Still Smoldering

 

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Remember when I tried to put out the fire last night?

Well, about that.

I thought things had gotten too intense and I felt that what I wrote could be the beginning of an olive branch. Or at least the end of "Broadcasters Behaving Badly" (coming soon to Bravo).

The branch got stepped on, chopped up, and incinerated.

Fair enough.

How to respond to what I read around 11:30 last night as I was starting to drift off is something I've been thinking about all day.

The words bit. Was there some truth? Sure. I acknowledge and accept faults. I even apologize for them.

Still, to respond, climbing into a breakdown of everything, just seemed so unnecessary. As I wrote yesterday, minds won't be changed.

Spiking my blood pressure simply isn't smart.

I ultimately decided letting it just go was best. Given my love of roads, bridges can be burned and, sometimes, rebuilt.

I felt it was simply time for cooler heads to prevail. That was the goal of last night's post. 

Instead, well, that happened.

It bums me out though.

It leaves such a bad taste that I wondered if I wanted to teach today, but a commitment is a commitment to me. So I taught at CSB to a good group that wanted to learn more.

We talked a lot about play-by-play in this group, with my stressing that I can give them the fundamentals but that they have to develop their own style.

I let them hear several of the greats. They heard plenty of Vin Scully but also Al Michaels and Doc Emrick and Bob Costas and Joe Buck and more. 

I even played some of the highlights of the 2015 FCIAC Turkey Bowl Championship Game.

It wasn't that I wanted to brag about my work and I certainly don't consider myself a great. I will however show off HAN whenever I can. What we did there was pretty great.

However, it's that I wanted them to hear that their instructor also does this stuff and I felt Chris Erway and I had a strong call that day.

With that, it allowed me to explain the backstory of a day like that. Obviously, Chris and I didn't just walk into the booth that day (though, trust me, we can). We worked hard to craft any storylines but also dealt with the nerves of a crew concerned that we were missing a key piece of equipment that kept us from getting on the air.

The stories matter to the students. They need to understand that there will be plenty of things that they'll deal with in the business.

And, yes, we got on the air before kickoff, thanks to Kate Czaplinski, who rushed from the Shelton office to Boyle Stadium in Stamford -- on Thanksgiving morning -- with the missing equipment.

Incidentally, Kate married our former boss Marty Hersam on Saturday in Vermont. I'm a romantic at heart so I'm quite happy for them and wish them all the best.

Back in 2015, we called the game and Darien won another classic.

In 2023, telling that story and the stories of Vin made my soul feel good.

It helped rebuild me.

There's much to be proud of and, sometimes, we stub our toe in the process of life for one reason or another.

Perhaps I stubbed mine.

Stuff like this embarrasses me.

I accept the blame that I deserve.

And we move on.