The No Kool-Aid Zone Blog

I don't drink the Kool-Aid. For Anyone.

Three New York Giants players on the field during a football game: one player in the foreground is crouched in a ready position, another is centered in position to receive the snap, and a third is lined up to the right, waiting for the play to begin.

Buy a Ticket Like the Rest of Us: Why Eli Manning does NOT Belong in the Hall of Fame

January 4, 2025

Let’s get this out of the way first: as a person, I like Eli Manning. Cool guy, nice foil for Peyton, would probably be fun to hang out with. But this is getting serious: Eli Manning is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame…and it’s an utter travesty. Utter to the uttermost. There…

A weathered white sign with the words "POLLING STATION" and an arrow pointing left, in front of a blurred background featuring two people walking in a park.

I Refuse to Cast a Dishonest Vote

July 7, 2024

It’s election season and once again, we as Americans will be asked to make a choice; this time, as every four years, we will not only select all the members of our House of Representatives, and a substantial number of Senators, but we will choose our next president (not to mention an assortment of officeholders…

Clifford Pauley: A Memorial

May 27, 2024

Odin remembers. For a young airman named Clifford, this was it, the fiftieth and final run his country would ask of him, the final mission of his second 25-mission hitch. Statistically, the chances of making it through one full complement of twenty-five missions were about 25% in 1943. Three of every four airmen had their…

A hand placing a light blue envelope into a wooden ballot box, with wooden chairs visible in the background.

The “Stolen Election” Hoax, Revisited

May 6, 2024

A little over three years ago, I wrote a piece in which I made the claim that, not only DID I not believe the idea that the 2020 election was stolen, but that based on the things I had learned over the course of 60-plus years of living, as well as both the utter implausibility…

Close-up of rippling water surface with soft reflections and a serene turquoise background.

A Tale of Two Baptisms

April 28, 2024

The news greeted me last evening: today, Russell Brand is being baptized in the Thames River. This reminded me of my short trip last weekend to Ball Ground, GA, for the occasion of the baptism of my best buddy from junior high school, Wayde Trent. The stories of these two men are remarkably different…and remarkably…

Fantasy Football and Real Life

September 6, 2023

In 1990–more than a third of a century and over half my lifetime ago–I created something called the Armchair Football League. Fantasy baseball, or “rotisserie baseball”, as it was then called, had been around for awhile, but we were some of the pioneers of fantasy football at the time. I invited seven friends and then,…