Going against the grain

If you know me at all, you know I have a distaste for complacency.  I’m a fan of challenging traditions that guide poor life or business practices. As anyone who’s taken on tradition, it’s difficult because there are entrenched loyalists who will fight to the death for their turf. That’s understandable, because processes become traditions because they were successful at some point. As situations change, however, traditions are very slow to die.

I loved this story in the latest Sports Illustrated because it chronicles high school football coach Kevin Kelley, who questions two long-standing traditions: kicking and punting. Instead of punting, Kelley has his team go for it. ALWAYS. Instead of long kickoffs, Kelley has his team try onside kicks. ALWAYS.

Why? Because the odds favor his alternatives.

Kelley came to that realization after poring through tons of game stats. So, for the last three seasons, his teams have stumped the competition by doing something different.

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Five NFL predictions

Updated on Monday, October 12, 2009 at 10:50 AM by Logan Molen

Updated on Friday, December 11, 2009 at 6:01 PM by Logan Molen

The regular season is finally here. And I'm more excited in years, given the Packers level of play. So, thought I'd toss out five predictions about the upcoming season:

1) The Packers will surprise a lot of people. Yes, some respected national media folk have picked them to make the Super Bowl, but I think they're still under the radar somewhat given all the focus on Brett Favre landing in Minnesota and Jay Cutler settling in Chicago. Overnight, the NFC North became the hottest division in football. But the Pack will fight its way to the division title, and into the Super Bowl (against either San Diego or Pittsburgh).

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Surprise and delight

Updated on Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 8:31 AM by Logan Molen

he Wall Street Journal published a story today about so-called crazy ants that are becoming a nuisance in the Gulf Coast. Apparently these ants lack a harsh bite but can kill animals and chew through electrical wires and cables.

What I found interesting about the story was the design treatment. This hard-news story ran in the news section on Page A3. Yet, despite the traditional stodginess of the news section, the designer placed three small black-and-white graphics of ants in the story gutters. None of the graphics interfered with the readability of the story and they added zero to the information. What they did add was a bit of surprise. They made me stop and think, hey, my serious newspaper can have a little fun. The graphics were simple and small, even amateurish to some degree, but someone thought, "I'm gonna take a chance and have a bit of fun."

Bravo.

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