My dad, bradsketball, dabo (long)

Dec 3, 2022, 8:36 AM

My dad, or as wueagle would say, my adult father is a big fan of bradsketball. He called me last night before tip to make sure I didn’t miss the game. Let me just say first, he turns 70 in about a month, I’m lucky as hale to have him, and I think a lot about what it will be like when he’s gone: the basic conclusion is, it will be really sad. That said, I’d like to share some his views here on bradsketball and dabo and explain to tnet why I must take the opposing view in order to balance the universe and propel the tigers to inevitable greatness.

So the old man insists on being an eternal optimist on brad’s program. He says a lot of judge keller type things and loves to mention that brad is the winningest coach in clemson history. So you see it’s my obligation to point out that he’s the losingest. He was eager to extoll the cal and psu wins as meaningful, so it was my duty to devalue those teams by pointing to a combined 6-9 record. He says the john isn’t full. I say why would it be with brad on the sideline and bradsketball on the court. See, the old man has to be held in check or else his glowing optimism will mess with cosmic equilibrium, and the tigers will be doomed. The rub is that deep down, I have that warm feeling, fueled by memories of all the games watched as a student in the john, all the friends of that age, not to mention the old man (not a clemson grad) hopping on the bandwagon, that feeling that I can’t suppress, that feeling that makes me so grateful and so excited for tiger basketball, even including brad. Just can’t project that, though, cuz you know, it’s my job not to.

But when it comes to Dabo and the football program, our conversation is the exact inverse. The old man questions dabo’s intelligence and his x’s and o’s, says he’s stubborn and proud and it’s costing him, says he’s in over his head in the real estate development game, said the two touchdown spread against usuc was the easiest bet of the year. So I have to take the other side: look how much we win, another great qb will emerge, dabo’s actually a lot smarter than you give him credit for, etc. This is my obligation: Keep the old man in check, counter his pessimism with belief; project that belief to friends and the tnets, but again, deep down, I have doubts, the feeling that maybe dabo has lost his grip a little, maybe those hires weren’t so great and we’re into the decline phase - that the best was yet to come but isn’t anymore. Just can’t shake it no matter what I say or do.

If you’ve read this far, here’s a congratulatory conspiracy theory. The old man said after watching the doomed special teams huddle play that he started to wonder if maybe a couple players had been gotten to, i.e. paid off. I mean, I don’t think anyone really believes that, but it did have that look didn’t it? Like that’s how unbelievable that loss was.

Thanks to my adult father for being the yin to my tiger sports fandom’s yang and to you tnet for being the emptiness that houses all these silly words. What a blessed and terrible age we live in. Let’s go brads! Let’s go football tigers beat the dang tarheels . . . Did i mention my dad went there? It’s cool, though; he’ll be pulling for the tigers even if he’s a negative nelly about it