Character Will Matter Thursday Night

It's a cliche. It's also true in Bengals-Ravens

Welcome to FreeForAll Tuesday, as opposed to FFA Wednesday or Thursday. Same stuff, different day. Today, we discuss Character as it applies to the Bengals, Incredulity as it applies to Trump and a Tune that’s too real for comfort. Enjoy.

Lamar.

Cliches are cliches because they’re true. They can sum up a situation better than fancy words can. It’s like when somebody asked me many years ago, “Why do you ask stupid questions?’’ I said, “Because sometimes, they get the best answers.’’

Today’s cliche: The Bengals game in Baltimore will be a test of character.

In the NFL, almost every game could be described that way. The league Karl Marx would love ensures close games and comparable talent, evenly spread. It’s a physical game, allowing for the immeasurable trait of will. Who wants it more? is a cliche. It’s also a fact of NFL life.

Intangibles matter, maybe more than in any other major sport.

Willie Anderson, the great Bengals tackle, perfectly described his team’s twice-yearly matchups with the Steelers. Manhood Games, he called them. The Men had a chance most years, if they matched Pittsburgh’s bully muscles.

Thursday in B-more is a Character Game. Each team is coming off a loss, each is dealing with significant injuries. The Bengals feel their backs against the bricks. Forget Super aspirations. Merely making the tournament would be in deep doubt should the Men drop to 5-5.

Who rises up with a season somewhat in the balance?

The sobering loss Sunday offered the Bengals an unwelcome perspective: Joe Burrow isn’t always gonna clean up their messes. (Occasionally, he might even add to them.) Even the Inevitability Factor comes with limitations. Everyone was a little off v. Houston, coaches included. And now, word is that Trey Hendrickson might not play, and Tee Higgins and Sam Hubbard are doubtful.

Character counts, because by definition, character involves overcoming. Character will have a say in whether the Bengals can push through their limitations. Character will reveal if the Bengals can take a punch.

What say you?

STICK TO SPORTS. . . You’ve been warned.

If politics ain’t your thing, if you don’t peruse This Space seeking political views from a sports hack, I get it. Feel free to stop here and scroll down to the Tune.

You can tell me to stick to sports, but I won’t. The virtual TML bar is full service. We cover it all here, or at least as much as my little mind can conjure. That’d include a small slice of the Real World. That said. . .

SAY IT AIN’T SO. . .

I’m not an expert on politics, obviously. But four decades writing about people has demanded I own at least a working knowledge of the human condition. Covering coaches, administrators and players has made my BS Meter somewhat acute. Never a bad thing when assessing sports or politics.

I’m astounded so many Americans say they’d vote for Donald Trump again in ‘24.

I understand their frustrations. I share them. Please offer us a better alternative, from either party.

I get their wariness, as it pertains to Joe Biden. Please offer us a younger candidate.

Some of their complaints are legitimate. Who likes what’s happening on the border?

But. . . Trump?

It’s as if we’ve fallen asleep since Jan. 6. Trump is like an outrageous talk-show host. He says so much volatile stuff, when he says something truly alarming, we’re numb to it. We excuse it as Trump being Trump.

“We will root out the Communists, Marxists, Racists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country,’’ Trump said over the weekend.

Vermin. Hitler used that word before he ordered the extermination of six million Jews.

Heather Cox Richardson, a very smart political writer who works on Substack, explains:

“The use of language referring to enemies as bugs or rodents has a long history in genocide because it dehumanizes opponents, making it easier to kill them. In the U.S. this concept is most commonly associated with Hitler and the Nazis.’’

Here’s the headline from Forbes magazine, not quite a bastion of liberal virtues:

“Trump Compares Political Foes to ‘Vermin’ On Veterans Day—Echoing Nazi Propaganda.” 

Who would ever have thought that a former American president/Republican frontrunner would have the word “Nazi’’ next to his name?

You don’t have to pay much attention to see where Trump would take us in 2024. To his credit (or something) he has made it plain. Anybody who doesn’t agree with him or who he believes turned on him, he’ll work to have locked up. I am your retribution. He said that months ago, when announcing his candidacy.

Believe him.

Orban the very strong leader

Trump is a would-be autocrat. Trump admires dictators. I’m not saying that. He says it. Trump might not know where Viktor Orban lives, but he damned sure admires how the Hungarian rules his country. “A very strong leader’’ is Trump’s assessment of Orban. Go back and read the praise Trump has piled onto Putin and Kim.

This is scary stuff to anyone who loves the freedoms we enjoy in this country.

If someone said to you, “I’m going to vote for a person who will tear at our democracy’s fabric, ignore our system of laws, abolish our Constitution, jail people who oppose him and refer to our citizens as ‘vermin’ you’d say to that person, “You must be outta your freaking mind.’’

If someone told you that their vote would go to a candidate who oversaw an insurrection, encourages domestic terror, poisons with lies the public’s trust in our most basic institutions and refuses to acknowledge he lost an election, thereby further dividing and damaging the country for his own selfish ends, you’d say to that person, “We need to find something else for that man to do.’’

Instead, we support him to such an extent that he’s even money (or better) to be president again, assuming he’s not in jail. Incredible.

People have forgotten how good we have it in this country. People take for granted our way of life. People don’t recall, or prefer to ignore, what it took our ancestors to protect it. We live in the best country in the world, and yet we seemingly advocate. . . revolution?

Trump has no interest in preserving the Constitution. He has said it should be abolished. Richardson:

A video ABC News published from Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis’s plea deal makes the distinction between liberal democracy and a far-right dictatorship clear. In it, Ellis told prosecutors that former White House deputy chief of staff and social media coordinator Dan Scavino told her in December 2020 that Trump was simply not going to leave the White House, despite losing the presidential election. 

When Ellis lamented that their election challenges had lost, Scavino allegedly answered: “‘Well, we don’t care, and we’re not going to leave.” Ellis replied: “‘What do you mean?” Scavino answered: “The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.” When Ellis responded “Well, it doesn’t quite work that way, you realize?” he allegedly answered: “We don’t care.”

You got that right. You don’t.

Don’t tell me I have TDS. It’s too serious to trivialize in that fashion. Don’t soft-peddle this by citing what-about-isms. There is nothing Biden has done or would do that approaches what Trump admittedly has planned if he wins next year.

Trump cares about Trump. He continues to show the lengths he’ll go to get his way. They are frightening. It’s astounding we don’t see that.

Now, then. . .

JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOUR TEAM IS IMPLODING. . . Somebody else’s team is imploding worse.

The Buffalo Bills are 5-5 today after losing at home, 24-22, to Denver. They lost because they had 12 men on the field on a Broncos last-second field goal attempt. The FG was missed, but the penalty gave Denver a do-over. The next try didn’t miss.

"Absolutely, absolutely," Bills coach Sean McDermott said when asked if it was one of most inexplicable losses he had suffered. "We practiced that two or three times this week -- the substitution from dime to field goal block. At the end of the day, we didn't execute it. So, it's inexcusable."

Buffalo was a preseason Bowl pick. Now, with a schedule that has roadies at Philly and KC and a home game versus Dallas, the Bills will be lucky to finish above .500.

Once more, with feeling:

This is the NFL, man.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . This was an extremely popular tune back in my early Hey Wow, Man days. Who knew it’d be so prophetic?