Officially Moved

We have officially moved!  We had our final walk through in our old apartment.  Technically we have been living down in Hastings since the 21st because that was when we ha all of our big furniture brought down here, but now we only have one set of keys.

It's not a house (unfortunately) but a big step up in that we are renting a townhouse.  Tons more room, no more people living above us, a washer and dryer!  So it's new and exciting.  We do have a big hill to climb in unpacking everything, but that we can do one box at a time.

55/120

Rules Are Meant to Be Broken or Changed

In my previous post, I wrote about how football has really become less important to me in my sport watching endeavors.  A good portion of the reasoning behind it is because of the slow nature of the game.  The time between plays, the dragging out by using up all the time on the time clock, etc.  I have come up with a few ideas that I feel would improve the flow of the game and make it more appealing.  

Change the play clock.  This is a big one for me because if there is one thing that really irritates me is a team using up all of the play clock before snapping the ball.  I know a good portion of the time they are waiting for the ball to be snapped is spent watching the defense to see what they are going to do and then changing the play.  Or if it is near the end of the game, and the winning team has the ball, they are running out the clock.  If you change the play clock to twenty five seconds instead of forty, it would speed the game up just a little bit.  Fifteen seconds doesn't sound like a lot until you start to compound it over the course of the game.  

Less time outs, less challenges.  I don't really like coach's challenges.  I like even less the fact that they get two.  It makes a slow game even slower.  However, with all the instant replay, thousands of cameras, and even more angles in which we can see the play, you know that it needs to stay in the game because of all the scutiny the officiating gets.  I'm a big fan of allowing just one challenge per team per game.  If they are successful with their challenge, they are given one more.  Or, if you really want to get creative, give a team twenty challenges at the start of the season, but with no opportunity to earn more.  That would put more strategy into the entire season instead of just one game.

Eliminate quarters, move to halves.  You would eliminate two times in which the game stops, play is halted, and momentum of the teams (whether it is the defense or offense playing well).  This idea would never happen, but it's just a thought.  

The final idea, and my favorite idea, is instead of having a play clock of forty (or even twenty five) seconds is to give the offensive team three minutes to score or turn the ball over.  Think about how exciting the 'two minute drill' is during any given game.  The time between plays is shorter, the players pick up the pace to getting onto the scrimmage line, the fans really get into the game.  If, by the end of the three minutes, the team has not scored or turned the ball over, the opponent gets the ball just like it was a turnover on downs.  People look at the 'two minute drill' as a good way to analyze the team.  On both the offensive and defensive side.  How quickly can your team adjust to an uptempo opponent?  With less standing around, you can see which team or players are game ready and in shape.  How quickly can you get your substitutions on and off the field?  

54/120

Loss of Appeal

Football season has started.  And I don't really care.  Maybe I don't care as much as everyone else does.  Let's go with that.  I will still sit down and watch a game, especially if the Lions are on, but I don't plan my day or evening around it.  For example, Thursday night there was a game on but I was more focused on watching baseball.  Sure, I flipped over to the football game during commercial breaks, but that was about it.  Part of it was because the teams that were playing didn't interest me and part of it was because baseball season is winding down and the games being played mostly have playoff implications.  Also, baseball is better.

This is not to say that I am going to just stop watching football.  I just don't find any joy in sitting down for three hours to watch start and stop action.  One of the main drawbacks of football, to me, is the fact that after the play happens, there is a lot of standing around before the next play.  I know a lot of it is the offense studying the defense to see what they are going to do and then adjusting the play from there.  I get that.  But one way to speed up the game is to have a shorter play clock.  Instead of standing around for close to a minute (I know it sounds like a minimal amount of time), why not make the play clock twenty five seconds or thirty?  Now, most people will argue that baseball is a slow pace game.  And it is.  And most people will ask, well how long is there between pitches?  It seems like a long time of just standing there.  In actuality, the average time between pitches is eighteen to nineteen seconds.  Don't get me wrong, there are lots of things that MLB can and should do to speed up the game.  In fact, there is a rule that states that if the bases are empty, the pitcher has twelve seconds to throw a pitch or else the umpire will call a 'ball'.  It is one of those rules that isn't really enforced.

I have two thoughts to speed up the game of football.  One idea is to reduce the time on the play clock.  The NFL play clock is forty seconds.  Again, it doesn't sound like a lot of time, but when you are anticipating the play to begin (from the viewer's angle) that standing around seems to last forever.  If you take a look at the Canadian Football League (CFL), they use a twenty second play clock.  Now doesn't that just sound like it would speed the game up?  They also have a neat little rule in the CFL that if a delay of game penalty is called after the 'three minute warning' (the CFL version of the NFL's two minute warning), it results in a loss of downs if it occurs during the first or second down.  That is very cool.

The other thought I had was to give the offensive team three or four minutes to score or turn the ball over.  Think about how a team approaches their play during a 'two minute drill'.  Announcers, commentators, and fans all talk about how well a team does during a two minute drill.  All of a sudden, they are calling plays quickly to get down the field to score at the end of the half or end of the game.  It speeds up all of a sudden.  Instead of three plays of three and four yards, they are throwing fifteen to twenty yard passes.  It gets more entertaining.  Why not implement that into the game entirely?  After the kick off and the team's first snap, start a running clock of four minutes (because I'm generous) and if they fail to score or turn it over (whether by downs or defensive play) it is given over to the other team at the spot of the ball.  The four minute clock would then start over after the first snap.

There are variables to this thought.  Time outs, challenges, injured player, substitutions.  All kinds of things.  And I could go on and on, but that would make for a more lengthy post (a future post maybe?).  Sports are suppose to be fun and exciting and are suppose to capture the attention of the fans.  And in an age where we demand results RIGHT NOW football really misses the mark.  Again, don't get me wrong my favorite sport of baseball has tons of room to improve the speed of play, but that's not what I'm focusing on right now.  That's for another time and place. 

53/120

Elongated Move

We get the keys to our new place in eleven days.  Exciting stuff.  It's weird, though, because I look around our current apartment and still see the majority of our stuff out and being used.  Some might look at it and think we haven't done much, but in actuality..well, no.  We really haven't.  I was going to try and paint a picture of productivity, but I can't.  And here's the reason why.  We have a two week overlap between the time we can move into our new place and the time we need to be out of our old place.  That creates a little bit of a predicament. 

When we left Kansas, it was easy because we knew we had to have everything packed up and ready to go because we were leaving the state.  We had a rental truck and had to pack everything into it the day before leaving.  There was a date in concrete of packing.  This time around, we don't have that.  We are going to be making trips back and forth with our vehicles.  Days off will just mean multiple trips, and that is just fine because we can take breaks, and will have all day.  When we moved from Kansas, we just wanted it to be over and done with. 

One problem is figuring out what we can live without for this two week overlap.  We have packed up non-essentials such as books, games and movies.  Winter clothes that were already in boxes are going to be making a trip early on as well.  We have a pantry full of shelf stable food, but we have to plan out meals and make sure we don't pack away something that we might want to eat during this span.  Looking at all the dishes we have, how many can we pack away and still function without primarily using paper plates?  Same goes for pots and pans, although we use them all so they might be hanging out here for a bit. 

And the other thing to consider is when do we stop living in our current place and start living in the new one?  When do we move all the furniture down there?  A week before our lease is up?  Or just a few days ahead of time?  One of the bad things about apartment living and moving is having to make the place look presentable to get the deposit back.  It's especially annoying because you know they are just going to come in and paint and replace the carpets, but you just have to do it to get that money back. 

52/120