Let’s get this out of the way early before I forget to make my feelings known on an important topic.
The two best Christmas songs you’ll hear on the radio are:
- Happy Christmas (that’s the “and so this is Christmas” song) by John Lennon.
- Christmas Time by Bryan Adams.
Stop what you’re doing and go search out those two songs right now on YouTube or your favorite music app. Give them a listen. Thank me later.
I read where one Kansas City bar is doing a “Cocktails with Kris Kringle” event.
When did Kris Kringle start liking cocktails? When I was a kid I was told Santa preferred instead of milk we leave a can of Coors sitting out for him on Christmas Eve. The empty Coors can we found on Christmas morning always seemed like confirmation.
Did anybody else feel embarrassed for Patrick Mahomes when he was having his meltdown Sunday? I was hoping Travis Kelce would grab him and say “Pat, stop acting like a squirle!”
And coach Andy Reid after the game was equally embarrassing. Not the proudest moments for either one of them.
By the way, why does Andy Reid have it out for Todd Leabo of Sports Radio 810? I don’t follow the Kansas City sports media scene nearly as closely as I did back in the day. I need our friend Greg Hall back to bring me up to speed on those type things. And by the way, I think of the late Greg Hall every day. He was a top notch human whose sports media sound bite column was a work of art.
Anyway, I’m watching the post-game press conference for Reid hoping that someone would ask a question to the effect of was Travis Kelce’s heads-up lateral pass on that play totally spontaneous on Kelce’s part or is that something that is discussed and worked on? Credit to him, Todd Leabo spoke up to ask that very question. Reid, still having his childlike temper tantrum about the refs correctly calling Kadarius Toney for lining up offside on that play, told Leabo: “I can’t believe you’re even asking me that question right now.”
What the hell does that mean? It was an excellent question. That’s a couple times this season I’ve heard Reid get short with Leabo over harmless stuff. I don’t know what the background is there but I guarantee you poor Andy has had his feelings hurt by a Leabo question or Leabo reportage somewhere along the line.
Keep it up, Leabo.
As you’ll see on our front page, Brad Wallace, the former Platte City public works director who assaulted the heck out of a fellow patron at the same table at a Platte City restaurant back in May and pled guilty in August, is in trouble again. This time the charges involve an armed standoff with law enforcement and allegedly putting a gun to the head of his female significant other inside his residence.
At the time of the May incident to which he pled guilty in August, Wallace was employed by the city. Surprisingly based on a reading of the law enforcement reports of that assault, the city kept Wallace employed as public works director even after he pled guilty to what was a violent assault. (He left city employment in mid-November). Keeping Wallace employed with the city after the violent May assault was a mistake back then and looks even worse now. In the statement of probable cause in the May assault, a Platte County Sheriff’s Deputy described the city’s public works director as “a risk to the public,” citing the severity of the injuries in that assault and the nature of the incident.
The deputy was trying to tell you something, city officials, and you still kept the man in a public position and on the public payroll for months following. Yikes.
Did Platte City’s elected officials even read the police report or law enforcement’s statement of probable cause against Wallace in the assault that took place in the local restaurant? If our elected officials read those reports and thought things were fine that’s very disturbing. If the electeds didn’t bother to personally read those reports and simply accepted the account of those reports as relayed to them by the city administrator or some other source, that is equally disturbing.
When he described Wallace as “a risk to the public” it seems like the deputy knew very well what he was talking about. But city leaders didn’t think assaulting a man to the point he needs medical attention is a big enough deal to knock a city employee in a leadership position off the taxpayer payroll. It was a careless decision and not exactly the leadership the community deserves from its elected officials.
Meanwhile, Wallace is a man who needs help and we hope he gets it. We wish him well.
Here’s your update on that NFL futures betting ticket we suggested back in August: the quick version is we still have a decent chance to hit that one. My advice was to go with the Washington Commanders to finish under 6.5 wins. It is my “buy yourself a boat” futures bet this NFL season. Win or lose, shout out to the Between the Lines reader who told me a month ago that he followed me on that one.
There are four games remaining in the season. Washington has four wins. That means the Commanders need to win three of their last four games to beat us. I still like our chances. Washington plays the Rams, the Jets, the 49ers and the Cowboys in their final four games. If they lose at least two of those, we win.
We’re way ahead on futures bets given out in this column. Two years ago we won with the Raiders going over their projected win total, last year we won with the Eagles going over their win total, last NCAA basketball tournament we won with a 25-1 ticket on Connecticut to win the tournament, and in baseball we won with a ticket on the Royals under their projected win total.
Hoping to keep the streak going.
(You can catch Foley listening to John Lennon and Bryan Adams on repeat. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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