56-38 in Athens: Mickey Texts His Daughter Back
Cleveland State56
Ohio38
- Game
- 2025 Week 10
- Date
- 2025-11-15
- Site
- Away
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 8-2
VIKINGS 56, OHIO 38. IN ATHENS.
Friends, I need you to understand where I watched this. I watched it in the stands, in the cape, in Bobcat country, with Donna on one side and a very polite Ohio grandmother on the other who kept offering me trail mix. My daughter Bridget was working the press box. At 7:02 p.m., I took out my phone and sent her the text I’ve been saving for a full year.
“sorry, kiddo.” With a little green heart.
She wrote back: “I hate you. Come to breakfast.”
Last year Ohio came to our house and beat us by twenty-five. This year our guys went down to theirs and scored fifty-six. Fifty-six! In Tim Slocombe’s building, against the best-coached team in the conference, in front of my daughter, who is good at her job and proud of her school and who, at breakfast the next morning, admitted, quietly, over hash browns, “Your quarterback’s going to be a problem for us.”
Monday I go to Sal’s. I’m going to sit in that chair and say nothing. I’m going to let the silence cut my hair.
Five pierogi. A new polka for the Lakers’ end-of-season party.
I’ve watched Ohio like storm radar for a year. This weekend the storm passed over Cleveland State and took the afternoon off.
Fifty-six points in Athens. I need to be careful here, because if I’m too happy, the universe will notice. So I’ll say it the way a professional would: that was the best win of the Dolan era, and it isn’t close.
Ohio is disciplined, physical and well coached. The Vikings beat them by eighteen on the road with a freshman quarterback. Last year’s twenty-five-point loss looked like the order of things. This looks like the order changing.
I called my mother Sunday. She said Dad watched the whole game and cheered at every touchdown, even the Ohio ones, because “Kenny’s team is playing.” I’ve decided that counts.
“Lil”? I’m not discussing that during a week like this. I’m discussing it never. I’m out the window.
Back and forth
Say it. Say “best win of the Dolan era.”
I already wrote it. It’s in print. I can’t take it back.
Bridget invited me to breakfast!
That’s the real win. Fifty-six points is just the scoreboard.
Fifty-six in Athens, the storm passed, a “sorry, kiddo” a year in the making, and breakfast with the enemy, who is also family.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.