My mind works in mysterious ways. Otherwise, how could a casual conversation about car insurance take me back to one of the banes of my existence? Yet, somehow I end up at the National Football League and its instant replay rules. 

Before all you absolute, boycotting crazies start in on me, please note I’m not an across-the-board, at-all-costs boycotter. In other words, if I don’t like something in particular, I might boycott that particular something that’s part of a larger whole. As far as the NFL goes, I’ll never go near many things certain players endorse and will always be against the idiot commissioner. But I’m not against the entire league. 

It’s actually a sensible approach, and here’s why: It’s IMPOSSIBLE to go through life without engaging, doing business or associating with people who only think as you do. Occasionally, I get a call or email from someone telling me they can’t do business with, support a product or won’t have anything to do with someone who thinks like me. Otherwise, you and I interact with dozens of others who think completely differently than we do from the smallest topic to the biggest personal concerns. 

The good news is my interactions tend to be with folks who aren’t part of the few who refuse to or attempt to never associate with others who think differently. Thank God, because that’s what’s special about freedom-loving people. The others? They’re just fooling themselves and represent the biggest danger to freedom. How do I know? Simple. They need a gun to impose their lust for everyone to think they way they do. 

So just how did I get here? Well, it comes through a couple of recent experiences. The first was a conversation I had with someone I do business with whose many political and social leanings are 180 degrees opposite of mine. To all too many, this relationship shouldn’t occur. But I never desired to be one of the all too many. What stood out to me was his analogy about COVID-19 vaccines and car insurance. While it had some valid points, I think it missed on a few. The couple in particular I disagreed — politely — with were about how car insurance is about protecting the other guy and how I see car insurance working. 

Car insurance is a good thing you decide to have to accompany your privilege to drive a motor vehicle. It protects you, your property, other people and other properties in cases where it’s needed. But it does these things first and foremost to protect you in an accident, at fault or not. The second important point is even if the other person involved — and for the point being made, let’s use the analogy of other people being those on the planet we live with — doesn’t have insurance, you’re still protected. Period.  

My thinking on my friend’s analogy led my mind — naturally — to something designed to work, make corrections mid-game and set wrongs right which all too often doesn’t work: And that’s instant replay in the NFL. Worse, in all too many cases (I’ll give Denver fans some good red meat here) it does indeed give cause for rule changes and more league (read government) intervention in the game. But as we all know, those new rules (mandates) come too late or aren’t good during the game. Think the “tuck rule,” low hits to the quarterback and every roughing the passer rule implemented over the past two decades related to something that happened to Tom Brady which you  —vehemently — disagreed with at the time. 

Folks might be surprised to learn I disagree with the “Brady rules.” When I played football, we could actually hit the other guy. But this goes further. How many replays do you watch where you see what you see, yet the “officials” see something different and either let the play stand or change the outcome opposite to what you saw with your own eyes? Now apply that to the world and COVID. There are thousands of studies (plays) that contradict one another, yet only a handful of “officials” have the final say as to the result put into place. And if there’s gonna be a rule change, that’s always a year or more down the road.  

The simple fact is we’ve been told since July of 2021 the vaccines no longer prevent the catching or spreading of COVID. But the refs changed the call mid-game to “you won’t get as sick” if you have a vaccination. Let me ask this: Would you get full-coverage insurance if it only covered a portion of your claim? 

That’s what’s at play here in the United States. We can all see what’s playing out around the world. Yet, when our officials look into their monitor, they don’t see what we see. And, just as many Bronco fans believe about Tom Brady and the refs, our COVID “head referee” is an idiot who’s been paid off. 

Almost forgot. The second reason? Some columnist mentioned me in another publication. Related to what? I don’t know. I’ve never had an in-depth conversation with him about the game of life — or anything, for that matter. 

But I doubt he sees in his monitor what I see in mine.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.