Daily Dirt: The question for today is … are you ready for some football?

Daily Dirt for Sept. 12, 2021

It’s the first Sunday of the NFL season! Welcome to Vol. 65 of the Daily Dirt, and … are you ready for some football Today’s first of three thoughts indicates at least one of us is.

1. The NFL season kicks off this weekend, and with it comes the usual array of predictions from anyone and everyone with at least an ounce of football knowledge. That includes yours truly. Here are some of my thoughts about the 2021 season:

• A. Best-looking uniforms: Las Vegas Raiders. The soot and the silver remains stylish after all these years. (Cleveland Browns have the top helmets.)
• B. Worst-looking uniforms: Carolina. The Panthers need a major makeover. Looks like the team is stuck in the 1970s. (Tennessee Titans have the worst-looking helmets.)
• C. AFC divisional winners: Cleveland in the North, Miami in the East, Kansas City in the West, Indianapolis in the South.
• D. NFC divisional winners: Green Bay in the North, Washington in the East, Seattle in the West, Tampa Bay in the South.
• E. Super Bowl winner: Kansas City. A great, great team.
• F. Best NFL TV play-by-play man: Al Michaels, NBC.
• G. Best NFL analyst: Tony Romo, CBS.
• H. Best coach: Kevin Stefanski, Cleveland.
• I. Player of the Year: Pat Mahomes, Kansas City.
• J. Rookie of the Year: Justin Fields, Chicago.
• K. First coach to be fired: Mike Zimmer, Minnesota. 
• L. Likely disappointments: Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots, coach Urban Meyer (Jacksonville), quarterback Zach Wilson (New York Jets).

2. Fun fact of the day: The longest monosyllabic words all start with an “s.” (A monosyllabic word has just one syllable, and plenty of them exist, but according to Guinness Book of World Records, the longest of those words all begin with an “s.”) These are the longest:

• At 10 letters: Scraunched, strengthed.
• Runners-up with nine letters: Screeched, squelched, scrounged, straights. strengths.

3. I don’t think anyone would argue it has been a long, hot summer. As hot as it has been in West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri, the local thermometer never approached the hottest temperature ever recorded — 136 degrees in El Azizia, Libya, in September 1922. While there’s a good chance higher temperatures have actually existed in different areas of the world, the 136-degree figure is the highest recorded by a weather station anywhere on the planet. 

Steve Fact O’ the Day
I was in attendance at the June 4, 1974 Indians-Rangers baseball game at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland. That was the night of the famous 10-cent beer night riot that forced Cleveland to forfeit the game when thousands of drunken fans stormed the field during the game. Gee, who thought it would be a great idea to sell an unlimited number of 10-cent beers to anyone and everyone?

Steve had a chance to buy all the 10-cent beers he wanted on that fateful night in 1974 but chose to buy multiple 50-cent hot dogs instead.