At the Titans game today, the 16-year-old made it onto the jumbotron when a guy in front of us participated in a time-out contest. The 16-year-old is the guy in the red poncho. The last time he was on a jumbotron, he was in elementary school and we were attending a Vanderbilt basketball game. I was talking to the person next to me when I glanced up at the jumbotron and thought, “That half-naked kid waving his shirt over his head sure looks like my son…and that guy sitting next to him looking up at the jumbotron sure looks like me.” When asked what the X!~$## he was doing, he told me he was trying to win a pizza. Fortunately, he won. For weeks, I ran into people who would ask me if that was my son at the basketball game.

I’m sure the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier didn’t have NFL football in mind when he wrote them, but tonight these words of his ring true:

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”

Even though I have blogged how staggering the odds were against the Titans making it into the playoffs, I must admit that I never thought that it would turn out this way: That every team that was supposed to win, would EXCEPT the Titans. Reminder: Here’s what had to happen, with a strike-though of those that actually did happen:

1. Titans must beat Patriots
2. Steelers must beat Bengals
3. 49ers must beat Broncos
4. Chiefs must beat Jaguars

Today’s game against the Patriots was much closer than the ending score, 40-23, indicates (it was 26-23 in the fourth quarter), however, it was one of the most disappointing losses ever. The Titans had the chance of reversing an NFL record statistic: that no team in history has ever started 0-5 and made it into the playoffs — that record still stands. The odds were 60-1 against all the right things happening today. Except for the Titans losing, everything else fell into place. Unfortunately, that’s the way the probability gods work.

There are many things for Titans fans to cheer, however. Their final record was 8-8 — the best-case scenario even the most optimistic pundits predicted, is amazing, after being 0-5. They are an extremely young NFL team with superstars that are just beginning their careers (Vince Young and Pacman Jones). They have lots of salary cap room. They have all of the major players under contract for next season. Their coach is also signed for the coming season. Another bit of historical data: The Titans/Oilers went 8-8 for three seasons straight before the 1999 season when they finished 12-4 in the regular season and made it to the Superbowl.

One more positive thing for Titans fans. We still have someone to cheer for in the playoffs: Steve McNair who, today, added his name in the NFL annals by becoming the third quarterback in league history to top 30,000 yards passing (30,191) and 3,000 yards rushing (3,558), joining Hall of Famers Steve Young and Fran Tarkenton.

Later: One of the best things about having a blog is that sometimes, when I am searching for some past information, I run across a post like this one I wrote on November 12. That was the Sunday the Titans lost to the Ravens, 27-26. After that loss, their record was 2-7. I wrote this:

“On a positive note, the team now wearing Titans uniforms remind me of the three straight 8-8 years the team was last called the Oilers. The quarterback who is now leading the Titans reminds me of the quarterback of that team. I’m optimistic about the future of this team and its quarterback (it’s the “fan” in me). One day soon, the breaks and calls will start falling the right way.”

After that day’s loss, the Titans won six straight and finished the season 8-8.

Technorati Tags: nfl, titans

This New York Post year-end review of media-related “statistics” mashes up so much random and un-related chatter into a garbled trend-story that it’s hard to know where to start refuting it, so I won’t. Rather, I’m going to watch some football. (Okay, I’ll do one fisking quiz before leaving: What is wrong with the following sentence from the article: “Magazines continued to fail at a dizzying rate. The graveyard includes Elle Girl, Teen People, Celebrity Living, Budget Living, For You, Shock, Cargo and Officepirates.com?”)

In Scotland, the big celebration of the season starts on December 31-January 1. The last day of the year is called Hogmanay (hog-muh-NAY) and Ne’erday is the contraction of ‘New Years Day’ in Scots dialect. For 300 years — up until about 40 years ago — all the gift-giving, European and English-influenced traditions related to Christmas were discouraged by the Presbyterian church — the national Church of Scotland. Up until the 1960s, December 25 was a normal working day in Scotland (apparently, Charles Dickens didn’t really catch on in the northern reaches of the UK). The big winter festival gift-giving, feasting, etc., occurred (and still does in a major way) on Hogmanay/Ne’erday.

Most of the more-colorful Hogmanay customs haven’t spread to the U.S. — fireball swinging, for example — however, one has: the singing of Auld Lang Syne.

I’ve never quite learned the lyrics of the song, a poem by Robert Burns, and after seeing the lyrics in various versions around the web, I can now see why. They go something like this:

“Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and (days of) auld lang syne?

CHORUS:

For (days of) auld lang syne, my dear,
for (days of) auld lang syne,
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
for (days of) auld lang syne,”

Or something like that.

From Nashville (and Austin) — via a FREE download on iTunes — here is a Jack Ingram twangy version of Auld Lang Syne you can enjoy wherever you’re celebrating Hogmanay today, tonight and, well, whenever it ends for you.

Technorati Tags: hogmanay, scotland

1. In late 2007, a major wire service will run a feature story calling RSS “the coolest thing you’ve never heard of.”

2. In the magazine world, David Carey will be a name we hear a lot. The launch of CondeNast Portfolio (premiere issue in April, goes monthly in September) will be the most talked-about magazine launch in a long time (unless, that is, you combine all of the talk about the multiple launches of Radar). Unlike Radar, CondeNast Portfolio will be a huge success.

3. Speaking of Radar, it will launch and close again in 2007, setting up another relaunch in 2008.

4. Chris Anderson will write a cover story in Wired magazine about “Radical Transparency” in February. It will become a book published in April, 2009.

5. Wikis will be the “must-have” feature on magazine websites, however, they will frustrate publishers and editors when no “users” generate any content.

6. The buzzword “user generated content” will be replaced by the term “self-expression.” (Actually, that was just wishful thinking. The more likely replacement terms: “personal publishing,” “conversational media,” and the ever-popular “social media.”)

7. Time Inc. will lay off employees and sell off properties and reorganize. They will issue lots of statements about synergy.

8. The Titans will go 12-4 and win the AFC South with a home-field advantage for the entire playoffs. (As next season’s Superbowl takes place in 2008, I’ll wait 12 months before making the prediction that the Titans will win it.)

9. I will mark off at least four entries from my list of “All the Apple rumors you’ll ever need.”

10. Jimmy Guterman will start blogging again. (Okay, I cheated.)

Technorati Tags: 2007predictions