by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Five Cueball and Quinn thoughts for January 15, 2013…

1. Football blahs….

Forgive me for writing this under a dark cloud. If you have read my stuff over the past few decades you might get the hint I am a big Denver Bronco and K-State football fan. I grew up in Colorado and I adopted K-State as my college team when I moved to Kansas.

It has been a special year for yours truly. At one point I was convinced Neptune was aligned in such a way with Pluto (still a planet in my eyes) and both KSU and Denver were going to win their respective national championships in the same year, making me awesome because we all know if your favorite football team is No. 1, you are superior to everyone else in every way. That’s sarcasm by the way.

The Cats choked it away in November against Baylor, so losing to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl a week ago was a bit ho-hum. Not that K-State really “choked.” It was apparent as good as the Cats were this season, they would have never been national champions. I cringe what a championship game might have been against a team like Alabama. But it might have been OK against Notre Dame.

The Broncos, on the other hand… oh my goodness… was a different matter.

This is how bad it was for me. Not only were the Broncos going to make me awesome, but richer. I placed a $20 bet in Vegas in February on the Broncos to win the Super Bowl. At that time, Tim Tebow was still wearing orange and blue and Peyton Manning was yet to be courted by Bronco general manager John Elway. Denver at that point was a 45-1 long shot. I also placed $20 for my daughter Allison, who likes the Broncos because she thought Tebow was cute.

Then Manning becomes a Bronco and Tebow gets traded away (Allison still thinks Tebow is cute). Denver becomes unbeatable, and the proverbial favorite to win the Super Bowl. My Broncos were going to win Allison and myself $1,800 combined, not to mention making me awesome.

Well, Saturday night, you saw what happened. Choke doesn’t describe it. I think it was more ‘self inflicted decapitation.’ I’m usually a nervous wreck until the final buzzer, but I was so sure Denver had it won in the final minute of that game, I was already doing the “Dougie” and the “Wobble” in the living room.

And then Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco threw that improbable zillon yard pass in the final second, the kind that only is scripted in one of those sports movies, and the world ended. Gone was my awesomeness. Gone was my and Allison’s $1,800.

Anyway, let’s move on. If you want analysis of this game turn on the ESPN gossip center and they will tell you all about it. Speaking of which…

2. Musburger controversy…

In the “let’s manufacture a controversy out of nothing” category, ESPN sportscaster Brent Musburger got caught up in one when he made this statement about the Miss Alabama USA, Katherine Webb, in the BCS Championship game…

Ok, let’s put this in perspective. The game stunk, and Musburger is paid to be entertaining.

And while this is political correctness gone amok, there is something else driving this controversy…

Jealousy.

Some people are jealous of the pretty girl, and they can’t stand the fact a national announcer is giving her credit for being beautiful. I understand that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but some are given more than others.

This controversy reminds me of another one on this website more than a year ago. I wrote a story on the “Charlie’s Angels” of Wellington: Erianne Adams, Dani Anderson and Ashlyn Whaley, who were senior girl basketball players at the time. It was a light-hearted feature about the three girls growing up playing basketball.

What happened thereafter shocked me. There was huge amount of backlash with the article. I couldn’t understand it. This was a warm and fuzzy feature story.

But I didn’t count on the “jealousy” factor.

The same thing goes with my “shout out of the weeks” at the end of this blog. I have been criticized for complimenting so and so. Jealousy.

It’s a natural reaction. We all are jealous. It’s why God made not one but two commandments on “thou shall not covet” on that tablet he gave to Moses. Heck, wars are based on jealousy.

The thing is this world will always have more beautiful, more lucky, richer, faster, more wonderful people than ourselves. It’s a fact of life.

Miss Alabama is a beautiful woman and she is dating the Alabama quarterback and is loved by Brent Musburger. Get over it.

3. And the winner is….

Payton Baker of Wellington, still in high school, is the winner of the $100 Sumner Newscow-The Dore contest.

He was 21-7 in his picks and won the tiebreaker over Tom Ybarra, who also went 21-7. The first tiebreaker was handing your entries to The Dore as opposed to mailing it to Sumner Newscow. Ybarra gets a $50 gift certificate to The Dore for second place. Tommy Norris finished third with a 19-9 record and will receive a $25 gift certificate.

I finished with a 12-16 record. I missed the last seven bowls played. That’s quite an accomplishment being that wrong. But I wasn’t alone. Not to mock the 100 or so entries in the contest, but 21-7 isn’t exactly earth shattering to win that kind of money.

Thank you everyone for participating.

4. Quinn’s thoughts….

Quinn McCue

Oh, boy, here he goes again…

1. Minecraft I know a lot of people heard about but this is the first day I played And it is AWSOME TO THE MAX 😀 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Apples,Oranges, and grapes are my fav fruit. One great thing about them there always in season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. I have a fact to share Neptune’s moon triton was thought to be a dwarf planet taken it by neptunes gravity and made a moon.

4. My favorite pastry is a french macaroon………… Thats all.

5. I just recent learned how to whistle fur elise (Shelley Hansel’s daughter) and its fun.

AND ALLISON SAYS HI.

5. Shout out of the week….

Me again. Ok, don’t anyone get upset with me here, but I’m going to make a compliment.

I’m giving my shoot out of the week to the Wellington Middle School basketball teams which are having outstanding seasons. Both the Wellington seventh and eighth grade “A” girls are 7-1 at the end of this week. The seventh grade boys are also at 7-1 and the eighth grade boys are hovering around .500.

It will be interesting to see how these players develop in high school. Things look good at this point.