The Way I See It
In this The Way I See It, a look at the Colts’ confusion that has defined the team since Andrew Luck’s retirement and some Election Day thoughts.
Colts’ Confusion
The Colts’ rough season officially collapsed this week as head coach Frank Reich was fired. While Reich deserves much blame for the Colts’ woes, he isn’t the biggest culprit.
Fact is, the Colts’ current sad state of affairs goes back to the 2019 retirement of franchise QB Andrew Luck. The Colts were stunned by the 29 year old’s retirement and have never come close to replacing him. It’s not Reich’s fault that he’s had five different opening day QBs during his tenure:
- Andrew Luck (2018)
- Jacoby Brissett (2019)
- Philip Rivers (2020)
- Carson Wentz (2021)
- Matt Ryan (2022)
Notice something about that list? Ever since Luck’s departure, the Colts have trotted out a collection or geezers and retreads. Worse, they have failed to draft any young QBs to develop, choosing instead to go with 6th-round afterthoughts like Sam Ehlinger. Needless to say, that hasn’t been a winning strategy.
It has been a good strategy, as Reich’s 40-33-1 (.548) isn’t the worst over that period. One could argue that he deserves to be fired for the team’s putrid 2022 performance. I am shocked, however, that he’s gone before the end of the current campaign.
However, the Colts’ front office deserves plenty of blame for the team’s dire state. From the aforementioned failure to obtain a franchise QB to the bungling of Reich’s firing (over the phone), Irsay and his minions stink. As if trading for a geriatric Ryan wasn’t bad enough, Irsay has gone into full tank mode by filling his HC vacancy with Jeff Saturday.
That’s right, Irsay replaced Frank Reich with former All-Pro OL Saturday, who has no professional coaching experience on any level. Combined with other staff firings, the Colts have no one on the coaching staff who has ever called plays.
I don’t know if Irsay made all these decisions while under the influence, but the Indianapolis situation sure has that feeling. Enjoy the race to the bottom, Colts fans.
Election Thoughts
Don’t know about you, but I rarely look forward to Election Day any more. As a libertarian, you always search for small victories. This year in New York, however, there’s nothing to look forward to. You see, the Libertarian Party (along with the Green Party) was kicked off the ballot. Why, you may ask? Simply because the Democrats and Republicans could do it. They are trying to nip any new political party that may oppose them in the bud. How do you explain Libertarians and Greens being kicked off? I mean, there’s a LaRouche party candidate on the ballot! I thought those guys had all gone extinct. Here’s an article that outlines what happened.
So I trudged to my polling place to write in my vote for Larry Sharpe. Took 20 minutes, as the machine refused to accept a ballot with only write-in candidates and the station supervisor didn’t know what to do. He kept trying to convince me to add some ticks for the dominant parties “so it’d be accepted”. I politely told him to go f*ck himself. I waited until I saw that ballot sealed in an envelope and deposited in the lock box.
Get to the Interesting Stuff!
As I sit here banging out this column for you ungrateful slobs at 3AM, it looks like the Republicans will win the House, while control of the Senate is too close to call. But it’s interesting to note that in one key Senate race, in Georgia, the Libertarian candidate is playing the spoiler role. Chase Oliver, the man refused a spot on the debate stage for being “irrelevant”, sits at 2.0%. Doesn’t sound like much– until you notice that Raphael Warnock (D) is sitting at 49.1% and Herschel Walker (R) is at 48.8%. By grabbing 2%, Oliver will likely prevent either of the two major party candidates from gaining the required 50% required for victory. Looks like a runoff is in the cards in Georgia.
In Arizona, Libertarian candidate (that really isn’t the candidate) Marc Victor looks like he’ll get between 2-2.5% of the vote. What’s interesting to note is that Victor dropped out of the race last week and endorsed Republican Blake Masters. Masters still trails Democrat Mark Kelly, but it’s still early. It’s fun to think that an absentee Libertarian might beat the spread of a potential Kelly win. Fun because Republicans’ heads will explode and the Mises Caucus will have wasted a controversial decision (to back Masters) for no return.
In Pennsylvania, it’s a bit of a shock to see stroke victim John Fetterman defeat Trump-endorsed Mehmet Oz. Also of note, a 1.4% showing by Libertarian Erik Gerhart. This one stings for the Republicans. They need to evaluate how they lost to a guy who can barely string three coherent sentences together.
Overall, it seems like Libertarians have been doing well enough to maintain ballot access, and in at least one or two major races are playing spoiler.
Hey, maybe this Election Day didn’t turn out so bad after all…
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