Imagine, if you will, a closed-door meeting in an NFL team executive office.  The owner is there, presiding.  The coach is there, along with the vice president, the general manager, the head of player personnel, the head of operations and several of the top player development/scouting professionals.

The team has an astronomical budget — both assets and debts alike — but the team’s success is declining.  Other teams perpetually are getting bigger, faster, more successful.

The group discusses a turnaround …. “How can we make smarter decisions to become better?”

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Branding

I had not been awake for long the morning that a text came in telling me that my friend’s new PingWi-Fi t-shirt had been delivered, way way up north in the top of the Texas Panhandle.

In my groggy state, it seemed appropriate that I should give him some BS line to make it seem like the shirt was really special.  “Cool.  You know that is the only PingWi-Fi shirt within 200 miles of the Capulin Volcano. (Capulin, yes, a volcano in New Mexico, just across the Texas border, lies dormant … but is an awesome photo opp.)  So anywho … “dormant volcano nearby” — that was the best, seat-of-my-pants response I could come up with to make the shirt seem mo special in Dalhart, Texas.

Ha … about as much planning went into that response as the actual shirt design itself.

You see, for a couple of months and numerous e-mails back and forth with two graphic designers, the concepts for the Ping shirts just weren’t coming together.  Then one day …

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TD Celebration, Called Back

“Never give up on your team.”  I preached that to my kids for years, the kids that I coached, or anyone who would listen.  It makes me a little furious when I see fans leaving the stadium before the game ends … even if their team is behind by three scores or whatever. Never give up.  Plus … just support your team, through the good and bad … (Ha! I guess some people never saw a famous Mike Leach come-from-behind-win … I digress …)

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Chapman Under Center

Young players and fans attending the 2017 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl potentially may have learned the military term “hunker down.” … Talk about two quarterbacks playing under center!  

Both Ahmad Bradshaw for the Army West Point Black Knights and Christian Chapman of the San Diego State University Aztecs at times hunkered down “old school,” bending the knees and crouching under the center … barely visible to the defense … and the cameras.

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Rooftop Filter, Carolina

The Dirty Gig is full of characters … never a dull moment … And Puerto Rico was no different.  Working at the storied El San Juan Hotel in Carolina, Puerto Rico, one of my colleagues supervised a laborer named Ura who just stood out above the others … for his personality and attitude … not to mention his willingness to do whatever he was asked on the job.  He was always beaming a smile.  He sometimes jogged or almost danced through the workplace.  When it was safe, he jumped over stacks of empty boxes about four feet high, almost in a single bound.  As if by command performance he did a standing-still backflip the other day when I asked if he could.  No prob.  Of course, he can juggle too.  The guy is just a born entertainer. (I challenged him to take up the unicycle … I digress…)  Although I suggested he should move from Puerto Rico stateside and be a sports team mascot, my colleague nailed it mo better. She said he should try out for some role at Disney … bingo.

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Puerto Rico … take two.

As with many a mainland kid in the ’60s and ’70s, Puerto Rico first showed up on my radar with the reading of Pastor Nicky Cruz’s “coming of faith” book “Run Baby Run.”  The gritty Christian bestseller chronicled Cruz’s take on Puerto Rican culture, dating back to his childhood memories of voodoo on the island, to his rise through the ranks of a brutal New York street gang, The Mau Maus, to his miraculous acceptance of Jesus Christ.

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Well, as some of you know, The Dirty Gig (a disaster recovery assignment) has taken off to PR … Puerto Rico.  As a communications type, I am still trying to get used to seeing the PR abbreviation without thinking “public relations.”

The Texas driver for the airport run was scheduled to arrive at 4 a.m., which should have allowed me to sleep until 3 a.m. But wrong.  The body clock didn’t want me to be late, and said “Get up at two.”  Reluctantly, I listened to my body and did as I was told.  We picked up two more guys and were to DFW Airport by 5:15 a.m.

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The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth is making me fall in love with my city all over again.  Last night’s Kimbell Fest, put together by the museum, concert experts Fortress Fest and local sponsors was way too cool for people like me to even attend.

But I’ve never let that stop me.  … stayed start to finish anyway.

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The Red River Shoot Out! What tradition!  Spectacle.  Pageantry. Spirt. Tailgates.  Obnoxity.* (*Not a word).  Have you been?  If not, picture deafening chaos with 90,000 screaming fans, many drunk, half in burnt orange and half in crimson.  Pretty easy to see where the lines are drawn in the bleachers.  May the best team win.

Special good luck to Texas Tech’s former second- or third-string quarterback.  Anyone else think John Snow of Game Of Thrones is Baker Mayfield and vice versa?  I digress …

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