Cougs play a prominent Christmas Day NFL role

Good morning. I hope those of you who celebrate such things had a Merry Christmas. It was certainly a happy day around here, despite the continuously gloomy weather. And if you’re reading this, that means that you’ve either successfully avoided the “day after Christmas” madness or you’ve been coerced to venture out into the chaos in order to save 15 percent on a food processor.

But before the 26 December craziness, there was the relative quiet of Christmas Day, during which the NFL - and Washington State Cougars alumni - took center stage. After the undercard game game between the Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns concluded (aside: Baker Mayfield seems bad!), the Indianapolis Colts took on the 3-point favorite Arizona Cardinals. Turns out two Cougar alums played a key role on the play that decided the outcome.

As careers go, Colts receiver Dezmon Patmon and Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson have had divergent beginnings. Thompson, who would have turned 6-6 WSU into 8-4/9-3 WSU in 2019 (of this I have no doubt), has figured prominently into the Cardinal defense. Appearing in all 15 games, he has amassed 100 tackles, five passes defended and two interceptions. Meanwhile, Patmon has been stuck near the bottom of Indy’s receiver rotation. Going into Saturday’s game, Dez had appeared in half of the 14 Colts games, collecting just one reception for seven yards.

On Saturday, that trend continued. Thompson played 94% of possible defensive snaps (66 total), collecting five tackles, including one TFL. Meanwhile, Patmon was on the field for only five snaps (7% of Indy’s total). But man oh man did Dez make one of those count. Due to a litany of Cardinals mishaps (pro kickers lol), the Colts needed a late touchdown to all but seal a huge road win. Let’s go to the tape.

Hell yeah! Dez’s first career touchdown! In a huge moment! Who was in coverage there? Oh.

The cool part is that both of these guys will be on the field in the playoffs, and who knows, maybe they’ll meet again. (I doubt it because one of the coaches is Kliff Kingsbury but stranger things have happened). Either way, watching former Cougs play in the NFL will never get old.

Football

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For the better part of three weeks, ahead of another 14- or 15-hour day sitting inside Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, Sharon Doornink would wake up early at her Yakima home and pack herself a light lunch — half a peanut-butter sandwich and an apple most days.

This Week in Parenting

Christmas morning was another typical endeavor for the Kendall boys. They got too much stuff, and it was all about the present unopened more than the present recently opened. Santa brought the 10 year-old/aspiring golfer a 15-foot practice putting strip, and the 13 year-old got a new phone. This is just a year after Santa brought him his first phone. So why another one already? Well, admittedly, the first phone was a PoS, as Santa clearly took the cheapest course of action. Oh, and then there’s the part where the kid took such good care of the device that the screen resembled that of a windshield that had been subjected to multiple boulder collisions. To wit:

(yes, that’s his self-chosen wallpaper)

So anyway, if there are those among you who had to construct some gigantic play kitchen, Castle Grayskull or other plastic monstrosity between the time the kids went to bed and Christmas morning arrived, rest assured that the work won’t end when the kids grow out of that. Instead, you will migrate from consuming a 6-pack during Power Wheels construction to consuming half a bottle of bourbon while swapping a sim card/transferring apps and data/conducting a factory reset on the old phone etc. Like I told the folks in our Slack chat, the Christmas Eve work doesn’t end, it just evolves.

Elsewhere, I have a pair of socks that I like to wear when I go for a jog, and I hadn’t seen them in a couple weeks. Since I’m old and largely senile, I figured I’d left them at a gym or something. Then the 10 year-old came home after school, took of his shoes and kicked back. Sure as sh*t, there they were on his feet. Now, he has decent-sized feet, BUT THEY ARE DEFINITELY NOT SIZE 12 FEET. OH AND WHILE I AM HERE I WILL INFORM YOU THAT HE IS THE SAME PERSON IN CHARGE OF PLACING THE FAMILY’S SOCKS IN THE APPROPRIATE DRAWERS. IT’S ALMOST AS IF HE DOES NOT PAY ANY ATTENTION TO WHERE THE SOCKS GO SO LONG AS THEY ARE PUT AWAY AND HE CAN WASH HIS HANDS OF THE WHOLE THING! AM I YELLING AGAIN?! IT FEELS LIKE I AM YELLING AGAIN ABOUT HIS REPEATED INATTENTION TO DETAIL.

Ok sorry.

Team Kendall also made its way around the Flanders area of Belgium last week - sorry to all 2.67 of you who wondered where last Sunday’s article was, and big thanks to Jeff for being sympathetic - visiting Antwerp, Brugge and Brussels. I’ll spare you the unmitigated catastrophe that was the parking situation in every city (except the parts where I was yelled at by some guy in an Antwerp parking garage and again by a French-speaking cab driver in front of the Brussels Marriott), but one thing we all noticed was the, uh, interesting scents in Belgium’s capital city. Like, more than Amsterdam, by a lot. It became so prevalent that, when we were walking to see the famous “statue of a kid pissing” landmark, the 10 year-old said, “who’s smoking weed again?”

Aaaaand scene.

Non-Sports

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