Archive for February 2nd, 2007

The NFL is clearly the elite professional sports league in the United States, but sooner than later, they’re really gonna have to do something about taking care of the players after their careers are over. The case of Ted Johnson, formerly of the New England Patriots, highlighted in the New York Times today, just drives that point home again.

As much as I love to watch football, the more I think about it, if I had a son who showed large athletic potential, I’d steer him towards basketball or baseball. I might let him play at the high school level, but if he showed ANY professional promise, it would be one of the other sports. Cuz actually, if it’s just any sport at all, he’d be wrestling.

The deadline to sign up for comps and graduation is coming up soon. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to partake in all the hoola-boola of walking across the stage and whatnot. Been there, done that. Plus, I don’t think there’s a graduation ceremony that could top my undergraduate. First of all, when I was walking across the street into the building, one of my best friends stopped in the middle of Broad Street to shout me out. That made it good going in. Literally. Then, the keynote speaker was sick and there was no substitute. That meant that our entire ceremony consisted of an invocation, an explanation, and the passing out of the diplomas. Period. My name wasn’t called early, but we were still out of there with the quickness. I couldn’t have asked for better.

This time, I’ll have a longer hood and all that, but since it’ll be the May graduation, chances are that the keynote speaker won’t be getting sick. I suppose I’ll have time to come to a more concrete decision about all this, but right now I’m thinking that if I do participate in the graduation ceremony, it’ll be mainly for my family. I know many of them would like the opportunity to see me reach this milestone. Cuz when it comes to the present I think I want, not too many of them will want any dealings with that.

It’s still nebulous for me, but right now, I think I want a Glock. I’m not sure of the model yet. More than likely, a small 9 millimeter. I just can’t see myself trying to get anything bigger than that for a variety of reasons. The only thing is, I know that a Glock is not exactly the type of thing I could go to my friends and family and say, “Hey, y’all could chip in and get me one of these!! Honestly, I’ve already kicked the idea around and just about everybody looks at me like I’m crazy.

The way I see it, the fact that I have it doesn’t necessarly mean that I’m gonna use it. But I think I do wanna have it just in case I need it. Simple as that.