If you enjoy it or don’t, I don’t care. And, that feeling is new to me for the first time in my life. But I’d love your feedback nonetheless. This is for my own healing and, honestly, to see if writing is a route I could take in my career. The last time I wrote for fun was in 10th grade and I felt I was alright at it then. I’m hoping just to write my thoughts and opinions, but I do want to write about Sports, Politics, Taylor Swift, and my journey into and out of, and maybe back into my Faith. I imagine some posts will be lengthy and others a few hundred words. Politics will be interesting, as I’ve always had strong opinions and views but struggle to share honestly with people who disagree.

Further, I’ve always felt that I can see the ebbs and flow of movements, ideas, and biblical narratives as they relate from the past to the modern day and how they can inform us of where to go. That’s not saying the Bible or any of my opinions are ever going to be wholly accurate or true. I don’t even care what beliefs you hold about my thoughts, but I do believe there is great wisdom offered in the historical that would be wise to use as a tool for fixing the problems of today. I’m writing generally from Macro-Level perspectives and not on the Micro-Level or details unless I believe I possess some knowledge of the more detailed. I’ll start with sports with a dose of Taylor Alison Swift:

I’m heavily conflicted this year on who to root for in the Super Bowl.

On one side we have Kyle Shanahan, a great mastermind who should get his credit, a type of storyline I’m eager to root for that was born out of my love for Tony Romo and my miserable decision to love the Cowboys as a child. Tony Romo was a great quarterback. I’ll go toe-to-toe with anyone on that any day. He had the Seahawks game, and yeah, he choked pretty damn hard. Magnified by the fact that he’s a Cowboy and won’t ever be judged fairly (as is similar to all presidents beyond  George Washington). Romo, in this unfairness, became known as a choker. He put up MVP-Quality numbers many seasons and was perhaps the most clutch 4th quarter player I’ve ever watched, and I watched nearly all his games. Romo should not have won an MVP, I agree. Still, he should’ve been credited for being the Cowboy’s only reason for relevance during my youth, particularly during the long and miserable Jason Garrett years. He had SuperBowl talent but never the team to make it and never the greatness of many of his peers. Shanahan, as a coach, is delving down a similar dangerous path of possessing the necessary SuperBowl talent without ever getting his credit for the 49ers’ relevance during his tenure. 

Yes, we have the Brock Purdy and Mr. Irrelevant storyline, a cast of talent on both sides of the ball, and CMC may be one of the best of all time. But, these 49ers are on the verge of becoming the same type of team that those Bills were when they were always the best or in the top 2, yet couldn’t achieve glory. Shanahan is teetering on the edge of becoming the actual Mr.Irrelevant of importance in the league. While he’s young by NFL standards, he could wind up following a Jeff Fisher storyline of reaching his prime early and slowly fading, but worse than Fisher because he won’t even have the first ring. Many coaches have been great, and many are only remembered when their current team-based records get broken in years to come and NFL seasons continue to lengthen. For me, it’s easy to root for Shanahan because of what I know of Tony Romo. 

On the other side, we have my Dave-Portnoy-Esque LOVE since 2011 for Taylor Swift and her voice that ages like a fine-fine wine. (I promise a full Taylor Swift post will come soon) The storyline is simply too cute to ignore. And, regardless of what you think about her or her beliefs (which you should be able to separate from her talent, but I digress), she HAS been good for football in revenue. Even better, the NFL hasn’t gone more woke because of it, which was likely the concern. Even further than that, Taylor Swift is good for America in a way we desperately need. I’ll explain: 

The only time a Real Swiftie ever looks down on another Swiftie is when a Swiftie puts down a Real Swiftie. Because, there is NO SUCH THING as a Real Swiftie who puts down another Swiftie. It’s a perfect family, with a growing cast of diversity that’s moving in the opposite direction of current culture. Current cultural diversity is opening up to more Left-Leaning ideas and people with steady resistance, but the Swiftie Fanbase is actually opening up to more Right-Leaning ideas and people with hardly any resistance (Yes, Fox News is mad about it, but more Right-Leaning football fans are enjoying Taylor than ever before). If anything, regardless of your political ideologies or beliefs, this is a small-but-there signal that America still has unique and unintentional ways of bringing different sets of people together during times of intense division.

For the actual FOOTBALL storyline, we have someone pursuing greatness that only the likes of Tom Brady and Michael Jordan have ever achieved. Winning the most championships at the top level of American competition without tying multiple others for that distinction while simultaneously raising the standard of what it means to be the very best. Sure, there are great names all over the place in sports history and in our current day and age. Lebron James, who is probably better than Jordan if they played at the same time, but couldn’t manufacture the same amount of rings in his own era. Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers. All three of those guys, on any given day during their primes, could beat Brady if they played their best. It wasn’t that Brady was technically better or more skilled. He certainly wasn’t even a tick below those guys in talent, but if Madden Ratings went up from 99 to 100, Brady would earn a 99.7, and those three guys would earn a 99.8. Brady was the best, like Jordan, because he manufactured the most rings.

And while many names atop the Championship boards of other respective American sports are heavyweights in their own rights, they didn’t achieve the glory of being the greatest at one of the top watched sports in history. The field of MLB greats is crowded now more than ever, with no clear GOAT anymore, thanks to Shohei Ohtani, and it is mired with controversy over the state of competition during Babe’s years, scandals, and drugs that enhance performance. The problem with baseball is that nobody besides those two guys has been the best at two positions simultaneously. We didn’t even know a Babe Ruth player could ever exist again. And despite all of the Aaron Judge’s, Tony Gwynn’s, Cal Ripken’s, Pete Rose’s, and Ichiro’s, these guys can only be the best at one or two facets of baseball at any given time. It’s part of what makes baseball so beautiful, and while the pitch clock sucks for long-time MLB fans, it’s a necessary evil for the future generations to stay more engaged. But don’t get me started on the Universal DH or the runner starting on second base in Extra Innings, yuck. 

That’s a long, roundabout way of saying that Patrick Mahomes is already on the cusp of being considered the GOAT. Sure, he’s got more rings to get, but he has already raised the level of talent for what it means to be the best passer of all time, and he’s been a recurring nightmare in the Super Bowl nearly every year for opposing teams in a way that only Brady was. Like a good credit score, many factors play into determining the GOAT, but you could feasibly have a high credit utilization (bad for your credit) while paying your bills on time every month (good for your credit) and achieve a score of 800+. It’s harder to get there with that credit utilization, but if you save effectively, invest effectively, and can comfortably pay your bills, you can do it. For Mahomes, his high credit utilization hardly exists, but if there’s anything he’s begun to falter in it has been his consistency in games that the Chiefs feel are necessary to win. And again, that’s hardly existed for enough time to cause concern about his status as a potential competitor to Tom Brady as the GOAT. 

Mahomes is like how a good friend on my high school golf team explained it to me one year. He was a scratch golfer at 14 while I only broke into the high 80s, and without any consistency, during my senior year. He said:

“If I play my best, I know I can hit 18 greens-in-regulation, but rarely anyone play’s their absolute best. If I hit the ball at the best of my talent every time and make the right decisions, I could hit -7 under par.”

It always stuck with me, because we’ve all had a moment in a sport, career, or life where we left at the end of the day knowing we performed to the absolute best of our ability. And we use those days, sometimes negatively but hopefully positively, to set a standard for what we expect of ourselves. 

But, I think Mahomes and Brady are unique in that, when they play at their best, it’s not always because they hit all 18 greens-in-regulation, or in football terms: because they hit all the open receivers as expected. No, it’s like the time I watched Tiger Woods nearly drop his ball 98 yards out, catch himself, and drop it two yards further back to give himself what appeared to be a worse lie at a slope. Only to then hit a perfect shot that rolled directly in for an birdie. If he hadn’t done that, he certainly would’ve been on the green without a doubt and had a nice par-saving putt, but he knew precisely what adjustment to make at exactly the right moment, even if the lie and slope told him it wasn’t the likely best spot to drop. 

Mahomes and Brady both do and did the same. Time and time again, both of them have made decisions that had a lower probability of success but were likely the best decision to win the game or the moment on the field. That secret sauce of setting a standard, re-evaluating, and having an innate sense of what to do at the right moment is what sets them apart as the GOAT and likely future GOAT. The distinction I can perceive between Brady and Mahomes, and the reason why I believe Mahomes will become the greatest of all time, is that Mahomes has Brady’s secret sauce but also has the technical talent that just barely surpasses what Brady could do if he played at his very best on a given Sunday. In my eyes, if both guys played their best-ever game against each other with an equal defense,  Mahomes would win more often than not. Until he has more rings, though, Brady remains the Greatest Of All Time.  

When I drive an hour and a half to meet my Dad for SuperBowl this year and meet him at a brewery, as has become tradition, I’ll be wearing my Era’s Tour sweatshirt in support of Taylor Swift and as my only Chiefs-Related gear to signal that I’m rooting for the Chiefs because just as I loved watching Tom Brady achieve greatness, I also want to watch Mahomes achieve greatness too. But I also want to root for the team that has trouble getting over the hump, and a disrespected Quarterback, all while likely being the better all-around team for yet another SuperBowl. 

Thank you for reading. I’m looking forward to writing on a consistent basis once again.