James M. Redwine

Football

Still A Winner

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Photo by Peg Redwine

Gentle Reader, if you read last week’s Gavel Gamut column you know I predicted Indiana University would win last Saturday’s football game against Ohio State University; we didn’t. On the other hand, I.U. has already won 10 games this season and, I predict, I.U. will defeat Purdue November 30, 2024 in Bloomington, Indiana. I am ever hopeful when it comes to I.U. sports.

 O.S.U. played an excellent game. Their victory was not due to bad calls or untimely injuries or the weather. They just out played us in all phases of the game. However, we were competitive in the first half and evidenced the elements of a future Big Ten champion. Who knows? Next year? Five years from now? In my life-time? The most important elements this year’s team has displayed on the football field are a belief in themselves and a will to win.

Beat the Boilers! Photo by Peg Redwine

But, what about now? Indiana has never before had a 10-game season and, when we beat Purdue, it will be 11. On top of that, if I.U. does win against Purdue there is an excellent chance it will be selected as one of the 12 teams playing in the College Football Playoffs. Should we lose to Purdue there is probably no chance. But I.U. could make the CFP and have a chance to win more games with a win this Saturday (November 30, 2024).

Regardless, I.U. has already won 10 games this season including teams such as Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Washington, UCLA, Wisconsin and Illinois. While several of the games have been close, that simply shows character and an ability to compete when games are challenging. You may recall, Gentle Reader, that last week’s column exposited some of Indiana’s past teams of character such as the teams of 1945 and 1967. This team of 2024 can lay claim to that same mantle.

We did not beat O.S.U. last week but this year we have shown the character to beat them in the future. This team is a winner no matter what 2024 score was predicted.

O.S.U. 17; I.U. 24

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Peg and Jim Redwine at a Hoosiers game

Indiana University will beat Ohio State University in football Saturday – two days after the submission of this article. Yes, I still have faith in the Hoosiers! I base my prediction of the score on I.U.’s will to win and their discipline that will keep the Cream and Crimson’s penalties low and their turnover margin in their favor high. I have been an observer, and often a chagrinned one, of I.U. football since the autumn of 1963. Believe me I have known disappointment over the last 60 years. But this team of 2024 is not one of loss; it is one of destiny. Refusal to allow defeat in the grueling fourth quarter, maintenance of their extremely high emotions when O.S.U. loses control of theirs and sound judgment coupled with alert opportunism will be the fundamental football foundation upon which Coach Curt Cignetti and his assistant coaches will guide the team to a close victory. And, it will be the hallowed I.U. legends of yore that will call forth-fourth quarter heroics from this year’s standard bearers.

The Gables Restaurant in Bloomington, Indiana was across the street from the Indiana University Law School, which I attended from June 1968 to August 1970. The water was free and that was what I could afford. Above the counter was a gigantic colored picture of the 1945 undefeated football team (9-0-1). Many times, my classmates and I would sit mesmerized by the penetrating gazes of Ted Kluszewski (yes, that Ted Kluszewski), George Taliafero (the first African-American to lead the Big Ten Conference in rushing), Bob Ravensberg (first team All-American), All-American full-back Pete Pihos and All-American end Bob Ravensberg. In 1948, receiver Mel Groomes became the first African American player to sign with the Detroit Lions. The team was coached by the legendary Bo McMillan. As I and my fellow law students, some with Viet Nam War era service, set drinking water we would sometimes note how these true heroes from the WWII battles seemed to be staring deep into our souls challenging us to carry on their dedication to America and I.U.

In 1967, Coach John Pont led Quarterback and future lawyer Harry Gonso, running back Jade Butcher and running back and punter John Eisenbarger to our only Rose Bowl where we met O.J. Simpson and acquitted ourselves very well in 1968. They were 9-2 that season losing to Minnesota and USC.

These two teams earned legendary status as our current 2024 team is performing. The victory by I.U. over Ohio State University this Saturday (23 November 2024) will become part of Indiana University folklore. Just as I correctly predicted I.U.’s victory (but not the score) over Michigan State, I boldly assert I.U. will beat O.S.U. 24 to 17. You will note, Gentle Reader, as I write this column, I.U. is 10-0 and November 23, 2024 has yet to have occurred.

 When Coach Cignetti reminds the team before the game and again at half-time that our discipline and fierce rage to win will help us avoid penalties and force O.S.U. turnovers, I am comfortable that the ghosts from 1945, 1967 and Coach Lee Corso’s 1979 Holiday Bowl conquest of previously undefeated B.Y.U. will become the magic of Hoosier myth and lead to victory number 11 in the 2024 football season.

It need not be said that win number 12 over Purdue to crown our championship season of 12-0 will forge our way to the crest of the College Football Playoffs. As Hoosier James Whitcomb Riley might have said:

“When the frost is on the football and O.S.U is numb and in the shock,
And you see the humbled wobble of the once proud Buckeye cock,
Then it’s good to be a Hoosier and a champion one turned out,
For the struttin’ once proud Brutus will go into whimperin’ rout.
When I.U. brings him to heel, he’ll tuck his tail twixt his legs,
As Ohioans rend their togs to rags, we’ll leave them suckin’ on their eggs,
Scarlet and gray will fade away and might as well be hocked,
When the frost is on the football and O.S.U. is numb and in the shock!”

As the gun sounds in Columbus, Buckeyes ’l be fodder for our fans,
Ohioans will mumble to themselves as they stumble from the stands,
’Ole U.S. Grant will rise up, draw his sword and rail at young J.D.,
Ne’er on my watch, young man, was such a loss allowed to be.
Not so fast Ulysses, as your boss in the big dust up,
I, the Hoosier rail splitter, say quit complaining, take a sip from this bitter cup,
For ne’er again will Hoosiers have to bear the Buckeyes run amock,
When the frost is on the football and O.S.U. is numb and in the shock!”

IU Wins

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At an IU game

Indiana University football coach, Curt Cignetti, promised his team would win before he ever took the field in Bloomington, Indiana. He has been better than his word and as I write this column on Halloween, I boldly predict the Hoosiers will be 9-0 after they beat Michigan State 34 to 23 at East Lansing, Michigan the day after tomorrow. I realize both the score and the total outcome could be different than what I assert, but that’s why they call them predictions.

I wish Coaches John Pont, Lee Corso and Tom Allen were going to be there to join in the celebration but I know they will be there with spirit and support; Peg and I certainly will be. As I have not been on campus as a student since 1970 and the Cream and Crimson have not had this kind of success since the 1967-1968 season, all Indiana fans now have something to cheer. I could tell when ESPN’s GameDay was at Bloomington before last week’s game, the student body was totally exhilarated.

I am confident that Coach Cignetti has been eagerly awaiting my analysis and game input. Perhaps he’s having a difficult time finding my phone number in Osage County, Oklahoma. If I had not had an accident at our small ranch earlier this week, Peg and I could attend the game and be available with advice.

I’m going to keep this column short as my minor accident while working around our place makes it difficult to write. That’s why I’m dictating this column to Peg; she always corrects them anyway. We will be parked in front of the television Saturday making sure that the Coaches know we are available if they need a quick fix. Our disciplined team will stay alert to the damage that penalties and turnovers cause; we do not expect to see many of either.

♫ “….
Never daunted, we cannot falter
In the battle, we’re tried and true
Indiana, Our Indiana
Indiana, we’re all for you. IU!” ♫

 

Believe It Or Not

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How does a new religion get started? Islam fourteen hundred years ago? Christianity two thousand years ago? Judaism twenty-four hundred years ago? The Romans and Jupiter twenty-five hundred years ago? The Greeks and Zeus three thousand years ago? The Egyptians and thousands of gods four thousand years ago? Gentle Reader, these are just my guesses; you are, of course, free to make your own estimates or consult Google as you see fit.

However, my actual concern is the religion of presidential politics as practiced currently on cable TV in America. And I know when these new beliefs began. With FOX News, the new Defender of the Conservative Faith arrived when Donald Trump came down that golden escalator in 2015. As for CNN and MSNBC, their faith in a Liberal Deliverance was restored only a couple of months ago when Kamala Harris arose like the mythical Phoenix from the ashes of Old Joe.

As best I can tell, the liturgy of these conflicted beliefs relies heavily on denigrating whichever candidate a particular TV network does not like. Portentous warnings from talking heads claim that the election of the “wrong” candidate will cause crops to fail and Taylor Swift to become the new Pied Piper of American youth.

These dire warnings from CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and even occasionally, PBS, have become as ubiquitous as commercials and as vociferous as a Pentecostal sermon. CNN convenes numerous panels of “Never Trumpers” who have heard directly from on high that a Trump election will immediately boot America from our Promised Land. And FOX asserts that a Harris win will reign fire and brimstone all over our democratic Garden of Eden, or at least, everywhere but New York and California.

But, just as one religion after another from the dawn of recorded history has appeared and disappeared, we can all pray that this election will end before Armageddon begins. I foresee hope for salvation from this endless cacophony of vapidity, FOOTBALL! As we Americans have done since the first football game was aired on TV, we clutch at the hope our team will rise above the fray. We can seize onto the faith in our champions on the gridiron and set aside the ennui brought on by the gaggle of gloom bearers on TV. Unfortunately, football season only lasts through the Super Bowl in February of 2025. Of course, the networks are doing their best to force us to buy every game and the new Transfer Portal and Name, Image and Likeness rules are sorely testing our faith.

And, of course, whoever wins the election will be subject to four years of damnation from some of the disappointed anchors. Those sore losers will likely begin endless recriminations for venal sins they assert just over half of the electorate will have committed by worshipping a false idol. As for us in the captive viewership, maybe the INSP network will have enough Gunsmoke reruns to sustain us until the next two graven images are nominated four years from now.

Not So Fast Chiefs

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On Monday morning, February 19, 2024 as Kansas City Chiefs football coach Andy Reid was savoring his team’s Super Bowl victory along with his third breakfast pastry, team Executive Officer Clark Hunt hurried into Reid’s office and presented him with a legal notice from one Trump-appointed Federal District Judge in San Francisco, the sole Republican in California. Coach Reid read the following Petition as his blood pressure soared:

“All persons affiliated in any way with the National Football League team the Kansas City Chiefs are ordered to immediately Cease and Desist claiming victory in Super Bowl LVIII pending a Score Recalculation Petition filed by the San Francisco 49ers in this Court by its CEO Jed York.

The Petition alleges there was and is an on-going conspiracy involving certain persons connected with members of the Chiefs organization, the game officials and the replay technicians, to make it falsely appear that an extra point try by 49er kicker Jake Moody was blocked by Leo Chenal of the Chiefs. This AI-created illusion resulted in the 49ers’ regulation time score being a 3-point lead instead of 4. The one-point differential allowed the Chiefs to tie the game with a field goal and send it to overtime where the Chiefs prevailed with a touchdown.

The cabal’s illusion was created with Russia’s new space satellite that was ostensibly launched to monitor American satellites. However, thanks to U.S. Congressman Mike Turner who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, it was publicly disclosed that Russia had conspired with megastar Taylor Swift and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to steal the Super Bowl for the Chiefs so that Swift could use the largest TV audience since the moon landing to endorse Joe Biden for President.

This conspiracy was exposed by Presidential Candidate Donald Trump who had received a telephone call from Tucker Carlson after he met with Russia’s Vladimir Putin the week before the Super Bowl and was told by Putin of the plan. Trump had attempted to warn the world of the nefarious plot, but as he had cried wolf about the stolen election of 2020 so often his statements were discounted by every media outlet except FOX News.

Regardless, to ensure the Constitutional right of every American to worship freely at the shrine of NFL football, until Congress can fully investigate the possibility of a clear and present danger to America, this Court orders the Chiefs, what the heck, I’ll just make my Order apply to everyone everywhere, to Cease and Desist from claiming the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVIII. Any violation of this Order may incur the wrath of this Court and a finding of Contempt.

Surely, Elon Musk and his Artificial Intelligence compatriots can have an answer to this vital issue before the next Super Bowl. In the meantime, this Court will closely monitor this case until after November, 2024.”

Femme Fatales

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Photo by Peg Redwine

William Shakespeare is the English language’s greatest writer, in part, because he was our greatest psychologist. No one understood and used irony as did Shakespeare. Hamlet, with Shakespeare’s tongue firmly planted in his cheek, laments, “Frailty thy name is woman”. Hamlet who is the unquestioned definition of vacillation, “To be or not to be,” is casting shade upon his mother, Gertrude. Gertrude was complicit and conspired in the murder of her husband, Hamlet’s father also named Hamlet, the King of Denmark, so she could marry his younger brother, Claudius. Gertrude also helped Claudius defeat her son’s rightful claim to inherit the crown. Hamlet, Act 1, scene ii.

But the first woman to conspire to lead mankind down the primrose path to destruction was Eve, Genesis, Chapter III, vs 1-24. Thanks to Eve’s perfidy with the serpent, Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, women were assigned the pain of childbirth and we all lost eternal life. However, there are many who agree with Mark Twain who wrote in his book Pudd’nhead Wilson:

“Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.”

Then we have nefarious Delilah, Book of Judges, Chapter 16, vs 4-31, who as an agent of the Philistines in Gaza, wheedled out from Samson the secret to his great strength then set him up to be weakened and blinded. In World War I the Germans used Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (Mata Hari) to spy on the Allies. She was executed in 1917. Also, Tokyo Rose (Iva Ikuko Toguri D’Aquino) and Axis Sally (Mildred Sisk) sought to dispirit the Allied soldiers in the Pacific and Europe in World War II.

Perhaps the most famous conspirator against her country was Helen of Troy. According to Homer in the Iliad, Helen betrayed her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta, by eloping with Paris, a son of King Priam of Troy. Helen’s misguided loss of control, “Launched a thousand ships” and led to a long war between Greece and Troy.

By now, Gentle Reader, you have noticed a pattern of female conspirators who used their womanly wiles to bring about disasters. What my wife, Peg, and my sister, Jane, who proofed this column pointed out was the author of Gavel Gamut and all those who “documented” the sins of the distaff conspirators were male. My rejoinder to Peg and Janie is, “The facts are the facts and pointing them out does not, in and of itself, show evidence of misogyny”.

Therefore, when that paragon of cable news, Jesse Watters, claims Taylor Swift is in league with the Biden government to affect the 2024 presidential election and that Taylor Swift along with Travis Kelce are conspiring to steal Super Bowl LVIII for the Kansas City Chiefs, I say, “So?”

I know there may be a couple of people who could be influenced by Taylor and Travis but would Shakespeare deign to write a plot as convoluted as the Rolling Stone magazine credits right-winger Rogan O’Handley with:

“Far right influencer Rogan O’Handley went so far as to suggest that if the (Kansas City) Chiefs won the Super Bowl, Swift and Kelce would trigger an apocalyptic chain of events that would kill millions. ‘You MUST defeat the Chiefs’, O’Handley wrote in an X post addressed to the San Francisco 49ers. ‘If you don’t, Mr. Pfizer (Travis Kelce) and his girlfriend (Taylor Swift) are going to tour the country as world champions helping elect Joe Biden. WW3 will likely follow in a 2nd Biden term and millions will die. The fate of the free world rests upon your shoulders.’”

Of course, Mr. O’Handley was probably just writing from the perspective of a 49er fanatic in the same ironic/sarcastic vein as most who are having fun with the Taylor and Travis phenomenon. Unfortunately, in today’s America we often do not afford our cultural adversaries a sense of humor. Therefore, some of the cable news pundits see doomsday via public voyeurism of a private relationship. However, Mr. O’Handley and the rest of the 49er faithful, let me remind you that Joe Montana and Jerry Rice will not be in the San Francisco lineup for this Super Bowl, but Patrick Mahomes and Rashee Rice will be. So, good luck to you.

Now, the fate of the free world may hang in the balance if Taylor and Travis are not prevented from their alleged coup. But there are plenty of other threats to our democracy. So, I say to Travis, GO CHIEFS, and to Taylor, YOU GO GIRL!

Photo by Peg Redwine