One more for the road
This week's top 10, Final Edition:
-10. A sad revelation. I've always been told that at some point you realize you've gotten old. That moment has arrived for me. My best friend got married Labor Day weekend at a resort in Sunriver, Ore., and we had the bachelor party the weekend before that in Las Vegas. It's been two weeks and I'm still in pain.
Easing the hurt is the cash money I made on a pair of sports bets. I won $20 on the Oregon Ducks over Houston and parlayed that on another bet with the Arizona State Sun Devils that paid another $60. A six-team parlay that would have paid off $800 fell woefully short.
The best part of all this was either the Ducks - my sworn, mortal enemy - would win by the 10 points they needed to cover the spread and I'd make money, or they wouldn't and I'd have a season's worth of trash talking fodder to use against my friend and his new bride, both Oregon grads. Truly a win-win scenario.
-9. Monday Night Fights. Was I the only person who thought of the pregame fight scene from "Slap Shot" ("I'm listening to the ---- song!") when Jeremiah Trotter and Kevin Mathis fought before the Eagles-Falcons game on Monday?
The best part was listening to the jock-sniffing apologists condemn the ejections and rationalize the behavior, who will in the same breath laud the professionalism of athletes.
Come on guys, pick one. Either they are professionals - in which case the pregame behavior was deplorable and the ejections justified - or they are roving street gangs - in which case we don't see nearly enough of this type of behavior.
-8. College football I. Rare is the day I experience flashbacks not directly related to my college days, but such is the case the last few weeks with Notre Dame fans and Charlie Weiss.
The Domers' new coach got off to a surprising 2-0 start and anyone within six feet of a microphone was lauding Weiss as the next Rockne for taking the previous coach's players and winning with them.
It's the exact same thing - the EXACT same thing - boosters were saying about Tyrone Willingham three years ago. He started out 8-0. How'd that turn out?
-7. Isn't this the steroids era? Atlanta's Andruw Jones became the first player to hit 50 home runs in a season since 2002 last week. Two full seasons went by without anyone reaching 50? Doesn't that surprise you?
-6. College football II. I'm sure it will be a two weeks of the glass half-full vs. half-empty debate among Griz fans after Montana's 7-0 win yesterday.
On the bright side, the defense pitched a shutout against a team that was averaging 55 points coming in, the second shutout in two home games this year.
On the bad side, the offense wasn't exactly beating any doors down, except for Lex Hilliard.
Just relax, Grizfan. The passing game was bound to struggle early in the season, and if the defense keeps this up, it can struggle all season and it won't matter. Montana will be right in the thick of it at the end of November.
-5. Where'd the defense come from? Easily the most surprising development of Week 1 of the NFL season was the sudden emergence of strong defenses in Kansas City and Indianapolis.
It's far too early to say if these teams have found the answer, but for years both clubs were dismissed out of hand as championship contenders because poor defenses - remember the Chiefs team that started the season like 13-0 a couple of years ago?
If the Colts and Chiefs have indeed upgraded defensively, the AFC just became that much more compelling.
-4. College football III. It's a neck-and-neck race for the title of Most Overrated Team of the 2005 season between Oklahoma (preseason No. 7, now 1-2) and Iowa (preseason No. 11, lost badly to Iowa State last week).
I'd include Pittsburgh (preseason No. 23, now 0-3), but anyone who has followed Dave Wannstedt's head coaching career should not be surprised by this turn of events.
-3. What's in a name, redux. I saw last week that the powers that be want the public to help decide on the nickname and colors of the new Glacier High School.
What a good idea. Popular public opinion has a long track record of making solid choices. It's solely responsible for the continued reign of terror of Britney Spears, "reality" TV, "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," and every elected official in the country.
Can't wait to see what this will wrought.
-2. College football IV. Here we go again - the Bobcats are off to a 1-2 start to the season for the third straight year and fourth time in five seasons.
But don't you fret either, Bobcatfan. Montana State has a solid team and, like the Griz, will be in the thick of it at the end of November.
-1. Goodbye, farewell & amen. This column marks the end of my tenure at the Inter Lake, a little more than two years after it started. It's been a rewarding experience, more so than I ever anticipated, and although I am leaving in search of new challenges, I will miss the Flathead and its people.
My sincere thanks to all of you who read, wrote, complained and complimented on nearly 100 columns, making this - for my money - the best job in Northwest Montana.
Andrew Hinkelman will be a sports writer for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle starting Tuesday. There is no truth to the rumor he is leaving because he has run out of people to anger or alienate in the Flathead Valley.