Awards Season

The 2016 SPEEDY AWARDS

 

          It is time for the 2016 SPEEDY Awards. Awards season is always a fun time if you (A) are given an award or (B) have nothing else worthwhile to watch on television.

          A quick note: Awards are given with a subjective flair and an eye toward objectivity. Read this again a few times and you’ll figure it out.

 

SPORTS DIVISION

 

It’s About Time Award: To the Cleveland Browns for ridding themselves of the Johnny Manziel headache.

 

The Huh? Award: To the Cleveland Browns for signing QB Robert Griffin III. Runner-up: The San Francisco 49ers for hiring Chip Kelly to be their head coach.

 

Team of the Year for 2015: The Alabama Crimson Tide’s national championship football team.

 

Owner of the Year: Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers. He did something nice for a kid, which is fairly common. I wrote an email to the team to compliment the organization, got a reply and then got another reply from Richardson. You have to like that.

 

Move of the Year: The Rams for returning to Los Angeles, their second home.

 

Play-By-Play Announcer of the Year: Verne Lundquist, CBS Television. Tremendous announcer and as great as his career has been, it seemed like his 2015 college football season was his best ever. A classy guy. Never met him but if you have a chance to see him interact with people, then you know why he is popular here.

Live Streaming Division: Mickey Dale, Imperial High School football, Imperial, California (KROP Radio). Challenged by occasional technical complications, the Mickster overcame everything with a terrific words-eye view of the 2015 Tigers campaign. Like Lundquist, a veteran who had his best year.

 

Politics

 

Quip of the Year: To President Barack Obama for telling the Alabama Crimson Tide team they could call him “O’Bama.” Great line.

 

General

 

Spouse of the Year: Mine, Mrs. Leeway, for making recovery from a serious back issue possible and for doing it with a smile.

 

Conventionaide Award: To the Republican Party National Convention for scheduling the 2016 RNC in Cleveland. Thanks to the convention, many of Cleveland’s massive potholes will be eliminated in advance of the event. Normally, a trip to Cleveland means a follow-up trip to the nearest Goodyear store for a wheel alignment.

 

Human Machine Award: To old pal Greg Bert for keeping himself in tremendous physical condition and for tirelessly pushing his students to do the same for themselves. His use of social media shows his willingness to keep the message fresh and moving forward. Bert has previously earned state and regional Physical Education Teacher of the Year awards. Now he has a Speedy, the capstone of his career.

 

Public Employee of the Year: The public, non-charter school classroom teacher.

 

Thanks for reading.