This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Coming of Age
Does your life have pivot points?
Moments or sequences you can point to knowing how the person you are is shaped by what happened then?
Recently, I’ve dwelled on the nine years between 1977 and 1986, specifically between my ninth and eighteenth birthdays- I’ve been luck to have big events happen on birthdays. I don’t really understand why it works out that way but no use in denying it.
But the easy-to-identify pivot from childhood to adolescence is Star Wars. The movie was a revelation to me- I was a Star Trek and Planet of the Apes junkie but none of that sparked the imagination of a nine-year old boy like the one and only time I sat in a theater to watch an epic space fantasy unfold before my eager eyes.
A little over two and half minutes in, I was hooked:
Unreal.
I was blown away by the whites and grays, the strange rectangular blisters protruding from the walls… the differentness of it. A lifetime of seeing science fiction depict smooth, sleek technology never prepared my eyes for this image. And yet there’s a sense of the ordinary about it, too.
Everything Changed
We all know the release of Star Wars changed everything pop culture and I’m not here to catalog the ripples of cultural change triggered by that one big Star Wars rock.
But I can tell you about some the events that echo Star Wars and the times when I saw it. And with the benefit of hindsight I see the events of those days as I did then and now.
So buckle up: Mike is not in Kansas anymore- or again.
This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Coming of Age
It was a lot of fucking snow.
A birthday spent under the threat of a blizzard? That’s the joy of living in Chicagoland.
But Not Our First Brush With Disaster
For the none of you keeping score at home my family had been through one war, one war scare and a hurricane.
Even at a young age, I knew we were prepared for a blizzard or at least I wasn’t afraid. Mom treated disasters as little vacations, making sure we could stay occupied- a busy mind doesn’t have time to be afraid.
A Late Birthday Present
The snow started coming down early evening of the 26th, we were fortunate to sleep through most of it without incident.
The Most Insanest Snow Evar
Did I mention the snow? Well over a foot of accumulation with 4-6 foot drifts. The picture below is from Indiana after the same storm. It’s representative.
I feel your pain, Buddy.
When I first opened the front door I was confronted with a wall of snow towering over me- with two strategically-placed divots.
Mom came up behind us, saying that Dolly Parton had fallen into the snow bank and it almost made sense before she confessed to using the snow as a field-expedient wine chiller. Mom’s such a goofball 🙂
You can see where I’d be confused.
The aftermath of being buried in snow didn’t lodge strong memories. Knowing Illinois back then we probably missed no more that a day or two of school….not like today when kids get days off at the drop of a hat.
This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Coming of Age
The sporting press has been very quick to declare the Kansas City Chiefs a budding dynasty, and with good reason. This is a team that has a lot going for it: Head Coach Andy Reid is one of the more brilliant offensive minds in NFL history whose offense is led by Patrick Mahomes, who is not only the most dynamic quarterback the league has seen since Michael Vick he is a quarterback blessed with a goodie bag of offensive weapons: WR Tyreek Hill and TE Travis Kelce stretch the field both horizontally and vertically, making the Chiefs offense damned near unstoppable. That alone should make the Chiefs a perennial Super Bowl contender.
As a Chicago Bears fan coming up in the 1970s and 80’s I sure know that feeling.
After demolishing the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX it seemed for all the world that the Bears were on the cusp of a dynasty. The 1985 season was a victory lap: the Bears rolled through their schedule posting a 15-1 record with no team in the NFC playing anywhere close to them. Even the defending champion 49ers offered little resistance in an early season matchup and by the end of the NFC Championship Game it appeared as though the Bears were in a position to dominate the Conference- and by extension the NFL – for years to come.
And why not? The offense literally ran through Walter Payton, the most productive running back in NFL history who finally had the support he needed: an outstanding and young offensive line to run behind, dynamic 26 year old QB Jim McMahon and Olympic speedster Willie Gault to stretch the field and open up lanes for Payton.
Even scarier was the thought that the offense was the weak link on the 1985 Bears: the famed 46 defense had youth, speed and an insane scheme wreaking havoc on opposing offenses. This video is from 1984 (the year before the Super Bowl run) and gives you an idea of just how dominant the 46 was.
The NFL was awesomely brutal.
It was all there for the Bears. But they only made a single NFC Title Game after the 1985 season (a 28-0 whitewashing by the 49ers in Chicago) and by trhe early 1990’s The Monsters of the Midway had descended into mediocrity:
W
L
1984
Conference Runnerup
10
6
1985
Super Bowl Champion
15
1
1986
Division Title
14
2
1987*
Division Title
11
4
1988
Conference Runnerup
12
4
1989
Out of Playoffs
6
10
1990
Division Title
11
5
1991
Wildcard
11
5
The Bears’ run. Not too impressive.
Here’s how the Chiefs match up at the start of their run:
W
L
2018
Conference Runnerup
12
4
2019
Super Bowl Champion
12
4
2020
Super Bowl Runnerup
14
2
2021
Conference Runnerup
12
5
2022
Super Bowl Champion
14
3
A promising start…
To make things worse after the 2020 season, the defense is aging at the linebacker and safety positions and the offensive line resembles a MASH unit going into the offseason. That’s a ton of uncertainty for a potential dynasty.
I’m not making any dire predictions. And there’s a slight chance that I’m a battered sports fan. But I do know better than to start believing the Chiefs will win another Super Bowl much less three, four or five more. Too much can go wrong in a sport where almost everything has to go right.
UPDATE: A second Super Bowl title- this on a 38-35 win over Philadelphia- has taken some of the bite out of the past two seasons. Defeating the Bengals (a recent nemesis) along the way has reestablished the pecking order in the AFC at least for the short term and wither a reasonable roster structure the Chiefs are poised for a few more deep playoff runs as long as Mahomes, Kelce and Chris Jones are healthy and productive.
As always, uneasy is the head that wears the crown
