Getting ’er done at crunch time
For his sake, let us hope that Caleb fella wasn’t mentally spending his money before it was in the bank, when the San Francisco 49ers held a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl last Sunday. He was so close to winning the annual NFL playoff pool, but the Kansas City Chiefs, who had been shrewdly picked second overall by The Kid in the pre-playoff draft selection, got off the mat and K.C. quarterback Patrick Mahomes started to feed San Fran the rights, to use a boxing analogy. Thusly, the Chiefs would prevail over the 49ers with a stunning comeback, so good for them and good for The Kid, who has built an NFL playoff pool dynasty in recent years: the Bill Belichick of the group, one could say. That’s right – a dynasty.
SUPER BOWL NOTES
Mahomes is arguably the ▪ best QB in football, has won a league MVP and now has a Super Bowl comeback victory on his resume. Pretty good. The three minutes of the ▪ halftime show that I bothered watching featured Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, a glitzy and spectacular extravaganza that had lots of flashing lights and dancing, but really bad and annoying music, the kind that makes you feel like you’re getting punched in the stomach. TV announcer Troy ▪ Aikman is so fun to listen to, knows what he’s talking about and is great at imparting that knowledge on the listeners if they’re actually paying attention, that is.
MISSING THE BIG HOUSE
Pictou County Junior A Crushers forward Maxime Grandmaison (he’s sometimes called ‘Big House’, and someone who has even a rudimentary grasp of the French language can figure out why), suffered a severe head injury at Amherst Stadium on Feb. 1 and might not return this season. It sounds like it was very bad, but he was doing better in the days that followed, and if the doctors – or he himself – hasn’t written him off for this season, then nobody else should, either. That said, the Crushers spoke this week of using his injury to galvanize the team, which has mostly struggled since the calendar turned into 2020. A large dose of adversity can often unite a hockey club, make them tighter and stronger with a single-minded purpose – it’s happened many, many times in sports. The Crushers, losers of eight of 10, are not yet in must-win mode, but they soon could be if they don’t snap out of it, especially with the hard-charging Truro Bearcats bearing down on them in the South Division standings: crunch time is just around the bend in the road. The Pictou County ▪ Weeks Major Midgets are about to embark on its firstround playoff series against Dartmouth, with the first two games this coming weekend at the Pictou County Wellness Centre (Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 9 at 4 p.m.). Pictou County has a solid season, finishing with a league won-loss record of 20-9-6.
NON-SPORTS THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK
Prime Minister-in-waiting ▪ Peter MacKay apparently has taken criticism from the Quebec media for not being bilingual. The guy can do a passable French (at least I think he can, although the only French words I know are ‘Grandmaison’ and ‘oui’) so what more do they want? Let us, the people, not ▪ panic about the coronavirus until it’s truly time to panic. Smoking (gotta quit soon), a poor diet (love ‘Death by Chocolate’ ice cream, plus hamburgers and fried chicken), a lack of physical activity (too cold and snowy to exercise and last summer it was too hot to exercise) and living in Chicago are all things that are more likely to kill you.