A lot of football talk in the column this week, because we’re in the dog days of summer and a lot of you are busy doing last minute summer things and have mentally checked yourselves out of closely following hard news and commentary until after Labor Day. Don’t kid yourselves. You know you have. That’s the way life works. I don’t make the rules. I just know the audience.
As far as football, there is no Red Friday to start the season this year, ladies and gents. But don’t panic, the Chiefs know how to read a calendar. Yes, the Chiefs recognized there can’t really be a traditional Red Friday event prior to the season opener this year. That’s because the season opener is on a Thursday night. So a Red Friday the day after the game would be weird.
In what they describe as the way “to capitalize on the excitement of the Chiefs hosting the Detroit Lions for the NFL Kickoff Game on Thursday, Sept. 7,” the club has announced that the traditional Red Friday celebration to start the football season will become Red Wednesday and will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 6. For the 10th consecutive year, the club will sell a limited-edition commemorative flag to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City. This year’s flag features a special championship design to honor the team’s victory in Super Bowl LVII.
Senate Bill 190, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, is designed to benefit senior citizen taxpayers. In order to take effect in any particular county, it needs to be passed by the county commission of that county.
The state legislation was put together in large part by State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, who has described it to the media as “It would freeze the amount that a senior pays when they turn 62, or they’re eligible for Social Security. They would freeze at that rate and they would never go up in the future.”
There has been some chatter across the state indicating frustration that the bill was easier written and passed than it will be to implement. Apparently there are some questions about the process to implement this legislation, among other things.
On Monday, the Platte County Commission announced it would form a “working group of officeholders” to figure out what needs to happen to create an application process for seniors. County officials have indicated their hope is that application process would open up in time for the 2024 tax bills to reflect the capped tax amounts.
Gonna be interesting to see how many tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars, are involved in the proposed project(s) the next time self-described fiscal conservatives at the county level put a tax proposal on a countywide ballot. It’ll be a number that might make your eyes bleed.
I’ve noticed over the years in the course of doing this newspaper gig that a lot of self-described “fiscal conservatives” are only fiscally conservative if someone else is in charge of spending the money. If the self-described fiscal conservatives are the ones wanting to spend your tax money, then they describe all that spending as “very necessary.” Sometimes the hypocrisy and mental gymnastics can be entertaining and I’m here for it.
I went to Chiefs training camp in St. Joe on Saturday to watch a practice. Hint: get there early. We got there an hour before practice and the line to get in was already longer than the list of Trump’s criminal charges.
A couple of observations:
•There is a new gadget play to watch for this season. It’s a behind-the-back swing pass way out in the left flat. During Saturday’s practice quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw a perfect and lengthy behind-the-back pass to wide receiver Skyy Moore, a wide receiver screen kind of thing. It fooled his defensive teammates. By the way, yes, Skyy is correctly spelled Skyy. Don’t blame me, I’m not his mom.
•Why do I feel like we’re going to miss the now-retired Chad Henne? New backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert is wearing jersey number 9, which matches the number of god-awful passes he threw on Saturday. His first pass was knocked down at the line of scrimmage and things went further south from there. Multiple interceptions by the former Mizzou quarterback. Let’s hope and pray for a season full of good health for Mahomes because if something happens to our star, ol’ reliable Chad Henne ain’t walkin’ through that door.
It’s time to please the degenerates.
Regular Between the Lines readers know for a few years we’ve been doing the equivalent of a “pay your mortgage” pick in the area of sports betting futures. Two years ago I suggested that you place a “pay your mortgage” bet on the Raiders to go over their projected win total. We hit it. Last year, I suggested you buy yourself a vacation home with a bet on the Philadelphia Eagles to go over their projected win total. We hit it. And you’ll recall, last January we bet on Connecticut to win the NCAA Basketball Championship in April at 25-1 odds. It hit. And you might also recall that before the baseball season began, we put a little on the Royals to finish under their projected win total of 69. Baseball season isn’t over yet, but do you feel good about the chances of hitting that one? The Royals current record is 36-78. In order for us to lose that wager, the Royals would need to go 34-14 over their remaining games. I feel comfortable in humbly suggesting you go ahead and count that as a winner.
So the pressure is on to keep the hot pace going as we look ahead to placing a win total bet on a team in the 2023 NFL season.
Here it is. We’ll call this one a “buy yourself a boat” futures bet for the 2023 NFL season: Take the Washington Commanders UNDER their projected win total of 6.5 wins. The Commanders’ quarterback this year is the unproven Sam Howell. Don’t be surprised if Howell struggles and backup Jacoby Brissett has to take over as starter. The Commanders’ offensive coordinator this year is the toxic personality of Eric Bieniemy. Their head coach, Ron Rivera, is on the hot seat, likely gone at the end of the season if not before. I’ll say this: the Commanders start the season by hosting the Arizona Cardinals. That will be the easiest game on Washington’s schedule. If the Commanders’ win their first game, don’t panic and start sending emails saying I gave you a lousy suggestion. Relax and let the season play out. When it does, Washington will finish with under 6.5 wins.
(Join Foley in watching the self-described fiscal conservatives by emailing ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)