Dave, Anne and I went to go see the fool’s-ball game at the Jones Dome on Sunday.  Dan is no fool, so he eschewed the whole thing.  We took the Metro downtown, so there were no hassles with parking and also no danger of towing.  Besides we met some nice people along the way.  There was the man with the little boy.  The boy wasn’t his son, but the man was friends with the mom and was taking the little boy to the game.  The boy was cold, waiting for the train.  An elderly woman overheard this and showed us how to turn on the overhead heat lamps.  That seemed to help, anyway the train was warm.

We arrived on time, but had to wait at the will call window and missed the Rams’ first touchdown.  The seats were decent, so we settled into watch the game, I with my camera, Anne with her knitting and Dave with his Rams’ jersey on.  I’ll cut to the chase, the Rams won, 25-17.  This win keeps the Rams in the running for a payoff birth, while the San Francisco 49ers’ loss eliminates them from contention.  The opportunity to trash-talk my two Californian brothers about this victory, will be savored.

Next week the Rams face the Seattle Seahawks.  The possibility to further extend my intra-family fool’s-ball rivalries to the in-laws has not escaped my attention.  The winner of that game will represent the NFC West in the playoffs.  If the Rams win next week they will finish the regular season with a .500 record, an even number of wins and losses, but if the Seahawks win then they will be the first un-asterisked NFL team with a losing record to go to the playoffs.  The playoffs are not for losers!  That makes the Rams the last line of defense and the final protector of the NFL’s sacred honor.

America expects that every Ram will do his duty.