Josh Kingsley
Life has a weird way of reminding us of things. Watching sports is a big part of my life and I’ve never met a sport I didn’t like. My two favorite NBA teams (Nuggets and Bucks… because I’m a sport bigamist) are in their respective playoff runs as #1 seeds. The Avs, my NHL hockey team, are defending their Stanley Cup. KU was relevant in football and the basketball team won another Big XII regular season title. The Brewers look like a playoff team. Oh yeah, the CHIEFS, AKA the subject of this column, are Super Bowl champs and prepping to host the NFL draft tonight.
Cue the rainbows and butterflies!!
Then Saturday happened. I left my house at 8:00 AM for a wedding show with the Tottenham Hotspur match on the radio. By the time I go to the first stoplight they were down 0-1. It was 0-2 by the time I got on the freeway. Things only worsened as the tally hit 0-5 by the time I was out of town. That drive was 21 minutes. The Spurs are in a crisis. They fired two managers in the last month, most likely miss Champions League and all European competitions, and all the toxic soccer fans are active on social media. Harry Kane, one of my all-time favorite athletes, most likely leaves this summer. It’s a gut punch. Add in the horribleness of Sporting KC and soccer is borderline unwatchable right now.
My takeaway: gratefulness. First, for all the other teams mentioned, and mainly for the CHIEFS. This serves a stark reminder: enjoy the present. Things tend to fall apart quickly, so savor the ride.
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Hollywood Endings
I have to highlight one more happy thought. Soccer isn’t all bad. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny bought Welsh Club, Wrexham, a couple years ago with Premier League dreams. I adopted the team as a fan immediately. The first step in building the dream completed last weekend. Wrexham won the National League title moving up to the pro tier of English soccer. There are three more steps to the Premier League, and they may never happen. None of that matters at the moment. Wrexham are winners and that town has a top flight club once again.
Ryan and Rob are what we all want in owners. They deeply care about winning, they’re fans and the club’s community. Wrexham started the season a floundering factory town without hope fostering distractions. They end the season a floundering factory town on the rise with everything in the world to cheer on weekends. Superheroes, and they hope they bring actually exist.
Sports Betting
Betting on sports is widely legal in the US. This is a good thing. Placing bets on games, players, parlays, etc. draws fans deeper into sports. Betting provides another reason to watch and pulls fans into greater understanding of the games they would otherwise ignore. Gambling enhances sports and sometimes puts them prominently into relevance. Women’s NCAA and WNBA basketball are on the verge of explosion. Sports betting catalyzes them over the top. These are all good things.
Sports betting provides potential for negatives. Gambling can be addicting, and people can lose in real life. Fixing schemes can threaten the integrity of the game. I genuinely believe these negatives are so few and far between that the proposition remains grossly net positive. Bans on gambling equate to prohibition. I am categorically against prohibition as it simply breeds black markets where many more lose. The sports gambling prohibition is going away unless idiots ruin it for everyone.
Pro athletes cannot have betting accounts because the risk is too great. The NFL did the right thing with the Lions’ idiots.
Norwegian Vibes
I mentioned EMEA time last week, and here’s what I’m up to. My day job tasked me with learning Aquaculture. I love learning new things and jump into projects that provide the opportunity. Sometimes projects simply click and I dive headfirst. Aquaculture quickly got there. I’m a farm kid from Kansas. We raised beef cattle, chickens, wheat and milo. The goal was always simple: provide quality food for others and income for us. Americans crave and consume protein in mass. Our appetites and desires for leaner versions grow constantly. Aquaculture is the answer to demand for lean, tasty, sustainable protein. The aqua folks are farmers. I fit in marvelously. This fun ride takes me deeper by the moment. I have attended three trade shows and an education symposium since the end of February. Now it’s officially showing me the world.
I boarded a plane Monday afternoon to Bergen, Norway with stops in Atlanta and Paris. Norway is the cradle of aquaculture and the perfect backdrop for an annual planning meeting.
Wednesday was field trip day. I boarded a bus at 8:00 AM with 20 others for an hour ride to just north of Rong. Our team visited a salmon farm that produces roughly 10K tons of fish annually. Norway is the salmon capital of the world for good reason. The facility consists of 7 net pens in the open fjord water. Fish are consistently fed via automated pneumatic spreader. The system was simple, yet automated. Discussion with the farmer revealed more comparisons to my rural Kansas upbringing that I can’t even begin to list. I am a huge fan of quality raised food. The facility I saw today fit the bill for sure.
NFL Draft Tonight
The draft kicks off 7_00 AM, KC time, at historical Union Station. My intention was always to attend, but work and an adventure called. I’m not sure of my plan. The draft is 2:00 AM-to-6:00 AM Norway time. I cannot say anything for certain. It’s likely I sleep through it and catch up in the morning. However, I may stay up. Not sure as I finish this. My final prediction for the CHIEFS first round: Veach trades up for his guy. Who is said guy? At this point, no clue. All the rumors of RB and WR feel smoke-screeny to me. I think he grabs a DT or Edge.
My actual prediction: the masses hate the pick as not sexy enough (i.e. not a WR1 prospect). Then said player becomes a rookie stud borderline Pro Bowler. We here at Arrowhead One will be fans before it’s cool.
Giving Myself an Encore
This is a two-part week for me. I stumbled into a concept late last week. Everything will be explained in the other spot, but it involves the NBC show, Parks and Rec. If you didn’t read it earlier today, it’s called: “Chiefs: Love Letter to the Chiefs, and the Draft.” Misty often asks me “who exactly is this for?” when I do stuff like this. I can confidently say CHIEFS fans, Parks and Rec fans, but mostly my personal amusement. Hop to my other piece and join me on this quirky journey.
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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom
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