Football Counter-Programming 2026: Week 4--Androids, Aliens, and Wizards

If you don't recognize Sebastian Stan's MCU portrayal of Captain America's sidekick/childhood friend from the photo above, Bucky is . . . uh . . . Steve Roger's childhood friend and Captain America sidekick World War II pal. Bucky would be separated from Cap and the other Howling Commandoes in a World War II attack on the Red Skull and was thought to be dead.

But no on in comics stays dead long. So it was later revealed that Barnes did not die. He was found by the Soviets and kept alive (sometimes in suspended animation cold storage, which helps explain his long life) and given a Iron Curtain version of the super soldier serum that transformed Steve into Cap. Thus, a brainwashed Bucky Barnes was transformed into the Winter Soldier--a deadly assassin who helped destabilize global politics during the decades of the Cold War.

The Winter Soldier was captured by Captain America and, with the help of Wakandan allies, deprogrammed. Thus Cap and Bucky became allies and fighting comrades once again. In the MCU, at least, Bucky now helps lead the New Avengers (aka The Thunderbolts). And Steve is dead in a past timeline . . . or secretly living on the Moon according to some MCU in-world conspiracy theorists.

All of that is great. But what is really important for today's FC-P is the fact that James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is just a big ole nerd.

This delightful exchange between Bucky and the new Captain America (aka Sam Wilson aka "Falcon") took place after Steve disappeared into a new time stream following the events of Avengers: Endgame. 

What is my point in all this?

Mostly it is to distract you from college football, as you already know.

But it is also a motivating reason to drop this video clip. Because I love the framing that the Avengers almost exclusively fight one of the Big Three. But more than that is the revelation that Bucky was enough of a nerd to get his hands on an original American publication of The Hobbit. My brief research does support his claim.

The book was published in Britain and the United States in 1937, as Bucky says. So he would have had the opportunity to read it when he was twenty years old in 1937. Though born in Indiana, Bucky's family moved to New York City during his childhood. It is there, presumably, when Bucky managed to read an early New York Post review of The Hobbit and was sufficiently intrigued to get his own copy.

We know little more about Bucky's reading habits. As portrayed in the MCU, Bucky's young adult life seems more focused on relationships with young women and keeping a careful eye on Skinny Steve Rogers. But maybe he was a fantasy fan his whole life.

Do you think Bucky got into D & D at some point? Being a brainwashed Commie assassin during the Cold War years of the 1970s and 1980s would made that unlikely. But post Winter Soldier, maybe he made up for lost time and caught up with his old habits before World War II? We know that Steve made an effort to watch Star Wars and Star Trek and do his own bit of pop culture reconnaissance.

I support the notion that Bucky spent time watching movies and reading The Lord of the Rings, watching Peter Jackson's movies, and maybe even getting into Raymond Feist's Magician series. Or Lev Grossman's The Magicians series. (Do you think he was a Ring of Time guy? What about A Song of Ice and Fire?) He had LOTS of deprogramming time on his hands while he was recuperating in Wakanda.

You also may have lots of time this weekend.

I implore you to NOT waste it with college football.

That is all. See you next Saturday!

Football Counter-Programming 2026: Week 3--Moses Thoughts

I was sitting in church last Sunday (as I usually do . . . Christian humble brag) and I heard the following first reading from our weekly lectionary of Biblical selections.

As I listened, I got to thinking about the wording of the Exodus passage and you will see that I have boldfaced portions of it below.

Putting 2 and 2 together, I quickly came up with the number 4--as in Water . . . Earth . . . Fire . . Air . . . and well . . . I guess I'll just say it . . .

WAS THE BIBLICAL MOSES AN AVATAR?

(a master of the four elements . . . not, to be clear, the alien blue skinned whatevers in those terrible James Cameron movies)

Yes, I'm asking.

Was Moses an Aang before Aang? Can Korra carry on a mental conversation with the Hebrew leader of the exodus from Egyptian bondage?

Blasphemy, you may say?!

Huh, others of you might also say.

If you aren't familiar with the lore of the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, I simply am not going to try and summarize the dense plot and the characters in this post. You can click on this link to enjoy a rapid-fire condensed plot presentation. 

This, in no way, should be considered an endorsement of NOT watching the full show. I heartily recommend the series and its associated spin-offs. It is a foundational text in my family and it is absolutely worth your time and your attention.

So . . . why don't you stop reading this and take the next few weeks* to carefully watch the 60ish episodes of the cartoon. Then you can consider if want to also watch the Netflix live action version (s2 was much improved over s1). And THEN come back and start over here with this blog post to fully appreciate the point I am trying to make.

. . . waiting . . .

Okay. Now then.

Now you can educatedly read this Old Testament passage, take note of my boldfaced passages, and nod your head in agreement.

Moses was an early, Hebrew avatar.

A Reading from the Book of Exodus

"The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided. The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went into the sea after them, all of Pharaoh's horses, chariots, and chariot drivers. At the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and cloud looked down upon the Egyptians army, and threw the Egyptian army into panic. He clogged their chariot wheels so that they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, 'Let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.'

Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.' So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to its normal depth. As the Egyptians fled before it, the Lord tossed the Egyptians into the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the chariot drivers, the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea; not one of them remained. But the Israelites walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left. . . ."

(Also, don't watch college football.) I will not help you with your eternal salvation.

___

*It's not like you should be taking this extended time to be watching college football, right?

Football Counter-Programming 2026: Week 2--Hulk Smash . . . Cancer?

NOTE: There are brief mentions of fictional suicide in this post.

Last night I was relaying some information from Grace about events in her classroom.

To wit--

Grace creates several 16-item bracket challenges each year, giving her students something to vote on. Such as The Best Thanksgiving Meal Side Dishes or The Best Character in the Lord of the Rings movies.

Each week, kids in her class get to vote, round by round until a winner is determined.

At the start of this year, the final two in the Marvel Characters bracket was The Hulk versus Spider-Man.

(How did The Hulk make it to the final round, you ask? Who was defeated along the way? I cannot say. I am surprised that The Hulk did make it to the end. I am NOT surprised that Spider-Man did.)

ANDBUTSO . . . I was relaying this information to Sarah and Lynda. And it got Sarah and I talking about why The Hulk? We didn't get to an answer on that, but Sarah suggested it is because Bruce Banner is a sympathetic character. Someone that people can feel empathy for. Might that play a role in his popularity?

This conversation around The Hulk eventually touched on the question of How powerful is The Hulk anyway? Some comics suggest that his powers are kinda limitless and are fueled by the Hulk rage, feeding off each other in escalating ways. 

Eventually we got to the point that, in one of the MCU movies, Bruce Banner admits that when he was at one of his most depressed times, he tried to commit suicide. But The Hulk prevented it from happening. Not much more explanation was given . . . but it got me thinking even further.

How powerful is The Hulk . . . really?

If (even in a submerged, unconscious state) he has the ability to prevent Bruce Banner from suicide, then does that make Bruce Banner functionally immortal? And going at this from a different perspective . . .

can The Hulk cure cancer?

Because, if The Hulk can step in and prevent mechanical types of death, then I though the only way to stop him was through unavoidable, biological types of illness and death such as cancerous tumors and the like. 

But maybe not?

The Marvel comics universe already has characters such as Wolverine and Deadpool that have a healing factor that allows their biological systems and body to recover from some of the worst types of degradation and damage. As a result of that we already know that Logan (Wolverine) has survived for more than a century and (probably) has been shown in some comic stories to live even longer and could be considered sort of immortal?

(I do not have more than a glancing knowledge of comics lore, which is varied, confusing, and EXTENSIVE. I do not pretend to have any kind of idea what sorts of crazy storylines have been dreamed up for Wolverine or any other comic book character. So if you already know "the answer" to this thought experiment, drop an educational comment below.)

Back to the thoughts . . .

Can The Hulk cure cancer?

And if he can, then can the gamma-irradiated qualities of Bruce Banner's DNA be a template for curing cancer generally? Or is he unique and no one else has the genetic quirks to make it work?

(Probably.)

Or are The Hulk cells so very unique and radiationally dangerous that no treatment can be pursued to make any kind of cancer cure?

(Again probably.)

Or is all of this nonsense fiction and there is no reason to pursue this any further because it's all just made up and why are you trying to apply real logic to this flimsy, idiotic scenario?

(Most definitely . . . but . . . do you see where I'm steering this?)

ISN'T THIS THE SAME SCENARIO THAT MANY COLLEGE FOOTBALL FANS PUT THEMSELVES IN WEEK AFTER WEEK?

Don't you convince yourself that anything that happens on the field has real bearing in your life? Or that what you do or what you say or how you sit or what you wear or when you eat has some cause and effect relationship with the real-time actions of separate college-aged individuals unconnected to you in a separate location with their own brain patterns and their own mind-body-musculature connections reacting to the complex thoughts and actions of other college-aged opponents. All being manipulated and coached and directed by a separate set of adult supervisors and leaders on the sidelines with their own separate ideas and motivations. NOT TO MENTION the infinite vagaries of wind, temperature, turf, rain, sleep levels, hunger, or a million other factors that affect and deflect each moment of a college football game?!

Stop trying to hold on to everything so tightly!

Let go and give in! You are not the game and the game is not you!

And so, smash your way out of this mindset.

Take a walk outside. 

Don't watch college football.

Football Counter-Programming 2026: Week 1--Seriously . . . is this a space for serious stuff?

What is the point of a blog if you are afraid to write in it?

If you aren't prepared to use a public forum to air out the biggest issues in your life, then why have such a forum at all?

Normally I use these sort of rhetorical devices to set up my FC-P theme of the week and then spin off into some nonsense that wraps around to the uselessness of college football. But maybe now I'm being more authentic than rhetorical and I'm grappling with the fact that life's problems are significant and people's lives are being reflected on. How comfortable am I dropping this stuff onto an online platform that tens of people might read?

To help me, let's put together a Pros and Cons list maybe.

PROS

1. Despite that fact that dozens of people read this space, it might helpful to lock all of the details of stuff here and maybe minimize the number of times that I would have to explain everything. It does get wearisome explaining your situation time and time again. Better to get it all out once and then hope you don't have to keep explaining yourself every time you turn around?

2. It is a sort of word processor-based therapy for me. Better mental health through increased words-per-minute.

CONS

1. I should remember that I am typing about real people with real lives and airing out their real situations--without their express consent. I don't know how David Sedaris keeps getting away with lightly editing his own family dramas into best-selling books and touring shows. But aside from our first names, he and I have nothing in common and I'm very confident that I would not have the familial leeway that he enjoys.

2. Let's be real. . . . Why Won't Your Grow?! is no one's preferred platform for anything. No breaking news is being effectively disseminated from this almost 30 year old platform. It's a friggin' BLOGSPOT webpage! That was effectively out of date a week after I posted my first WWYG?! post in 2004. So, putting anything of substance here is going to do me no good.

(side note about Con #1--Back when I was a young parent and a young blogger, I was having quite a day disagreeing with one of my very young kids. Both of us where digging our heels in and would not budge our position. And man . . . was I angry about it. I was very frustrated that I was being pushed around by a little kid and I didn't know what to do with that frustration and my anger. 

So, I typed it all out in a very angry blog post and I published it. Or I was very close to publishing it. But while this was happening, Lynda got in touch via phone with our priest and I got a phone call. With gentle words and some calming perspective, I took the post down and started to begin calming down. And maybe that is all that I need to remember about this now.)

SO!

What, then, are we left with?

Just keep tossing together the same old half-baked, quickly conceived drivel that I've been doing seasonally since the early 2010s? 

Keep trying to come up with a weekly idea that has some tenuous connection to collegiate pigskin and then vainly attempt to be diverting enough? 

Keep hammering away at the quixotic conceit that this little game plays any role in what you choose to do each Fall weekend?

Guess so . . . !

See you next week . . . and remember everyone. Your alma mater had no idea what is going on in your personal life. They just want a. alumni checks, b. occasional sports ticket purchases, c. lots of merch purchases, and d. no angry tweets about how bad this year's defensive line is performing.