Mahomes II Good

Lamar Jackson has had an amazing season. No one can argue with his numbers: 3390 yards passing, 30 passing TDs, 1538 yards rushing, and 21 rushing TDs. Before earnestly diving into the numbers and thinking about who really is the best player in college football, I thought that Jackson was the man that would take home the top prize in college football this year. The closer I looked though, I realized that another man was just a touch above. So, without further delay, I would like to name Patrick Mahomes II, quarterback from Texas Tech, as the 2016-2017 jasathletics College Football MVP.

As I just mentioned, I thought this was Jackson’s award this year. Even after looking at Mahomes’ stats for the first time, which include the insane number of 5052 passing yards as well as 41 passing TDs, I still thought that Jackson had the more impressive season. But then I realized that I hadn’t looked at Mahomes’ rushing stats; mainly because I thought that he was just a passing quarterback, especially since he threw for so many yards. Upon looking, I saw something unexpected. Mahomes had 285 yards on the ground, and more importantly, he had personally escorted the football to the end zone 12 times. So, not only does Mahomes have more total yards than Jackson, he also has more total TDs this year. It is also noteworthy that Mahomes only threw one more interception than Jackson while putting the ball in the air 209 more times than him. Finally, Mahomes demonstrated to me that he could put up big numbers not only against inferior competition but also against elite competition. For proof, one needs to look no farther than his game against Oklahoma: 734 passing yards, 5 passing TDs, 1 Interception, 85 rushing yards, and 2 rushing TDs. With that exclamation point, I would like to congratulate Patrick Mahomes II for a spectacular season, and for earning the jasathletics College Football MVP award. 

The Art of Double Dating

Thanks to “The Art of Courtship” (see post on July 29, 2014) you are now in a relationship. Furthermore, thanks to “The Art of Being a Wingman” (see post on August 1, 2015) you were able to get your buddy into a relationship too. You and your buddy may have struggled with “playing it too cool”, but that was remedied by “So, You’re Playing It Too Cool?” (see post on November 12, 2015). As both of you start to settle into your relationships, I suggest taking advantage of you both being in a relationship at the same time by going on a double date.

When going on a double date, it is important to have a game plan. You don’t want your buddy to go rogue on you and suggest something like one malt with four straws. Trust me; that can get awkward quickly. You also don’t want to do something ridiculous to try and impress your dates like trying to catch a Coke bottle with a baseball glove. I speak from experience when I say that is more difficult to do than one would think.

When it comes to setting a game plan, I have a few suggestions that are sure to put you on track. The first is to always be on the lookout for opportunities to assist. Let me illustrate with an example. Perhaps you know that your friend does some great celebrity impressions, but is generally too modest to employ his skills in a group setting. You could say something like, “Danny (just choosing a name randomly) does some of the best celebrity impressions I have ever heard. In fact, he does the best Adam Sandler and the ninth best Liam Neeson I have ever heard.” This will allow him to demonstrate his skills and impress his female companion while also lacking conceit as he was not the one to bring up his skills.

Second, don’t be afraid to stray from the usual dinner date script. For example, if you, your buddy, and the females that you hope to eventually ask an important question while on bended knee are athletically inclined, I suggest partaking in a sporting endeavor such as mixed doubles badminton. Not only does this give everyone in the group an opportunity to put their athletic prowess on display, it also creates a more laid back and fun environment that can sometimes be difficult to construct in the traditional dinner date setting. I have one word of caution though. If you and your buddy are very competitive, a sporting event might not be the best idea for a double date. Many a relationship and many a friendship have been derailed after a guy and his buddy have come to blows over a birdie on the line call during a mixed doubles badminton double date.

Third, be prepared to clean up each other’s messes. You and your buddy both needed help getting to the point where having your local jeweler Marco’s phone number in your contact list might finally be useful. So, there is no doubt that both of you had some dating mishaps along the way. The great thing with a double date is that you and your buddy can have the mop ready if either of you makes a misstep. As an example, suppose you know that the female that your buddy is pursing in courtship has strong British roots. Perhaps your buddy starts to make some flippant remarks regarding current events like, “The Redcoats are such hypocrites. They get mad at us for leaving them and then they turn around and leave the European Union.” Even worse, suppose he continues by saying, “I would never marry a Brit or a woman of strong British decent. They can’t commit to anything. I mean, they never even switched from the Pound to the Euro. If that didn’t signal that they weren’t committed to the whole EU thing, I don’t know what did!” At this point, your buddy has made a mess that might be beyond your cleaning skills even though he did show off his keen knowledge of history, current events, and was able to make connections between the two. Nevertheless, you need to try to help him out by saying something like, “How about the Englishman Danny Willett winning the Masters?” or “So, do you like Andy Murray’s chances at Wimbledon this year?” By posing positive British related questions, you will hopefully divert your buddy’s female companion from his transgressions and put the conversation back on track. Don’t feel bad if you are not able to save your buddy though. Some messes like this one are too big to clean up even for a man with strong understanding of janitorial relationship theory.

Last, if you do choose the traditional dinner date, make sure that you and your buddy decide beforehand as to how you guys will be handling the bill. You don’t want to come in unprepared and make your buddy look bad by offering to pay for everyone. On the other hand, you don’t want your buddy to undermine his own courtship efforts by saying something like, “I really can’t pay tonight. I am not very liquid at the moment. My money is tied up in Mongolian bonds, Algerian real estate, and Kuwait’s Dinar currency.” Although this demonstrates your buddy’s eclectic yet ill-advised investment portfolio, most females will probably interpret this as being cheap. So, make sure to discuss this before the date. I suggest that you each pay for yourself and the female that you are courting.

Overall, the double date is a tool that can help any man on the road of courtship as it takes some of the pressure off and also puts a friend near you to help you out of any mess that could befall you due to unwise words or actions. Now that you have been educated as to how to best approach a double date, grab your buddy, your mop, and your female companions and progress one step closer to making a call to Marco a reality.

Ruth's Gingerbread

The day was December 31, 2015. The time was roughly 6:10 PM Central Standard Time. While thinking about the New Year’s Eve festivities that were going to take place later that evening, an idea for a new card game came to me. In fact, in just minutes, I had all of the rules laid out in my mind. When I arrived at the party, I announced that I had invented a new card game. I was eventually asked what the name of the new game was. Since I hadn’t named the game yet, I came up with a name on the spot – Ruth’s Gingerbread. Quite frankly, this name has nothing to do with the game itself, but nevertheless, I am happy that I came up with this name as I think it is an intriguing name for a card game. I think that name came to me because I had been recently thinking about Ruth’s Chris Steak House, which I have eaten at once, and since it was near Christmas, I think I was thinking about gingerbread cookies even though I don’t believe I even ate a gingerbread cookie this past Christmas season. Anyways, I convinced some friends to play the game with me. The first iteration of the game was good; however, it needed a few small adjustments. One of the main adjustments came to me in the ensuing 12 hours or so and more recently another adjustment came to me. This past Saturday night I was able to see those adjustments in action and I have to say that the second draft appears to be solid.

At this point, I know that you want to know the rules so that you can start playing Ruth’s Gingerbread yourself. First, you will ideally need a table that allows the players of the game to sit as close to equidistant from the center of the table as possible. Second, you will need a standard deck of cards. Leave one of the jokers in the deck. After shuffling the deck, to determine order, each person selects a card from the deck. Highest card goes first (2 is lowest, Ace is highest. Basically, the usual order of cards with the exception that, if the joker shows up, that is the highest card), then to determine the direction around the table, look at the cards of the people sitting to the left and right of the person with the highest card. Out of these two, whoever has the higher card will be the person that selects second once the game starts and the selection of cards continues to go around the table in a circle in the direction of the second person.

With the selection order determined, the game can get underway in earnest. Before starting, spread the cards out evenly in a thin layer on the table (this was my first important amendment). Going with the determined order, the players at the table go around in a circle selecting cards from the center. One thing to note, is that it is important to wait for a person’s turn to finish before moving to the next person as there are some things that can take place during a turn. A player always shows their highest card and keeps the other cards hidden. This is important because, if you draw any card in the two through five range, you get the option of trading hands with anyone at the table. So, knowing a player’s high card gives you some information about whether or not trading with them would be a good idea. The game continues to go around the table in this fashion until someone selects the joker. If you select the joker, you need to turn the joker over, yell “joker”, and then it is a mad scramble where everyone reaches out to the center of the table and grabs as many cards as possible. After the scramble, the game is over and everyone adds up their cards. The person with the highest point total wins with numbered cards taking the listed value, face cards being ten points, aces being eleven points, and the joker doesn’t count for any points (I think this is good because having the joker already gives a person an advantage in the mad scramble).

There is one final rule that I would like to mention, and that is the bluff. At any point, a player can bluff by turning over the card that they have selected on that turn and yelling “joker”. Anyone that touches the cards in the center of the table, including the person bluffing, is automatically out of the game and the game continues in the same fashion without them. It should be noted that there is a slight penalty for bluffing. That is, you don’t get to keep the card that you bluffed with (this was my second important amendment, which keeps people from bluffing all the time). It is discarded and doesn’t count towards your point total. So, ideally you want to bluff with low cards, not high. The cards of the people that get disqualified from the game due to a bluff are also discarded and don’t count towards anyone’s point total.

How exactly this game came to my mind, I am not sure, but it appears to be a solid and exciting card game. So, the next time you need to spice up your Monday afternoon or your Thursday evening or your Saturday morning or really anytime, think about getting some friends together and playing Ruth’s Gingerbread.

Royal 87 Nova Scotia Muirfield

Most golfers have dreams of places they would like to play. For me, and certainly for almost any other golfer, playing Augusta National is at or near the top of the list. However, for most golfers, including me, playing Augusta National is a near impossible goal since it is such an exclusive private club. There are certainly other places that I would like to play that would be almost as unattainable, or at the very least, would require undue expenditure or effort when there are many other goals in life outside of golf that are just more important to me. With this being said, I decided to come up with a more practical list of places I would like to play. This list would still take some effort to achieve, but is doable. I also don’t think of this list as something I must achieve; it is more me putting some dreams in writing and, as life allows, gives me some direction as to where I would like to play. This list encompasses smaller goals as well and is to be considered quite malleable. For example, Nova Scotia has certainly been on my mind as a place to play golf, but recent developments have brought it to the forefront for me. There is no doubt that new places that I would like to play will emerge as the years pass and, even right now, this list is not exhaustive.

Since this list is fluid, I will not follow the order in the title. I will start with 87, which is the number of counties in the great state of Minnesota. There are people that have set out and achieved the goal of playing in every state. This goal seemed a bit lofty to me. Thinking of something similar to do, the more reachable and, in a strange way, more appealing goal of playing at least one course in every county of Minnesota came to mind. So far I have played a course in 14 counties in Minnesota, which means I have a ways to go. Having moved to a new part of the state last year, I have plenty of counties near me in which I have never played before. I already added three new counties to my list last year. There is also a corollary to having played a golf course in every county in Minnesota. Namely, it would mean that I have also been to every county in Minnesota, which, as a native of Minnesota, would be a neat achievement in and of itself.

As was mentioned in the opening, the goal of playing golf in Nova Scotia has been on my mind for some time, but just recently vaulted up my list due to the opening of the Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw minimalist gem Cabot Cliffs. I was originally drawn to Nova Scotia by the Stanley Thompson, who is undoubtedly the best Canadian golf course architect ever, designed Highlands Links. So, unlike the goal of playing a course in all 87 counties in Minnesota where which courses I would play is very much yet to be determined, the aforementioned courses are the two that I would play if I went to Nova Scotia (possibly Cabot Links too). Even with the great golf, the major focus of a trip to Nova Scotia for me would be taking in the spectacular scenery and, in particular, exploring the beautiful Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Just as most golfers dream of playing Augusta National, a dream that pursues with equity and possibly even surpasses this is playing in Scotland – the home of golf. An additional dream that is more unique to me, although I suspect that there is a subpopulation of golfers that feel similarly, is playing a golf course that Phil Mickelson, my favorite golfer, has won a major championship on. The problem with the latter is that the three courses that Phil has won a major championship on are Augusta National, Baltusrol, and Muirfield. As has been well articulated, Augusta is near impossible to gain access to. Baltusrol is also an elite private club that is no doubt difficult to secure a tee time at. This leaves Muirfield, which unfortunately also possesses the designation of being an elite private club. The difference with Muirfield though is that it opens its course two days a week to the common man for a handsome, but not completely ridiculous sum of money, especially for a once in a lifetime experience. It also bears mentioning that Muirfield is in Scotland, and would therefore achieve the dream stated in the first sentence of this paragraph as well.

If I am honored in such a way as to be able to play the fine and historic links courses of Scotland someday, I would obviously play more than just Muirfield after traveling all that way. This is where “Royal” comes into play. For some reason, I have always thought that it would be cool to play a golf course with the designation “Royal”, which comes at the decree of the British royal family. There are plenty of courses in Scotland that hold this distinction and would almost certainly be a goal that would be attained if I ever set foot on Scottish soil. What makes this goal quite within grasp though is the fact that there are plenty of courses in former British colonies (that left peacefully) that hold this distinction. Most relevant to me is the fact that Canada has multiple courses with the “Royal” distinction.

Contained in these larger goals are smaller ones too that could be achieved in various ways. As was alluded to earlier, I would love to play a Stanley Thompson designed course. This hope could become a reality through the earlier described trip to Nova Scotia. An equally awesome trip would be to the Canadian Rockies which are the setting in which Thompson laid out two of his classics, Banff Springs and Jasper Park Lodge. I could also play North Oaks Golf Club just north of St. Paul, Minnesota, one of Thompson’s few designs on U.S. soil, and add another county to my list at the same time. One obstacle to this though is the fact that North Oaks is a private club. I would also love to play a course that employs the minimalist design school of thought, which has become the popular way to go with golf design in recent years. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are certainly leaders in the minimalist movement along with others like Tom Doak. While it would be great to play their Nova Scotia beauty Cabot Cliffs, and I certainly hope to play there one day, I was excited to hear that they are working on a course in central Wisconsin called Sand Valley, which would certainly be a shorter and cheaper trip for me.

 At the end of the day, there are so many great courses in this world that I have yet to play. In fact, there are so many great courses in my home state of Minnesota that I have yet to play like Interlachen, Hazeltine National, Windsong Farm, Somerby, Rochester Golf & Country Club, The Classic at Madden’s (Unfortunately only the last course in this list is public). The list could go on for a long time just for my home state. So, today it is Royal 87 Nova Scotia Muirfield, but that certainly doesn’t cover everything and will undoubtedly change as time passes and circumstances shift. No matter what, I am excited for the road ahead in golf and, even more so, in life where I have plenty of goals that rank way ahead of playing golf courses.

Phil on Form

It has been almost two and a half years since Phil last hoisted a trophy. Some solace can be found in the fact that the trophy was the Claret Jug, which is one of the most prized possessions in the game, and brought Phil to the three-fourths point on his career journey to the grand slam. All things considered, the last few years have been desolate on the golf course for Phil though and, unfortunately, he is much more than three-fourths of the way though his playing career (at least his playing at an elite level career). With Phil hardly ever in contention over the last few years, one could not help but wonder if he would even win another tournament, forget another major or completing the career grand slam by winning the U.S. Open, which has evaded Phil to a degree that no other man has ever known.

After an extended hiatus, change in swing coach, and a tied for third finish in his PGA Tour opener, it appears that there is still gas in the tank, however. In fact, with just this small sample size of one tournament to go on, I think this is going to be a big year for Phil. With a chance to play in the Olympics and a chance to complete the career grand slam on the line, Phil still has a lot to play for as his forty-sixth birthday draws ever near. One can’t help but notice the locations of three of the four majors this year too. Of course Augusta is almost always a place where Phil contends, but the last two majors have intriguing locations as well. Royal Troon is the site of this year’s Open Championship, which is where Phil finished one shot out of a playoff between Todd Hamilton and Ernie Els in 2004. Baltusrol is the site of this year’s PGA Championship and also where Phil won the 2005 PGA.

I saw something last week. A Phil Mickelson that I have not seen much of in the last few years. A Phil Mickelson that it poised to have a big year. So, don’t be surprised if Phil wins at Torrey Pines this week, or at Augusta, or completes the career grand slam, or finds himself competing and maybe even winning in Rio in August. You know what? He might just do all four and more. I saw Phil on form and I am excited!

Alabama Adds to an Already Overflowing Trophy Case

I would like to start by tipping my Banning Junction hat to Clemson. They had an amazing season and surely with be the preseason number one come August. Even with Deshaun Watson returning, getting back to the national championship game will certainly be a difficult task though. With that being said, I would like to name Alabama as the 2015-2016 jasathletics College Football National Champion.

An early season loss looked like it might derail Alabama, but they proved to be resilient as they finished the regular season with only that one loss to Mississippi on their resume. One would have expected their first two games after the regular season to be difficult. However, they won both fairly easily. The first, the SEC Championship game, I have to say did not surprise me since Florida had no offense whatsoever after losing their quarterback Will Grier early in the season. The second did surprise me though because Michigan State had a solid offense led by Connor Cook and still proceeded to score zero points.

Alabama was finally challenged in the national championship game, which did not catch me off guard. In fact, I fully expected Clemson to win even though they were officially the underdog going into the game. Most of the game was evenly matched and Clemson took a slight lead into the fourth quarter. However, the fourth quarter is when the big play floodgates opened for Alabama ignited by a brilliant onside kick. Although Clemson scored a couple of late touchdowns, the onside kick was no doubt the turning point in the game, the punch from which Clemson was unable to recover.

This marks the fourth time in the last seven years that Alabama has won the jasathletics College Football National Championship. Not only that, Alabama also won the other national championship in all four instances. The only other team to complete this feat was Florida State in the 2013-2014 season. Also noteworthy, is the fact that Derrick Henry became the first player to capture the jasathletics College Football MVP award and the jasathletics College Football National Championship in the same year. Congratulations to Alabama, but I would like to remind the South that the North still owns the FCS.