Go For It! - 12 January 2022 - Plague Journal Day 671

Micah 6:8
2 Peter 1:13-14
Yes, your life matters.

Some of you are still sheltering in place, but fear not: I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

Football season is nearly over (the North American kind - not what our overseas brethren would call proper football). I was surprised to learn that today marks the anniversary of the NCAA's addition of the two-point conversion to the game; that happened on 12 January 1958.

I guess I had never considered when or whether that might have been added to the original game. I suppose I should have. I've seen basketball destroy itself by adding things. I'm not opposed to the 3 point shot in basketball, but clearly every dunk is offensive goaltending, and adding the shot clock meant a quality offense was now essentially outlawed - it all came down to UNLV-style run and gun.

I still remember watching classic games where teams would run a beautiful stall. "Guys, we're up by six points, let's stall and make sure they can't score," was the kind of thing you'd hear at a timeout on the sideline, and a well-run stall was a thing of beauty that today's fans will never see.

But back to football. As a fan of the CFL (Canadian Football League), I'm accustomed to seeing scores of any size on the field. I've seen everything: touchdowns (6pts), field goals (3pts), two-point conversions and safeties (2pts), and singles/rouges (1).
"What's a single or rouge?" I hear you ask. Truer to its name of FOOTball, the Canadian game makes kicking a bigger part of the scoring. A kick that can't (or at least isn't) returned from the end zone gives the kicking team a single point. In fact, a missed field goal that goes through the end zone, or at least isn't returned to the field of play, is also a single point.

Even more fun, a punt can be done as an on-side kick too. We've seen our Hamilton Tiger-Cats very near the end of a game pull an on-side punt to keep a drive alive. It's an amazing part of the differences between the CFL and NFL games.

Keep Calm and Don't Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our insane lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.