Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

I’m a sports reporter first, but I’m also a fan.

A trip to Mississippi last week took me away just as the Newtown High School girls’ soccer team was heading to its first South-West Conference championship game in school history and the football team was heading into a critical game in its chase for an SWC and CIAC Class LL tournament berth.

I was in the wilds – well, the “wilds” to a city-bred Yankee like me – outside of Jackson, Mississippi, at an informal dinner with about two dozen family members. Things were raucous inside the small house with all the kids, the two energetic dogs, all those fun-loving relatives and the West Virginia-Louisville football game on the television and all I could do is keep an eye on the clock and worry about what was happening at Joel Barlow High School.

I started counting the minutes until the game around mid-afternoon when I was taking a swim in the dinky hotel pool with my kids. I can’t tell you how many times I reminded myself that Mississippi was an hour behind Connecticut.

At 6 pm local time, with the darkness descending and the worries about what southern-type animals might be lurking in the woods around the property (there was talk about some of us going “snipe” hunting), I wanted to make that first call to someone on my cell list.

I held on until 6:20 local time.

But no answer.

The same went for 6:25, 6:35 and 6:40.

No answer.

So I tried a different number – NHS athletic director Gregg Simon – and at 6:47 local time I found out the game was a 0-0 draw about a minute into the second half.

The news was not so bright about 20 minutes later, when I found out that Masuk had taken a 2-0 lead on Newtown off a couple of set pieces and that time was running out. I was disappointed – really disappointed – but I was at a party.

My mood soon picked up.

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Things were not quite as practical on Friday night during the rehearsal dinner in Brandon, Mississippi, so I had to wait until Saturday morning. Before heading to the church for the morning brunch, I fired up my laptop and looked to see if the Newtown football team prevailed against Pomperaug.

I was expecting an easy win (that’s me – an eternal optimist) but found out, wow, the Nighthawks had to put together one of the best comebacks in their history when they rallied from a 13-0 deficit with seven minutes left to play.

It was a critical win. It propelled the ‘Hawks into third place in the CIAC Class LL state playoff standings ahead of Fairfield Prep.

It would have been really cool to see that one.

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I can’t wait until Terrell Owens retires.

I don’t want to be a T.O. basher, but this guy is the poster boy for the worst of professional sports and each game I see he does more to justify that assessment.

Against the Giants a few weeks ago, he was seen on the sidelines throwing a tantrum because, presumably, Drew Bledsoe wasn’t throwing him the football. Well, Bledsoe threw him the football on fourth-and-short and T.O. plain dropped it.

Against the Eagles, Bledsoe tossed a short pass on a crossing route and T.O., presumably seeing the D-back bearing down on him, developed alligator arms and the ball deflected off his fingertips incomplete.

Against the Redskins this weekend, he catches a touchdown pass and “celebrates” with an idiotic display in the end zone where he pantomimes going to sleep with the football as a pillow. Only, later in the game, he drops a long pass which would have salted the game away or the Cowboys.

T.O. said he went to Dallas to help the Cowboys win, but he is only interested in how that relates to him and not the rest of the team. T.O. can be a great talent, but he also may be the most selfish athlete professional sports has ever seen and I would love it if the news media, en masse, would simply decide to ignore this guy and focus on those players who exemplify the best in professional sports – not the worst.