Getting a State Issued ID Can Be an Ordeal

According to the Atlantic, Democrats have filed a half dozen lawsuits against Trump and Republicans for voter intimidation. Voter intimidation and disenfranchisement have a long and disgraceful history in our country. Presently, as in recent years, voter…

Game 1 Recap: The Perfect Start to the Perfect Season

I have this theory that Nick Saban is a perfectionist. That’s not the theory; everyone who’s watched the coach react to a stupid question from a reporter knows this about him. My theory is that Saban thinks he can apply perfection to the game of football. In other words…

First Saturday back in the South

I am sitting at the bar of the Little Bridge Marina in Southside, Alabama, a stone’s throw outside Gadsden. It’s sunny, hot at the unshaded tables but actually brisk at the covered bar when a breeze comes off the water of the Coosa River, and thermodynamic restlessness…

Ole Miss Recap: Imperfect Perfection is the Best Perfection of All?

First, I must apologize.

Like a football, which is so stretched and warped that it bounces and flutters as unpredictably as a dropped walrus, our Lord-God saw it fit to swell and shape…

Nick Saban and the Eternal Return

Minnesota in my lifetime has managed only two championships in major sports: the 1987 and 1991 Minnesota Twins. It’s kind of shocking, if you understand this place, that a team had the audacity to win not one but two championships. This is a place fit for comfy losing…

Official Unofficial Official: Week 7/8. Heads-Up Plays.

The Post-Game Show

We left the stadium at the end of the game, at 00:00, well after thousands had streamed out with ten minutes left. I blame them and then I don’t. We were down by nineteen and then thirteen and then six, and then hope reared its ugly blindness, preferring, as usual, to stay clamped inside…

Gameday Beers of the Week: Wisconsin

If you’re anything like me, you want to see the Crimson Tide chew up their opponents. You want to see running backs eat up yardage. You want to see opposing quarterbacks swallowed by the collapsing d-line. You want to see consumption. And in that spirit, if you’re…

Official Unofficial Official Post: Week 1

Officials are the necessary arbiters of the professional (or non-recreational) sports we enjoy watching. Whether an official’s actions on the playing field have dramatic effect on the pace or tenor of a game, like in basketball, or really only serve as a…