Mike O'Connell

In certain circles I am known as the Wikipedia apologist. Actually every circle, it’s just that some are more Wikipedia-averse than others. I think Wikipedia is the greatest website on the Internet, has been for years, and is only getting better. I will say this any time to anyone of any level of so-called sophistication. No matter how much you hate on Wikipedia, I will defend it.

Don’t you know anyone can just put false information up there?!

Ever try it?

First of all, editing a Wikipedia article is hard. It requires registration, sourcing, and a detailing of the change. Even if you make it through these steps, falsely and maliciously (and honestly, who has time for that?), trust me, in 10 minutes that info will be gone and your info will be red-flagged. There’s a secret army of truth doctors out there and God bless them for it.

When I was a kid my family had an encyclopedia. Not just an encyclopedia. The encyclopedia. Encyclopedia Britannica. There were probably 30 or so books at a couple pounds each and it took up several shelves of the bookcase in our living room. Yeah it looked nice and everything and had a lot of info, but it didn’t have one tenth of one percent of what’s available basically for free on Wikipedia today. And–here’s the best part–the entries on Wikipedia are constantly updated. I mean literally every second. That encyclopedia was outdated the minute it went on your shelf.

But you knew all of that. Here’s the story for today.

Yesterday afternoon I heard on sports talk radio (that old thing) that Josh McDaniels had been announced as the new head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. My first reaction was surprise, of course, though I had no reason to doubt the info. My second reaction was to look at Wikipedia. Wow. Someone had already updated McDaniels’ bio to list him as the Colts’ head coach. Scrolling further I read his timeline: yup, New England Patriots offensive coordinator 2012-2018 and head coach of the Colts 2018-present. Wow.

Imagine my surprise later in the evening when I saw on TV (that old thing) that McDaniels had reneged on his deal with Indianapolis. The first story hadn’t been false; he really was the head coach of the Colts for about an hour, then called off the deal. I immediately went to Wikipedia. Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots 2012-present. The last paragraph of his bio did mention the Colts hiring and his subsequent withdrawal, with three different sourced links describing that strange timeline of events.

Just another day at Wikipedia.

(By the way, there are over five and a half million additional entries on the site.)

One of my favorite actors died this week at the age of 93. Louis Zorich was never the most famous actor in New York or Hollywood, but he was certainly recognizable. Why? He was the grandpa. On every show you’ve seen.

Louis Zorich has a look that was unmistakably foreign. In fact, he was from Chicago. But you believed he was from “the old country,” whatever that country was. Zorich was probably best known for playing (what else?) Paul Reiser’s dad (later Mabel’s grandpa) on the TV series Mad About You. Yeah, that one was pretty good, but if you want to see Louis Zorich being Louis Zorich you’ve got to go back a few years previous to CBS’s Brooklyn Bridge, one of the most underrated television shows of all time. Zorich, of course, plays… the grandpa. You never see Brooklyn Bridge on TV anymore which is a damn shame. Luckily I can watch any of the episodes I taped off TV in 1991 whenever I want.

Mr. Zorich had been married to Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis since 1962. That’s a power couple. And a good run. Also surviving Mr. Zorich is his nephew, Chris Zorich, Notre Dame football legend and former Chicago Bear. The younger Zorich was also briefly a member of the Redskins, though will forever be a Chicago guy.

And speaking of Chicago guys…

Heaven is now one richer.

Following up on last Monday’s “bidding war” post re: Amazon’s new North American headquarters (“This is bigger than the Super Bowl“), there are these gems from my local weekly, the Loudoun Times-Mirror: two articles on the same page detailing sports-related tax giveaways in the DMV. The first, headlined “What a kick! Land leased for D.C. United Stadium,” describes the deal between Loudoun County (henceforth known as “Sugar Daddy”) and the D.C. United soccer team to bring a “second-division” team (some kind of minor league affiliate) to Leesburg, Virginia. Plans include $15 million for “construction” (I am reaching for my wallet here) and the understanding that the county will build 1,000 parking spaces for the stadium and “provide access to a nearby park-and-ride” during events at the facility. The D.C. United will lease the property for 40 years, exact terms unreported. (Incidentally, the property is valued at $23 million.) What a kick? It’s a kick in the something all right.

Interestingly enough there is another sports-related tax giveaway story just below that describing the soccer swindle. Headlined “Bipartisan plan would ban Redskins bidding war,” I was reaching for my wallet before I finished the title. But here there may be a glimmer of hope. Apparently three politicians (unnamed in the article), one each from Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., have proposed a pact, if you will, barring any public spending on incentives for a new Washington Redskins stadium. (The club’s current lease at FedEx Field in Maryland expires in 2027.) “A” for effort is my initial reaction, though proposing a pact isn’t exactly achieving one, let alone maintaining it. The thing about most pacts is that somebody always cheats. (Unless there’s a guy named Bruno with brass knuckles standing there.) Executive thoughts on this one? A spokesman for new Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said the governor wants to “structure a creative deal” to bring the team to Virginia.

Structure a creative deal? Give me a break.

Cue Mike reaching for his wallet.

I’m surprised and disappointed in myself that the first words I had to say about Fuller House come nearly two years after its premiere on Netflix in February 2016. Fuller House, of course, is the reboot of the beloved family sitcom Full House, which aired from 1987-1995. The most succinct description I can give for these shows is that Full House was great network television in 1987 and that Fuller House was great streaming in 2016. A touch edgier though hardly racy, Fuller House both reveres and makes fun of its progenitor. It’s a tongue-in-cheek homage, if there is such a thing. It makes fun of what should be made fun of ( early ’90s TV show sap), yet includes just enough sap to make it distinctively part of the overall brand. It really is a grownup version of the original, in every sense of that term. (The little girls from 30 years ago all grew up to be hot women somehow.) It’s DJ, Stephanie, and Kimmy’s show now, and the old guys just get to play caricatures of themselves. And that’s exactly the way it should be.

Fuller House does everything right, and does it the way television should be done in these days. Drop 10 or a dozen episodes every eight months or so and don’t take any of it too seriously. Bring out New Kids on the Block for a laugh and have Lonzo Ball show up for a scene and don’t worry so much about the morality play the ’90s version often became. Fuller House is now 44 episodes in, the most recent nine added just before Christmas (strangely called the “second half” of Season Three). I strongly recommend catching up if you’re not on board yet.

Me? I’m just waiting for Season Whatever They Call the Next One.

CBS studio executives were shaking their heads watching last Sunday’s AFC matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Jacksonville Jaguars. At stake for the teams was a meeting with the New England Patriots the following Sunday. At stake for CBS was a great game versus a terrible game. Pittsburgh versus New England: that’s a great game. Jacksonville versus New England? That’s a walk in the park. Literally. I’ll be taking a walk in the park while the Patriots roll over the Jags, and the rest of America will probably be doing something similar.

In the NFC we’ve got Minnesota versus Philadelphia. That’s a good game, and one I’ll be sure to be home for. That one’s on Fox, the channel that didn’t even exist the last time Minnesota was in a Super Bowl. In fact, neither of those teams has ever won a Super Bowl, and together they’ve got exactly one appearance in my lifetime. I really hope whoever wins that game goes up against New England in two weeks.

But not as much as the people at NBC do.