Thomas-centric

Quite the day yesterday! As usual, I met Thomas and Marissa at the end of the driveway when they got off the bus. Thomas said he wanted to talk to me about something. Turns out he traded some Pokemon cards for some sports cards, specifically a random ‘90’s Larry Bird card and a Frank Thomas baseball card from 1990, a Fleer, not the real rookie. While they were under plastic, they weren’t in great shape, though they could have been worse. Anyway, the cards led to a discussion about baseball cards and their value and what cards did I have and how much were they worth and HOLY COW that much!! Now he wants to know more about them and how to start collecting. Gotta tell ya (which is really just telling future me), that I’m pretty happy. He also wants to go through my boxes and boxes of memorabilia with me. Yay me!

 Earlier in the day, an email group I was on discussed the cheapness of the McCaskeys and that someone said Halas was so cheap, he still had his first communion money. That made me think about my first communion. I don't remember much from my first communion, but I remember my dad's dad passing me on the stairs of his house (my first communion was in Altoona PA during one of our trips to visit relatives) as I went up and he slowly hobbled down saying "Congratulations." in the gruff voice of a depression era elderly man who had been smoking and drinking seemingly all his life as he slipped me $5. I'm not sure if I got any money from anyone else, but that $5 meant the world to me, not because of the value, which certainly WAS substantial, but because Grandpa Sutton didn’t express feelings too often (other than anger!).

Today is a big day for Thomas with a spelling test, a sight word test, a math test and THEN testing for his yellow belt when he gets home. Thomas studies Jeet Kune Do, a Chinese martial art developed by Bruce Lee. He enjoys it and has really progressed well in the last two months!! 

*****Update on Friday's events: Thomas scored perfect on his spelling test, sight words and math test. Then he tested for and received his yellow belt! He was probably the second best white belt testing, surpassed only by a girl who is at least 3 years older than him. It was a good day!! 

2016 NFL Draft revisited

As I watched Dak Prescott play today on wildcard weekend, I harkened back to the 2016 NFL Draft. Dak was taken in the 4^th round that year. 4^th round!!! Amazing. And LATE in the fourth round, pick 28 in that round and 135^th overall. So everyone, including Dallas, passed on him at least three times. The thing that sticks in my craw though is that the recently fired Ryan Pace, GM of the Bears, passed on him three times in the fourth round alone!!! C’mon dude!!! You said we should draft a QB every year and you didn’t (except for one 6^th rounder and Mitch until this past year with Fields). This was the chance.

But what about the other teams and the draft in general? Interestingly, not many teams NEEDED a QB after the first round and some other fun stuff was going on.

At the top of the draft, Jared Goff was selected by the LA Rams and Philly spent the second pick on Wentz. Joey Bosa, Ezekiel Elliott, and Jalen Ramsey were the next three and all better than the first two. Laremy Tonsil, a hulking tackle out of Mississippi was dropping as a video of him smoking pot with a gas mask on was leaked. Cost the dude hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Bears went with the undersized Leonard Floyd out of Georgia and then proceeded to not coach him up at all. He became a pro bowler with the Rams.

At the bottom of the first round, #25, Pittsburgh took Artie Burns. Seattle picked 31 and took Germain Ifedi. Seemingly innocuous except they both ended up on the Bears under Pace. My guess is he scouted them and remembered, hell, probably enamored with them and brought them to the Bears when he could.

Denver drafted Paxton Lynch with #26 and he’s been no good. The Jets took Christian Hackenberg in the second round, also awful. The Bears took Cody Whitehair, who has been ok on the offensive line. Tampa really did a number by taking Roberto Aguayo, a kicker, with the 59^th pick overall. He didn’t make it, but did get a shot with the Bears, probably because Pace remembered him from the draft.

In the third round, Pace took Bullard who was only ever a special teamer at best. Not great for a third rounder. New England, with Tom Brady at QB, took Jacoby Brisset while the Browns took Cody Kessler and went to war with him and Josh McCown. Ugh. The Bears lost Cutler after 5 games and had to turn to Matt Barkley and Brian Hoyer. Double ugh. Imagine if, in the fourth round, with one of their three picks in that round, they took Dak Prescott. My oh my how their fortunes could have changed.

Instead though the Bears took Kwiatkowski, who turned into a baller at LB, Deon Bush and D’eondre Hall. Ugh. Kwiatkowski is with the Raiders, Bush is a sub safety and Hall is no longer in the league. Just God awful to miss on a QB of Dak’s caliber while having 6 picks ahead of his selection.