Taking the Ball Out of Mahomes' Hands

 I find it interesting how many Kansas City Chiefs fans and others are griping about "taking the ball out of Patrick Mahomes' hands" at the end of the Chiefs' loss last night. Let's not let the facts and game situation get in the way of this argument, shall we?

3:14 to play, ball at KC 25: Mahomes passes to Byron Pringle for 23 yards. The ball is at the Baltimore 48. In one pass, the Chiefs have already moved the ball to midfield with more than two minutes left to play. And, keep in mind that the Chiefs' defense had not truly stopped the Ravens all night--that the Ravens stopped themselves with their two turnovers earlier in the game.

2:35 to play, ball at KC 48: Mahomes passes to Travis Kelce for 13 yards. At Baltimore 39 at the two-minute warning. So, the Chiefs are in long field goal range already at the 2:00 mark, meaning that they are in serious danger of scoring too quickly and thus giving the ball back to Baltimore, who has one timeout left.

2:00 to play, ball at Baltimore 39: Mahomes hits Kelce for seven yard gain, putting the ball at the Baltimore 32 yard line. Now the Chiefs are in range for Harrison Butker and a winning field goal.

1:25 to play, ball at Baltimore 32: Mahomes hands off to Clyde Edwards-Helaire who fumbles. Baltimore recovers. The replay shows that Edwards-Helaire never did get the ball tucked away. However, is that "taking the ball out of Mahomes' hands" or is it the prudent play call, given the desire to position for a winning FG while keeping the ball away from Lamar Jackson and the Ravens' offense?

In sum, the call was the right one--the handoff between quarterback and running back wasn't executed properly and, once again, we see the tight margin between winning, and losing, in the National Football League.

Where Were You?

 The headline on my digital news feed this morning read, "Where were you on that fateful day?" I immediately thought of Alan Jackson's song, written days after 9/11/01, with the lyrics "Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?"

Who among us doesn't remember where we were at on the morning of September 11, 2001, when the twin towers in New York went down and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. was in flames? As Jackson's lyrics say, "Were you in the yard with your wife and children or on some stage in L.A.? Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke risin' against that blue sky? Did you shout out in anger in fear for your neighbor? Or did you just sit down and cry?"

The memories of that day for me - and I'm sure for most - are still as vivid as they were a short time after the tragedy of 9/11.

I was working at Sprint on that Tuesday and, like most mornings, was in the office early attending to what I needed to accomplish before the meetings and various demands of that day began. A colleague on my team - another consistent early-to-work person - came in and said "Turn on your TV--I heard that a plane flew into a building in New York." I immediately thought that a small plane must have somehow veered off course and crashed.

I turned on my TV and she and I looked on at a scene of smoke billowing out of the north tower of the World Trade Center. I remember that my immediate reaction was "What the...!?" It was hard to determine what had happened and the news commentary we listened to was equally unsure. 

We stood in my office, watching, and soon others joined as word spread that something was amiss in New York. My office was filled with co-workers--all eyes focused on that TV and the story that was unfolding. All eyes watched as a second plane flew into the south tower and the commentary, both on TV and in my office, shifted to one of shock and terror.

The world forever changed on that day. Now, 20 years later, we once again reflect on that fateful day--of lives lost, of stories of courage, of the forever impact on all of us.

Much has and will be written, said and reported on today, tomorrow and this weekend as the reliving of 9/11 is played out across all media. My suggestion to you is that this be a time to sit, reflect and never forget the lives lost and the forever impact of that act of terrorism.