Posted on January 23rd, 2015
By WARREN LOWE
A few years before I married, I sat and pondered my future in the wide world of dating; I cringed at the thought of being “not so young” and single. My last serious relationship was filled with drama, none of which I caused, or so I thought.
The irony was I had graduated to living life as a “good boy,” thus, should not have been subjected to mistreatment or disrespect. This forced me to analyze all past relationships and made me think about the long list of acquaintances who once were prospects but now gone forever (aka, the ones who got away).
I became preoccupied with the traditional, “How could this happen to me? Why?”
Unfortunately, most people never figure it out. I, on the other hand, have!
“OH YES SHE DID, AND HERE’S WHY” comes from the urban street phrase “Oh no she didn’t,” intended to shed light on climates we create in relationships that almost always lead to unhappiness or dissatisfaction. Responsibility is the key.
I, too, was a slave to the misguided belief that I was a victim in my past relationship and therefore blameless. This mindset placed me in a position of trying to change the behavior of others, rather than my own. It also gave complete ownership of my happiness to someone else. Some of you will recognize this as “The Beginning of the End.” You can’t give a known thief the keys to your home and then complain when you’re robbed.
I have evolved from my past beliefs and realize that I am at least partially at fault for much of the bad in my previous situations. My wrongdoings may not have fit into typical categories such as infidelity or persistent negativity, but they came in the form of Failure to Obey and DWI.
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Posted on January 22nd, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Looks like good ol’ Bill Belicheat – er, I mean Belichick – is at it again.
I’m sure fans of the New England Patriots aren’t mad at him. Reaching nine AFC championships and six Super Bowls in a 14-year span tends to nip outrage in the bud.
But for everyone else, Belichick has been easy to hate ever since 2007, when the Patriots were caught illegally taping defensive signals. We later learned that the practice had been in place since 2000, casting a pall on his three Super Bowl titles (he’s 0-2 since then).
Would the Patriots have beaten St. Louis in 2001, Carolina in 2003 and Philadelphia in 2004 if not for “Spygate?”
There’s no telling.
Would New England have beaten Indianapolis last Sunday in the AFC Championship Game if not for the latest controversy surrounding Belichick?
Definitely.
Whether you call it “Deflategate” or “Ballghazi,” under-inflated footballs didn’t make the Deflatriots clearly superior to the Colts. It was more about LeGarrette Blount averaging 4.9 yards per carry en route to gaining 148 yards and scoring three touchdowns, while Indy had only two drives that last longer than went six plays.
According to an ESPN report based on league sources, an investigation found that 11 of the Patriots’ 12 game balls were inflated significantly below the NFL requirements. The Colts brought it to the league’s attention, reportedly after making similar claims following a game against the Patriots on Nov. 16.
Again, there’s no way the balls were an overriding factor in the Patriots’ victory, but they provide plenty of reason to question Belichick’s integrity. One source told ESPN that the league was “disappointed … angry … distraught” over its findings.
If that’s truly the case, commissioner Roger Goodell better issue a stiff penalty to prove it.
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Posted on January 19th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
This much has become clear about the Nationals since they emerged from the NL East basement: You never know what they’ll do next.
One year it’s trading for lefty Gio Gonzalez and giving him a $42 million, five-year extension. Then it’s signing Rafael Soriano to close games for $28 million over two years. That’s followed a year later by trading for righty Doug Fister to create a formidable four-man rotation.
But nothing on general manager Mike Rizzo’s watch – including the jaw-dropping $126 million for free agent Jayson Werth when the team was still a joke – rivals the latest deal, a move that sent shockwaves through MLB on Monday
Signing position players to $100 million contracts is nothing extraordinary. Such deals are commonplace nowadays and the Nats have two examples in Werth and Ryan Zimmerman. Baseball has moved far past that point, with several players netting $200 million and Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton topping $300.
We never thought Washington owner Ted Lerner would be one to break the bank, but that’s apparently what he did, reportedly signing free-agent Max Scherzer to a seven-year, $210 million contract, the richest ever for a right-handed pitcher.
The Nats already boasted one of baseball’s top staffs with Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg, Doug Fister, Gio Gonzalez and Tanner Roark. Adding Scherzer to that mix creates an embarrassment of riches. The 30-year-old is 39-8 with a 3.02 ERA the past two years with Detroit and won the 2013 AL Cy Young award.
Another top-flight starter was the least of Washington’s needs entering this offseason. An everyday second baseman (or third baseman if Anthony Rendon shifts back)? Absolutely. Another bat for the bench? Certainly. More depth for the infield and bullpen? Definitely.
But superior teams don’t concentrate on one season at a time. Like good chess players, management must look two or three moves ahead, calculating how each action might affect what happens next year and the year after that.
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Posted on January 16th, 2015
Once again I sit here, my mind UNFREE
I gave my love to someone, who gave no love to me
My heart filled with sorrow, my soul in disbelief
I gave my love to someone, who gave no love to me
Perhaps I’ll share my love again, or maybe I won’t
Perhaps I’ll do what was done to me, I pray that I don’t
To knowingly cause pain, is the ultimate sin
Especially when that someone, was a lover or a friend
I lie in this hospital-like state, blaming the Lord for my fate
I wonder how my unselfish deeds, rewarded her selfish needs
It’s easy to blame another, for what was done to me
However, I’ll blame no one, the facts are in 3D
Being deceived, hurt and humiliated, are normal emotions
But conquering anger and revenge, is power, stronger than any ocean
I pray to the Lord, to hear my plea
To invigorate my mind, and help me become free
Until that time, I will write these lines, I will take no prisoners
You see, vengeance is not mine
I understand the other side and what could possibly be
Till then I continue to sit here, my mind UNFREE.
– Warren Jay Lowe
A native of Lackawanna, N.Y., outside of Buffalo, Lowe is a former public school teacher who was forced into retirement due to injuries sustained on the job during a student’s blindside attack. Now a freelance writer, he’s battling life-threatening heart failure while waiting for a transplant. Those who wish to assist – either monetarily or with encouraging words – may visit his page on Help HOPE Live. He can be reached at wllowe@yahoo.com.
Posted on January 15th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Life was so much simpler for Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones six weeks ago.
But everything became real blurry once freshman sensation J.T. Barrett suffered a broken ankle against Michigan. That forced Jones, a redshirt sophomore, into his first collegiate start, which just happened to be the Big 10 championship. Gulp.
No problem. He completed 12-of-17 passes for 257 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions, in a 59-0 rout of Wisconsin.
Next up was the college football playoff and big, bad Crimson Tide. Surely the Rose Bowl stage and high stakes would be too much for the 22-year-old. He hadn’t experienced significant playing time since leaving Cleveland’s Glenville High in 2011 with a 24-3 record as a starter.
Nick Saban. Sick Naban. Whatever.
Jones led the Buckeyes to a shocking 42-35 victory, passing for 243 yards and rushing for another 43 against the vaunted SEC champions. The win brought him to Monday night’s championship, merely the biggest game of his life and every other player involved. Across the field stood the mile-a-minute Oregon Ducks, armed with a Heisman-winning QB and a No. 2 ranking.
Only diehard Buckeyes’ fans knew about Jones a few weeks ago. No one would blame him for wilting under the big screen at Jerryworld with all of college football looking on. Fifth-year seniors have been known to buckle under that kind of pressure.
Jones didn’t just handle the moment; he made it his own and stamped his final introduction with a 42-20 exclamation point.
He passed for 242 yards and a touchdown, rushed for another TD and treated one Oregon lineman like a bowling pin on a big third-down carry. He was at his best when Ohio State needed it most, completing 6-of-9 passes for 178 yards when facing third or fourth down with at least nine yards to go.
Just like that, Jones went from being buried on the depth chart to being discussed as an entrant in this year’s draft.
“In my personal opinion,” he told reporters Tuesday, “I’m not ready for that level yet.”
That’s fine. The deadline to enter is Thursday.
He doesn’t have to be prepared until then.
Read more…
Posted on January 12th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
We don’t know for certain whether Washington needs a quarterback and it’s highly unlikely that Jameis Winston – who last week declared himself eligible for the NFL draft – would be available at No. 5 anyway.
But what if?
Would new general manager Scott McCloughan decline the chance to draft the franchise’s second Heisman Trophy-winner in four seasons? Would the Florida State QB’s long list of off-field issues be reason to pass, or would reluctance be based on Robert Griffin III’s presence and multiple needs elsewhere?
If McCloughan truly believes in taking the best player on the board when your turn comes up – and if he’s convinced that the 21-year-old will mature and avoid future transgressions – then another quarterback controversy and other roster holes wouldn’t outweigh Winston’s upside at the game’s most important position.
Quarterbacks have never been more valuable. Breathing on them too hard can trigger 15-yard penalties. Not yielding the right of way to wide receivers can result in automatic first downs. The NFL is addicted to passing yardage and passing touchdowns, and the modern-era rulebook serves as pusher.
Teams with elite passers will be competitive – period – whether they have lackluster ground games, porous defenses or mundane special teams.
Which is why the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be smart to choose Winston with the No. 1 pick.
Read more…
Posted on January 9th, 2015
Though it was cold and snowy, you would have thought the sun was beaming, the birds were singing and the love bees stinging, because yesterday I felt like writing a love song.
The thought of marathon conversations with someone new, who got all the things the past never understood, was more intoxicating than my sixth Long Island Ice Tea at “the club.”
Thoughts of intimate beginnings, explorations into the peaks and valleys of my newfound lover’s mind, body and soul, excited me to no end. She was a vision of beauty, a keeper of my secrets, a close confidant and most of all, a true friend.
Man, this song was so good it started writing itself. “I’m feeling you … I love the way you …”
Just then, it got dark, cool and quiet. The light and heat from the metaphorical sun disappeared, the birds stopped singing and the bees stopped buzzing. I was cold and alone in the dark. The phone stopped ringing, voices say she’s cheating and my heart nearly stopped beating.
This is why yesterday, not today, I felt like writing a love song.
It has since occurred to me that the origin of most good love songs is in love of one‘s self. That most happy endings start with an individual being able to appreciate his self.
This is the most infinite, beautiful and divine opportunity for wealth!
Maybe today I will write that love song; to be heard from sea to shining sea. And the title of this love song will simply be: I LOVE ME!
– Warren Jay Lowe
A native of Lackawanna, N.Y., outside of Buffalo, Lowe is a former public school teacher who was forced into retirement due to injuries sustained on the job during a student’s blindside attack. Now a freelance writer, he’s battling life-threatening heart failure while waiting for a transplant. Those who wish to assist – either monetarily or with encouraging words – may visit his page on Help HOPE Live. He can be reached at wllowe@yahoo.com.
Posted on January 9th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
For the first time in a long time, Washington’s NFL team is receiving near-universal praise for a football decision. It’s hard to believe, so let it sink in.
There’s no doubt that the business side enjoys league-wide props regularly, considering the amazing job it does in making a dollar out of 15 cents. Like president Bruce Allen said last week, “We’re winning off the field.”
Regrettably, his other job title at that time was general manager, a position charged with victories based on the scoreboard. Using that metric, Washington has been pitiful during his five-year reign, 28-52 overall and 7-25 the past two seasons.
All that losing on the field apparently struck a nerve, finally leading owner Daniel Snyder and/or Allen to realize that real change was necessary, not more talk. Washington swung and connected on what looks like a home run, reportedly hiring Scott McCloughan to take over as GM and lead the woeful football operations.
Finding a more-highly respected candidate would be difficult. McCloughan has spent 20 years in the NFL with the Packers, Seahawks and 49ers, and each team reached the Super Bowl while he was there or shortly thereafter.
As a senior personnel executive with Seattle, he had a hand in drafting Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner and Bruce Irvin. According to a lengthy feature on McCloughan in last month’s ESPN The Magazine, this was his draft report on Wilson: “Obviously we are really interested in passers with better height, but this guy may just be the exception to the rule. He has the ‘it’ factor.”
In a prior stint with the Seahawks, as director of college scouting from 2000-05, McCloughan could point to a couple dozen draft picks throughout the team’s Super Bowl XL roster. He left to become the Niners’ vice president of personnel from 2005-08 and was promoted to GM for his final two seasons with San Francisco, where he was instrumental in selecting a bevy of prominent players, including Frank Gore, Patrick Willis and Vernon Davis.
He’s a disciple of former Packers GM Ron Wolf, who hired him as a Green Bay scout in 1994, and thus a firm believer in building through the draft. His philosophy is there’s no such thing as too much young talent or too much depth, because smart picks stuck behind smarter, more experienced picks can always be traded for more picks.
That’s what the Packers did after drafting Mark Brunell and Matt Hasselbeck while McCloughan was in Green Bay. The lesson on stockpiling was hard to miss; the Packers previously had traded for Bret Favre. They later drafted his successor, Aaron Rodgers, and traded Favre to the New York Jets.
Such shrewd maneuvering in D.C. has been restricted to fantasies.
Read more…
Posted on January 5th, 2015
By DERON SNYDER
Horseshoes adorn the team helmets. For all we know, acorns accompany each meal, a rabbit’s foot hangs in each locker and four-leaf clovers are stitched on each jock.
That’s how fortunate the Indianapolis Colts have been for the past 17 years.
Most franchises never have the opportunity to draft a quarterback with the No. 1 pick and watch him blossom into an all-time great. But fate smiled on Indy in 1998, when the Colts selected Peyton Manning, and made a return visit in 2012, when the team picked Andrew Luck.
A player’s surname has never been more appropriate to a particular franchise.
Having led his team to the playoffs for the third time in as many seasons, Luck won his second postseason game in Saturday’s 26-10 victory against Cincinnati. He threw for 376 yards and completed 70 percent of his passes (despite a half-dozen drops). His passing yardage was 345 yards through three quarters, before Indy emphasized the ground game.
Prior to the Colts shutting him down, Luck demonstrated the assets that make him great – size, strength, athleticism, mobility, vision and accuracy – on a 36-yard touchdown to Donte Moncrief. Luck stepped up in the pocket and threw on the run while a Bengals’ defensive lineman was mauling him, hitting Moncrief in stride with a perfectly placed pass as the wideout crossed the goal line.
“It’s a quarterback-driven league,” Colts guard Jack Mewhort told the Indianapolis Star afterward. “It’s proven stuff, and for a guy to do what he does and make the plays he makes on a regular basis, you can’t take that for granted. There are guys all over the league sitting home right now, and plays like that (touchdown to Moncrief), that’s why we get to keep playing.”
Indy is growing accustomed to its current exceptional passer, who is rewriting records that belonged to the former guy. For instance, when Luck passed for 370 yards against Washington in Week 13, he set the franchise mark for 300-yard games in a season (10), surpassing Manning (nine).
Read more…
Posted on January 1st, 2015
I love the way you straighten my tie
Kiss me on the cheek
Tell me I’m “fly”
Raising my confidence, to conquer the world
How glad I am, I made you my girl
You’ve grown to a woman of class
Intelligent and fine
I love your body
But I’m in love with your mind
I will always be faithful, hardworking, honest and true
God blessed me, the day I met you
It’s for these reasons that success is certain
I give you a standing ovation, at least three curtains
We will win together, if we both stay true
It’s for these reasons and more, I truly love you
I have the holiday spirit in the holiday season
We’re at Christ’s birth, the true reason
Lights, trees and vivid colors, gifts abound
From fathers and mothers
Families reconnect around the world,
Cousins, sisters and brothers
God’s steady grace has blessed us and many others
Then comes the New Year’s parties and we’re oh so fly,
I grin from ear to ear, as you straighten my tie
– Warren Jay Lowe
A native of Lackawanna, N.Y., outside of Buffalo, Lowe is a former public school teacher who was forced into retirement due to injuries sustained on the job during a student’s blindside attack. Now a freelance writer, he’s battling life-threatening heart failure while waiting for a transplant. Those who wish to assist – either monetarily or with encouraging words – may visit his page on Help HOPE Live. He can be reached at wllowe@yahoo.com.
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By WARREN LOWE
