Yay! The NFL Preseason is over! It frustrates me every year. People get so worked up about the games and who wins and loses. It doesn’t matter. It’s glorified practice and a way to trim down the rosters. I’d love to see the preseason completely removed or at least cut down to a single game. There’s no point in it except for the NFL to make money (which is why it will continue forever or until the players go on strike because of it.)
However, every time I get frustrated about the preseason, I remember that one time when Dad took me to see a preseason NBA game between the Bulls and the Supersonics. They were playing in town at Notre Dame and I actually got to see Michael Jordan and Shawn Kemp playing each other on the same court. It was a highlight of my childhood.
So in that sense, I guess the preseason is good. Ticket prices are a little lower (though they’re still $75/game for the cheap Seahawks tickets) and maybe it gives a different set of fans the opportunity to see some of their heroes play, if only for a few minutes of the game.
The Seahawks made a big trade to get Jimmy Graham as a TE. They gave up Max Unger to do it which is a pretty big price, but hopefully it’s worth it. I won’t get into the discussion about whether or not this was a good idea (I’m unqualified), but here’s one interesting point: last year Graham had 85 catches for 889 yards and 10 TDs. That would BY FAR make him the most prolific receiver on the Seahawks. The Seahawks only had 20 TD passes total the whole season!
In poker, there is a term called “sucking out on the river.” It means that a player who has almost no chance gets super lucky on the very last card played and comes back to win. Usually that player jumps up in surprise, screams in victory, and then sheepishly turns to the opponent and says “… sorry.” You know you got away with something you didn’t deserve.
This was the first year of the new NASCAR playoff scheduling system. Every car still races in every race, but towards the end of the season, they start knocking people out of contention for the championship. In the last race, points are reset for the top four drivers and whoever finishes the best, wins.
For quite a few years, NASCAR has had internet subscription models for watching and listening to the races. But now, for the first time, NASCAR surprised me by offering all of the remaining races this season for free on YouTube (after the race is over.) That’s an especially cool deal for me since some of these races are on ESPN which I don’t pay for anymore. You can check out the 
While very often I believe that “done is better than perfect”, trap shooting is not one of those times. Don, Logan and I headed to the range for the first time in about nine months. I generally hit around 18-20 out of 25 and my best round ever was 23. I thought I’d be pretty rusty, but on my first round I just kept hitting them. I was able to stay pretty calm until I got to the last position of 5 clays. 20 in a row. Wow. Just a few more. As I hit, one, two, three, and then four of them my nerves really started to take over. I had 24 in a row, already setting a personal best, and I was now one trigger pull away from the elusive perfect round. It’s not as difficult as bowling a 300, but it’s still pretty rare. You get a badge from the gun range and the envy of your fellow shooters. All those thoughts were swirling through my head. I tried to clear them out, take some deep breaths, focus on just one more shot like I had been doing all morning. I called “PULL!”, the clay flew out and I thought “Oh good, an easy one!” I moved the gun along the flight path pulled the trigger and… instantly knew it was wrong. I’m pretty sure I led it too much and the clay sailed to the ground unharmed. 24 out of 25. A great score, but it was obvious to everyone that I choked under the pressure.