Of Tigers and Patriots

Despite my comment in my previous post, I have watched some television over the last few days.

You haven't been able to swing a metaphorical dead cat on social media this last few days with hitting a reference to the recently dropped Netflix seven episode documentary series, "Tiger King."  I watched one episode on Saturday, four yesterday, and finished with the final two this morning.

It was compelling in a train wreck sort of fashion, watching the collection of whacky, strange, bizarre, and criminal oddballs who make up this true story of the world of collectors and exhibitors of wild and exotic animals.  (More tigers are privately owned in America today than exist in the wild, according to this series.)  Animal abuse, the black market in owning and selling these creatures, the mysterious disappearance of one of the player's (wealthy) husband, and murder-for-hire are all part and parcel of this one.  It is tabloid television at its Best, or Worst, depending on your point of view.

And, oh yeah, they've set the table for a follow-up to this one, and given the buzz surrounding "Tiger King", I expect that we shall see the sequel in late 2021 or early 2022.

*********

While going through the TV remote yesterday, I discovered that Fox was showing a replay if the telecast of Super Bowl LI between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons.  I landed upon this at the precise time when Atlanta scored late in the third quarter to go up 28-3 on the Pats.  There were under three minutes to play in the quarter, and, even knowing how the game played out, I could not tear myself away from watching this.  Besides, don't we all need a Joe Buck Fix during this time of No Sports in the World?

You all remember what happened.  The Pats scored a TD, missed the extra point, made a field goal, then scored a TD, made the two point conversion, then with less than a minute remaining, scored another TD and made another two point conversion (all of which concluded a 91 yard drive with a little over two minutes left in the game) to send the game into overtime, which the Patriots won on a seven play drive that ended thusly:

James White scores on OT

Patriots 34 - Falcons 28

And all of this played out with the Falcons giving one of the supreme choke jobs in the history of sports.  And how much fun was it watching Arthur Blank, who left the owner's box to celebrate, prematurely as it turned out, on the sidelines with his team?  As my pal Tim remarked, "All three pieces of Arthur Blank's $3,000 suit looked depressed."

Regardless of how you might feel about the Patriots, Bill Belichick, or Tom Brady, watching how New England, and especially Brady, took control of this game and won a game that they surely should have lost was, if you really admire and love great football, a joy to see.  

And we have another chance to do something similar here in Pittsburgh tomorrow (Tuesday) night when AT&T Sports will be showing the complete television broadcast of Game Seven of the 1960 World Series, Pirates vs. Yankees.