December 31, 2011: The Last American Combat Troops Leave Iraq

December 31, 2011: The last American combat troops leave Iraq. It had been 8 years, 9 months and 11 days since the first ones got there.

And what did America get out of it? Well, we got rid of Saddam Hussein, and replaced him with... a government that we're still not sure is trustworthy. And we emboldened neighboring Iran, who were glad to see Saddam out. And we emboldened terrorists in the Middle East, ditto.

Over 1 million Iraqis, the vast majority of them civilians, died as a result of this war. American combat deaths were, officially, 4,507; with another 32,292 wounded, another 47,541 listed under "Injured/diseases/other medical." How many have psychiatric issues as a result of being sent there, we may never know.

In his 1988 book 1968 In America, Charles Kaiser reasoned that the only good thing about the Vietnam War was that America had apparently learned its lesson, and had never had another "Vietnam." That was before George W. Bush, who actively sought to avoid serving in Vietnam even as he supported the war effort (as Donald Trump did, but Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Joe Biden did not) wanted Iraq's oil.

Why is it that Democratic Presidents always have to clean up the messes left by their Republican predecessors? Barack Obama got the Democratic nomination for President in 2008 because, unlike Hillary Clinton, he did not vote in the U.S. Senate (which she was then in, but he was not) to authorize the Iraq War in any way. Maybe he would have won the general election even without the economic crash later that year. But it was the war, and the atrocities committed by certain Americans in it, some of them civilians, that ruined Bush's legacy before the crash did.

Obama said he would end the war. His Republican opponent, John McCain said he would end it by winning it. America preferred an ending sooner rather than later, and voted for Obama. And he ended it.

And we will be paying for it, in many ways, for a long time to come. Which we can truthfully say about a lot of Republican policies.

*

December 31, 2011 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. All the NFL games that weekend were played the next day, New Year's Day. There were 5 college football bowl games played:

* The Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas was played at what's now NRG Stadium in Houston. This used to be known as the Texas Bowl, and is the successor to the old Bluebonnet Bowl that was played at the Astrodome. Texas A&M beat Northwester, 33-22.

* The Hyundai Sun Bowl was played at the Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas. Utah beat Georgia Tech, 30-27 in overtime.

* The AutoZone Liberty was played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis. (A memorial to a game that's still being played?) The University of Cincinnati beat Vanderbilt, 31-24.

* The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl was played at what's now Oracle Park in San Francisco. Illinois beat UCLA, 20-14.

* And the Chick-fil-A Bowl, the once-and-future Peach Bowl, was played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Auburn beat Virginia, 43-24.

There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Sacramento Kings, 114-92 at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Indiana Pacers, 96-88 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Phoenix Suns, 107-97 at what's now the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 95-84 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Utah Jazz, 104-89 at what's now the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets, 92-89 at what's now the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Andrew Bynum led all scorers on the night with 29 points.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Golden State Warriors, 107-79 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).

There were 12 NHL games played that day:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 at the Prudential Center. Ilya Kovalchuk, David Clarkson and Zach Parise scored.

* The New York Islanders beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-2 at the St. Pete Times Form (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 in a shootout at the First Niagara Center (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-2 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-0 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-2 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the MTS Centre (now the Canada Life Centre) in Winnipeg.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Anaheim Ducks, 4-2 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The New York Rangers, the Calgary Flames, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Nashville Predators, the Philadelphia Flyers and the San Jose Sharks were not scheduled.

December 24, 2009: "The Joe Rogan Experience" Premieres

December 24, 2009: The Joe Rogan Experience premieres. It becomes the most-listened-to "podcast" in America.

This was not a good thing.

Joe Rogan was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1967, about a month after the race riot there, but grew up in Boston. After a few years of standup comedy, he was part of the cast of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio. Then, he was exposed as a despicable person by his hosting of the NBC "reality series" Fear Factor from 2001 to 2006. He gained even more fans as a commentator for UFC, "Ultimate Fighting Championship," basically "boxing for white men."

He started his podcast to cater to white men looking to reclaim what they thought of as their lost privilege, in the wake of the election of a black man, Barack Obama, as President of the United States.

He claims that his podcast features "interesting conversations with people that have differing opinions." It does not. It features dangerous conversations with people that tell already-proven lies.

It also helped to make millions of Americans believe that both sides of any argument had a point, and that both sides were equally valid. This is wrong. In almost any argument, there is a right side and a wrong side. A moral side and an immoral side. A good side and an evil side.

And Rogan, all too often, has been on the wrong, the immoral, the evil side. Never more so than when he advocated for the election of Donald Trump as President.

*

December 24, 2009 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in midweek. Being Christmas Eve, there were no games in the NBA or the NHL. There was 1 college football game played that day: Southern Methodist University (SMU) beat the University of Nevada, 45-10, at the Hawaii Bowl, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

December 18, 2009: Martin Brodeur Breaks the NHL Record for Games By a Goaltender

December 18, 2009: It was my 40th Birthday, and I celebrated by attending the New Jersey Devils' game against the Ottawa Senators, at the Prudential Center in downtown Newark, New Jersey.

The Devils won, 4-2. They got goals by Jamie Langenbrunner in the 1st period, Brian Rolston and Jay Pandolfo in the 2nd, and Bryce Salvador in the 3rd. The Ottawa goals came from Alexandre Picard and Jarkko Ruutu, both in the 2nd.

Only 13,728 fans attended. The fans who could have attended, but chose not to, may not have realized they had the chance to witness a historic occasion. Honestly, I didn't know it was one, beyond being a milestone birthday for me. But the announcement was made that Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur was playing in the 1,030th game of his career, a new record for goaltenders.

He surpassed the record of 1,029, set between 1984 and 2003 by Patrick Roy. Roy also held the record for most career wins by a goalie, with 551. Brodeur broke that record, and raised it to 691.

Brodeur ended his career by playing in 1,266 regular-season games, all with the Devils, except for the last 7, with the St. Louis Blues. He played in an additional 205 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, helping the Devils win the Cup in 1995, 2000 and 2003, losing in the Finals in 2001 and 2012.

*

December 18, 2009 was a Friday. There were 5 other NHL games that day:

* The Florida Panthers, 6-3 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat their arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins, 5-4 in a shootout at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-3 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 95-91 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Toronto Raptors, 118-95 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 98-97 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Utah Jazz, 96-83 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Indiana Pacers, 107-94 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

* The New Orleans Hornets beat the Denver Nuggets, 98-92 at the New Orleans Arena (now the Smoothie King Center) in New Orleans.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Detroit Pistons, 109-98 at the Oklahoma City Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City.

* The Houston Rockets beat their arch-rivals, the Dallas Mavericks, 116-108 in overtime at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 85-82 at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Sacramento Kings, 112-96 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* And the Washington Wizards beat the Golden State Warriors, 118-109 at the Oracle Arena (as the Oakland Coliseum Arena was then known). Gilbert Arenas led all scorers on the night with 45 points.

December 14, 2012: The Sandy Hook Massacre

December 14, 2012: A mentally ill 20-year-old man named Adam Lanza shoots and kills his mother in Newtown, Connecticut. He then goes to Sandy Hook Elementary School, and shoots 20 children and 6 adult staff members. As the police close in, he kills himself.

Newtown, then as now a town of about 27,000 people, was home to rubber innovator Charles Goodyear, film director Elia Kazan, civil rights lawyer Burke Marshall, decathlete-turned-businessman-turned-businesswoman Bruce-turned-Caitlin Jenner, Blossom actress Jenna von Oÿ, and Suzanne Collins, author of the Hunger Games books. The school is about 76 miles northeast of Times Square. Violent crime was rare there: In the 10 years before the Sandy Hook Massacre, there had been only 1 homicide in the town.

At the time, I had a job connected to social media, and it forced me to watch television, going back and forth between the news channels. It was a Friday, when I was allowed to go home at 3:00. This time, I couldn't. I just couldn't. I just sat there, watching the coverage, until I realized how dark it was, first onscreen, figuratively; and then outside, literally; and remembered how I hated the commute home, and left at around 7:00.

It sounds like the story you hear about people, now old, glued to their TV sets after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. (That was also a Friday.) I had already joined the entire country in doing so after the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986 (a Tuesday -- not after the explosion of Columbia in 2003, though); during the O.J. Simpson freeway chase in 1994 (another Friday); after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 (a Tuesday); and after the hit on Osama bin Laden in 2011 (a Sunday night).

Lanza's main weapon was a Bushmaster XM-15, a model of AR-15 automatic rifle. This was hardly the only recent mass shooting in which it had been used. So, now, calls came for its banning, including from the President of the United States, Barack Obama.

But the Republican Party controlled Congress, and absolutely no action was taken.

And so, the war on guns was over, and the guns won. The American people had surrendered to the National Rifle Association. The voters had just re-elected Obama the month before, but had re-elected the Republican Congress as well. It was a message: "This is America. Here, we love our guns more than we love our children." British newspaper columnist Dan Hodges wrote this:

What's more, conspiracy theories blew up, some suggesting that the massacre never happened. And NRA spokesman Wayne LaPierre suggested that we should have more guns, not fewer. Leading to a rare agreement in front page headlines of the New York tabloids, the mostly-liberal Daily News and the archconservative New York Post.

There had been genuine wackos in American politics before, during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and early 1950s, to the John Birch Society in the 1960s, to the conspiracy flakes gunning for President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, to the Tea Party fanatics that had already been established in 2009, Obama's 1st year in office.

But this now seems, in hindsight, like the launch of the QAnon Era, where such dishonesty, stupidity and ignorance began to be shamelessly brought into the mainstream, and celebrated by people who should have known better.

At the time, I wrote, "The National Rifle Association executives are the homicide equivalent of the archbishops who, rather than turn in abusive priests, transfer them to other parishes."

On June 15, 2016, in the wake of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, Connecticut's Senator Chris Murphy launched a filibuster in the U.S. Senate, promising to hold the floor "for as long as I can" or until Congress acted on gun control legislation.

He eventually secured a commitment from Senate leadership to hold a vote on 2 measures he supported: Expanding background checks, and blocking suspected terrorists from purchasing weapons. He ended his filibuster after 14 hours and 50 minutes.

There appears to be no connection between the school being named "Sandy Hook" and an outcropping of land on the Atlantic Coast of Monmouth County, New Jersey having the same name, which had been hit hard by a hurricane a few weeks earlier, also named Sandy.

In the 2022-23 schoolyear, those children would be juniors in high school.

*

As I said, December 14, 2012 was a Friday. No college or pro football games were played. It was the off-season for baseball. The NHL team owners had locked the players out, so there were no games scheduled for the night. But there were 11 games played in the NBA, with the New York Knicks not being involved in any of them. Most had pregame moments of silence held for the victims:

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Detroit Pistons, 107-105 in 2 overtimes at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Joe Johnson of the Nets led all scorers with 28 points.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Washington Wizards, 102-96 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington. Kobe Bryant scores 30 points.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Dallas Mavericks, 95-74 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 90-86 at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland. Monta Ellis scored 33 for the Bucks.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 95-85 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Orlando Magic beats the Golden State Warriors, 99-85 at the Amway Center (now the Kia Center) in Orlando.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 113-102 at the New Orleans Arena (now the Smoothie King Center). Nikola Peković scored 31 for the T-Wolves.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics, 101-89 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Sacramento Kings, 113-103 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 99-94 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Utah Jazz, 99-84 at the US Airways Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

December 13, 2009: Brandon Marshall Catches 21 Passes In a Game

December 13, 2009: The Indianapolis Colts host the Denver Broncos at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is expected to be the star of the game. He is far from his best, completing just 20 of 42 passes, for 220 yards. Although he throws for 4 touchdowns, he also throws 3 interceptions.

The Broncos' Kyle Orton, returning to the State where he had played his college ball, at Purdue University, had had a better game, completing 29 of 41 for 277 yards, including 2 touchdowns and an interception.

The true star of the game turned out to be Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall. He set a new NFL record, catching 21 passes, for 200 yards, including touchdowns of 5 yards in the 2nd quarter, and 5 yards again in the 4th quarter.

The problem was, Manning got the Colts out to a 21-0 lead before Marshall's, and the Broncos', 1st touchdown, and cruised from there.

The Colts won, 28-16, and advanced to 13-0 on the season. They made it to 14-0... and lost their last 2 games, finishing 14-2. They got to Super Bowl XLIV, 3 years after winning Super Bowl XLI, and lost it to the New Orleans Saints.

The Broncos did not reach another Super Bowl until the 2013 season, and then won it in the 2015 season, each time quarterbacked by... Peyton Manning.

What happened to Brandon Marshall? In a career that lasted from 2006 to 2018, playing for 7 teams, including both New York teams, he caught 970 passes for 12,351 yards and 83 touchdowns. But he never appeared in a Playoff game, and, through the 2022 season, those 12,351 yards are the most yards of any player who never played in the Playoffs. He will be eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the election of 2024. In spite of his lack of a postseason resumé, he should be in.

As of the election of 2022, there are 5 receivers eligible for the Hall with more career catches than Marshall who are not in: Anquan Boldin, Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson, Steve Smith and Hines Ward. There are 7 receivers eligible for the Hall with more career receiving yards than Marshall who are not in: Smith, Wayne, Johnson, Boldin, Henry Ellard, Torry Holt and Irving Fryar. And there are 4 receivers eligible for the Hall with more receiving touchdowns than Marshall who are not in: Ward, Fryar, Mark Clayton and Andre Rison.

(UPDATE: Andre Johnson was elected in 2024, leaving 4 receivers eligible for the Hall but not in with more catches than Marshall, 6 with more receiving yards, and 4 with more receiving touchdowns.)

Prior to this game, the record for most catches in a game was 20, by Terrell Owens of the San Francisco 49ers, in a December 17, 2000 win over the Chicago Bears. Before that, Tom Fears of the Los Angeles Rams had held the record since November 12, 1950, with 18 in a win over the Green Bay Packers.

*

December 13, 2009 was a Sunday. These other games were played in the NFL that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 45-38 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 26-3 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers, 20-10 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Detroit Lions, 48-3 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 14-10 at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (now EverBank Stadium).

* The New Orleans Saints beat their arch-rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, 26-23 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Tennessee Titans beat the St. Louis Rams, 47-7 at LP Field (now Nissan Stadium) in Nashville.

* The Green Bay Packers beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, 21-14 at the new Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 30-10 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 16-10 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Dallas Cowboys, 20-17 at Cowboys Stadium (now AT&T Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Texans beat the Seattle Seahawks, 34-7 at Reliant Stadium (now NRG Stadium) in Houston.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Oakland Raiders, 34-13 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The preceding Thursday, the Cleveland Browns beat their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 13-6 at Cleveland Browns (now named Huntington Bank Field).

* And the next night, on Monday Night Football, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Arizona Cardinals, 24-9 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

Baseball was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 130-107 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Miami Heat, 118-90 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Rudy Gay scored 41 points.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Houston Rockets, 101-88 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 102-89 at the Oklahoma City Arena (now the Paycom Center). LeBron James scored 44 points.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 115-90 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

And there were 2 games in the NHL. The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-0 at the United Center in Chicago. And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

December 12, 2012: The 12-12-12 Concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief

Billy Joel

December 12, 2012: When terrorists struck New York City on September 11, 2001, people from all over the world chipped in to help, and a tribute concert to the victims and the rescue workers was held at Madison Square Garden. When Hurricane Katrina wrecked New Orleans on August 29, 2005, a fundraising concert was held at The Garden. When Hurricane Sandy pounded New York and New Jersey on October 29, 2012, a fundraising concert at MSG was inevitable.

As with the Concert for New York City in 2001, there were non-singing celebrities on hand. Returning from that show were host Billy Crystal, Susan Sarandon, Adam Sandler, Paul Shaffer and Jimmy Fallon. Among the musical performers who had also been at the CFNYC were Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (who brought the rest of the current Rolling Stones lineup with them), The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Jon Bon Jovi, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.

"Sprung from cages on Highway 9":

Sayreville's Jon and Freehold's Bruce

Among those new to this show were Bruce Springsteen -- one of the few bills he's ever shared with Joel -- Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Alicia Keys, Chris Martin of Coldplay, and Kanye West in a rare moment of sane behavior; and nonmusical personalities Whoopi Goldberg, Kristen Stewart, Jon Stewart (no relation), Chelsea Clinton (but not Bill or Hillary, as in 2001), Stephen Colbert, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Olivia Wilde, James Gandolfini, Chris Rock, Seth Meyers, Blake Lively, Katie Holmes, Jason Sudeikis, and Quentin Tarantino and his Django Unchained stars Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz.

*

December 12, 2012 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There was only 1 game played in the NHL that night: The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-4 at the Tampa Bay Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa. The Devils blew a 2-0 lead, and then nearly blew a 5-2 lead, but hung on for the win.

In contrast, there were 13 NBA games, with all but 4 teams in the league playing. Given that Madison Square Garden was occupied, it isn't surprising that the New York Knicks were one of them, along with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Detroit Pistons and the Portland Trail Blazers. The teams that did play:

* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Toronto Raptors, 94-88 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks, 117-115 in double overtime at the TD Garden.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 96-89 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 100-94 at the Time Warner Cable Arena (now the Spectrum Center) in Charlotte. The following year, with the New Orleans Hornets, who used to be the Charlotte Hornets, gave up the name to become the New Orleans Pelicans, the Bobcats took on the Charlotte Hornets name.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Orlando Magic, 86-80 at the Amway Center in Orlando. (It's now named the Kia Center.)

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Miami Heat, 97-95 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Washington Wizards, 99-93 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the New Orleans Hornets, 92-88 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant led all scorers on the night with 35 points.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 96-81 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-85 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Denver Nuggets, 108-105 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Utah Jazz beat the San Antonio Spurs, 99-96 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City (then named the EnergySolutions Arena).

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 82-80 at the US Airways Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

December 11, 2010: Hockey's Biggest Crowd

December 11, 2010: The largest paid attendance ever at a hockey game sees "The Big Chill at the Big House."

The seeds for this epic event had been sowed 9 years earlier. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, outside Detroit, and Michigan State University in East Lansing, outside the State capital of Lansing, are arch-rivals, although UM also claims big rivalries with Ohio State and Notre Dame. Although the rivalry is at its biggest in football, it is also big in basketball and hockey.

Someone at MSU got the idea to play a UM-MSU hockey game outdoors, at MSU's Spartan Stadium. UM liked the idea, and the game was played on October 6, 2001, billed as "The Cold War." The game ended in a 3-3 tie.

The attendance was 74,544, the biggest crowd ever to see a hockey game anywhere. It broke the record set at the 1957 Ice Hockey World Championships at the Lenin (later Luzhniki) Stadium in Moscow, where the Soviet Union beat Sweden in the Final. It also surpassed the largest crowd ever to attend a National Hockey League game, set on October 9, 1993, when the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning before 27,227 fans at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The Cold War inspired other outdoor hockey games. On November 22, 2003, the Edmonton Oilers hosted the Montreal Canadiens in a "Heritage Classic" at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, with the regular game preceded by an old-timers' game representing the teams. That got 57,167, setting a new NHL record, but was well short of the world record.

The NHL instituted the Winter Classic, to be held every New Year's Day (or on January 2 if January 1 falls on a Sunday, as has happened in 2012 and 2017 -- or not at all in 2013 due to a team owners' lockout, and in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The 1st was held on January 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson (now Highmark) Stadium in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York. A new NHL record crowd, but not world record crowd, of 71,217 saw the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 in a shootout.

A new world record crowd of 77,803 came to the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, home of soccer team Schalke 04, to see Germany defeat the U.S. in the Final of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship on May 7, 2010.

So the U.S. was determined to retake the record. Again, it was the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans, only this time, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. Due to its immense size, Michigan Stadium is known as "The Big House," so this game was billed as "The Big Chill at the Big House."

The crowd was announced as 113,411, which, at the time, would even have broken the record for a football game at the place. But it was revealed that the actual paid attendance was 104,173. Still, this was far and away a new record, anywhere on Earth, for a hockey game. And the result was no contest: The Wolverines won, 5-0.

On January 1, 2014, Michigan Stadium hosted the NHL Winter Classic, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the "host" Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 in a shootout. The paid attendance was a new record: 105,491. However, UM officials still count the 2010 Big Chill as the record. Regardless, this is the current NHL record. And, since 2010, no hockey game other than this one in 2014 has surpassed 100,000. So, whichever of these games you consider to be the record will remain so, at least for a while.

*

December 11, 2010 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL played the next day. The regular season of college football had only 1 game left, and it was played at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia: Navy beat Army, 31-17.

There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 93-62 at what's now named the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. Yes, that's a full 48-minute game, and the Hornets-to-be only scored sixty-two points.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Indiana Pacers, 97-83 at what's now the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 110-95 at the Toyota Center in Houston. Kevin Martin scored 40 points.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz, 103-97 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Detroit Red Wings, 120-116 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 113-82 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 84-83 at what's now the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

* And the Miami Heat beat the Sacramento Kings, 104-83 at what's now the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento. Dwyane Wade scored 36.

There were 13 games played in the NHL, none of them having an attendance of higher than 23,000:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the Prudential Center.

* The New York Rangers lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-1 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-4 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Boston Bruins, 2-1 in overtime at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at what's now the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at what's now the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* In the 1st game of CBC's Saturday Hockey Night In Canada doubleheader, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at what's now the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Florida Panthers, 3-0 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 in a shootout at what's now the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Dallas Stars, 5-2 at what's now the Desert Diamond Arena in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at what's now the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

* The Chicago Blackhawks lost to the San Jose Sharks, 2-1 in overtime at the SAP Center in San Jose.

* In the 2nd Hockey Night In Canada game, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-4 in overtime at what's now the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

* The Anaheim Ducks, the Calgary Flames, the Edmonton Oilers and the Ottawa Senators were not scheduled.

December 9, 2012: The Tragedy of Jenni Rivera

December 9, 2012: Singer Jenni Rivera and 6 others are killed in a plane crash outside Monterrey, Mexico. The Learjet 25's 2 "black boxes" have allegedly never been found.

The Spanish-language singer known as La Gran Señora, La Diva de la Banda, and La Mariposa de Barrio -- the Great Lady, the Diva of the Dance, and the Butterfly of the Neighborhood -- was 43, and was a huge star in Latin music, but virtually unknown to Anglophone Americans. Being an Anglophone American, I literally never knew she was alive until I knew she was dead.

Dolores Janney Rivera was born on July 2, 1969, outside Los Angeles in Long Beach, California -- 22 days before Jennifer Lopez, another Hispanic music legend, but all the way across the country from her. Jenni began recording music in 1992, and, like another Spanish-singing star who died too young, Selena, her music was produced by her father, Pedro Rivera.

Her recordings often had themes of social issues, infidelity, tax evasion and inflation. In other words, country music. In this case, the "country" was that part of America that speaks Spanish first. What would today be called the Southwest, rather than the Southeast.

She became known for recording Banda, a previously male-dominated subgenre of regional Mexican music in which wind and brass instruments are prominent. By 2005, she was a superstar in Spanish America, but Anglophone America didn't know about her. In 2010, she began headlining in Las Vegas, so Anglophone America at least became aware of her.

She was married 3 times. Her 1st husband, José Trinidad Marín, went to prison for what were once quaintly called "morals charges." Her 2nd husband, Juan López, died of pneumonia in prison, for selling drugs. Her 3rd husband was former baseball pitcher Esteban Loaiza, and they'd filed for divorce 2 months before her death. A few years after her death, he, too, served time for selling drugs, but is out now. Even after her death, her life is a soap opera.

With José, she had 2 daughters, Janney Marín Rivera, known as "Chiquis," born just before Jenni turned 16, and Jacqueline; and a son, Michael. With Juan, she had a daughter, Jenicka, and a son, Juan Angel. She and her family appeared in reality TV shows. Before her death, Jenni and Chiquis were estranged, and were working on reconciliation.

On December 8, 2012, Jenni performed at the Monterrey Arena in Monterrey, Mexico. She then boarded a Learjet 25 to fly to Toluca, to appear on the Mexican version of The Voice. The plane took off at 3:20 AM Central Time, and contact was lost 15 minutes later. Later in the day, the wreckage was found outside the city of Iturbide, in the State of Nuevo León.

No distress signal was ever received. The cause was never determined, but both weather and foul play were ruled out. It should be noted that the pilot was 78 years old, and his co-pilot was only 21. Along with them, Jenni and 4 members of her entourage were killed.

UPDATE: On June 28, 2024, Jenni received the posthumous honor of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. All 5 of her children were on hand, as was a close friend, the controversial Mexican singer Gloria Trevi.

*

December 9, 2012 was a Sunday. These NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the New Orleans Saints, 52-27 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 17-10 at EverBank Field (now EverBank Stadium) in Jacksonville.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Baltimore Ravens, 31-28 at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Carolina Panthers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 30-20 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 23-21 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The St. Louis Rams beat the Buffalo Bills, 15-12 at Ralph Wilson Stadium (formerly Rich Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 34-24 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 30-7 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (now Huntington Bank Field).

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 20-19 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Tennessee Titans, 27-23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Detroit Lions, 27-20 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Chicago Bears, 21-14 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins, 27-13 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals, 58-0 at CenturyLink Field (now Lumen Field) in Seattle.

* The preceding Thursday night, the Denver Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders, 26-13at the O.co Coliseum (as the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was then known).

* And the next night, on ESPN Monday Night Football, the New England Patriots beat the Houston Texans, 42-14 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

There were no games in the NHL, becuase the players were locked out by the team owners. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Denver Nuggets, 112-106 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 97-88 at the Barclays Center.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers, 104-93 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Phoenix Suns, 98-90 at the US Airways Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* And there was a doubleheader at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. In the afternoon, the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Toronto Raptors, 102-83. In the evening, the Utah Jazz beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 117-110.

December 8, 2013: A 64-Yard Field Goal

December 8, 2013: The Denver Broncos wallop the Tennessee Titans, 51-28 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver. (It is now named Empower Field at Mile High, although, scoring 51 points, the Broncos didn't need any more empowerment that day.)

The Titans actually led 21-10 late in the 2nd quarter, before the Broncos took over the game. Peyton Manning completed 39 of 59 passes for 397 yards, 4 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Most notably, on the last play of the 1st half, with the Titans still leading 21-17, head coach John Fox sent kicker Matt Prater, who had already kicked a 25-yard field goal, in to attempt a 64-yard field goal. At first, this looked like a bad idea, for 2 reasons: The NFL record was 63 yards, and Fox had missed the preceding 3 games recovering from a heart issue. Fox did not need this kind of pressure.

But 63 yards had been done 3 times before, twice at altitude, in Denver, and to close the 1st half each time: By Jason Elam of the Broncos, on October 25, 1998, against the Jacksonville Jaguars, at the old Mile High Stadium; and Sebastian Janikowski of the Oakland Raiders, on September 12, 2011, against the Broncos, at the new stadium. The 1st time it was done, it was by Tom Dempsey of the New Orleans Saints, on November 8, 1970, a game-winner against the Detroit Lions at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans -- actually below sea level.

Prater converted it, and a new NFL record was set. Perhaps inspired by this, the Broncos scored 14 points in the 3rd quarter, and 17 in the 4th quarter, including a 19-yard field goal by Prater. Prater also went 6-for-6 on points-after-touchdowns. The Broncos won the AFC Championship, but got clobbered in Super Bowl XLVIII by the Seattle Seahawks.

Two years later, they won Super Bowl 50 -- but with Brandon McManus as their placekicker. On January 2, 2022, against the Los Angeles Chargers, not far above sea level at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, he kicked a 61-yard field goal. Through the 2022 season, with him still kicking for the Broncos, that remains his career high. So the Broncos' fine kicking tradition, going back to former Jet Jim Turner helping get them into Super Bowl XII in the 1977-78 season, and Rich Karlis kicking them into 3 Super Bowls in the 1980s before Elam helped them win 2 in the 1990s, continues.

On September 28, 2008, at the end of a 1st half, Janikowski was sent in for the most ridiculous field goal attempt ever: 76 yards, on grass, into the wind, at the Oakland Coliseum, just 43 feet above sea level. It flew 58 yards, still a great kick under any circumstances, but it was 18 yards short, and wide right.

On September 9, 2012, David Akers, then with the San Francisco 49ers, hit a 63-yarder against the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay is 581 feet above sea level.

On October 7, 2018, in Charlotte, North Carolina, 761 feet above sea level, Graham Gano did something no kicker had done since Dempsey: Kick a game-winning field goal 63 yards or more. He kicked one from 63 yards out, to give the Carolina Panthers a 33-31 win against the New York Giants.

On September 26, 2021, Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens, at Ford Field in Detroit, 656 feet above sea level, kicked a 66-yard field goal, for a new record. It was well above sea level, on turf, indoors. But, like Dempsey, it was a game-winner. Also like Dempsey, it gave his team a 19-17 win over the Lions.

Before kicking tees were outlawed by the NCAA, 3 college players had kicked 67-yard field goals. The national high school record is 69 yards.

*

December 8, 2013 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to the San Diego Chargers, 37-14 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The New York Jets beat the Oakland Raiders, 37-27 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New England Patriots beat the Cleveland Browns, 27-26 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Detroit Lions, 34-20 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Minnesota Vikings, 29-26 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Washington Redskins, 45-10 at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Buffalo Bills, 27-6 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Carolina Panthers, 31-13 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 34-28 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Indianapolis Colts, 42-28 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 22-21 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Arizona Cardinals beat the St. Louis Rams, 30-10 at the University of Phoenix Stadium (now State Farm Stadium) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. The Cardinals had played in St. Louis from 1960 to 1987, and the Rams left Los Angeles to play in St. Louis from 1995 to 2015, before moving back to L.A.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 19-17 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Niners played 1 more game at Candlestick, before moving down the Peninsula to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara the next season.

* The next night, on Monday Night Football, the Chicago Bears beat the Dallas Cowboys, 45-28 at the new Soldier Field in Chicago.

* And the preceding Thursday night, the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Houston Texans, 27-20 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.

Baseball was out of season. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Boston Celtics, 114-73 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Miami Heat beat the Detroit Pistons, 110-95 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Orlando Magic, 98-88 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers, 118-94 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant led all scorers on the day with 36 points.

* And the Toronto Raptors beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 106-94 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

And there were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Washington Capitals, 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Florida Panthers, 6-2 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-1 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

December 5, 2009: East Brunswick Football Wins Another State Title

December 5, 2009: The football program at East Brunswick High School, my alma mater, in East Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, began the 2000s about as bad as you can get. They reached the midpoint and the endpoint about as good as you can get.

On December 5, 2004, 5 years to the day earlier, the Bears broke a 32-year drought, and won the Central Jersey Group IV Championship. It was one of those, "Please, God, just let us win it once in my lifetime" deals. I never expected it to happen. But it did.

For once, there was no shocking moment that cost us a big game; there was no game-long brain cramp; there was no horrible call by a brain-dead or a corrupt official; and, while it was cold at Rutgers Stadium that night, the weather wasn't a problem for us. For once, the other shoe didn't drop. We were State Champions.

We kept it going for our 1st 2 games of the 2005 season. And then the other shoe dropped: We lost our last 8 games. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

We went 5-5 in 2006, and again in 2007. There was one significant difference: In 2007, we won the Thanksgiving game against arch-rival Old Bridge. We didn't even do that in 2004. We went 4-6 in 2008, and there was no indication that another special season was coming.

But it was. We began the 2009 season winning big away to Woodbridge, winning big away to Freehold Township, and winning a thriller at home to Monroe, the only game Monroe would lose all season, on the way to winning the Central Jersey Group III title. Would this be the year we finally beat Piscataway? No, they beat us at our place, 13-10.

We won away to South Brunswick, then lost away to Sayreville. Since the early 1990s, a win over Sayreville meant a great season, and a loss meant an ordinary one at best. This time, oh well, shuffle along to .500, maybe.

The schedule had us playing away to Jackson Memorial, the team we beat for the 2004 title, the only game that school had lost in a 3-year stretch. But that stretch also saw the splitting of their district, with the opening of Jackson Liberty. Memorial hasn't been the same since, and we beat them. After a bye week at Halloween, we faced another Ocean County team, hosting Brick Memorial, and lost a 37-34 thriller. This remains the most points E.B. has ever scored and still lost. But we still qualified for the Central Jersey Group IV Playoffs.

The Quarterfinal was at home to West Windsor-Plainsboro South, and we won it, 27-0. The Semifinal was away to Sayreville. A rematch about which we were not enthused. But, as we did in 1994 and 2004, the Bears-Bombers match at War Memorial Stadium it was a defensive struggle that the Bears won, in this case 13-8. For the first time ever, we had beaten a team that we had lost to earlier in the season. This was a good harbinger for the Final, since, as we found out, we would be playing Brick Memorial. Another harbinger: As in 2004, we would be playing the defending Champions on an artificial turf field, at a college, on a December 5.

And then we lost on Thanksgiving again: Old Bridge beat us 23-17. As it usually does, that really pissed me off. We were just 5-4 in the regular season, but were a touchdown each against Piscataway, Brick Memorial and Old Bridge away from being 8-1. Now, we had 9 days to prepare for a rematch with Brick Memorial, who had beaten Brick Township on Thanksgiving.

The game was set for the night of December 5, a Saturday, at Lions Stadium on the campus of The College of New Jersey, formerly named Trenton State College, an NCAA Division III school in Ewing, Mercer County. EBHS had played State Championship games in both boys and girls soccer there, on a very slick artificial turf field bracketed by aluminum bleachers that seated about 8,000 people.

And something happened that had never happened before, in the 49-season history of EBHS football: Snow. It ended up being only a couple of inches, but it covered the field, making it slicker than ever (soccer balls and soccer players had a hard enough time on it), making running the ball difficult, passing the ball nearly impossible, and slipping on the aluminum steps and walkways all too common.

EB kicked a field goal in the first half to make it 3-0. In the 3rd quarter, we added a touchdown, but missed the extra point, o make in 9-0. After that, Memorial tried, but couldn't get anything going. For the 2nd time in these Playoffs, we avenged a regular-season defeat. For the 2nd time in the Playoff era, for the 4th time in our history, we were Central Jersey Group IV Champions.

This one was more enjoyable than 2004, for the simple reason that we'd already done it once before. The tension simply wasn't there: If we'd lost this one, I wouldn't have liked it, but I could have lived with it, even with the miserable weather and the long trip home.

But the pressure wasn't nearly as much -- maybe on the individual players, who were in junior high or even elementary school in 2004, but not on the program and the community as a whole. The 2009 victory was nicer. But the 2004 win was sweeter, because we'd waited so long.

E.B. has made the Playoffs twice since, in 2014 and 2021, losing in the Quarterfinals both times.

*

December 5, 2009 was a Saturday. It was a day for college football Conference Championship Games:

* Southeastern Conference: Number 1 Alabama beat Number 2 Florida, 32-13 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* Atlantic Coast Conference: Georgia Tech beat Clemson, 39-34 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Tech went on to lose the Orange Bowl.

* Conference USA: East Carolina beat the University of Houston, 38-32 at Dowdy-Ficklin Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina -- East Carolina's home field. East Carolina went on to lose the Liberty Bowl.

* Big 12: Texas beat Nebraska, 13-12 at what's now named AT&T Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Texas moved up to Number 2, but went on to lose the National Championship Game, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, to Number 1 Alabama, who thus took the National Championship. 

The other big conferences didn't yet have Conference Championship Games. Cincinnati won the Big East, but lost the Sugar Bowl to Florida. Ohio State won the Big 10, and Oregon won the Pac-10. They faced each other in the Rose Bowl, and Ohio State won.

There were 9 games played in the NBA that day:

* The Charlotte Bobcats (now the Charlotte Hornets) beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 106-105 at the Time Warner Cable Arena (now the Spectrum Center) in Charlotte.

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Chicago Bulls, 110-78 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Utah Jazz, 108-101 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Dallas Mavericks, 80-75 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-99 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio. Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points for the Nuggets, leading all scorers on the day.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Sacramento Kings, 115-107 at the US Airways Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Indiana Pacers, 88-72 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Golden State Warriors, 126-118 the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets, 90-89 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.

And nearly the entire NHL was in action. Only the Montreal Canadiens and the Anaheim Ducks did not play: 

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 in a shootout at the Prudential Center. Yes, the Devils won a shootout.

* The New York Rangers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 at what's now named the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-0 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 8-2 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* An "Original Six" matchup was the opener of the traditional Saturday night doubleheader of CBC's Hockey Night In Canada, although this game was not played in Canada. The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-2 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-3 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh.

* The Atlanta Thrashers beat the Florida Panthers, 2-1 in a shootout at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Nashville Predators, 5-3 at the Sommet Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars, 3-2 in a shootout at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-2 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-4 in a shootout at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 2-1 at the HP Pavilion (now the SAP Center) in San Jose.

December 1, 2012: The Tragedy of Jovan Belcher

December 1, 2012: The life of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher comes to a shocking end. He was 25 years old.

Jovan Henry Allen Belcher was born on July 24, 1987 in West Babylon, Long Island, New York. One of the few University of Maine football players to reach the NFL, he was not selected in the 2009 NFL Draft, but the Chiefs signed him as a free agent.

He became a regular starter in the 2010 season, had a good year in 2011, and had started 10 of the Chiefs' 11 games to that point in 2012. So he must have been doing something right on the field. He had a girlfriend and an infant daughter. Professionally and personally, things seemed to be looking up for him. There appeared to be no sign that he was unhappy.

But on the morning of December 1, he shot and killed his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, 22 -- in the presence of her mother. Then he drove to the Chiefs' practice facility at Arrowhead Stadium, and, in front of head coach Romeo Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli, whom he thanked for giving him a chance to play pro ball, he used his gun again, this time on himself.

A medical examiner's report revealed that Belcher had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a.k.a. CTE, the brain damage caused by repeated head contact in football.

The Chiefs have had a sad history. In 1963, running back Stone Johnson was killed when he broke his neck in a preseason game. He was only 23, and had yet to play a regular-season game in the NFL (or the AFL, in which the Chiefs were playing at the time).

In 1965, Mack Lee Hill, essentially drafted to fill the hole left by Johnson's death, died on the operating table during what should have been routine knee surgery. He was only 25.

In 1980, former All-Pro offensive tackle Jim Tyrer, going through business failures, did what Belcher later did: He shot and killed his wife, and then killed himself. He was 41.

In 1983, running back Joe Delaney, having played 2 All-Pro seasons, drowned in a failed attempt to save 2 drowning boys. He was 24.

In 2000, Derrick Thomas, then one of the best linebackers in the game, crashed his car, was paralyzed, and died a few days later of a blood clot, at 33.

In 2012, Jovan Belcher was added to the list. I don't know what the Chiefs did to bring all this on, but it seems like the club is cursed. In 2020, they won Super Bowl LIV, their 1st World Championship in 50 years. But their history is still tragic.

*

December 1, 2012 was a Saturday. The Chiefs were scheduled to play at home the next day, against the Carolina Panthers. The game went on as scheduled, following discussions between the NFL, Crennel, and the Chiefs' team captains. No formal mention was made of the shooting at the game, although there was a moment of silence for "victims of domestic violence and their families." The Chiefs defeated the Panthers, 27–21.

It was the last full week of the college football season. These games were among those played:

* Number 2 Alabama beat Number 3 Georgia, 32-28 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game.

* Number 7 Kansas State beat Number 23 Texas, 42-24 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. While the Big Twelve Conference did not have a Championship Game that season, this win by KSU gave them a share of the league's title, and their earlier defeat of Oklahoma gave them the tiebreaker.

* Number 13 Florida State beat Georgia Tech, 21-15 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game.

* Number 14 Nebraska were not merely upset, but blown away by Wisconsin, 70-31 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, in the Big Ten Conference Championship Game.

* The University of Tulsa beat Central Florida, 33-27 at Skelly Stadium in Tulsa, in the Conference USA Championship Game.

* The University of Cincinnati beat Connecticut, 34-17 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Connecticut. This forged a 4-way tie at the top of the Big East Conference: Cincinnati, Louisville, Syracuse and Rutgers.

* The night before, Number 8 Stanford beat Number 17 UCLA, 27-24 at the new Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California, in the Pacific-Twelve Conference Championship Game.

In the major bowls, Stanford beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, Florida State beat Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl, Louisville upset Florida in the Sugar Bowl, Oregon beat Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl, and Texas A&M beat Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. And, in the Bowl Championship Series' National Championship Game, in Miami Gardens, Florida, Number 2 Alabama beat Number 1 Notre Dame.

Baseball was in the off-season. The NHL team owners had locked the players out, and the season didn't start until January 19, 2013. But there were 10 games played in the NBA that day:

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Miami Heat, 102-89 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Dwyane Wade scored 34 points.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 118-117 in double overtime at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 93-88 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 91-88 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the New Orleans Hornets, 100-79 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Detroit Pistons, 92-77 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Utah Jazz, 124-116 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 99-95 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Sacramento Kings, 116-81 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Indiana Pacers, 103-92 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).

And in English soccer, Arsenal lost to Welsh team Swansea City, 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London. Both goals were scored by Spanish striker Michu: One in the 88th minute, the other in stoppage time. Many Arsenal fans, unhappy with losing striker Robin van Persie in the off-season and with his replacement, Olivier Giroud, demanded that the team sign Michu, based on this one performance. It turned out to be the highlight of his career, as he never amounted to anything.