If you missed the Sept. 5 college football game between the Western Michigan Broncos of the Mid America Conference and the Michigan Wolverines of the Big Ten Conference, you missed the “second heard around the world.”
Not merely willing to play for a fat paycheck by showing up in uniform in Ann Arbor’s “Big House” stadium of more than 100,000 fans, the visiting Broncos outplayed the hometown Wolverines for 40-plus minutes as they took a 12-7 lead to win the game, despite being a four-touchdown underdog.
Joe Marlow
Hold on a darn second. The refs penalized the Broncos and put one second back on the clock, allowing Michigan to “win” 13-12. Despite the fact that both the stadium and play booth clocks read 0:00 with Western Michigan winning, the Big 10 said they had an official secret clock not synced with the other clocks the rest of America thought displayed the official time.
Hold on another darn second. U.S. Senate candidate in Texas James Talarico seems also to possess a secret clock, albeit a metaphorical one. And he may well use it to get his extra second against his opponent, Ken Paxton. But if Talarico is successful, the real losers will be the good folks of Texas, not Paxton.oldHold
Talarico was interviewed by Fox News correspondent Brooke Taylor Sept. 10. In that interview, Talarico renounced nearly every controversial view he has held. Among the changes:
60-minute stadium clock: “God is nonbinary”
Extra-second secret clock: “I was being provocative”
60-minute stadium clock: Opposed restrictions on trans athletes
Extra-second secret clock: Now opposes biological boys playing in girls’ sports “if it risks safety or fairness”
60-minute stadium clock: There are six biological sexes.
Extra-second secret clock: There are two sexes with some genetic abnormalities.
60-minute stadium clock: Voted against Texas SB-14 which opposed gender-affirming surgeries and puberty blockers for minors
Extra-second secret clock: “I trust local officials and local communities to make these decisions, and that’s what I voted for.”
Most Americans, Texans included, encourage and even expect our politicians to re-examine evidence and change their minds as needed. But what Talarico did during that interview was not that, it was a wholesale full frontal lobotomy.
Say what you want to about Jasmine Crockett, she would have doubled down, stood her ground and fired both barrels (metaphorically speaking, of course!) to share her beliefs. Apparently, Talarico’s staff, consultants and handlers, and even Talarico himself, thought this was a good idea perhaps based on what the Big 10 got away with in front of millions on a Labor Day weekend.
In the interview, Talarico showed himself to be a mere corrupt politician. He is not corrupt in the same manner as he charges his opponent is; Talarico has a corruption in his soul, a corruption in the same way as the end justifies the means.
The people of Texas deserve a candidate for the U.S. Senate of a major party who is proud of his beliefs, who will double down and stand his ground, and will not change his mind on the core tenets of his belief system as the polls change in a tight race.
Football is a game. Elections are not. And it is vital in our constitutional republic we citizens can have trust in trustworthy candidates.
Joe Marlow is a theologian, historian, educator and writer now retired in South Lyon, Mich., with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and their two dogs.