The Best Super Bowl

It says something about my age, but I have lived through all 52 Super Bowls. I went to three of them, including the defeat of the Buffalo Bills in Minneapolis.

Thus, I deem myself to have some credentials when it comes to judging the quality of this national sporting event. I would put last Sunday’s defeat of the New England Patriots by the upstart Philadelphia Eagles right at the top.

In the paraphrased words of the great sports philosopher, Yogi Berra, this game truly “wasn’t over until it was over.” Because of his incredible skill as a quarterback, Tom Brady kept the Pats in the  game until the final throw when we saw the incredible hulk, Rob Gronkowski, jump high in the end zone to catch a Brady “Hail Mary” pass which everyone expected Gronkowski to catch… everyone, that is, except the Philadelphia defense. Somehow those green-shirted Eagles players put enough hands and bodies in the air to deflect the pass… and the Eagles won.

We saw some things in that game which we will probably never see again—a quarterback (Foles) catching a touchdown pass, over 500 yards of offense by each team, and, yes, perhaps the last Super Bowl for Tom Brady though he sounds like he will keep playing until he is 50 years old.

Before the game, someone in our family sent a photo of a cartoon by David Sipress to our family football group text.  The cartoon showed an old guy, like me, sitting on a couch in front of a TV, speaking to a young boy and saying: “Remember—we’re not Eagles fans or Patriots fans. We’re “Tom Brady Somehow Gets Humiliated fans.”

My seven-year-old grandson immediately picked up on it, and kept reminding me of it during the game. Last year, while visiting him in Washington, D.C., an SUV passed our car on the highway honking its horn. As it zipped by us, written in the dirt of its rear window, during the time Brady had been suspended for a few games, were the words: “Free Tom Brady!” The driver had seen the Buffalo Bills sticker on my car, and was just trying to rub-it-in a bit. There has never been a quarterback who has beaten the Bills more than Tom Brady.

Admittedly, I was rooting for the Eagles last week just because of that but, in my heart, I expected that the Patriots would find a way win the Super Bowl. (One member of our family was so irate when it looked like the refs might reverse a Philadelphia touchdown, that he texted in that if it were reversed, he would never watch football again!) So, when both teams put on a show which was one for the ages and which went way beyond my usual bedtime…I had to stay up and watch it. Out of the 50 some Super Bowls I have watched, this had to be the best ever!


Rolland Kidder
Stow, NY

Focus on Capitol Hill

Usually, in Washington, the focus for a legislative agenda starts in the White House, especially early in an administration. (This is particularly true when the majority in both houses of the federal legislature is of the same political party as that of the President.) But not this time.

It was the Republican majorities in the House and Senate that really got the tax cut bill going and kept it going. The President sort of sat back and gave them a blank check. He just wanted a “win” and what that would look like was pretty much left up to legislators on Capitol Hill.

Passing legislation is comparatively easy where tax cuts are the issue… everyone likes a tax cut and nobody really worries much as to how to pay for it.

Passing legislation is comparatively easy where tax cuts are the issue… everyone likes a tax cut and nobody really worries much as to how to pay for it. However, when it comes to other matters like putting a national budget together, raising the debt ceiling, dealing with immigration issues, trying to find money for an infrastructure bill, etc.—that is tougher to do. Trying to find a consensus among 435 Congressman and 100 Senators on tough issues is akin to trying to “herd cats.”

According to press reports, the retreat held at Camp David by the President and Republican leadership soon after the New Year revealed the problem of “focus.” The legislative leaders had come to talk with the President about a legislative agenda but, unfortunately, the timing was just a day or so after the publication of the “Fire and Fury” book describing an author’s experience inside the White House. The President’s mind was on the allegations in that book, so not much happened in forging a unified legislative agenda to say nothing of dealing with a pending shut down of the federal government.

Though Republicans control both houses of the Congress, they are having a tough time governing. Their party is fractured between the Tea Party/Freedom Caucus and a more moderate/conservative/traditional Republican brand. Democratic votes were needed to keep the government running. Yet, that doesn’t mean the Democrats had an easy time of it. Conservative columnist David Brooks probably said it best when he wrote cryptically after the vote to restart the government: “Democrats, when you lose a negotiation to a President who doesn’t know his own position, you’ve really impressed me.” The Democrats have their own divisions between the more liberal “progressives” and the “pragmatists” who come from red, purple and rural states.

So where do we go from here?

So where do we go from here? I see more short term “continuing resolutions” needed to keep the government running. Somehow, the Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are going to have to find common ground and initiate legislation. The usual leadership expected from a White House is not going to be coming from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Senate Minority Leader Schumer described negotiating with the White House as trying to negotiate with “jello.” Senate Majority Leader McConnell has also expressed frustration when trying to get decisions from the White House. Maybe it is time for these two leaders of the Senate to negotiate with each other, find and pass legislation which has bi-partisan support, and then send that to the President. He will probably sign it for another “win.”

Rolland Kidder
Stow, NY