Welcome to my
fifth annual post where I see which NFL teams post Happy Rosh Hashanah messages
on their social media pages. This year, I only looked at teams' Instagram
pages, so if a team shared a photo or graphic on Twitter or TikTok, I missed
it. Sorry.
The sunset picture is from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This year, it
seems like only 5 NFL teams shared messages, down from 10 in 2025. My guess is
the main reason for fewer teams posting messages was timing. Rosh Hashanah
started on Friday evening, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the
September 11th tragedy. Nearly all of the NFL teams shared some type of
remembrance post on their Instagram pages. Plus, this was the first
week/weekend of NFL games. Most NFL social media staff likely focused on the
beginning of the season with posts focused on preparing for the opening games.
In the five
years I've been doing this, only one team has posted a Rosh Hashanah message
each year. It's the Baltimore Ravens. Please don't make me like the Ravens even
a little bit!
Please click here to see these posts from the previous four years.
Today marks 25 years since the 9/11 attacks on America. I wrote about where I was on 9/11 and the aftermath of living in the DC area in the following weeks and months. While I think that post stands on its own, this post and today in general seems about the passage of time and aging. I was 26 on September 11th, 2001. I've lived nearly half my life since then. How did that happen? For an event which had such an impact on our country, a significant amount (though not the majority yet) of the US population wasn't born yet or are too young to remember that day. I was still nearly 10 years away from having my first child on 9/11, and today, my kids know little about that day. With my parents both gone, I can't talk with them about 9/11 or have them share their experiences of that day with my kids.
I've shared many, many times that I keep too much stuff. This is particularly the case with emails. I started a Yahoo email account in summer 2001, right around the time I finished Ohio State and was unsure what would happen to my OSU email account. I also had an excite.com email account which is long gone. Anyway, I looked through my Yahoo inbox and sent mail folders from around 9/11 to see if I had any immediate thoughts from back then. While it's possible and maybe likely that there was some correspondence with friends and family about 9/11 in my Excite email account, there's nothing in my Yahoo account. Instead, there's some good things. I moved to DC in August 2001 into an apartment with my girlfriend, which is funny to write since we've now been married for 22 years. I guess I was trying to learn how to cook since I have a salmon recipe from my mom from a few weeks before 9/11 and another recipe email a few days before 9/11 from my roommate in Columbus for deviled eggs. I've still never made deviled eggs. However, in the emails back and forth with my former roommate, it seems like I went back to Pittsburgh for the Labor Day weekend and played tennis with my dad. Apparently, he beat me once, and I beat him once. Makes me smile.
And some not as good things. On 9/10, I received an email from a friend about something awful that happened to another mutual friend. I only really see what happens to all of the people on the email on Facebook these days. Any emails from later in 2001 or early 2002 seem to focus on me trying to find a job.
Again, while it's possible that there were some emails on the Excite account about 9/11 and the days that followed, I think I talked with people then. On the phone. You know, actually called friends and family and had conversations. That doesn't seem to happen much anymore. Maybe it's because I'm busy with kids and work, but now, it seems like it's easier to text. This has absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, but in the next month or so, my goal is to call friends and family and catch up with them. I don't know how this blog post got to this point, but it did. And maybe that's the message for today. Remember those who we tragically lost on 9/11 or because of 9/11. Thank first responders. Be good to each other. And check in on people you care about.
I’ve been in a
fantasy football league for about 20 years. I’m still the new guy in the league
celebrating its 25th year. In non-COVID years, the league gets together to
draft in person. It’s a fun “guys” weekend but we’re not in our 20s or even
30s anymore, so the activities related to the draft weekends usually involve
going to a baseball game or other tourist destinations rather than late nights out at bars or clubs. Or so I’ve heard! Based on my schedule
and the start of the kids’ school year, I’ve only attended a few drafts in
person. Atlanta was fun, Jensen Beach, Florida was interesting, and the
Northern Virginia drafts were a blast. Still, after a long break from being at
a draft in person, I decided I was definitely going this year. This year in
Minneapolis! And the Minnesota State Fair! And with Weird Al Yankovic! Maybe!
On Thursday
morning, I received this email from American Airlines:
Disruptiveweatherconditionsareforecastto impact portions the Northeast, whichmayaffectyour
upcomingtravelon AmericanAirlines. Your flight is
currentlyon time, butwe are offeringoptionsif you would like toproactivelychange your travelplans.That means you could travelon a different date or timeorusea different airportto makeyour connection.
I watched Good
Morning America in the morning, and though they discussed severe storms between
Vermont and Virginia, I didn’t think much of it since the local weather showed
thunderstorms starting around 5:00 in the DC area. Our flight was at 3:50. My
friends and I got in the car to drive to the airport around 1:15, and just as
we left my street, we got notification that the flight was delayed. Our plane
was coming from New York and got stuck thanks to poor weather there. Not ideal
but not terrible. We went back inside my house and played video games as
members of my family arrived home from school surprised to see me and my
friends still there.
We finally left
around 4:00 and parked at a hotel near DCA since I made parking reservations
there. As an aside, hotel parking for the airport is a great deal. With tax,
you usually pay about $15 a day to park in a covered garage and you get a
shuttle to the airport. Daily economy parking at DCA is $25 for an open-air parking lot and you still need to
take a bus to the terminal. We ate dinner at a restaurant at Pentagon City, walked back to the
hotel, and arrived at the airport for a 7:55 flight.
Through
security, we got notified at 6:51 that the flight was delayed to 10:00. Lovely.
A few minutes later, another notification that the flight was delayed to
midnight. What? Then 2:00 AM, then 4:00 AM, then 6:00 AM. What the what?
The weather was
the problem earlier but now it was air traffic control issue. We talked to
someone at American at the airport who confirmed that the flight was delayed to 6:00 AM the following morning and assured us that we’d be fine leaving the next day. You see where this is
going, right?
We debated
about getting the car to go to our respective homes to then try to meet up
again before 4:00 AM, go back to the hotel since we had the parking reservations,
and then Uber/Lyft to DCA since the shuttle doesn’t operate that early. Seemed like
a lot of time and hassle spent to get little sleep, so we decided to get a room
at the hotel for the night. Got a great price and Alexis and Tony were extremely
helpful. You know, let me plug the Embassy Suites at Crystal City National Airport. Nice rooms with a free breakfast and great staff. And if this Embassy Suites wants to be the official blog of Sean's Ramblings, we can talk!
And at just
after 10:00 PM, we got notification that the 6:00 AM flight was canceled. Not
delayed, cancelled. Completed cancelled. We called American and asked about
options. We looked into leaving out of Dulles or BWI or even Richmond or
Philadelphia. Or flying into Duluth or Sioux City. The “best” option was flying
out of DCA around noon to get into Dallas for a 3:30 PM flight to get us into
Minneapolis at 6:19 PM, over 24 hours later than the originally scheduled
flight. We took it.
After a tasty
breakfast at Embassy Suites, including the chef at the omelet station “cooking”
two donuts on a grill with cheese in the middle (hey, we planned on spending
the entire day at the Minnesota State Fair and the flight cancellation
significantly decreased the amount of time at the fair and opportunities to eat
fair food), we made it back to DCA and on to Dallas-Fort Worth.
And then
another delay at DFW. Ugh. We landed just before 7:00, got a ride from the airport,
and arrived at the front gate of the fairgrounds at 7:33. I got cheese on a
stick just minutes later.
We arrived
at our seats just minutes before Weird Al started the show.
Weird Al was
fantastic. Such a fun show with lots of costume changes. While most of Weird
Al’s songs are silly, he and the band are seriously gifted musicians. Although
most of the exhibits and venues at the state fair were closed after the
concert, I enjoyed a deep fried apple pie with cinnamon ice cream.
We were
unsuccessful in buying a bucket of cookies since the lines were outrageous. These cookies by Sweet Martha's Cookie Jar are a really big deal. However, outside the venue, we saw three guys probably around 18 with more cookies than
they were going to eat. We approached them with a $1 bill in hand, explained
that we were from out of town and wanted experience the state fair cookie, and
offered them money for a cookie. In hindsight, this seems really creepy. Even at
the time, I felt like this.
They ended up
being Minnesota nice and gave us a cookie for free.
As for the rest
of the weekend, I played fowling (which is a football meets bowling game) and whirlyball (basketball meets lacrosse in bumper cars) for the first time. I was fairly useless in helping
our team successfully complete a difficult escape room played in multiple rooms
and floors. I ate famous blueberry pancakes and an infamous burger. Went to a
Twins game too. We stayed at an awesome sports-themed Airbnb with bubble
hockey, video games, a poker table, and a hockey room. Oh, the fantasy
football draft also happened. My team has a lot of high-risk, high-reward possibilities
which is a nice way of writing that it probably isn’t very good. But you don’t
care about my fantasy team.
So that’s it.
Or is it. On the flight back from Minneapolis, about 35 minutes out from our
scheduled arrival, the captain announced that there were thunderstorms in DC,
so he was instructed to slow down and basically hold the flight south of
Pittsburgh. He said we don’t have a lot of extra fuel (which you definitely
don’t want to hear as a passenger!!!!), but enough to get to DCA and that
we’ll land about 40 minutes late. Fortunately, the storm moved past the airport, and we only arrived about 15-20 minutes behind schedule.
The overall verdict is that it was an amazing weekend. I was one of over 200,000 people who attended the Minnesota State Fair, marking a record for the biggest attendance on the festival's first Friday, but I only got a small taste of the event. I'd love to go back, but I think the lesson here is that I'm never flying to
Minneapolis again (at least from DCA)!
By the way, I never saw the movie referenced in this post's title.
I'm on the
Pittsburgh Steelers mailing list, and the team sends out multiple emails per
week. During the off season, while many messages focused on the draft (since it was in Pittsburgh), draft picks, free
agent signings, the schedule release, and ticket sales, the majority were about
various clothing and other gear. Basically, the Steelers were taking a play out
of the Spaceballs playbook.
If you want Steelers beach and pool gear, or Steelers' merchandise to celebrate America's 250th birthday, you got an email about it!
But that's not all. How about other opportunities to purchase items from official Steelers partners!
It's really impressive how many partnerships and different types of merchandise the team sells. Now let's see if the Steelers match their output in merchandising with wins on the football field!
Ah, the weekend. It's what everyone is working for. Sometimes you're busy with lots of activities. Sometimes you can relax and unwind. Maybe sleep in. The sleeping in part never happens for me. On Saturday morning, I woke up a little after 3:00 thanks to hearing Lucy throw up. After cleaning it up with a carpet stain removal, I went back to sleep...only for Lucy to again wake me up at 5:00 because she wanted food. I love this cat, but she is so annoying. And as I’m typing this she is scratching the couch.
Okay, enough about Lucy. Let’s get to some good stuff.
The Moose bought several cards that might be valuable in the future, but for the most part, they bought cards of players they like or cool cards. For example, Pedro Tulo bought himself a Detroit Pistons Rodney Stuckey card since it included part of his jersey. While it’s a neat card, I doubt there’s a huge resale market for Rodney Stuckey cards. We did not consider getting a Lamine Yamal card for $15K or a Victor Wembanyama card for $8K. Someone else was trying to sell a signed drumstick by Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. One guy I met named Nicholas creates his own cards via Near Mint Customs. While we talked about the absurdity of Enes Kantor declaring for the WNBA draft (he was selling some of these cards that he made), I really liked his "What If" series (though Russell Wilson should have been in an Orioles or Rockies jersey since those MLB teams drafted him).
I went out to a really nice dinner the other night and mentioned that I’m seeing the Foo Fighters on Monday night. (Future blog post?) When asked who was the opening acts, I replied Queens of the Stone Age and practically had to whisper Mannequin Pussy. At a quiet, fancy restaurant, not quite the environment to say that name loudly! Actually, this was probably a missed opportunity to say the band name loudly!
Wegmans is discontinuing its mac and cheese boxes. I don’t know why. The grocery chain should really inform me of any actions taken. Anyway, did I buy 10 boxes for 26 cents each? Absolutely. I figure that I might make a box or two and I can donate the rest at an upcoming food drive.
When I was in 5th or 6th grade, my dad put a pair of red sweatpants in the washer with whites. All of my whites turned pink. At that point, I decided it was time to do my own laundry. With The Moose about to start his sophomore year in high school, he should have at least done some of his laundry years ago. Still, he did his first load of Sunday.
When the kids were away at camp, we ran the dishwasher twice a week at the most. Now that they’re home again, we’re back to running the dishwasher every day or two. So many cups get used by them!
I'm really
enjoying The Pitt. It's non-stop action, and I'm amazed how well the actors
just spout off medical terminology. I guess that's why they are really talented
actors. Sure, maybe they don't need to show all of the blood and gore, but I
sense that this is a fairly realistic look at a busy emergency room. Completely
related, I plan on donating blood again soon.
The other day, I went on Facebook using my Sean's Ramblings profile. I follow/like dozens of people, companies, etc. In scrolling through my feed, the first 63 entries were either sponsored posts (meaning ads) or something that "matches my interests." 63! How about showing me posts for something that I follow?!?!
I saw Styx and
Chicago play recently. Definitely worth the $20 Groupon tickets. The only
negative was there were no Terrible Towels or Steelers celebrities for
Renegade.
Did you know
that geese hiss? I've mentioned numerous times that one of my favorite summer
activities is taking walks on our neighborhood golf course after the golfers
finish for the evening. I regularly see deer and foxes and geese on these
walks. Recently, while walking on the cart path, I said "hey guys" to
a group of geese who were eating and walking on the grass next to the path. My
thought was that I wanted to announce myself and not startle them. In response,
one goose lifted its head from the grass, looked directly at me, and hissed. I
walked right by and didn't look back until I was a safe distance away!
Sheffield
Wednesday plays its first match of the season in the first round of the EFL Cup
on Saturday. There's some optimism for the season under new ownership since anything has to be better than last season when the team only won league
matches. Still, I'm not ready for the season to begin or seeing Wednesday play
League One matches against teams like Leyton Orient, Burton Albion, and
Doncaster. Feel like it's going to take a few years for Wednesday to get close
to getting back to the Championship League. And I'm not sure if they'll ever
get to the Premier League.
My dentist
asked me to see a periodontist for receding gums, and I put it off for years. I
finally went, and the periodontist says that I need to have tissue graft
surgery. I'm not going to get into details, but this all seems ridiculous to
me. I feel like receding gums and graft surgery is something for people who are
AARP members. Uh oh.
Finally, the
best way to end any blog post is with Cookie Monster.
In the earlier days of this blog, I occasionally wrote posts where I pointed out and analyzed various pop song lyrics. While it turns out that I haven't done a post about song lyrics since 2019, now seems like a perfect time to bring back a classic.
Stella Lefty - Boston
On a train back
to Boston and we're jumpin' the gun
And I'm tellin' you, baby, this the part where I'd run
But I like it when you're nice, like it when you're nice to me
Like it when
your partner is nice to you? That seems like a fairly low bar.
Bella Kay - iloveitiloveitiloveit (Video NSFW due to language)
I love it when we fight and I like it when you’re mean.
We don’t have to get into what that says about me.
My apologies to Ms. Lefty. Maybe nice isn’t such a low bar.
Ella Langley - Choosin' Texas
This is the song of the summer and will likely be the song of 2026. And sure, most people think that this song is about an ex-boyfriend of Langley who decided to return to another woman in Texas. But what if this song is about something else entirely? I've included the entire lyrics to the song below. It definitely hits differently if you picture the song from the point of view of the University of Tennessee football program and its fans lamenting its loss in attempting to recruit quarterback Arch Manning, who chose (the University of) Texas!
Just when I
thought I got him to fall in love with Tennessee
I shoulda known better than to take him back to Abilene
I put him right back into her arms
I wasn't a match for that kinda spark
She's from
Texas, I can tell by the way
He's two steppin' 'round the room
And judgin' by the smile that's written on his face
There's nothin' I can do
It doesn't take
a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin' Jack all by myself
He's choosin' Texas, I can tell
Well, I guess
he forgot about the Smoky Mountain rain
Them old Hank tunes, the Memphis blues we used to sing
He always loved Amarillo By Morning
I shoulda taken that as a warning
She's from
Texas, I can tell by the way
He's two steppin' 'round the room
And judgin' by the smile that's written on his face
There's nothin' I can do
It doesn't take a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin' Jack all by myself
He's choosin' Texas, I can tell
When I'm
eastbound and down and I can't help but cry
'Cause I-40 gets lonelier with every mile
I'll know that his mind wasn't ever gonna change
'Cause his heart still belongs to the Lone Star State
She's from
Texas, I can tell by the way
He's two steppin' 'round the room
And judgin' by the smile that's written on his face
There's nothin' I can do, nah, yeah
It doesn't take a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin' Jack all by myself
He's choosing Texas, I can tell, no
Drinkin' Jack all by myself
He's choosin' Texas, I can tell
Come on, baby
Oh, yeah
Just when I thought I got him to fall in love with Tennessee
Niall Horan - Tastes So Good
I freeze
When you're not swimming in my bloodstream
I don't know what this means, but no one should be in your bloodstream. Oh, unless it's like an Osmosis Jones situation.
Sabrina Carpenter - House Tour (Video is iffy but lean towards NSFW)
The couch is really comfy comfy
Got some Chips Ahoy
If you're hungry hungry
I'd love to know if Chips Ahoy is sponsoring this song. Like did they pay Carpenter $1 million for the product placement? Oh, Chips Ahoy cookies are meh. Now, chewy Chips Ahoy cookies are legit!
Olivia Rodrigo - the cure (video NSFW for one word)
But my head if full of poison
And my heart is full of doubt
I got toxins in my bloodstream
You tried hard to suck them out
Toxins in your bloodstream aren't good, but it seems better than having someone swim in Niall Horan's bloodstream or Niall Horan being in someone else's bloodstream!
(If you want to skip the intro, please go to the sentence in bold for the game recap.)
With the kids
away at camp, I have some time to do things I've wanted to do for months if not
years. I'm taking walks nearly every evening, trying to play more pickleball,
and catching up on TV. (The Pitt is really good!). The one thing I've wanted to
do most is to cover a live sporting event again. While I covered a men's George Mason basketball game this winter, I wanted to cover a professional sports team, and
the team I was most intrigued about was the Washington Spirit since they
are arguably the most successful Washington professional sports team over the
last 5-6 years. Actually, not at all arguably. The team won the NWSL
Championship in 2021 and reached the finals in both 2024 and 2025. With a win
on Sunday against the Denver Summit, the team would pass Gotham FC to move into
first place. Gotham defeated the Spirit 1-0 almost two weeks ago in a
match where the Spirit had more shots on goal (9-4) and a higher number of
expected goals. It wouldn't be a surprise to see them face each other deep
in the playoffs this fall.
I applied for
media credentials to the Spirit-Summit match and was
accepted. Although I'm a big soccer fan, played through my
entire childhood, coached my kids' teams, and have been a soccer referee for
decades, I don't follow the Spirit as much as I'd like. While I did some
research on the team prior to the game, I thought I would ask on BlueSky if
anyone had any suggestions on things to look out for. This was the actual post:
I have media
credentials to cover the Washington Spirit-Denver Summit match tonight. Besides
Trinity Rodman & the fact that the Spirit will move into first place if
they win, I know just a little about the match. Does anyone have any
information about either team or players that might be useful?
Though poorly
worded and being a little self-deprecating (not that anyone would know
that by reading it and not knowing me), I figured I might get a few
comments from friends. Maybe I would get some responses about a certain player
playing well lately or someone else losing playing time. Maybe some thoughts
about Sandy MacIver taking over the keeper role this season for Aubrey
Kingsbury who is on maternity leave (and just had a baby a few weeks ago.
Congrats!).
It didn't work
out that way. My post was picked up by Spirit fans who (rightfully) blasted me.
Who was I to get credentials? Did I take a spot from someone who deserved it
more? Several WTF replies, and not why the face. And I get it. It was never my intention to take
someone's spot (and it doesn’t seem like I did). My goal was and is to write a
post for casual soccer fans who may not have attended a Spirit match. There are
other fantastic sites and podcasts that cover the Spirit and describe and
discuss match previews and recaps as well as the day-to-day activities of the
team. (I've highlighted a few at the end of this post.) That's not me, and I
don't expect the team's biggest fans to read this blog for that. With that
written, I needed to share writing samples as part of the media credentials
application, and those that I included were soccer specific. Although I haven't
written about the Spirit (well, the Washington Spirit as I have written about the Pittsburgh Spirit), it's not like the recent men's World Cup was my introduction
to soccer. So despite several comments of go home or stay home (usually with
the "F" word thrown in), off I went…
Only to
discover that the game ended and the stadium was not letting people in!
I’m kidding. I
know that this is where Noah Kahan performs.
Outside the
stadium, I saw the Washington Spirit mobile. Cool vehicle but why a Virginia
license plate?
I found my way
to the media entrance, got my credentials, and was directed to go up the
stairs. Not the most glamorous welcome to Audi Field. (I should note that this
wasn’t my first time to Audi Field, but it was my first time seeing this gloomy
staircase. It was dark at the top.)
After settling
in, I went back down the stairs to the concourse and walked around and grabbed
some food. I would not recommend the pizza which was overpriced for its size
and average at best. Try another option. And because many of my posts come back
to Pittsburgh, of course I introduced myself to a guy wearing a Pirates hat and
this T-shirt.
Okay, let's get to the match itself:
* Leicy Santos, who has become a star for the Spirit this season, didn't start though she
entered in the 57th minute to a loud cheer. She brought a huge spark to the team., and it was not at all a coincidence that the Spirit
scored minutes after she came on.
* Lindsey Heaps,
the US national team captain, played in her second match of the season for
Denver after her return from playing in France the last few seasons. She
was everywhere in the midfield and attacking end coming close to scoring on a header in the second half. If you're familiar with the
Roy Kent chant from Ted Lasso, you can substitute her name here. I won’t write
it since I don’t typically swear on this blog, but the BlueSky commenters definitely know
the word in the chant! (Video NSFW)
* Trinity Rodman
is so much fun to watch. Not exactly breaking news here. There’s so much
energy from the crowd whenever Rodman gets the ball. In the second half alone, she drew three yellow cards and had a great pass on the goal by Sofia Cantore
who cut the ball back and shot it just outside the 18 off the crossbar.
* The attendance
was 15,169. I feel like I got insider information when this was announced
in the media room during the second half.
* As a referee, I
always watch how the professional refs call games and their positioning. I
appreciate that even at the highest level, the assistant referees check the
goals before the match. This is something I always do as a ref or ask my
assistant referees to do when I’m a center.
Overall, I
think the crew did a good job. The first foul wasn’t called until the 17th
minute but nothing was really warranted. All three yellow cards on the Summit
were deserved. I thought that a penalty called against the Spirit was correct
in real time as it seemed as though Rebeca Bernal fell into Heaps. VAR was
quite useful in this case. From my last post, the Enya fan who also likes VAR
was probably happy!
* Right before the final whistle, Santos got hit by an elbow by a Denver player
in the box. While I understand the referee wanting to end the game, this was
absolutely a foul and should have been a card.
* Denver made
things very exciting during the second half stoppage time. Several outstanding chances from close range
including a shot off the crossbar. Many neutral fans probably believe that the
Summit deserved a point from this match. I guess Denver didn't quite reach the
peak or a word similar to that.
* Although she didn't play, Washington striker Gift Monday may have the best name in sports. Denver’s Ayo Oke, if pronounced slightly differently, would be outstanding too.
I
highly recommend attending a Spirit match at Audi Field. Fun and welcoming
environment (at least in person) and a really quality team. Just skip the
pizza. The Spirit are now at the top of the NWSL standings and lead the league
in goal differential. Oh, for the folks that are big fans of Hal Hershfelt, here is a picture of the media surrounding her after the match.
Here are the complete highlights of the match including Cantore's goal, the VAR decision, and the elbow to end the match.
For more about the match and to follow the Spirit, check out some of the sites below. I know that I'm missing some.
