Mickey's Musings: Taylor Swift, Business Law Class and Ted Lasso
Welcome to Mickey's Musings, my weekly notebook where we skip the linear narrative and dive straight into three completely unrelated, but entirely fascinating storylines that are bouncing around in my head.
“I’ve gotta be honest,
I’ve been expecting your call.
No, it’s not a bad time at all
I heard somebody saying there’s trouble in paradise
And my lips are sealed tight now”
That’s the first verse of Taylor Swift’s song Patient Zero. There’s trouble in paradise” - Could anything be more true in Lion-land at this time? No doubt, there’s trouble in paradise. I’m going to share two thoughts that may sound contradictory, but are both true.
This summer when looking at the schedule and making my prediction, I said 12-5 would be the final record. I don’t exactly go game-by-game and predict W’s and L’s, I do it more by groupings of games. My breakdown was a 4-2 division record. I picked the Bills game as a loss. Then, I looked at four games: this game in Carolina, the Pats at home, the Bucs at home and the Falcons on the road and conservatively figured between those games we could drop 2 of the four. That makes 5 losses.
That leads us to Comment # 1: By that logic, this is not panic time. They won the two I predicted them to win. They lost to Buffalo. They’ve now dropped 1 of the four that I thought were closer to toss up games. Assuming the rest of the season goes according to Hoyle, they’ll need to win 2 of the remaining 3 among that group to finish 12-5. As the kids say, “NBD.”
Comment #2: Does anyone think this defense can stop anyone? For them to finish with 12 wins the offense will need to score at such a prolific rate, that all scoring records are going to go by the wayside. The 1950 Rams scored a whopping 38.8 points per game en route to finishing 9-3. During one three week stretch they scored 155, including a 70 point outburst followed by hanging a 65 burger on the Detroit Lions. They also gave up 25.8 points per game. Oh what we would give for a D that “only” gives up 25.8!
Topic # 2 is Business Law Class.
When I was a junior in high school someone got a copy of a test for our Business Law Class. The test was matching definitions to phrases and once we found all the answers, we made up an “acrostic” – taking those answers and forming a phrase. It’s been over 40 years since I took that class, but if you gave me the test today I would still ace it. “Jim Is Very Useful When The Outlaws Face His Kingdome. X. Zebras Are Nice. Every Elephant Does a Curl Before Eating” – that gives us the answers: Section 1: JIVUWTOFHKXZAN. section 2: EEDACBE. Needless to say, the entire class got 100%. Our teacher, Mr. Majors, knew something was up. “Mage” came into class the next day and tried to guilt us into telling him what was up and when that didn’t work – he said “Put everything away, you’re retaking the test right this minute.” People that knew the saying laughed as he passed them out. Those that on the previous day had the answers written on their arm, or their shoe, were scrambling as others repeated the saying and they wrote letters as fast as they could.
Those of us that knew the acrostic were fine, we had a good scheme. Others that didn’t study, either to learn the material or the saying, struggled. I’d liken that to the Detroit defense at this point. During the early years of AG as the coordinator in Detroit people called for his head and I remember telling people “He’s got no playmakers!” Once he got some talent, he was fine. Currently, the defense has good players – Hutch, Alim, Campbell are all pro-bowl quality players. Chuck Carr is older, but is playing solid football at the backend. Derrick Barnes is an above average linebacker. We know the corners are below average, but there’s 5-6 other guys that are difference makers. There’s no excuse for them to be giving up as many points as they are. To me, it has to be schemes. To put it quite simply, either change the scheme or they’ve got to get the players to learn the acrostic and get on the same page as each other.
Lastly, I could probably quote Ted Lasso every week in this column. If you’ve not watched Ted Lasso yet – first off - What are you waiting for!?!? But, honestly, I highly recommend it. My wife and I rewatched the first 3 seasons a year or two ago. We then turned around and watched them again this summer in preparation for the release of Season 4 this fall.
I’ll assume everyone at least knows the general premise, Ted is a football coach and goes to England to coach a futbol team – aka soccer team – in the Premier League. In the last episode of Season 1 the team is facing relegation. The title of that episode is a saying that is used in England – “The Hope That Kills You.”
In that episode the regulars at the pub and even the players use the phrase as a way to shield themselves from disappointment. Ted stops in for a beer and Mae, the bartender, gives him a drink and says “Ted, haven’t you been here long enough to realize it’s the hope that kills you?” They all subscribe to the thought that if you don’t
hold out hope, it is easier as you can’t be disappointed.
Prior to the last game of the season Ted addresses the team with an iconic speech and addresses it:
“So, I’ve been hearing this phrase y’all got over here that I ain’t too crazy about. ‘It’s the hope that kills you.’ Y’all know what, I disagree. I think it’s the lack of hope that comes and gets you. See, I believe in hope. I believe in belief.”
That’s where I’m still at with this 2026 Lion team. I’m not diving head first into a pool of Honolulu Blue kool-aid, but I’ve still got hope. I’ve still got belief. Go Lions.
Comments