Ask The Old Guy: Leaving Las Vegas
CHARLOTTE — Man, it’s nice to be home. A little Vegas goes a long way. And much of Las Vegas requires many days to recuperate from.
That makes it the ideal way to end the 2023 NFL season. We all needed a break after that one. Sometimes it’s wonderful to forget.
I had never gone to Las Vegas before, so I had no idea what I would discover. And I’m still not sure it’s not a fictional location that could go over like Main Street Rock Ridge at the end of “Blazing Saddles.” It seems made up. Vegas is like if New Orleans and Myrtle Beach had a baby and promptly implanted it. It isn’t precisely what I’d call real.
Some portions of it were authentic, such as Mr. Las Vegas Wayne Newton. Even at the age of 81, his presentation is still entertaining, and witnessing him sing “Danke Schoen” and relate classic Frank and Dean, Sammy, and Elvis anecdotes at the Flamingo made the trip worthwhile.
Of course, we were there for work, but what made it worthwhile was seeing Julius Peppers’ response to being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Because Julius is so enormous and larger-than-life, it’s tempting to attribute traits to him that ordinary mortals don’t possess. But he was truly surprised by what occurred to him there. Whether it was his surprise that he and Barry Sanders were now members of the same club or his reaction to other Hall of Famers reacting to him, it was quite wonderful to see Peppers react the way he did. It reminds you how meaningful that accolade is because it returns them all to their childhood, when they looked up to their heroes without understanding they had grown up and become heroes themselves.
There was also a game there. The singing woman’s boyfriend’s team triumphed after she flew all the way from Japan to see it, and the only people who didn’t like it were pretending not to because phony anger boosts business. The Taylor Swifts defeated the Christian McCaffreys after his coach made some strange decisions, but not the ones that people are yelling the most about. It wasn’t Kyle Shanahan taking the ball first in overtime that was unusual;Going for it on fourth-and-4 from the 9. You can rationalize wanting the ball third in sudden death if you intend to go for two after scoring a touchdown. Because you knew Taylor’s boyfriend’s quarterback would score and repeat. That’s why the rules alter when you play against him.
Because Julius is so enormous and larger-than-life, it’s tempting to attribute traits to him that ordinary mortals don’t possess. But he was truly surprised by what occurred to him there. Whether it was his surprise that he and Barry Sanders were now members of the same club or his reaction to other Hall of Famers reacting to him, it was quite wonderful to see Peppers react the way he did. It reminds you how meaningful that accolade is because it returns them all to their childhood, when they looked up to their heroes without understanding they had grown up and become heroes themselves.
There was also a game there. The singing woman’s boyfriend’s team triumphed after she flew all the way from Japan to see it, and the only people who didn’t like it were pretending not to because phony anger boosts business. The Taylor Swifts defeated the Christian McCaffreys after his coach made some strange decisions, but not the ones that people are yelling the most about. It wasn’t Kyle Shanahan taking the ball first in overtime that was unusual;Going for it on fourth-and-4 from the 9. You can rationalize wanting the ball third in sudden death if you intend to go for two after scoring a touchdown. Because you knew Taylor’s boyfriend’s quarterback would score and repeat. That’s why the rules alter when you play against him.
He’s already a legend, and he’ll one day fill Julius Peppers’ shoes. You kind of hope he’s affected by it, and that Wayne Newton is still there to preside over it all in a sea of neon.
But now we’re back, everyone’s at 0-0, and we have a sack full of mail that has accumulated since the Panthers hired Dave Canales and Dan Morgan and held an unrivaled press conference.
