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Sports—Arbitrations; No Free Points; In With the New at Mizzou; No Arbitrations

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

Let’s start by thinking warm thoughts—

(BASEBALL)—Both of our teams have avoided arbitration with several players by signing several guys to one year deals.

(CARDINALS)—While many fans have been focusing on possible trades by the Cardinals or he signing of free agents, the Redbirds have been keeping players in the nest through arbitration.

MLB Trade Rumors reports reliever JoJo Romero has signed for $4.25 million. Fan favorite, outfielder Lars Nootbar, is in the fold for $5.25 million. All-Star second baseman Brendan Donovan will get $5.8 million. The Cardinals are going to pay Andre Pallante four-million for his second full-time starter season.  Utility man Nolan Gorman, who hit .205 last year, will get $2.665 million. Another utilityman, Silver Slugger winner Alec Burleson, has signed for $3.3 million after hitting .290 with 18 homers. And pitcher Mathew Liberatore gets $2.26 million.

(ROYALS)—Signing on for another year are outfielder Kyle Isbel, infielder Michael Massey, and pitchers Bailey Falter, John Schreiber, Nick Mears and Daniel Lynch IV.

(STADIUM)—Discussions about a new stadium for the Kansas City Royals have dropped into a kind of limbo. It appears both Missouri and Kansas are getting tired to trying to conclude a deal. Clay County Commissioner Jason Whitington said a few days ago he’s finished negotiating. The State of Kansas also has had enough, apparently leaving Kansas City as the only option.

Sources indicate, however, talks are ongoing with Kansas. One issue is whether the legislature will have to approve any financial deal outside the STAR bonds program.

On this side of the line, a judge has heard a lawsuit from a couple of state legislators saying Missouri’s stadium financing law is unconstitutional. He’s still studying the arguments.

Team owner John Sherman still says a downtown ballpark is what the team wants.

(MIZBB)—Missouri went 2-0 for the first time in the SEC only to blow its chance to go 3-0 for the first time since its days in the Big 12. With two top-tier wins to start the conference season, Missouri went to Oxford Mississippi to face an Ole Miss Team with a mediocre start to the season.

And the Tigers blew it.,

Coach Dennis Gates pointed to Ole Miss’ second-chance points down the stretch as a major factor.  A more frustrating one is that the worst free-throw shooting team in the Southeastern Conference put on a clunker clinic, hitting only half of its 24 free throws in a 76-69 loss. Missouri drops to 12-4 (and also dropped a chance to make a dent in the top-25 ratings).

Another major factor was the loss of their trey touch, starting 6 for 14 in the first half but getting only one in ten in the second half. (Ole Miss was 9-23).

Missouri meets Auburn at home Wednesday night. Auburn is 10-6 overall, 1-2 in the conference.

(MIZFB)—Pretty portable week.  Let’s run down the lists:

Thirteen new guys will be in black gold next year. The biggest catch is Quarterback Simmons from the University of Mississippi. He was a four-star recruit who lost his starting job at Ole Miss when an ankle injury sidelined him and Trinidad Chambliss took the ball and kept it. In 17 career games, two as a starter, he hit sixty percent of his passes for 1,076 yards and four touchdowns. He also was intercepted five times.

Incoming defensive players are Oregon cornerback Jahlil Florence, Auburn linebacker Robert Woodyard Jr., safeties JaDon Blair from Notre Dame, Kensley Louidor-Foustin from Auburn and defensive end Jaden Jones, who moves north from Florida State.

On the offensive side, Cincinnati wide receiver Caleb Goodie will face portal competition from Auburn’s Horatio Fields, and Naeshaun Montgomery from Florida State; Also picked up are running back Xai’Shaun Edwards from Houston Christian, linemen Luke Work of Mississippi State, Josh Atkins from Arizona State, and Jefferson City native Will Kemna who is returning to Missouri from Manhattan, Kansas.

Several departing players have landed new gigs—-although last we heard Beau Pribula was still shopping himself around. But K-State will get WR Joshua Manning for his senior year and redshirt freshman OL Keiton Jones while Mississippi State picks up Marquis Johnson to play wide receiver for his senior year. Redshirt senior offensive tackle Jayven Richardson heads to Boulder, Colorado; Redshirt freshman running back Marquise Davis goes from being a Tiger to being a Louisville Cardinal. Virginia Tech has signed redshirt freshman defensive end Javion Hilson. Redshirt freshman OL Henry Funuko  and redshirt junior OL Johnny Williams IV are off to North Texas; redshirt sophomore wide receiver James Madison II will play next year at UTSA; Redshirt senior Caleb Flagg heads to Central Florida. Senior WR Daniel Blood has signed with Washington State and senior safety Marvin Burks Jr., will be in Madison, Wisconsin.

One Tiger has been convinced to step back from the portal—cornerback C. J. Bass III, a four star recruit who got into a couple of games early in the season, got four tackles and a pass deflection.

(Brady & Burden)—How did the former Missouri thrower and receiver do in their first NFL season? Luther Burden’s season continues after his Bears beat the Packers last weekend 31-27. He has 47 catches in 60 targets for 652 yards and two touchdowns in his rookie year. He was 3 fr 42 against Green Bay.

Brady Cook, who was an undrafted free agent signed by Jets, over he quarterback job for the last four games of a 3-14 year.  The Jets lost all four of his starts and the other game in which he played. He hit 57.5% of his passes (88/153) and threw for two touchdowns.  But he also threw seven interceptions. His game usually was a short one—only 125 yards generated by his 88 completions.

(MOSTATEPORTAL)—Ryan Beard left Missouri State University to become head coach at Coastal Carolina.  So many of his players have moved with him that it almost might be considered Missouri State—East.

Offensive lineman Cristian Loaiza, 6-5 and 315 pounds, will have two years eligibility. Quarterback Deuce Bailey, who was one of the highest-rated high school QBs to sign with Missouri State filled in for starter Jacob Clark this year and went 23/47 for 335 yards and ran for another one.  He will have as a target WR Tristian Gardner, who was third on the MoState receiver roster but led all freshmen in Conference USA with 30 catches, 465 yards and six touchdowns. With him on the receiver corps is TE Jackson Kohl.

Another CUSA all-freshman team member, long snapper Mitch Weisenborn, has gone east.

Some guys from the defensive side also have followed Beard. DT Ahmad Poole had fifteen solo tackles among his 29 tackles this season. Three tackles were for loss. He forced two fumbles. Cornerback Ryan Grayson played in four games but preserved his redshirt.

LB Braxton Starnes, 6-3, 215 was in four games as a true freshman with four tackles, one for a loss and one pass breakup.

Nickleback Don Quist also goes to Coastal Caroline, as dones DT Dezmond Barnes, a member of the all-CUSA freshman team.

Some players who had entered the portal have changed their minds and will play for new coach Casey Woods who had been SMU Offensive coordinator.  Staying in Springfield after all are TE Jeron Askren who at 6-3, 230 is in line to become the number one tight end for the Bears, safety J. J. O’Neal, who was a team captain last season, has three interceptions and ten pass breakups to go with 68 tackles heading into his fifth and final year, and fellow safety Christian Ford who has two years of eligibility after his last season highlighted by a forced fumble, three pass breakups and 39 tackles.

(CHIEFS)—-Whoops. The Chiefs are at home.  Not at Arrowhead. Just at home. Their move in another five years has become a mini-political issue. St. Charles County Senator Nick Shroer has his undies in such a knot about the proposed move that he wants to take away the Chiefs title as Missouri’s Official Football Team that they have held since 2019. He thinks that honor should go to the St. Louis Battlehawks.  Speaking of which—-

(BATTLEHAWKS)—The St. Louis Battlehawks and the rest of the UFL teams start their third season March 27. They will have a new coach, but a familiar name to St. Louis fans—Ricky Proehl, a member of the “Greatest Show on Turf” during the Rams’ tenure in the Dome.  He’s held several coaching jobs since retiring from the NFL and was the ‘Hawks receivers coach three years ago.

Former Head Coach Anthony Becht has moved to Florida to lead the Orlando Storm, a new UFL Team.

The Battlehawks have had winning records the last two seasons but have failed to advance in the playoffs.

They’ll have a new quarterback this year. A. J. McCarron has become the head coach of the Birmingham Stallions. It’s a homecoming for him. He was a star at the University of Alabama.

The league has a new look this year. The Orlando Storm, Louisville Kings, and Columbus Aviators replace last year’s Michigan Panthers, Memphis Showboats and the San Antonio Brahmas.  Returning from last year are the Battlehawks, DC Defenders, and the Stallions.

(CARDINALS)—A lot of people are waiting for the spiked shoe to drop on a major trade or a major free agent signing.  Nothing groundbreaking has happened yet. The most recent transaction had pitcher Zak Kent designated for assignment and picked off the waiver wire by the Cleveland Guardians.

(ROYALS)—Nothing’s up to date in Kansas City.

Next: people who play with tires.

(NASCAR)—NASCAR’s rocky off-season continued this week with the resignation of NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps, a casualty of the off-season anti-trust trial that was finally settled out of court. His status was crippled during the trial by the admission evidence some inflammatory emails he sent attacking one of the sport’s icons—former driver and team owner Richard Childress.

Dodge’s return to NASCAR will be with its RAM pickup truck.  RAM is going to hold its own series in which fifteen drivers will compete for one of the five seats in the regular truck season for Kaulig Racing.  It will be, in effect, an eight-episode reality show produced by the folks with the UFC.

(INDYCAR)—Two months and two days from today, IndyCar runs its first race in Texas in three years and there’s some pretty big talk in anticipation of it.

After all, it IS in Texas. The President of the Grand Prix of Arlington, Bill Miller, has told Motorsport.com, “This could be a signature marquee event on the IndyCar calendar for years to come,” and suggests it could take the use of temporary road courses “to a higher level.”

The track will be 2.73 miles around with fourteen turns. Organizers haven’t decided yet how many miles will be run in the race.  The longest straightaway is just short of a mile, long enough for cars to reach at least 200 mph before making a hard right.

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Off-season tire testing has given Will Power his first full taste of being part of Andretti Global, his new team after seventeen years with Penske.  He got familiar with the car, the crew, and a new engine manufacturer in tests at Phoenix. Power said  afterwards that all the new stuff wasn’t all that strange once he hit the track. “You feel very out of place but once you get in the car and you get rolling, then it’s just like, ‘Oh, it’s an IndyCar. It’s going through the same processes.”  He called his first few runs “very good.”

One thing the tire tests have focused on is the right front tire that takes a lot of cornering weight on ovals. Firstone, the tire supplier for IndyCar, has developed a wider tire for that corner that improves grip.

An open test for all teams is scheduled for next month.

On the Minneapolis Front Lines

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Minnesota—a state of Lutherans, loons, lutefisk, and Lake Wobegon—is suddenly a war zone.  To hear the Trump administration describe it, it is filled with dangerous Somali fraudsters, and as HHS Secretary Kristi Noem put it, a “domestic terrorist” got what she deserved, a woman that Vice-President Vance claimed was influenced by a vaporous “left wing network,” and that President Trump accused of “violently, willfully, and viciously” running over ICE agent Jonathan Ross—characterizations all quickly issued with absolutely no knowledge of what happened to Renee Nicole Good, a recent Kansas City resident who had moved to Minneapolis about a year ago. Her wife, Rebecca, said in a statement, “We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness.”

A recent editorial by the Wall Street Journal disputed the fulminations from Trump, Noem, Nance and their associates: “Minnesota’s Fraud Problem Isn’t Immigrants: It’s the vast size of the welfare state that corrupts them,” suggesting that generous benefits and numerous programs so large that comprehensive oversight is rendered impossible create opportunities for fraudsters. The Journal blamed both political parties for the situation.

When we were organizing the Missourinet in 1974, the first person I wanted on the my news staff was Jeff Smith who had worked with me at the now defunct KLIK radio station in Jefferson City right after he left Indiana University. Jeff was a terrific reporter whose career path took him into marketing and management. He and his wife Denny remain among our most cherished friends.

Jeff retired as a VP with Northwest Airlines and now is heavily engaged in non-profit work in Minneapolis. Among his colleagues are Somalis. Last week, just as the significance of the killing of Renee Good was starting to sink in, I asked Jeff and Denny to share some of their thoughts. Denny in particular has an interesting perspective on the immigrant situation, which became the focus of their comments.

Here is what they sent:

ICE Storm in Minnesota –

from Jeff and Denise (Denny) Smith

Four days ago, as we write this, Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Depending on which account you believe, she was either a hero or a domestic terrorist. There’s no doubt that the event sparked a storm of outrage on our cold, wet streets.

Unfortunately, we may never get a neutral account of what happened. The Federal government is acting as the sole investigator following its role as executioner. It’s the latest trauma our community has endured in the last seven months, including a fatal school shooting and the assassination of a State Representative.

Renee Good’s death is an outcome of the Trump administration’s decision to send more than 2,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minnesota. Trump is clearly ratcheting up his determination to punish Minnesota for being blue.

As a white woman, born in the U.S., Renee Good wasn’t the chief target of these agents’ attention. Those would be people who are brown or black.

Minnesota has been home to us for forty years, since we migrated from Missouri for a career opportunity. Thank God we didn’t move from Mogadishu. If we had migrated from Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, we now would be labeled “garbage” by President Trump. If we wore a hijab or had brown skin, we would likely be afraid to leave our home, fearing an ICE agent’s impulsive imprisonment.

Somalis in Minnesota are neighbors and co-workers. They comprise the largest population outside of Mogadishu and our communities depend on them every day. Somali Americans have become integral parts of all aspects of a diverse Minnesota that ranks in the top ten states for health, education, our business environment and other measures.

Quoting the Sahan Journal, a local newspaper serving Somalis, “The vast majority of Somalis here and across the United States are U.S. citizens, and most who are not have legal permanent residency.” Among many professions, they provide needed services for people at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. They care for older adults living in our communities for seniors. They work in our food processing plants. But, according to Trump, they’re not “legitimate” Americans.

By that definition, most likely, neither are you.

Only indigenous Americans have non-immigrant roots. The Twin Cities are home to more than 8,000 tribal members. But that population also does not feel safe. Last week, ICE detained four members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe because they could not provide proof of citizenship. They were unhoused and living under a bridge.

And they are not white.

Unless you are a Native American, you too are connected to an immigrant. Did your forebearers come from Poland, or Ireland, or Italy or, involuntarily, from Africa? If so, your ancestors knew what it’s like to be labeled “garbage,” or worse.

As a second-generation Sicilian, Denny’s grandparents and their families were vilified by white Americans as the new “Niggers” and were recruited to replace black cotton field workers during the great migration north by southern former slaves.

There’s always the “other” and they usually have dark skin.

We acknowledge that a few Somali Americans are at the center of the documented fraud in some Minnesota social service agencies. However, we trust that the fraudsters will receive swift justice and that the bureaucrats who allowed it will be held responsible.

We are alarmed by the Trump administration’s broad-brush judgements, especially of non-white Americans. We should not be so quick to judge entire populations. We should not be so quick to judge, period.

Our move introduced us to a region shaped by both harsh winters and remarkable cultural diversity.  Over the decades, we’ve witnessed how new waves of immigrants, from all corners of the globe, have been welcomed to the fabric of Minnesota, bringing fresh perspectives, food, traditions, and resilience. This blend of backgrounds has enriched our state and broadened our understanding of the world.

We’re glad we migrated to Minnesota and we pray for our city.

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For the record: Native Americans were not recognized as general citizens of this country, not even by the Fourteenth Amendment,  until June 2, 1924 but were not guaranteed the right to vote in every state until 1948.

It’s important to hear from people such as you and me in America’s occupied areas—-because ICE is among us, too. And so are immigrants.

The death of Renee Good is a case filled with complications and Minnesota authorities are not ceding the investigation and prosecution of the case to Trump’s FBI or any other federal agency whose trustworthiness is as limited as our President’s honesty.

But the basic point to remember is this:  The “domestic terrorists” in Minneapolis are the ones sent there by President Trump to punish a state that is not in his political column. His justification that people from those places he calls a “sh—hole countries” are committing massive fraud is a blatant slander of thousands of good people and a craven excuse for his abuse of power.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board disputes Trump’s singling out of Minnesota and its Somali immigrants: “Minnesota’s Fraud Problem Isn’t Immigrants: It’s the vast size of the welfare state that corrupts them—not immigrants or a particular culture.” Others have noted the billions of dollars poured into Pandemic relief programs have led to massive systemic nationwide fraud, suggesting that Trump’s singling out Minnesota and its Somali residents for military intervention is far beyond the limits of reality.

None of us deserves what is happening in Minneapolis and in too many other places in our country today. As Renee Good put it, “No matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness.”

Compassion and kindness are two of the many things grievously missing in our national dialogue and particularly from our national leadership.

Maybe we’ll ask Jeff and Denny to report from the front lines of our president’s war on his own country again as the ICE campaign and the killing of a 37-year old poet simmer in this frigid time.

Donnie and Nico

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“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” said Chairman Mao as he led his armed struggle/revolution in the 1930s.

Today we have an impulsive, petulant short-attention span child with a pistol who has invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its president and his wife and brought them to our country to face American criminal charges.  As is usually the case with Trump, there is little indication that any kind of long-term thinking went into this scheme. He says the United States is going to “run” Venezuela but it is clear there is no plan in place to do so.  There are no planeloads of diplomats in Caracas developing a transition plan, no one sent in to calm an uncertain and certainly angry population.

Secretary of State Rubio tried to clarify to a minor degree that we do not plan to “govern” Venezuela only to have Trump double down that we are going to “run” the country. The Washington Post, citing two White House Sources say a personal grudge might be a factor in Trump’s actions. Suggestions had been made that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado should be put in charge of the country. Trump showed no interest in the idea?  Why?  Because Machado accepted the Nobel Peace Price last year. And we all know that Trump for reasons that only he cannot understand stood no chance anyway.

The Prize Committee cited her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.”  She had her detractors including a faction that disagreed with her support of Trump’s oil embargo.

So who IS in charge now?

Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez Gomez has been sworn in as acting president. She has declared the country deserves peace and dialogue, not war and is offering cooperation with the United States.  On Saturday however, after the kidnapping, she had a different tone, calling the kidnapping “barbaric” and saying she still considered Maduro the leader of the county.  Time and circumstances, however, bring a reality to things. She’s a lawyer and a diplomat who has been Vice President since 2018.

She seems to have put forth somc contradictory messages. On her social media channels Sunday, she said Venezuela wants to develop ‘balanced and respectful international relations…based on sovereign equality and non-interference. She called on Washington to agree with a program “oriented toward shared development, within the framework of international law.”

At the same time, she ordered police “to immediately begin the national search and capture of everyone involved in the promotion or support for the armed attack” by the United States.”

President Trump’s gunboat diplomacy leaves so many questions unanswered.

What does that look like, his plan to run Venezuela, apparently with no interest in “balanced and respectful international relations” and shared development within the framework of international law?” Unfortunately those are not things Trump respects.  Will our miliary take the place of the police and other security forces?  How long will it take them to become as well-versed as the existing Maduro loyal miliary, police, and security establishment?  And how much blood will be shed in gaining military control of the country?

(For that matter we have not heard the human cost of the arrests of the Maduros, or the building damages caused by the raid and whether this county will rebuild the damaged properties.)

Who will the United States install as it military governor, or whatever the title might be?

One would think that a true leader would have these things decided and in place within hours after turning a country upside down.  But not our impulsive child-president with a pistol.

There is precedent for this kind of thing but we haven’t heard Trump justify the Maduro arrest by citing the arrest Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega exactly 36 years earlier, to the day.  Noriega’s dictatorship had been supported by the U.S. government that had paid him large sums to fight drug trafficking, and to keep an eye on Cuba. He fell out of favor by pushing for Panamanian Independence. There also were suggestions he was taking bribes to let drugs reach our country. President George H. W. Busch sent in American troops to topple the regime. He spent 20 years in an American prison for drug trafficking, and seven years in France for money-laundering. He was returned to Panama with a 60-year term for murder, corruption, and embezzlement.  He was 83 when he died in 2017.

The trial arguments will be fascinating. Whether they are similar to the Noriega is something we want to see.  The idea of snatching the president of another country, and putting him on trial for violating the laws in a another nation will be an interesting discussion point and one that the United States Supreme Court will have to parse.

If we can arrest Maduro, can we enforce our speed limits on British roads?  Can a French person who shoplifts an American product in Paris be prosecuted here?  Can the president of a foreign country be charged under American law for exporting a product that is legal in his county to meet a growing demand that product in the United States?

By the way—-what happened to the Fentanyl excuse?  Now all of the talk from Trump is about Venezuelan oil.

Associated with that question is this: Can a President of the United States be prosecuted here or anywhere, for failing to reduce the demand for Maduro’s product, in effect sanctioning by inaction its use?

When did Venezuela’s drug captains become more important than the Columbian Drug Cartels that dominated our drug concerns for so long?  Trump has indicated Colombia, Cuba, Greenland, Iran, and Mexico are potential targets of someone who agrees that power comes from the barrel of the gun.  He drools over Greenland, especially, which has never been a threat of any kind to us.

I probably could cook up more questions but I’ll leave that to you.  But here is another one?

If we’re going to run Venezuela, why not make it a 51st state?  If we want Greenland for its rare earths, why would not Venezuela and its oil be the new star on our flag?

Our cynical self has peeled around my shoulder and suggested we would rather have Greenland and Canada because Venezuela has brown people in it, and Canada and Greenland people are white.  But, “We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months,” the child with a gun said on Air Force One.

In the meantime, the spotlight is off the Epstein papers for a while.  That’s okay. When it swings back, there will be a huge volume of material sifted from the most recently studied papers.

Finally, this note on this topic—Maduro is a bad guy.  But is violating international law and other standards the answer to the problems he caused?

And how should NATO respond when his guerillas hit Greenland

Have at it folks.  The box below would welcome you comment and concerns.  We are, after all, in this world box together.

 

 

Sports: A Good Time to Retire; a Big Win; The Portal Opens

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(CHIEFS)—Travis Kelce has no reason to play football next year. There are no worthwhile records to be set. He has plenty of Super Bowl rings. If he returns to the Chiefs he will be returning to a team taking the first steps toward rebuilding the dynasty that has eroded, as happens to sports dynasties. He is physically and mentally intact and has a wonderful new life awaiting him that there is no reason to delay enjoying.

He caught a couple of passes in the final game of 2025-26 that made him the fifth tight end to get to 13,000 yards and the fastest to get there.  He was the fourth-leading scorer for the Chiefs this He played as usual with commitment and effort in an absolutely forgettable game that featured eight field goals and was decided on a safety. With the 14-12 loss the Chiefs finished a 6-11 season with their fourth quarterback on the field and patches at other positions. Chris Oladokun, the number three QB, actually had a higher completion percentage than Patrick Mahomes as the backup to the backup although his quarterback rating was only 15.1 (Mahomes was at an uncharacteristic 68.8.

The last time the Chiefs were this bad was the year before Andy Reid showed up to coach.

Once again, Mahomes and his successors were handicapped by an offensive line that showed all the strength of tissue paper in protection.

The Chiefs gave up the sixth most points in the NFL, ranked 21st among the 32 teams in scoring.  Twenty-two players accumulated rushing or receiving yards. Eleven players scored points but Xavier Worthy, Brashard Smith, and JuJu Smith-Schuster  had only one touchdown each and Isaih Pacheco had only two.

While the tendency is to think the Chiefs have gotten old, the NFL says they were the 8th youngest team in the league with an average age of 25.92. The youngest team was the Packers at 25.23 and oldest team was the Commanders, 28.09.  Chris Jones is the oldest lineman (if you don’t count Kelce), at 31.

A lot of new people will be wearing Chiefs shirts next year, starting with the offensive line that has weakened considerably in the last couple of years or hasn’t reached its potential—perhaps because the Chiefs have haven’t had some of the top-level draft choices for a decade.

They will have their first top ten draft pick since they chose Patrick Mahomes in 2017.  Reid is optimistic: “We’ve got a good nucleus of guys that are veteran players. They’ll be back and I think you want that foundation, and that’s where you start. And then you give Brett (Veatch, General Manager) an opportunity to have the draft picks that he has and picking where he’s picking; you know he’s going to do a great job there. And then whatever happens free agent-wise, or guys we signed up — wherever that goes — you still have a long way to go to add people and do what you need. So, there’ll be a fresh start coming up.”

The player lineup isn’t the only parts of the team that’s changing. The Tennessee Titans have asked permission to talk to Steve Spagnuolo, the architect of the defense about their head coaching vacancy. They also want to talk with Offensive Coordinator Mike Nagy, whose conract is up.

Assistant Defensive Line Coach Alex Whittingham is headed to Michigan to work with his dad, Kyle, the new head coach of the Wolverines.

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(MIZPORT)—The first of this year’s Tigers to jump ship have signed with new teams. Senior Wide Receiver Marquis Johnson gets a better deal at Mississippi State and redshirt freshman running back Marquise Davis is rushing to Louisville. Safety Caleb Flaggs is headed to Central Florida. Kansas State gets lineman Keiton Jones.

Late yesterday afternoon, things developed quickly. The first player to shift to Missouri is cornerback Jelil Florence, dropping in from Oregon. He announced his plans to change shirts in November. He was the #54 recruit in 2022, four stars. Florence is a redshirt junior so 2026 is the only year we’ll see him. 35 career tackles and four interceptions.  He’s important because all three of this season’s cornerbacks finished their eligibility.

Mizzou also got wide receiver Caleb Goodie from Cincinnati and Auburn linebacker Robert Woodyard Jr.

In non-portal pickups, Missouri took three-star defensive lineman Jocques Felix away from Iowa State. He played for St. Louis Cardinal Ritter and verbally accepted Iowa State before officially settling on Missouri. He’s rated three stars. The Tigers also signed four-star defensive lineman Tajh Overton in December.

(MIZSTATEPORT)—Missouri State’s coach has left for Coastal Carolina, replaced by SMU Offensive Coordinator Casley Woods. But that has sparked a big turnover of ten offensive and eleven defensive players. Missouri State has not signed anyone yet.

(MIZBB)—A Tiger team has finally beaten a ranked opponent during this school year.  Missouri withstood a late Florida charge Saturday to upset the 22nd ranked Gators 76-74 at Mizzou Arena. The loss dropped Florida out of the AP top 25 for the first time since week 18 of the 2023-24 season. Five SEC Teams are in the top 25 this week and five more got votes, but Missouri got none.

Trent Pierce saw his first game action after a hand injury early in the season and scored ten points after coming off the bench, including the layup that put Missouri top 66-65, followed by a three-pointer that gave the Tigers a lead they never gave up. Jaden Stone, also returning from injury had 9 points.

Missouri trailed for most of the first half but tied it at the buzzer on a three-pointer by Trent Burns, their 7-5 center.

Florida went into the game leading in rebounds with a plus 17.2.  Missouri matched their 37 rebounds. The Tigers are now 11-3

Missouri plays Kentucky in Lexington tomorrow night.

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Speed—

(NASCAR)—Twenty-six days from the NASCAR guys will be racing again. It’ll no an exhibition race at Bowman Gray Stadium.

—One of NASCAR’s iconic speedways has been bought by the International Hot Road Association—Rockingham. “The Rock,” in North Carolina, is home to NASCAR second and third-tier races after being part of the Cup schedule, 1965-2004.

(INDYCAR)—53 days to the engines firing at St. Petersburg to starts the 2026 IndyCar season. But before that several top series drivers will get their blood running at the 24 hours of Dayona. Five of last year’s seven race winners will be on the high banks in sports cars.  An IndyCar driver his been part of the winning teams in five of the last six 24s.

Indianapolis 500 winner and national champion Alex Palou and his Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon will drive Acuras in the GTP class for Meyer-Shank Racing.  Wayne Taylor Racing’s Cadillac will include Colton Herta, who has left IndyCar to build a Formula 2 career.

Sebastian Bourdais, four time IndyCar champion, will share the cockpit of Tower Motorsports ORECA 07 with Ganassi Driver Kiffin Simpson.

Andretti Global will have all three of its IndyCar drivers. Kyle Kirkwood will be in a Lexus GTD PRO entry. Will Power, who moved to Andretti from Penske in the offseason will get his first taste of the Daytona. Marcus Ericcson will be in a Lamborghini for Wayne Taylor Racing. And Christian Rasmussen will run in the LMP2 class.

Although IndyCar has no races in Missouri, the 2026 schedule offers several day-trip possibilities, depending where you live.  Indianapolis hosts a road course race on May 8 with the 110th running of the 500 on May 24th.  They’ll be at World Wide Technologies Raceway, just across the river from St. Louis, on June 7. Nashville’s not that far away from some parts of the state. IndyCar will run there on July 10. Races at Milwaukee will be on August 29-30.

(Photo Credits: |Florence:  Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images; Kelce—Instagram).

 

We All Know What Tomorrow Is

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How can we forget?

I had been asked to keep a pandemic journal because we had no personal journals from the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic that told how people survived day by day during that scary time. We share some of those times because there was, at the start, no known medicine to treat whatever it was, and—as was the case with the misnamed Sanish Flu (it could have been the Kansas Flu)—the first advice was to mask up, stay indoors, close public gathering places such as bars, restaurants, churches, etc.

I was working on my Journal on January 5, 2021, watching video of the Trump rally that was becoming more dangerous with every lie that he told. I was not very forgiving of him for years before and I will never forgive him for this day. He remains the most despicable person in public or private life I have ever run across.  I added some photos to the entry as they became available and a text of Trump’s incitement to riot a couple of days later so journal reader a century from now (or longer, of course, I hope) will know how our country survived a pandemic but darned near didn’t survive Donald Trump—the first time. As long as there is a United States of America it will be a national shame that he was elected again, and more and more people are understanding that now. Here is how I watched in horror—as I hope you did—what happened that day. Wednesday, January 6, 2021

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I begin this entry at 1:50 p.m. while watching something happen in Washington that neither I nor my citizen ancestors going back to the days of Washington, Jefferson, and even earlier founders could have imagined—thousands of supporters of our president, egged on by him in an hour-long tirade near the White House—have laid siege to the United States Capitol, interrupting the debate on certifying results of the Electoral College. I am watching FOX, the network that has been uncomfortably friendly with our president for years, as some demonstrators are trying to break through the doors into the House of Representatives.

Reporters just said law enforcement officers are guarding the doors with guns drawn, and another of the reports said moments ago that he’s been getting text messages from ambassadors saying this country would be highly critical of other countries if anything such as this happened there.

What we are seeing is appalling.  One observer calls it “a breakdown of the constitutional process.”  It’s the most significant incursion inside our Capitol since the British attack in 1814.  There is no doubt our president stoked this outrage and has been doing it for months, years. This morning, he and his children and other supporters had a rally near the White House.  His son, Donald Junior—who hopes to become the next national chairman of the Republican Party—told the crowd that their presence should tell mainline Republicans their day is past. “It should be a message to all Republicans who have not been willing to actually fight, the people who did nothing to stop the steal. This gathering should send a message to them: This isn’t their Republican Party anymore. This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party. We’re going to try and give our Republicans the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”  Then his father ranted for about 90 minutes, speaking to a crowd he had been begging for several days to show up in Washington today.  He urged the protestors to go to the capitol.

They did and about an hour after Congress started the process and started dealing with the first protest—of the Arizona results the House and Senate suddenly adjourned.  When I saw that happen (on C-SPAN) I switched to CNN and then to FOX because I suspected there was trouble developing.

FOX reporters are as stunned as anybody on the other (less Trumpish) networks by what is unfolding in front of them. Others got into the hallways and office areas.

Protestors get into the capitol and are shown on video walking through Statuary Hall.

One reporter on Pennsylvania Avenue just reported things are becoming increasingly violent in the streets. Senators and Representatives are locked in their offices. The Vice-President, who was presiding over the joint session, has been evacuated.  The President apparently is in the oval office where he earlier sent a Tweet criticizing the VP for lacking courage to overturn the election results today.  That was after VP Pence told members of Congress he would not try to singlehandedly throw out electoral votes. He had sent a letter to all members of Congress saying, “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”

A few minutes ago he tweeted, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our country. Stay Peaceful!”

One senator just tweeted a picture of protestors in the Senate Chamber.

The Mayor of Washington has instituted a 6 p.m. curfew.

So far, Josh Hawley has been silent—and he’s one of those who lit this fire several days ago when he announced he would challenge the election results. He was later joined by a dozen others, and the president who “rallied” his supporters in Georgia Monday and who encouraged demonstrators this morning to march on the Capitol.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, interviewed on FOX “cannot be sadder or more disappointed. This is not the American Way. I’m with capitol police; I’ve heard on the radio shots have been fired.”   (we later learned a woman had been shot, apparently while with the crowd trying to break into the House chamber.) “This is Un-American, what’s going on.” He called on Trump to make a statement.  The president sent out a Tweet shortly after that, about 2:15: “I am asking everyone at the U. S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No Violence! Remember WE are the Party of Law & Order—respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”

About the same time, Brett Baier on FOX reported Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had asked that the National Guard be deployed to clear the protestors.

2:30—FOX shows protestors breaking windows and climbing into the building.

Fox at 2:50 showed a photograph of a demonstrator sitting in the chair in Nancy Pelosi’s office.

The New York Times reported later that night that he’s from Arkansas, Matthew Rosenberg, who left a quarter on the desk and took a personalized envelope from the office. And he could be in very bad trouble. His Congressman, Steve Womack, tweeted about him, “I’m sickened to learn that the…actions were perpetrated by a constituent. It’s an embarrassment to the people of the Third District and does not reflect our values. He must be held accountable and face the fullest extent of the law. This isn’t the American or Arkansas way.”  And Arkansas Senator Jim Hendren tweeted “Don’t know this guy, but he needs to go to jail.”

Another photo shows a demonstrator sitting in the Senate President’s chair.

Haven’t seen an I-D of this creep yet.

(all Photos in this post are from Google Images)

2:52—Pelosi and Shumer call on president to go on the air and call on protestors to leave.

2:55—DOD mobilizes troops.  A barrier will be set up around the capitol, crowd to be cleared out. And a tight lockdown will be put in place.

2:20—FOX reports at least one person has been shot.

2:20—senate secured and demonstrators are being pushed out of the second and third floors of the rotunda.

3:05—President-elect Biden goes on the air.  He began, “At this hour, our democracy is under unprecedented assault, unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times. Let me be very clear: The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect the true America, do not represent who we are. I’m genuinely shocked and saddened that our nation, so long a beacon of hope and light for democracy, has come to such a dark moment. America’s about honor, decency, respect, tolerance. That’s who we are. That’s who we’ve always been.”

He demanded the president call on his supporters to end an “unprecedented assault” on democracy. “I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.”  He urged the protestors to end their occupation of the House and Senate and blamed today’s violence on Trumps refusal to accept defeat. “At their best, the words of a president can inspire. At their worst, they can incite…This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition, and it must end now. I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward.” He finished, “President Trump, step up.”

A few minutes later the White House released a taped message from Trump encouraging people to go home—-but most of his 61-second message was a whine about the election:

“I know your pain, I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us, it was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side.  But you have to go home now, we have to have peace. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order we have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt. It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this where such a thing happened where they could take it away from all of us from me from you from our country. This was a fraudulent election. But we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home and peace.”

We love you. You’re very special. ??????  No condemnation, no criticism.  Whine and pat these domestic terrorists you have encouraged on the heads and tell them to go home.

3:40—FOX shows video of woman shot in the capitol. She’s reported critical at a hospital. This is the only reported shot fired and only reported person injured.

It’s dusk in Washington now and reporters and city officials are worried about what will happen tonight, despite the curfew.  The Mayor and metropolitan police have announced anybody on capitol grounds after 6 p.m. will be arrested.

4:15: Rep. Steve Scalise says he hopes to get the capitol open and continue the debates tonight. Some other members reportedly feel the same way but we haven’t heard from the Congressional leadership yet.

At some point in all of this, this afternoon, the networks proclaimed John Osoff had won the Georgia Senate election although the margin is so thin that a recount is likely. He’s 33 and will be the youngest member of the Senate although not the youngest person elected. That honor goes to Joseph Biden.

About 4:55 it was announced that police think the capitol is secure again.

About an hour ago, Hawley tweeted: Thank you to the brave law enforcement officials who have put their lives on the line. The violence must end, those who attacked police and broke the law must be prosecuted, and Congress must get back to work and finish its job.

He drew three quick responses:

Samuel George

Sir – you inflicted this by rejecting the vote of the people

Your name will always be associated with today. Cool legacy.

Alex Rozar

This was your doing.

Former President George W. Bush released a statement late this afternoon “A statement on the insurrection at the Capitol,” a pretty plainspoken comment.  It’s especially impactful because he has seldom spoken about things since leaving the White House—as past presidents traditionally have done.  But there’s no love lost between the Bush family and Trump.

“Laura and I are watching the scenes of mayhem unfolding at the seat of our Nation’s government in disbelief and dismay. It is a sickening and heartbreaking sight. This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.

“I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement. The violent assault on the Capitol — and disruption of a Constitutionally-mandated meeting of Congress — was undertaken by people whose passions have been inflamed by falsehoods and false hopes.

“Insurrection could do grave damage to our Nation and reputation. In the United States of America, it is the fundamental responsibility of every patriotic citizen to support the rule of law. To those who are disappointed in the results of the election: Our country is more important than the politics of the moment. Let the officials elected by the people fulfill their duties and represent our voices in peace and safety.

 “May God continue to bless the United States of America.”

 Former President Clinton: “Today we faced an unprecedented assault on our Capitol, our Constitution, and our country. The assault was fueled by more than four years of poison politics spreading deliberate misinformation, sowing distrust in our system, and pitting Americans against one another. The match was lit by Donald Trump and his most ardent enablers, including many in Congress, to overturn the results of an election he lost.”

Former President Obama: “History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise. Right now, Republican leaders have a choice made clear in the desecrated chambers of democracy. They can continue down this road and keep stoking the raging fires. Or they can choose reality and take the first steps toward extinguishing the flames. They can choose America.

“I’ve been heartened to see many members of the President’s party speak up forcefully today. Their voices add to the examples of Republican state and local election officials in states like Georgia who’ve refused to be intimidated and have discharged their duties honorably. We need more leaders like these — right now and in the days, weeks, and months ahead as President-Elect Biden works to restore a common purpose to our politics. It’s up to all of us as Americans, regardless of party, to support him in that goal.”

Jimmy Carter: “This is a national tragedy and is not who we are as a nation. Having observed elections in troubled democracies worldwide, I know that we the people can unite to walk back from this precipice to peacefully uphold the laws of our nation, and we must. We join our fellow citizens in praying for a peaceful resolution so our nation can heal and complete the transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.”

Twitter has shut down our president’s access for 12 hours because of a message he put out this afternoon.  Facebook took down his “We love you” video and has banned him for 24 hours.

The Kansas City Star tomorrow morning available on line this evening:

“No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway.  

“This, Sen. Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is what mobs do. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman was shot and has died, The Washington Post reported, while lawmakers were sheltering in place.

“No longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, “Has there ever been such a high ration of ambition to accomplishment?” Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed.

“Hawley was first to say that he would oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. That action, motivated by ambition, set off much that followed — the rush of his fellow presidential aspirant Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other members of the Sedition Caucus to put a show of loyalty to the president above all else.

“After mayhem broke out, Hawley put out this uncharacteristically brief statement: “Thank you to the brave law enforcement officials who have put their lives on the line. The violence must end, those who attacked police and broke the law must be prosecuted, and Congress must get back to work and finish its job.” So modest, Senator, failing to note your key role in inspiring one of the most heartbreaking days in modern American history. We lost something precious on Wednesday, as condolence notes to our democracy from our friends around the world recognize.

“Among those Hawley got to emulate him was Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, whose very first act as a member of the world’s greatest deliberative body was to sell out his country by attempting to overturn the outcome of a legitimate election.

“This revolt is the result, and if you didn’t know this is where we’ve been headed from the start, it’s because you didn’t want to know.”

“’The Frankenstein just tore down the doors to the palace,” U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, told The Star. Which happened because, as he said, “One-third of the nation has bought into a bald-faced lie, and they are living in a fact-free America.’

“’I’m currently safe and sheltering in place while we wait to receive further instruction from Capitol Police,’ tweeted U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from Kansas. ‘Today is a dark day for our country. It’s unacceptable that we have a President who has repeatedly condoned and even encouraged this despicable behavior. It must stop.’”

“We’ll say again what Davids is too polite to say: Trump did not manage this madness on his own. Far from it.

REPUBLICANS KNEW TRUMP’S FRAUD CLAIMS WERE BOGUS

“Just before the putsch began, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said sadly that we need to once again work from an agreed upon set of facts. Only now has he noticed that lying to the public on a daily basis poisons democracy.

“People have taken this too far,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Fox News. Until he had to run for cover, McCarthy was fine with this sick stunt.

“U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, said in a statement, ‘Today’s events at the U.S. Capitol are tragic, outrageous, and devastating. They are wholly inconsistent with the values of our constitutional Republic.’

“Yes, they are. But they are wholly consistent with Trump’s calls to overturn this election to address nonexistent fraud. And they are wholly predictable, given the willingness of most Republicans to repeat these baseless claims.

“When we wrote that Hawley’s actions were dangerous — and that those of Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and others were too, in their pretending for far too long that the election wasn’t over — some readers found that absurd. ‘Oh my goodness, how will democracy and our country survive?’ one reader wrote in sarcasm. ‘How will Biden possibly govern? The Star editorial board’s hysteria over nothing is approaching CNN levels.’

“No doubt plenty of Americans will see even this free-for-all in the temple of democracy as defensible. And those of you who have excused all of the brazen lawlessness of this administration can take a little bit of credit for these events, too. They couldn’t have done it without you.

“Hawley, Marshall and other Republicans who upheld Trump’s con about widespread fraud knew all along that his claims were bogus. Now that they’ve seen exactly where those lies have landed us, decency demands that they try to prevent further violence by making clear that Joe Biden did not win by cheating. Please, gentlemen, surprise us.”

(Hawley gestures to the demonstrators this morning as he goes into the Capitol.)

About 9:30 tonight the Senate defeated the challenge to Arizona’s electoral votes 6-93 as several of the original protesting Senators withdrew their support of the challenge after today’s actions.

A TV station in San Diego (KUSI) says it has confirmed the identity of the woman who was shot to death inside the capitol.  It says she’s Ashli Babbit, a USAF 14-year veteran who did four tours overseas. The French news agency, AFP, said tonight that Babbit tweeted yesterday about those going to Washington for the rally, “Nothing will stop us….they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours….dark to light!”,

I had said right after the election that one of my greatest concerns was how much damage Trump could do before he left.  I’ve written a couple of pretty harsh blog pieces (the most recent one was Monday) about him.  I can’t say I was surprised by what happened today—I was surprised by the scope of the events but not that there was mob violence based on his encouragement of it. Now, with two weeks to go before he departs the White House, there are some concerns being voice in tonight’s news coverage about this deranged man with his finger on the nuclear trigger remaining in his job for those 14 days.

Tonight (it’s 10:15 p.m.) there’s talk about whether steps need to be taken under the 25th Amendment to remove him.  And there are reports of several resignations from his staff and possible resignations from his cabinet or high-level staff.  There are also a lot of questions being asked about how the mob could have penetrated the Capitol security.

I don’t think I would want to be in the White House tonight.  Our president must be in a rage that borders on insanity, not only because Pence hasn’t done his bidding and Congress not only won’t do his bidding and because some of his closest associates are on the verge of bailing out, but because he has no access to s social media, no way to rant and rave at an unprecedented level.

This has been one of those days that will be a “What were you doing when….” question is asked. It’s a landmark day in national memory much as the Kennedy assassinations and the King murder and the Moon landing, and the Twin Towers attack (and in Jefferson City’s case, the 2019 tornado). This one is so special because even the Kennedy and King assassinations didn’t leave people this shaken about the future of our republic.

It’s now after midnight.  The TV nets are reporting the streets of Washington are quiet.  The day’s toll, according to various reports:  Four dead—one shot to death by a police officer and three who had medical emergencies.  Fourteen police injured , two hospitalized, one critical.

The joint session re-convened. Two or three protests were offered but none had a Senator’s name on it—the first House member with one protest said the Senators had withdrawn their names. The count stopped with Pennsylvania when several House members and Senators Hawley and Cruz filed a protest.  The Senate dispatched with the Hawley-Cruz part of it 7-92.  The House is voting down the protest on its side of things but it’s time to call it a terrible day and go to bed.

While all of this has been going on, the common folks were dealing with the coronavirus.  MODOH reports yesterday’s positivity rate was 21.5% and hospitalizations just under 2800. Nationally, yesterday was the deadliest day in the pandemic.

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And now, five years later, having witnessed his tragic-for-our nation return and his actions pardoning himself and his “peaceful tourist” followers from any responsibility for those events, having witnessed his and his followers’ efforts to turn Ashley Babbit into a martyr, having watched him try to prosecute those who would have prosecuted him if he had not kept his lies about that day alive and current, we are starting to see many of those who lacked courage to challenge him then and again in 2024 starting to realize what they have unleashed up on our freedoms and our national honor.  Overseas, America’s symbol is Trump and it is a symbol that is daily destructive to our position in the world as a creator of and defender of freedom.

History will look at this generation of Americans and will ask, “How could they have gone so wrong?”  Scholars will analyze and theorize, none of which will change what we are because of that day and the days since that all of us have witnessed.

It is 2026. Change seems to be coming. But as it evolves, the movements behind Trump and January 6 are returning also, Oath Keepers, Conspiracy theorists, and the Super-Religious Patriots who see power as more holy than service and who see their God in Trump.  This is going to be an ugly year. But a year from now the nation will emerge battered, perhaps soon to be without him, although bearing the deep scars he has left. We must believe the Better Angels will outlast him and we then can get about the business of rebuilding our country.

The Couple

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Why can’t two prominent people be in love without somebody suggesting it’s all wrong and it’s all going to fall apart?

We blundered into an article on the internet the other day from something called OK! Magazine suggesting Travis and Taylor are headed for big trouble because Travis has said he and Taylor don’t argue. The writer compared them to George and Amal Clooney, with George saying they never fight.

Various “experts” chimed in that these relationships are doomed, in effect saying that two people in the spotlight can’t be happy with one another, or as the article suggests, is “whether the couple’s serene dynamic hides emotional distance rather than marital bliss.”

The article further elaborates: “One family therapist said: ‘It may seem perfect when couples say they never argue, but that can actually point to feelings being held back instead of real harmony. Disagreements are a normal, healthy part of connection – they help partners communicate openly. Avoiding conflict altogether can mean avoiding the deeper issues, too.’

Kelce and Clooney got together on Travis’ podcast, ‘New Heights” and the issue of domestic harmony came up. Clooney has spoken of his “conflict-free” marriage and told Kelce, “Neither of us are going to win the arguments, so why get in it? Dude, I’m 64 years old, and what am I going to argue about at this point? I’ve met this incredible woman, she’s beautiful and smart, and she stands for all the most important things that I believe in in the world, and I can’t believe how lucky I am, so what am I going to fight about?”

Kelce said he and fiancé Taylor Swift have “never argued” in their time together (has it already been two and a half years?).  Both are 36.  George is 64 and Amal is 47, for whatever value that might have to the discussion. They’ve been married for ten years.

The article continued: “One insider familiar with the Clooneys said: ‘Everyone adores George and Amal, but when they said they never argue, it raised eyebrows. It made people question what other parts of their relationship might be missing. And it means Taylor and Travis’ bond could be just as unhealthy as the Clooneys.’”

Unhealthy?????  What “other parts of their relationship” are in jeopardy?  To the layman, this sounds like a substantial crock.

(At our house, the biggest long-lasting point of disagreement is what’s for dinner. Couples have disagreements. Couples who love each other resolve them.  A disagreement is not a fight that results in no resolution or a winner/loser resolution that creates smoldering resentments.  But these “experts” seem to think that is how things should be. They’ve been watching too many soap operas.)

The breakup of celebrity relationships make supermarket tabloid headlines but the relationships that last are far more likely.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest  41 years

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick 37 years

Samuel L. and LaTanya Jackson   45 years

Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and Brad Hall  38 years

Denzel Washington and Pauletta Pearson 42 years

Sarah Jessica Parker and Mathew Broderick 28 years

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward 50 years

Sam Elliott and Katherine Ross  41 years

Phillip Mountbatten and Queen Elizabeth  II   74 years

Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh 45 years

James Stewart and Gloria Hatrick McLean 45 years

Stan and Lilian LaBash Musial 72 years

Roy Rogers and Dale Evens  51 years

And we could go on and on.

As long as Travis and Taylor are able to ignore the tabloid’s pressures and are able to live their own lives, they’ll be okay. But the celebrity culture feasts on the beautiful, the rich, and the prominent and they have to stay above that and be whatever THEY make of their lives.

We would hope that people would just stand back and let them enjoy being part of each other’s lives—just as we would do for OUR social friends. If you would not have the same suspicions about your friends’ relationships, why would you be suspicious of theirs?

The all-star jock and the homecoming queen, that’s what we have with Travis and Taylor. It works.  Just ask Norm Stewart (who will be 91 on January 20).

 

Norm and Virginia Zimmerly Stewart  69 years.

So, to Hell with the “experts.”  Let the beautiful people be in love. Wish them a long and happy future. Remember when your eyes only saw each other and an unknown future was stretched out before you.  Let them have that same joy and the same opportunity to build their own future. Find a checkout lane without a tabloid rack. Their life and their lives are nobody’s business but theirs.

(Stewarts: Columbia Daily Tribune; Clooneys: Microsoft Bling; Travis and Taylor: Instagram)

Tiger, Tiger Burning Dimly; KCK Chiefs Slouch Toward the End; Sorrow and History in the speedsports.

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

English poet William Blake wrote it:

Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright

In the forests of the night—–

(MIZFB)—The Missouri Tigers, depleted on and off the football field, have wrapped up an 8-5 season with a defensive effort against Virginia that is easily overlooked by the lackluster offense in a 13-7 loss..

Virginia dominated the clock, holding the ball for almost 39 minutes with long drives for its touchdown and two field goals. The game-deciding touchdown came at the end of a 19-play, 75 yard drive that ran ten minutes off the clock. Missouri went 0-5 against ranked teams this year. Virginia went into the game at number 20. Missouri’s win at Arkansas let them barely back in the top 25.

The departure of offensive coordinator Kirby Moore to become the head coach at Washington State left Drinkwitz in the position of calling the plays and there are those who think he showed the need for a quick Moore replacement, which Missouri has done by signing Michigan’s offensive coordinator Chip Linsey.  Mizzou also has lured Jack Breske away from Tennessee to be the Tiger president of player personnel and recruiting. More important to the playing field was he exit of tight ends coach Derham Cato

Also important to the product on the field is the departure of tight ends coach Derham Cato and assistant offensive line coach Jack Abercrombie. And the guy who works with players in the weight room has left: Malcolm Hardmon, the assistant director of football athletic performance.

With the portal opening Thursday, the defection of Brad Larrondo could be the toughest loss.  As the GM and CEO of Every True Tiger Brands, the marketing arm of the football program, Larrondo has been The Guy who set up Missouri’s NIL operations. He has negotiated revenue sharing and third-party NIL funding, distributing money to the moneyball athletes attracted to Missouri while also staying within the sending cap.

The portal is open for only two weeks and presumably Larrondo made plenty of arrangements to take advantage of it before he left. But his successor will have little time to put his stamp on the program.

Fortunately, Drinkwitz has some cash to buy good replacements. His new contract provides him with $54 Millon more dollars to hire assistants.

More than a dozen players were not on the game roster, four with injuries and others headed to the portal. Most of them were backups.

The defense did not wear down despite all the time on the field but the defensive scheme against Virginia’s third and fourth down plays seemed to be missing. The fact that Virginia had to convert fifteen of them indicates the Tigers had them where they wanted them but couldn’t close the deal. Missouri went into the game ranked 19th nationally in third down stops but let Virginia converted thirteen of them on 23 attempts. Mizzou, on the other hand, made it work only three of twelve times. Missouri never converted a fourth down in three tries. Virginia did it in two out of four.

The offense, after scoring on the first drive, was shut out the rest of the way. Matt Zollars again showed promise, especially leading a desperation last -minute drive to tie the game. He was taken out with one play left after banging his head on the field during a tackle. His replacement , Brett Brown threw a pass that was intercepted in the end zone.,

One question many fans will want answer to is why Drinkwitz didn’t use Ahmad Hardy more. Hardy reeled of a 42-yard run in the first possession but carried the ball only fourteen times after than. He finished with 89 yards and the all-time single season rushing record.  Some fans were displeased and there appeared to be times on the sidelines when Hardy was chafing at not being on the field.  Missouri was undefeated in games this year in which Hardy carried the ball at least twenty times.  One sportswriter says the social media was “off the charts” because of his absence. In all of Missouri’s losses this year, Hardy had the ball less than twenty times.

(MIZBB)—Now it’s up to Dennis Gates and the men’s basketball Tigers to do something the football Tigers couldn’t in their season—beat a good team.  The Tigers have finished their nonconference schedule 10-3. They open SEC play at home Saturday against Florida with road games against Kentucky and Mississippi.  Florida is 8-4; Kentucky is 9-4 and Mississippi is 7-5.

Vanderbilt is undefeated in a dozen games. Georgia and LSU are 11-1.

The Tigers will have had two weeks to improve from their performance against 91-48 performance against Illinois that set some bad records. It was the worst loss since Dannis Gates has run the program. It was the worst loss in the 93 years the two schools have played each other and the fewest points scored since Arkansas whipped Missouri 87-43 in 2012. (ZOU)

(CHIEFS)—It’s going to be a long time for Missourians’ hurt to go away after the Chiefs decision to move to Kansas.  It’s probably more politically emotional hurt than fan-support emotional hurt

. The turnout for the first Chiefs game after the announcement did not appear to be noticeably less.  But one politician far from the conflict has weighed in with the observation that Chiefs Owner Clark Hunt is “the biggest Welfare King in America.”  Congressman Brendan Boyle from Pennsylvania—where Chiefs coach Andy Reid built the career in Philadelphia that made him a great choice for Kansas City—said on social media, “Billions of taxpayer money going to this billionaire, while working people suffer. Just a disgrace.”

We can excuse Hunt for seeing it in a different way. “The benefit to the entire region will be monumental. A stadium of this caliber will put Kansas City in the running for Super Bowls, Final Fours, and other world class events. A brand new training facility and headquarters will allow the Chiefs to continue to attract top talent. And the vision for a new mixed-use district will rival that of any sports-anchored development anywhere in the country.”

There is no doubt about that. He would have said the same thing if the Chief stayed in Missouri, but Kansas simply outbid our side.

And in a sports world where some college quarterbacks prices might be reaching for five million dollars at their next university, our games have become nothing more than horses chasing carrots.

On the playing field, the Chiefs dropped to 6-10 on Christmas night’s loss to the Broncos. The Chiefs have lost ten more games nine times. They lost 14 in 2008 and 2012; a dozen in ’77,’78 and 2009. Eleven losses be the third in team history, back to back 11 loss years came in 1987 and ‘88.

The play the Raiders next Sunday for their last game until next August hen they meet the 2-14 Raiders. For the fist time in a decade, the team will have eight months to rest, recover, and regroup before they get back to football that counts.

The end of the year is filled with speculation about what Travis Kelce will do. He has equalled  Hall of Famer Jerry Rice by receiving at least 800 yards a dozen times.

He is having a solid bounce-back season this year with 73 catches for 839 yards averaging 11.5 yards per catch,  close to his career average of 12.1 yards.

He has promised to let the Chiefs know if he wants to be part of the team rebuilding or if is going to step aside before the draft season begins.

The Chiefs have signed yet another backup quarterback. With two QBs on the shelf, they need someone behind Chris Olodokun just in case.

The just in case person is Shane Buechele, who has been picked off of the Buffalo Bills Practice squad. He was with the chiefs in the 2021-2023 seasons and has never played in a real game. In three pre-season games ith the Chiefs he threw for nine touchdowns and six interceptions.

While it’s been confirmed that Minshew didn’t tear his ACL, providing a beacon of hope for Reid in Mahomes’ absence, he will miss time and was placed on Injured Reserve. Hence, the Chiefs need a new quarterback to join Chris Oladokun on the depth chart.

(BASEBALL)—Both of our teams took the holiday off. There were no transactions. Still no blockbuster deals.

—–A somber world of speed—

(NASCAR)—-NASCAR world still mourns the death of retired driver Greg Biffle and his family in a pre-Christas plane crash. Investigators say they’re recovered data recording devices but it will be sometime before the cause of the crash can be determined.

Fans are familiar with his on-track record, but his off-track accomplishments weren’t widely circulated until we read his obituary (as is the case with many pro athletes—and people in general). He set up a foundation that gave grants to humane societies through America. He was a universal blood donor and after his racing career he got into hurricane relief and delivered fuel to stranded Floridians and then helping find places for animals displaced from their shelters. It is said he “risked his life” helping Norh Carolinians caught in Hurricane Helene.

A celebration of his life is being planned.

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As we go to press with this entry, we’ve gotten word that a fire that destroyed the home of Denny Hamlin’s parents in North Carolina killed his father, Dennis, and severely injured his mother, Mary Lou, who is under intensive treatment at a burn center in Winston-Salem.  Officials say both had gotten out the house but had suffered “catastrophic” injuries. The damage to the house is so severe, officials say, that it might be some time before a cause is determined.

Denny, the driver, successfully pursued his 60th NASCAR victory this year and when he got it, he emotionally discussed the importance of the win to his father Dennis, who was in poor health and remarked that 2025 was his father’s last change to see his son with the NASCAR Cup.  Denny made the final four for the final race but Kyle Larson won the Cup.

Young Denny used to sit on his father’s lap watching races on television. He started racing go-kart, when he was seven, and won his first race. Dennis had a little trailer-making business that Denny worked in during high school.  His father formed a family-owned race team.

The family scrimped and saved—and borrowed—to keep Denny’s young career going up until he caught the eye of Joe Gibbs Racing and signed on for the big time. Denny remembered everything his parentsdid for him on the way up. One day, Dennis Hamlin told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Denny announce to his father, “You’re done working and you’re moving to Charlotte.”  When the elder Hamlin responded that he wasn’t going anywhere, the younger Hamlin set him straight by handing him the keys to a new house and told him, “It’s finished, take your clothes, sell the business. Mom works for me now. It’s set. You’re going. You’ve retired.”

Dennis Hamlin was 75.

(INDYCAR)—A prominent color scheme will be back at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2026 and its return brings one of the most exciting days in Speedway history to mind—-and the voice of a Missourian who fed that excitement who made it part of legend.

The colors of Sunoco Oil will be on a car next year for the first time in decades—and that is another story.

His name was Tom Carnegie, who grew up as a boy named Tom Kenagy in Raytown.  He was quite a high school athlete until a polio virus affected the strength of his legs and forced him to turn his thoughts to broadcasting. He went to William Jewell College and while there he went to work at KITE Radio in Kansas City. He was the public address announcer for the schools sports events. He went to Indiana, where a station manager encouraged him to change his name to Carnegie and not long after, to Indianapolis.

He was the public address announcer of the historic 1954 high school basetball championship game in which tiny Milan High School upset big Muncie Central, the game on which the movie “Hoosiers’ was based—with Tom doing a cameo.

Let’s go back to 1972 and Mark Donahue’s McLaren that is in the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

Somewhere in thousands of slides shot at the Speedway that I don’t have the time or the patience to unpack from one of the several boxes of slides is this car on the track.

This car represents a historic part of the Speedway story in several ways.

First: It is the first car owned by Roger Penske to win the 500.  He’s had nineteen winners since.

Second: Speed. You have to be in or near middle age or beyond to remember when Indianapolis race cars did not have wings.  1972 was the first year the rules allowed wings, big ones, that led to he incredible one-day jump in speeds.

Rain washed out the first day of qualifying, but on the second day, drivers demolished Peter Revson’s track record of 178.696 mph from 1971 time after time after time, beginning when Bill Vukovich II set the new one-lap record at 185.797. But he crashed on his second lap and had to qualify later in the rebuilt car. .

Later, after another rain shower stopped running, Joe Leonard turned four laps at 185.223, a record for a four lap, ten mile run. Mario Andretti smashed that record at 187.617.

Longtime track announcer Tom Carnegie’s bass voice had exclaimed “it’s new traaack record” several times that afternoon when Bobby Unser went out with the crowd anticipating something special.  And boy, was it.

The first lap crushed Andretti’s record—194.932, the first lap in track history over 190.

The second lap: “You won’t believe it!” said the great voice on the PA system. 196.036, another new track record.

Lap three: “And it’s still going up! Forty-five and 91 hundredths of a second! 196.6781

And then the third lap: 196.678. A third new track record.

Lap four was “only” 196.121.

The four lap average (“It’s new all-time speed record”) 195.940.

The seventeen-mile jump in qualifying speed remains the record these 53 years later.  Many expected the 200-mile an hour barrier would fall the next year, but it five more years before Tom Sneva did it—with Carnegie fueling the crowd’s excitement as Sneva set records on each his four laps.

Unser’s speed stood up despite challenges from Revson, who put his McLaren next Unser’s Gurney Eagle at 192.885 and Donehue put his McLaren on the outside of the front row at 191.408.

Tom Carnegie died in 2011. The Indianapolis TV station where he’d become an institution put together a 20-minute tribute that included Tom remembering that historic day. It comes about 10:40 into the program.

Tom Carnegie: The Voice Remembered

One of these days I’ll dig out the interview did with him where talks about his Missouri roots.

Donahue’s Penske teammate, Gary Bettenhausen (the Bettenhausen name is part of IndyCar legend) led for 138 of the race’s 200 laps before mechanical failure took him out.  Donahue took the lead with thirteen laps left and gave Roger Penske his landmark win. It also was the first time a McLaren chassis had won the 500.  Al Unser Sr., finished second, coming one position short of being the first driver to win three 500s in a row—he later won two more times.

Mark Donahue and Roger Penske had a special bond. Donahue was an engineer who knew how to set up his cars and win with them. He raced everything from Porsches and Ferraris to Mustangs and American Motors Javelins in numerous serieses before stepping away from the sport’s full-time demands. But In August, 1975 he drove a Penske Porsche to a closed-course world record speed of 221.120 on the Talladega Speedway.

He was pulled back to full-time racing when Penske tried Formula 1. He ran a couple of races late in 1974 and was in the new Penske F1 car in ’75. The car didn’t work out so Penske switched to a March chassis. He went to Austria to run the new car in the Austrian Grand Prix and crashed badly but appeared to be unhurt. But he had a serious head injury and lapsed into a coma and died the next day, August 19.

Roger Penske owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar today. He also fields cars in NASCAR.

McLaren is a powerhouse team in Formula 1 and one of its drivers, Lando Norris, won the championship while his teammate, Oscar Piastri, was third.  McLaren does not build cars for the 500 or for IndyCar but does have a team led by one of the most popular drivers in the series, Pato O’Ward, the runner-up in this year’s points chase.

The fastest qualifying run at the Brickyard still be longs to Arie Luyendyk, who had a hot lap of 239.260 and a four-lap average of 236.986 in 1996.

Now, thirty years later, Mark Donahue’s sponsor returns to Roger Penske’s track.

Chip Ganassi Racing, Penske Racing’s biggest long-term rival is bringing back the familiar colors for Kyffin Simpson. Sunoco considers itself the largest independent fuel distributor in the country. It’s the official fuel for IndyCar and NASCAR.

The front wings are bigger. The rear wing is smaller.  Most important this car is far safer for Simpson hat he Donahue museum piece was in its day. The cockpit/windscreen protects drivers from flying debris in crashes and does not expose their heads to restraining fence poles or other impacts as the one that killed Donahue.

They’re a little slower but are inching closer to Luyendyk’s record.  And, as was the case more than fifty years ago, they make incredible sounds and provide breathtaking racing.

And in four months they’ll be on the great track at Indianapolis.  History and memory will come together with the past and its legends.

(Photo Credits: Kelce—Facbook; Donahue car—Bob Priddy; New Sunoco Car—Ganassi Racing; Dennis Hamlin—NASCAR.com)

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The Gallup Organization has taken the national pulse as the year comes to an end and we see a country sharply divided on the policies of the President who will lead us into the celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday.

The Gallup poll shows only 24% of Americans are satisfied with the job Donald Trump has done in his first year back in office.  Most, 74%, are dissatisfied.

Those numbers are pretty astounding but here’s one that says more about our national mood, I think.

Only two percent had no opinion.

TWO PERCENT!!!

Can you recall a public opinion survey in which only two percent had no opinion on a question?

Can you recall a public opinion survey that showed such a sharp difference of opinion on the performance of a President?  Not even Richard Nixon on the eve of his resignation was this low—66%.  Harry Truman, in December, 1952—the month before left office was this far in the toilet—56%.  Jimmy Carter was at 55%. George W. Busch was unfavorably impressive to 61% of those surveyed.  Trump was at 62% unfavorable when he left office in 2021.

The ”undecideds” have been in single digits beginning with Ronald Reagan. Joe Biden was at 6%.

The most divisive President in all the years that public polling has measured voter satisfaction is so divisive that only two percent have no opinion. He continues to promise big goals that he has no plans for reaching.  He’s been doing it for a decade and a lot of people are tired of big talk, little results, and repeated lies about the present.

President Trump shows signs of being an albatross around Republican necks for the mid-term elections.  He still has time to make a big recovery but he hasn’t shown any signs of reversing his courses or suffering a sudden outbreak of truth. His poll numbers indicate a great many people who bought into the MAGA nonsense have had it with him. It is hard to think of how our country is greater because of his presence, unless you’re very, very rich.

He’s doing end of the year interviews with some media, even some of those he thinks are terrible and should have federal licenses yanked.  He was on WABC Radio in New York last week spouting one his favorite lies:

“Gasoline is down much more than they say. We’re down to $2 a gallon inmany states. It’s like a massive…it’s like a really big tax cut. What we’ve done with gasoline  and gasoline and energy generally is way down.”

One of the problems with interviewing Trump is that nobody seems to ask a followup question.  In his press gaggles on Air Force One or outside the White House, the reporters all have their questions they want him to answer (or often, not to answer). In my days as a Capitol reporter, I had my questions to ask quite often, too. But also quite often, I asked a question based on the answer to another reporter’s question.  If I had been interviewing Trump, I would have asked, “You’ve been saying for some time that gas in below $2 a gallon now in many states.  Which states are you talking about?”

He would not have been able to answer because he was lying as usual.  We checked Triple-A’s gas prices report Saturday afternoon after hearing Trump’s claim.  The lowest price for a gallon of regular is in Oklahoma where the average price was $2.24.4. It also is the only state below THREE dollars for a gallon of premium, $2.96.8.  The national average for a gallon of unleaded is $2.83.6.

Other prices are down, he says.  Twenty-four percent might agree but the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes down on the side of the 74%. The bureau’s most recent report showed beef roast is up 19.1% this year; Coffee costs 17.3% more and if you want to make a hamburger for dinner tonight, that ground beef will cost you 16.4% more than a year ago.

Other prices that are up:

Jewelry  13.1%; auto repair 9.6%; Bananas 7.9%; Electricity 6.8% (Trump really likes to tell people energy costs are down), and pet services are up 5.6%.  In all, 78 percent of the 170 items in that survey showed increases.

“Tariffs are creating great wealth,” Trump said. For the federal government, perhaps, because they’re being paid out of his taxpayers’ wallets, not by foreign countries, a truth he cannot bring himself to admit.

The economy is booming, he says.  Not for most of us. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says low-income Americans are running substantial credit card debts that will come due for payment soon—and we’ll see what happens with that part of our economy.

Not that Donald Trump cares one whit about that part of our economy. The Royal Bank of Canada says the top ten percent of wage earners in this country spent $20.3 trillion in the first six months of 2025. The other ninety percent spent $22.5 trillion. The Bank of America says rich people have seen their take home pay go up by four percent in the last year.  The little people have seen their go up by 1.4 percent. Corporate profits were up more than $166 billion in the third quarter. In the second quarter, they went up only $6.8 billion.

Unemployment moved up to 4.6% last month, but not among the people Trump hangs out with.

POLITICO reported recently that former St. Louis Federal Reserve Economist Christopher Waller (he’s one of the governors of the Federal Reserve now and, some think, on Trump’s short list to become the next Fed Chairman) old the Yale CEO Conference, “Wages aren’t moving. The surpluses are gone. The bank accounts are closer to, like, day-to-day paychecks. Everybody talks about how loose financial conditions [are]. They’re loose for everybody in this room. I guarantee it. If you go out to the sort of Main Street, middle America that I’m from? These people don’t see cheap financing. They look at high mortgage rates, high car loans, high credit card rates. They’re not saying financing is cheap.”

The Washington Post reported Satuday: “Corporate bankruptcies surged in 2025, rivaling levels not seen since the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, as import-dependent businesses absorbed the highest tariffs in decades. At least 717 companies filed for bankruptcy through November, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. That’s roughly 14 percent more than the same 11 months of 2024, and the highest tally since 2010.

“Companies cited inflation and interest rates among the factors contributing to their financial challenges, as well as Trump administration trade policies that have disrupted supply chains and pushed up costs.

“But in a shift from previous years, the rise in filings is most apparent among industrials — companies tied to manufacturing, construction and transportation. The sector has been hit hard by President Donald Trump’s ever-fluid tariff politics—which he’s long insisted would revive American manufacturing. The manufacturing sector lost more than 70,000 jobs in the one-year period ending in November, federal data shows.”

He can lie all he wants. The people such as the ones on Duane Swift Parkway or East Miller Street or Hayselton Drive in Jefferson City, Missouri don’t see things from gaudy gold-decorated oval offices or corner offices in Manhattan skyscrapers.

The people who used to work at JoAnn’s Fabrics and Hardee’s restaurant, even the UPS Store here—all closed now—have trouble buying what Trump is selling these days. But they’re not in Trump’s financial circle so he doesn’t care.

State government also is looking at layoffs because of declining state revenues resulting for elimination of the capital gains tax—something that’s good for people rich enough to have capital gains but bad for the people who do the daily work of state government and those who live paycheck to paycheck

The closest time Donald Trump ever comes to our level is when he gets a McDonald’s hamburger. Somebody in his Secret Service detail probably pays for it, so he doesn’t know about the price of hamburger. Donald Trump opens his wallet only to put money into it.

He’s bullish on 2026.  But not for you and me.

 

A DEI Christmas Hymn

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This is a night I look forward to every year—the Christmas Eve service at our church, an evening we are drawn together in peace and in awe. We’ll probably hear the choir sing a song or two from our Christmas cantata the Sunday before last, and we’ll join in congregational singing of familiar hymns, hear the Great Story told again, and head out in the inspired quiet that follows.  Maybe we’ll drive around a little bit and take in yard decorations—a trip down a street long known as “Christmas Tree Lane” perhaps. Some years it’s cold and some years there’s snow and it looks and feels like Christmas. But it’s Christmas regardless of weather, regardless of neighborhood, regardless of culture.

I love the magnificence of some of the traditional Christmas music but I think the hymn that carries a special Christmas message, particularly in these times, is my favorite or at least very close to the top of my list of favorites.

It is music written in 1951 by Alfred Burt, a minister who died much too young, with lyrics by his church’s secretary, Wihla Hutson—who provide lyrics for music the Burts, senior and junior, wrote for their cards each year.  The Burt hymns are gentle and lovely.  The Jimmy Joyce Singers put out an album of them more than fifty years ago. It’s on Youtube and the CD is still available.

Here’s a hymn that’s probably unacceptable to some. But I think it needs to be played, sung, and heard by everybody—because it’s about everybody.

We have several videos at the end to let you hear how various people and groups perform this universal song.

Some Children See Him   (Wihla Hutson and Alfred S. Burt  1951)

Some children see him lily white,                                                                                    The baby Jesus born this night.                                                                                      Some children see him lily white                                                                                      With tresses soft and fair.

Some children see him bronzed and brown,                                                                  The Lord of Heaven to earth come down.                                                                      Some children see him bronzed and brown                                                                    With dark and heavy hair.

Some children see Him almond-eyed,                                                                            This savior here we kneel beside.                                                                                  Some children see him almond-eyed                                                                              With skin of yellow hue.

Some children see Him dark as they,                                                                            Sweet Mary’s son to whom we pray.                                                                              Some children see Him dark as they,                                                                              And Ah! They love Him too.

The children in each different place                                                                                 Will see the baby Jesus’ face                                                                                         Like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace                                                                       And filled with holy light.

Oh, lay aside each earthly thing                                                                                      And with thy heart as offering                                                                                        Come worship now the infant king                                                                                  ‘Tis love that’s born tonight.

Carolyn Mawbry Chorale Some Children See Him arr. Jay Rouse

Bebe Williams sings: (1325) Some Children See Him (feat. Bebe Winans) – YouTube

Tennessee Ernie Ford: Some Children See Him

John Williams with the Boston Pops, the Boston Children’s Choir, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus: John Williams: The Carols of Alfred Burt

The complete album:

Jimmy Joyce – This Is Christmas: The Complete Collection Of Alfred S. Burt Carols in 4k (1964)

Sports: Missouri’s Miserable Monday; Beaultin’ Beau; Beaten Bears; and some Bad Basketball  

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(GOOOOOO CHIEFS!)— Kansas has won the biggest plum of its long-standing economic border war with Missouri, luring the Kansas City Chiefs west of our state line where they will play in a new and enclosed stadium starting in 2031. Their new playground will be in the same economic development area that houses the Kansas Speedway, where NASCAR and sometimes IndyCar run, a track originally proposed for an area near Kansas City International Airport but which lacked sufficient Missouri government enthusiasm to keep Kansas from grasping it and making it a place that has boomed economically and will boom even louder now.

The announcement that the Chiefs will move to Kansas means Missouri has been unable to hang on to a third NFL team—the Cardinals and the Rams from St. Louis and the Chiefs from Kansas City. All three have bailed out of Missouri in disputes about state support for new stadiums.

Kansas is going to build a domed stadium project costing $3-million near the Kansas Speedway and The Legends retail district. There also will be a $300 million practice facility in Olathe, Kansas—ending St. Joseph’s role as the Chiefs training camp.

Shortly before the announcement in Topeka, Kansas legislators unanimously voted to allow STAR bonds to be issued for as much as 70% of the costs of the stadium and a mixed-use district that will be developed around it. Tax revenues on liquor and sales generated within the district will pay off the bonds.

Chiefs owner Clark Hunt says the only thing that will change will be the location of Chiefs games. Otherwise, he said, the fan experience will remain the same and the team will compete for more championships.

Missouri has lost three NFL teams—the Cardinals, Rams, and now the Chiefs, all because it was not as aggressive as the teams’ owners wanted the state to be in financing new stadiums.  Kansas City also lost a major league baseball team, the Athletics.

It’s a huge economic loss to this side of the state line.  Governor Mike Kehoe had called the legislature into special session last summer to put together a bond package covering up to half of the costs of a new stadium or a massive overhaul of Arrowhead, plus $50 million more in tax credits for the Arrowhead project and a new stadium downtown for the Royals, plus financial help from local government.

But the financial help from local government evaporated last year when Jackson County voters gave a strong “no” vote to extending a local sales tax that would have paid for those projects.

Now, the Royals are in play and there is a report that “an affiliate” of the team has taken a mortgage on land in Overland Park, Kansas.

(SO, WHAT NOW?)—Well, there’s always the UFL.  St. Louis has its poor substitute for an NFL team. The domed stadium named for a now defunct airline where the Rams used to play is the home of the Battlehawks. Whether there still will be an Arrowhead Stadium for the Kansas City Whatevers, if the UFL expands, is undetermined.

(CHIEFS TODAY)—The Chiefs might have spoiled the Tennessee Titans’ chances of getting the first pick in the NFL draft, giving the Titans their first win in a dozen home games and only their third victory all season. Kansas City played most of the game with its third-string quarterback, Chris Oladokun, calling signals after Mahomes backup Gardner Minchew limped to the sidelines and then to the dressing room with a second-quarter knee injury. It was Oladokun’s first NFL game. He’s been on the taxi squad for the last couple of years.

The pitiful 26-9 loss guarantees the Chiefs with their first losing season since 2012, before the Andy Reid era began. The chiefs now are losers in four straight games, and six of the last seven. The Chiefs went into the game with the league’s eighth ranked defense and gave up 376 yards to rookie quarterback Cam Ward, who broke Marcus Mariota’s team record for most passing yards in their first season.

The Chiefs had only 133 yards of total offense and only nine first downs; the Titans had 22 first downs and . The Titans ran 70 plays; the chiefs only 43.  Oladokun finished 11/16 for 111 yards.

The Chiefs entered the game in a poor physical situation. Patrick Mahomes and right tackle Jawaan Taylor are on injured reserve and nine players were declare out, including five starters.

Things appear likely only be worse this week. They play the Broncos on Christmas night

(MIZPORTAL)—The instability of college football caused by the transfer portal that allows athletes to become carpetbagging mercenaries hired by schools looking for a golden arm or unstoppable legs, in particular, is a big deal for the Missouri Tigers.

Beau Pribula has turned into one of those carpetbaggers who found a bigger paycheck at Missouri than he was likely to get at Penn State couldn’t wait until after a bowl game helped the team get to before he told Mizzou he was looking for a greener pasture.

Pribula wasn’t so bad at Missouri that he wouldn’t likely do better with a second year in the system—although the system departed when the Offensive Coordinator Kirby Moore found a portal that he could go through, too—but Pribula didn’t exactly show that he was the next great NFL clipboard quarterback to be produced by Mizzou.

So Missouri becomes just another team headed to a bowl game with a patchwork lineup because some guys would rather go campus-shopping than play another game in their latest school’s colors.

(MIZOC)—Missouri’s new offensive coordinator is bringing experience from one of the Big Ten’s elite teams.  Chip Lindsey is moving to Missouri from the University of Michigan. He’s been a college coach for a dozen years in increasingly higher circles. His South Carolina team ranked 7th in the nation in total offense in 2023, averaging almost 500 yards a game. This year at Michigan, his teams averaged almost 400 yards

He and Mizzou and Eli Drinkwitz have some acquaintances with each other. During his three-year head coaching stint at Troy, his team lost to Missouri and Coach Barry Odom at Faurot Field 42-10 and fell to Drinkwitz’s Appalachian State 48-13. He has helped develop three quarterbacks who’ve made it to the NFL including Patriots starter Drake Maye,  and Jarrett Stidham and Nick Mullens. It’s not known what his role will be for the bowl game next weekend.

(THE BOWL)—The preparation for the game by freshman quarterback Matt Zollars will be different by game time. He and Coach Drinkwitz both know that he’s not a fill-in for the next game. He’s number one and the pre-game preparations are different.  This game and the spring practices can put him in a commanding position for 2026.  He has shown good potential as Pribula’s substitute for three games this year. The Gator Bowl could be the game in which he reduces or erases the word “potential.”

One thing to watch for—because his coach will be watching—-is how well he performs on third downs, passing downs. “You look at our four losses this year, you look at our three losses last year, look at our two losses the year before that—our inability to consistently convert third downs in critical games or throw the ball has been a major factor in our losses,” said Drinkwitz.

Virginia is looking for its first 11-win season. The Cavaliers go into the game having won two of their last three. Missouri’s season flattened out as it began facing top 10 fellow SEC Schools. They go into the wining with three losses in their last five game.

(NOT RUNNING AWAY)—-Although he could write his own check elsewhere, Ahmad Hardy is staying at Mizzou.  He admits he hadn’t gotten any offers: “I think they know I’m a Tiger, so they ain’t hit me up.”

That means Missouri will have an All-American running back for the new offensive coordinator.

Hardy would have been among the hottest properties if he wanted to go portalizing. His 1500 yards-plus performance—before a bowl game—ranks him 28th among all Missouri career rushers.  Another season such as this one could get him to third on the all-time list. He’ll likely have to stick around for another year to move past Larry Roundtree (3720) and Brad Smith (4289 who, as a running/passing quarterback also threw for 8799 yards.).

But—-the Tigers’ one-two backfield punch this season might not be complete next year. Running back Jamal Roberts, who gained an average of 6.2 years every time he got the ball this year (so far) is in play as a possible portal entrant. Coach Drinkwitz hopes some moneyed supporters will cough up a lot mor NIL funding to keep him at Faurot Field in 2026.

(MOSTPORTAL)—Missouri State Quarterback Jacob Clark, who finished his college career with a 34-28 loss to Arkansas State in a bowl game in Texas, has little good to say about the portal process.

He was sacked eight times as the Bears played without their starting left tackle Ebubedike Nnabugwu, the Conference USA’s best pass protector, who is portal bound. Also missing was right tackle Erick Cade, has played out his eligibility. Defensive end D. J. Wesolak took himself out of the lineup to protect himself for the portal. Starting center Cash Hudson, also reportedly headed for the portal, DID play but left the game in the fourth quarter with an injury.

Clark pointed to Texas-San Antonio coach Jeff Traylor whose team will play Florida International the day after Christmas without almost twenty players who are going portal shopping to show the absurdity the portal is creating in college football. Traylor has blamed “all of the tampering and the agents and coaches,” who are promising “incredible” financial deals to lure players into the portal. “I hate it because I really want to coach them in a bowel game, but they’re getting leveraged out of it…I never thought we’d be punished for making a bowl game by being leveraged.”

“You’re talking about teams that have $26 million to $40 million, and the number’s just too big, and who knows if they’re being told the truth? It’s sad, it really is sad,” he continued.

“There’s no such thing as tampering. Coaches talk to players, agents talk to players. Oh, then turn them in, coach. You think those players are going to give me the coach that’s actually talking to them? Why? It’s driving the price up. The more they get driven up, the price goes up higher and higher. As long as there’s people gonna pay it, who’s going to stop it? What’s going to stop this? What’s going to stop it? Only the freedom of process is going to stop because when there’s no money left, what are we going to all do?”

—a highly pertinent question.

Missouri State and Arkansas State both finish the year at 7-6.

(MIZSIX)—CBS’s Mike Renner thinks he has identified the top 150 potential NFL draft picks—and sixTigers are on the list. The last time six Mizzou players were drafted was 2023; the record is seven, in 1981.

Linebacker Josiah Trotter is the highest-rated Tiger at number 74. Defensive Tackle Chris McClellan is 85, IOL Cayden Green is 90. In the last third are Edge Rusher Damon Wilson at 105, WR Kevin Coleman at 110 and IOL Keagan Trost, 141.

The Winter Solstice means we are one step closer to the magical day when Spring training starts.

(BRAGGARTS)—-First, we lost the Chiefs. Then we lost a basketball game to Illinois—and it was the worst loss by either team in the history of the so-called “Braggin’ Rights” game between Missouri and Illinois.

Illinois “outed” the Tigers everywhere—offense, defense, rebounding—in all facets of the game. Toward the end, the biggest question was whether the Fighting Illinois would double-up on the Tepid Tigers—and they almost did, 91-48.

Missouri heads into the SEC schedule 10-3 with losses to Illinois, Notre Dame, and Kansas, losses that could play a role in a couple of months when it comes time to decide if Missouri is good enough for post-season play..

Junior point guard Anthony Robinson talked on Sunday about a ‘TPD’ mindset, meaning tough, physical and disruptive, saying that would be a key to playing their brand of basketball and finding success against Illinois.

The Illini out-rebounded Missouri 43-24. They outscored the Tigers on second-chance opportunities 29-5. The Illinois defense produced miserable Missouri shooting—29% from the field, only 27% from the arc (6 of 22 from the three-point line).

Life won’t get easier with the start of the SEC schedule on January 3.  Florida.  The Seminoles are ranked 22nd this week.

(CARDS)—The St. Louis Cardinals have taken their first deep plunge into the trading market by sending catcher/first baseman Willson Contreras to the Red Sox for three right-handed pitchers: Hunter Dobbins, Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita. Contreras waived his no-trade clause.

Dobbins was 4-1 last year for Boston. Eleven of his thirteen games were starts. He fanned 45 in 61 innings and had a 4.13 ERA before he tore a knee ligament early in July and had season-ending surgery.  Shipping off Contreras opens the door for Alec Burleson to become a fulltime first baseman. Dobbins takes Contrera’s spot on the 40-man roster.

Fajardo won’t be 20 until the 2026 season is almost over. He was with two teams in the minors last season, posted a 2-8 record but had a 2.93 ERA and whiffed 147 batters in 122 innings. Aita will be 23 next June.  He’s seen as a potential starter. He also was with two teams last year, went 5-7 with an ERA of 3.98.

Until the Contreras trade, the Cardinals had been making only small waves. Left Fielder Matt Koperniak was put on waivers, went unclaimed, and is headed back to Memphis for a third season. He hit .309 at Memphis in 2024 but had a disappointing ’25 when he dropped to only .246.

The Redbirds signed free agent pitcher Dustin May to a one year, $12.5 million contract. May missed three weeks last season with an elbow nerve inflammation and was 7-11 with a 4.96 ERA in 23 starts for Boston and Los Angeles. He’s struggled with arm problems throughout his career and had Tommy John surgery in 2021. He is 19-20 with a 3.86 ERA in 57 starts and 14 relief appearances in a six-year career.

(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals seem to be taking their time in the free agent/trade markets. This past week, they traded relievers with the Phillies. The Royals added veteran left-handed pitcher Matt Strahm, who came over from the Phillies in a trade for pitcher Jonathan Bowlan.

Strahm went 62.1 innings in 66 games, was 2-3 with six saves and a 2.74 ERA. Bowlan has been in 50 games in his two-year career, 1-2/3.86 last year with 45 Ks in 44.1 innings.

Now, a little tragedy, and some and history—.

(NASCAR)—Federal investigators say it will be quite a while to figure out why the plane of retired NASCAR Cup driver Greg Biffle crashed, killing Biffle, his family and others. Biffle, who was popular in the garages and was known for his philanthropic work, was named one of NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers in its first 75 years. He won 19 of his 515 races, was in the top five 92 times and finished 175 races in the top ten. He was the runner-up for the 2004 Cup championship and finished in the top ten in points six times.

(INDYCAR)—There are few higher-ups in big-time sports who spend more time relating to fans and sometimes getting their hands dirty while doing it than Doug Boles, the President of IndyCar and of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Most often, he’s the guy looking cool in a blue suit in a crowd of one, two, or three hundred thousand people in verrry casual, if not sometimes outrageous, summer attire. The fact that he got a journalism degree before becoming a lawyer (three of my former Missourinet colleagues did the same thing, so we relate on that level, too) means he can speak board room lingo as well as he comfortably can wander among the hordes of folks who like to mix sunshine, hot dogs, beer, and really, really fast cars on hot summer weekends.

He finds adventure outside the office and inside the speedway and enthusiastically shares it with Speedway fans and worshippers with videos that he calls “Behind the Bricks.”

The track is called “The Brickyard” because it once was paved with millions of bricks that sometimes cause problems for the modern paved squared oval where cars have touched 240 mph before making a left turn. There still were a few feet of bricks on the main straightaway when my parents took me to the track for the first time.

His enthusiasm about the old place is shown in three recent episodes that shows us “under’ the bricks—a project to repave part of the track when some the old bricks shifted and caused a bump that cars going four miles a minute shouldn’t encounter, especially in a turn.  The project turned into an archaeological expedition that recalled the earliest days of the track and became three podcasts that mix technology, history, and the guy who runs the whole place.

Bing Videos

Behind the Bricks: Turn 2 Repave, Part 2

Behind the Bricks: Turn 2 Repave, Part 3

It’s grey and it’s cold and we’ve had a bad day in sports in Missouri. It seems like a long time before we’ll write again about daring men and women doing remarkable things when the asphalt over the old bricks is hot again. But Doug reminds us that the good times are waiting.

(Photo Credits: Stadium, Hardy—Instagram)