Bickley on Fire

By Walter Mitchell

Tonight. NFL fans all over the planet earth get to see the unveiling of the NFL's 2026-2027 schedule and within minutes of its release, as a rite of passage, the fans will be predicting their team's W and L record.

Enter Arizona Sports Radio's Dan Bickley. 

This timely rant from the F. Scott Fitzgerald of modern sportswriters is an absolute bonfire. 

https://youtu.be/pFJ50vYG9VA?si=C2l8dS9231lAb4Me

If I were Nick Carraway, what I would like to shout over to my charismatic friend is:

"They're a rotten crowd, you're worth the whole damn bunch put together."

Everything that Bick said about the NFL's insidious greed and the Cardinals' difficult schedule is spot-on.

I just hope that this year the Cardinals "do not go gentle into that good night." (Dylan Thomas)

That they "rage, rage against the dying of the light."

The thing is ---     and it's the very reason why I never predict the Cardinals' W and L record at any time, especially ahead of time --- you never know "on any given Sunday."

I adamantly refuse to live in a world without hope.

Because of stunning moments like this:

https://www.threads.com/@buccigross/post/DX21sl3gqcm?xmt=AQG04ojTUj3Y6sri_SHIhv4cz29PGrbPeBsaW1jpmXZ8bQ

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Author John Green's take:

https://www.tiktok.com/@literallyjohngreen/video/7158882703633288491?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

The Gale

One of Emily Dickinson's lines in this iconic poem that stands out to me is:

"And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - "

Hope is "sweetest" when sung by the bird in the middle of a storm.

This is a nifty paradox.

A paradox is a contradiction that contains a curious truth.

Hope is what the bird clings to and sings to even under the direst of circumstances.

"And sore must be the storm - that could abash the little bird" 

Here Dickinson personifies the storm (capital G on Gale personification) as a savage, relentless bully who attempts to "abash" (humiliate) the bird to render it voiceless, thrown perilously off its perch and thoroughly defeated.

Um, not so fast.

Here comes the curious truth.

The bird of hope "never stops - at all -"

That's why the Gale is "sore" -

Because the bully loses in the end.

Conclusion:

When I see the Cardinals schedule tonight, all I am going to focus on is how our team can go 1-0 on Week 1. 

One of my favorite author's, Anne Lamott, wrote about some sage advice that her father gave to her little brother. It was Memorial Day Weekend and, of course, her brother waited until Monday afternoon to do his science project, which was to describe in detail twenty birds that are indigenous to the San Francisco Bay area. When her brother was panicking about where to even begin such an arduous assignment, her father put his hand on her brother's shoulder and said, "take it bird by bird, buddy."

The Cardinals will have 17 games on the new schedule, and I venture to take each one of them "bird by bird."