Um, yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s a penalty. I’d give the benefit of the doubt and say he caught the ball, then lost it when he got hit…except the ball is in the exact same spot in panels 2 and 3, dangling as if from a string, with no swoosh marks to suggest that it ever reached the receiver’s hands. And TB is painstaking when it comes to swoosh marks: panel 1 is a clinic on how to throw a football a mile without bending your elbows.
Tag: Westview High School
Strike a Pose(y)
It’s been quite a week and a half for our Jarod! He’s gone from smokin’ in the boys’ room to starting QB for the fightin’ Scapegoats. Hey, where’s “the big inflatable football helmet that the football team runs through”? Though Jarod’s teammates seem to be a bunch of dicks, I’ve got to agree with ’em on this one: it’s a little presumptuous for anyone in a ‘Goats uniform to be waving a “number one” finger, especially before he’s even thrown a pass in a game.
Who da’ Jerk
We can excuse doddering, effete Jim for fearing for his safety around creepy loner Jarod. But Linda’s name calling is nasty and jarring, though it fits in with the sheer, unbridled contempt shown by all Westview faculty toward the students. It sounds especially callous given that we’re led to believe (from Sunday’s strip) that Jarod comes from a troubled home. “Jerk in progress” smacks of one of those phrases that TB heard or came up with and salted away for use in one of his strips; I wish he’d saved it for use by (or maybe against) the truly jerky Owen and Cody.
Just Do Things™
I guess Jarod’s blond hair was not a Sunday coloring glitch. Has any football coach, fictitious or real, engendered less respect than Bull? A real coach would put in the time to help his new QB (especially one that’s never played the game) master the playbook. Instead, Bull offhandedly asks Jarod is he’s “been absorbing the game plan.” Like, by osmosis? Jarod trudges on by, offering a cryptic reply over his shoulder, while his coach gazes impassively.
No Kids on the Block
Query whether the lousy attitude displayed in today’s strip is a result of or the cause of the Scapegoats’ lousy record. Here at last is someone who can throw a football, and his teammates conspire to let him be injured? Thankfully, despite the fearsome SMASH! WHAM! CRUNCH! Jarod should emerge unscathed, as his scrawny tacklers appear to have a combined weight of a couple hundred pounds, tops.
Son of Stuck Funky 
