Like everyone else with the tube on this Sunday evening, we just watched the president's speech in Newtown.  Obama handled it well, but I was admittedly amazed at the overtly religious tone of his address and his many references to God -- more than I can ever recall hearing from this man in a single speech.  All in all, though, I think he served the nation well as our representative and spokesman to this grieving community.

We were watching Sunday Night Football when NBC cut away to cover the president's speech.  And while I grumbled, old curmudgeon and football fan that I am, covering the address was arguably the right thing to do, considering what a tragedy had occurred.  So I have no problem with NBC regarding the cutaway, although I'm undeniably no fan of their diminutive Democrat sportscaster, Bob Costas, and his penchant for injecting politics into the nation's favorite December pastime.

What just occurred to me, though, when we were returned to the game between San Francisco and New England, was, "Hey, wait a minute here, Bubba!  You mean NBC and the NFL consider this speech to be of such import that we game-viewers must watch it live...yet it is not so consequential as to merit a pause in the play so that the tens of thousands of fans and players in that stadium, in neighboring Massachusetts, could view the speech deemed so critical for at-home viewing out here in New Mexico?"  Those 70,000 or so souls in Gillette Stadium there in Foxborough, MA, a mere 150 miles from the presidential speech site, couldn't be bothered to watch the address on the big, high-definition video replay screens in both end zones...but those of us 2,000 and more miles away could?

So, Commissioner Goodell, do I have this straight?  When the rest of the nation pauses in tribute to the victims of a senseless massacre, the game must go on?

Just wonderin'...