a goal-to-go down they tried to either go for a power run or a quarterback sneak. A little deception would be good in that instance, maybe sneak a tight end behind the linebacker, or something. Anything. Instead Carolina went for the field goal, and it seemed that the fire they had after going for it the first time around was extinguished here. San Francisco took the ball and scored a touchdown leaving only five seconds left on the clock in the first half with a 13-10 lead. Carolina would never see the lead again in the game. After taking the points here are the drives from both teams: Carolina: Punt, punt, interception. San Francisco: Touchdown, end of half, touchdown, field goal, downs. With the 49ers 23-10 win, we get an all-NFC West NFC Championship Game. 3. Vlade Divac would be proud. Here is what is perhaps the flop of the year:

4. Silly queen thinks he has a personality. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great troll job by Colin Kaepernick, but that doesn’t make him any less a silly queen.

5. Redundant idiocy. Even casual football viewers should know the yellow tabby things indicate how many timeouts a team has remaining. Then why do these broadcasts insist on tacking on an additional timeout graphic? CBS Screengrab

6. What a fucking miserable game. Peyton Manning. Omaha. Offsides. Phillip Rivers going redface on his team. That’s about all I took away from the Chargers-Broncos game. What made this game unwatchable was the Chargers offense being a no-show for 45 minutes. Through three quarters they gained 81 yards. Sure, the Charger defense did a good job holding the Broncos to only 17 points for those three quarters, but if you’re not going to score points why even bother? Well they finally showed up in the fourth quarter scoring 17 points including nabbing an on-side kick which made things interesting down the stretch. But Manning got the first downs in the final drive to get the 24-17 victory. Also can someone turn Peyton Manning’s mic off? I don’t get what the fascination is with all of his audibles. 7. Peyton Manning can’t win. If the Broncos lost the game, Peyton Manning once again can’t win in the playoffs. But now that they won, oh well he was supposed to win. It’s clear that for the public it’s Super Bowl or bust for Peyton. How can he be great if his bum of a brother Eli has more rings than him? I find those sorts of arguments trite and short-sighted. They’re on the same level as the supposed feminization of sports and other nonsense. Besides, it discounts the contributions of every other player on the field. 8. Who will Jim Nantz cheer for next week? It’s Manning v. Brady. Broncos v. Patriots. We might witness Nantz explode in the booth next week.

Discover more from JimmyBramlett Dot Com

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Blog

What Do I Have to Do?

It was summer 1996 right before my senior year of high school back when my curfew was 10. I spent a Saturday with C who was at a UCLA summer camp. While hanging out in her dorm room and traipsing around Westwood Village, I ended up buying a used copy of Stabbing Westward’s Wither, Blister, Burn and Peel at the Wherehouse. “What Do I Have to Do” was played quite a bit on KROQ, and while I thought it was NIN-lite, I couldn’t deny how catchy and good it is.

I got home a bit late, around 10:30, and that was when I had the worst fight with my mom. She had gone to bed early and woke up when I went to the bathroom. Naturally she asked where I was and didn’t believe me when I said where I was or what I was doing. I kept telling her that I was just spending the day with C at UCLA, and she insisted that I wasn’t. I could only imagine what she thought I was doing. I wondered what I did to make her not trust me — I didn’t drink or use drugs; I was a good student in AP classes. At this point I had only started smoking cigarettes for several months. I listened to dark music. I liked to hang out at coffeeshops with my friends. I had horrible self-esteem. I was loud and angry with role models being Howard Stern and Roseanne. I knew I wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t think I was off the rails.

How do you communicate this to a mother with just as bad of a temper as you and who refuses to believe you?

It was getting late, and I wanted to go to bed. My mom didn’t want to end the argument. As a 17-year old, I didn’t know what she wanted from me. I knew I was hiding something big, and I had no intention of ever telling her. But my mom kept yelling at me saying I wasn’t telling the truth. Then I blurted it out.

“I’m gay.”

Fuck. As those words came out, I knew it was a fucking mistake. I knew nothing good was going to come out of this and that this argument was not going to come to an end anytime soon. Predictably, my mom went even more berserk perfecting every melodramatic beat from Korean dramas.

I knew I had to just stand there and take it. Then she said it.

“If you ever bring this up again, I will shoot you and shoot myself.”

Everything blurred after that. I knew I was never going to get my mother’s love, that no one was going to be there for me. It definitely explains the relationship I have with my mom, and it probably explains why I have never been in a relationship or see myself ever being in one.

Since then whenever I listen to Stabbing Westward I think about this night.

All of this to say that I did go see them Friday night as they promoted their re-recording of Wither to celebrate its 30th anniversary along with PIG, Acumen Nation (celebrating the 30th anniversary of Territory=Universe) and 16Volt (celebrating the 30th anniversary of LetDownCrush) as a part of Cold Waves LA. It was a great show of reliving the 90s guitar industrial metal and seeing bands I didn’t get to see back in the day. Hell, PIG even played “Juke Joint Jezebel” which I guess you could call a KMFDM cover even though Raymond Watts was the original featured vocalist.

As I cursed my aching 47-year old feet and back standing for hours at the Pacific Electric, I did think back to that argument 30 years ago and wonder what other climatic moments the people around me had. What traumas are the guy next to me exorcising as he is screaming out the lyrics very much off key?

Around 1 am they finished the set with “Save Yourself,” and the house lights turned up. Sure, I’m still carrying all of that baggage, but at least I got to shake my ass a little and enjoy myself a little, pain be damned.

Discover more from JimmyBramlett Dot Com

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Blog

This is 47

The only reason I really look forward to my birthday is that I get time off from work and that I usually rent an Airbnb out in the middle of the desert in the Joshua Tree vicinity with a pool, hot tub, and no one around for 5 acres. So here I am in Landers (or a bit away from it really) whose claim to fame was that it was the epicenter of a 7.3 earthquake in 1992 just hours before a separate 6.5 earthquake centered in Big Bear hit on a Sunday morning. Wild stuff.

I arrived here yesterday, and on the way had to stop to get gas. Since this stupid fucking illegal war with Iran has driven gas prices sky high again, I’ve mostly been back on public transit again because, fuck that. There I was at the Arco station jaw agape as the $30 went to $40 and on up until it landed at $72 for 13 gallons of gas. Yes, the “cheap” gas.

I’m going to be spending most of the time in or around the pool trying to finish Schattenfroh by Michael Lentz. I’m at around page 604, so I have about 400 more pages to go. I’ll be honest — I have no fucking clue what’s going on in the book. It’s a slow, slow read and demands your attention but not in a painstaking way. It’s a very enjoyable read, but I honestly don’t know how we get from one part to the next. Instead of trying to make sense of it, I’m just riding the wave, going where it’s taking me and try to make sense of it later.

I’ve started working on a couple of things with myself and hope to get better at as I begin my 48th year on this planet: I have started to journal more. It’s the most mundane scatterbrained thing. I hope it doesn’t cause someone’s head to explode when they go through my journals after I’m dead. (How cute. I think I have any importance that people will actually read what I write rather than just dispose it like they should.)

I need to curb my YouTube addiction. I don’t watch tv shows. I don’t watch sports all that much. I don’t use TikTok. I only doomscroll through Facebook at 3 am after I have woken up to take a piss. I am no longer perpetually online. But I will sit down and waste hours upon hours watching YouTube videos. I really need to get that in check.

That’s all I’ve got. Overall, I’m not happy, but I’m not completely depressed. Let’s just call it nonplussed. For someone who feels like a stranger in his own country, I guess that’s about as good as we can hope for.

Here’s a picture of the desert sunset: