The unfortunate event that took place in Cincinnati last night in the Monday Night Football game has affected the PiRate Ratings’ updating procedure. The game has now officially been canceled for this week, meaning the next NFL games will take place Saturday in Week 18.
The PiRate Ratings are formulated before the season with certain constants factored in the algorithms, and altering the schedule with two teams not playing has brought me to change the three ratings. The problem is in order to do so, I have to backdate the ratings to the last week of scheduled byes and recalculate the ratings to include an extra bye for Cincinnati and Buffalo.
During the Covid schedule changes, the games were canceled or the schedule was changed before any games were played, so it was easier to calculate new spreads, because the teams had not played. Having to calculate new spreads based on 30 teams playing and two not playing creates a logistical pile of work, and thus the ratings will not be available until late tonight or early tomorrow.
The PiRates pray for a complete recovery for Damar Hamlin. All of us were watching the game live when it happened, and there were tears in all of our eyes. I, the PiRate Captain, have had a difficult time dealing with the passing of the Great Pirate, Mike Leach. Earlier in the day, seeing the Mississippi State football helmets in the Reliaquest Bowl was quite an emotional event. This also comes on the heels of the unfortunate death of an Iowa Hawkeye linebacker Jack Campbell’s grandfather being killed here in Nashville when he was struck by a van near Vanderbilt University while visiting for the Music City Bowl.
Both the cities of Buffalo and Cincinnati have their share of news-breaking fatalities. In Buffalo, in the past year, there has been a tragic mass killing and multiple weather-related deaths. In Cincinnati, it is from the past, as there was a major catastrophe of ticket-holders being crushed to death trying to get choice general admission seats at a Who concert at Riverfront Coliseum in 1979. And in another event where I was watching live on TV, on the opening day of the 1996 Major League Baseball season at Riverfront Stadium, home plate umpire John McSherry attempted to walk to the backstop trying to signal for help, and then he free fell to the ground similar to the way Hamlin fell last night. Efforts to revive him with conventional CPR were unsuccessful.
The hope is that the AED device that restarted Hamlin’s heart last night was able to do so before his brain was robbed of oxygen too long.
I am trained in CPR and other Civil Defense first aid. It is easy enough to learn the basics, including how to save a choking victim, how to save a drowning victim, and even how to deliver a baby in an emergency situation. If you are reading this, please consider learning these basics. Let’s hope that Mr. Hamlin recovers, and the nation becomes a better place because people took the initiative to learn first aid.
The Pi-Rate Ratings 