2020-2024 Dynasty

I was on kind of a heater. It coincided with the rise of Patrick Mahomes. Not unrelated entirely.

This started in 2020. Mark coined that Year of the Fym. It wasn't the first time I had an exceptional year. But it was the start of an incredible run. So I'm going to trying to condense the run I've been on into just the brass tacks. 

2020

Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV

I won first Gold Addy

Leaned into Medium at reached #1

Got a basketball hoop and started playing every day

Starting losing weight

My office moved to Overland Park, cutting my commute in half

We elected a normal President

2021

Got vaccinated

Got promoted to ACD

Lost a ton of weight

Made a healthy cookbook

Got back into my favorite bands + disc golf

Got a new hairstyle

Family trips to Chicago, NYC at Christmas

Luxury cruise to Greek Isles (best solo vacation ever), another work trip to Cancun

2022

The Avs won the Stanley Cup

The Chiefs beat the Bills in 13 seconds

Work trip to NYC where I saw Chris Rock as a surprise guest

I started Letterboxd and got really into movies

Family trip to Portland/Seattle

Vegas Sportsbook Getaway #1 plus a Family trip to Las Vegas

2023

Chiefs Win Super Bowl LVII

Family trip to Hawaii (best family vacation ever)

Another family trip to Boston/Cape Cod

Vegas Sportsbook Getaway #2 (my best sportsbook day)

Work trips to Asheville, Shreveport, and Cleveland

Got a ps5

2024

Chiefs Win Super Bowl LVIII

Got promoted to Creative Director

Felt at peace, having reached all my lifelong goals

Won my first Best In Show Addy

Made two albums of music with AI tools

Vegas Sportsbook Getaway #3

Niraj and I took a trip to San Diego

Family trips to Chicago + LA/Universal

Work trip to Salt Lake City

Family University of Illinois fall football trip

2025 was kind of a rough year overall. Started with some issues at work that it seemed like I overcame, then some personal issues, then ended with a job layoff and the Chiefs having a dud year plus Mahomes ACL injury. It wasn't all bad. We had a nice family vacation to DC/Baltimore for Brit's graduation. I turned into a golf guy, I made more music, I had a great Sportsbook getaway with Niraj. But the year was clearly not a part of the 2020-2024 run. 

A job layoff is basically the torn ACL of the ad industry. But just like Mahomes, even if it takes a rebuilding year, I'm coming back.

Super Bowl LX

This all worked out great for me. 

The one year that the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes are not in the AFC Championship game...

The Patriots got exposed as frauds in the Super Bowl. They get the Super Bowl Loss Hangover. Most importantly, they don't get 7 franchise Super Bowls. The top of the Mountain is still Pats/Steelers with 6. The Chiefs are sitting at 4. Mahomes is 30. The idea that by the time Mahomes is 42, the Chiefs could be at 6 or 7 is not that crazy.

Also, this Seahawks defense was legit. I know it's blasphemy, but which would help the Chiefs win the most Super Bowls?

1. Drag a 10-7 wild card team to the Super Bowl and get hammered by the Seahawks dominant defense and be saddled with another Super Bowl Loss Hangover.

2. Mini-tank for a year, get a top 10 pick, feel rejuvenated and motivated and get a 3rd place schedule in 2026. 

We've seen that actually being an awful team in the NFL does not lead to turnarounds. But we have seen good teams be bad for a year and have it pay off. The one year Peyton Manning got hurt, the Colts drafted Andrew Luck and stayed good. 

Also, hilarious that the year that Mahomes sits it out, none of Burrow/Lamar/Allen even make it to the AFC Championship. 

The Broncos will still have a good defense, but they wasted the year where they had a horseshoe up the ass. Now they get the first-place schedule. (The 17th game has made this have a bigger impact with 3 affected games instead of just 2)

And I owned the Seahawks and Patriots in Calcutta. Plus, the Rams for good measure. 

- - -

I delivered the following prediction in a voice message, so for posterity:

Before LX, I thought this Patriots SB appearance was not good for their chances of winning a Super Bowl from 2025-2035. I didn't think they were ready to win this year and I though this hangover would hurt their chances in the next two years. Maybe they come back in 3-5 years but I think they would have been better off falling short of the big game. Stay hungry. 

If you had to bet on Pats Super Bowls over the next ten years and Chiefs Super Bowls, I'm taking Chiefs and it's not close.

I shot a 99

In the middle of the round I was hitting my driver 186. Then by the end I got a 191 twice. And then on 18, I hit a shot 201 yards. All of these were personal bests. 

In October, my longest drive was 166. 

In November, my longest drive was 180.

Today, I hit 201. 

According to this, I'll get my PGA Tour Card by August.

Let's break it down. Also, this was a no mulligan round. The one mulligan on the screen was when the simulator didn't read the ball properly (I was chipping and it thought I was putting.)

A little history for context.

October 26, 2025

1 par
5 bogeys

4 doubles

8 triples or worse

15 mulligans

total score 119

November 12, 2025

1 par

5 bogeys

5 doubles

7 triples or worse

8 mulligans

total score 110

November 26, 2025

3 pars

5 bogeys

7 doubles

3 triples or worse

3 mulligans

total score 99

February 2, 2026

4 pars

6 bogeys

4 doubles

4 triples or worse

0 mulligans

total score 99

Some notes. 

Last time, my pars came on a par 3 (two of them) and a par 4 (one.)

Today, my pars came on a par 3 (one) par 4 (one) and par 5 (two). 

Adding that bit of distance from 175ish to 190ish brought par 5 from my worst hole to just like any other hole. That alone, is a huge confidence boost. The only bad par 5 I had, was my first of the day. My third shot hit a tree and bounced backwards, a net negative. Other than that, I was solid on par 5s. 

This was the first time my par+bogey count was better than my double+triples count. 

There were a number of holes where the putting was a problem. Look, it's part of the game. But it can be frustrating when you finally get on the green in 3 shots, have a par putt in front of you, and then you three putt for a double or four putt for a triple. 

I mentioned the tree incident on hole 3. There was also the water incident on hole 16. First shot in the water, penalty drop. Third shot, also in the water, penalty drop. Fifth shot is 29 yards away. I get up and down from 29. So two penalty strokes but managed to salvage a triple instead of a quadruple or worse. 

The goal was always to break 100. 

With four holes to go, I was on 79. Those four holes have a par of 16. So to break 100, I'm only allowed to go +4 over the final four holes. 

I go par, triple bogey, par, bogey. 

Look at holes 9 through 18, but remove 11 and 16. That's 8 holes of the last 10, where I finished a combined +6. Okay fine, add back in hole 11. That's +9 over 9 holes, just removing the water incident. That's a 45. In other words, on pace for a 90. 

I guess that's not super different from just looking at the back nine and seeing that I turned in a 48. 

Making putts is important. I got a par on 9 and 17 by making 12-foot putts. 

The funny thing about breaking 100 today...I still left so much scoring out there. The tree, the water, the bad putting. 

If you gave me 20 attempts at each hole, I bet I could par every hole at least once. So the challenge of golf isn't that I can't do it once. It's putting together the best version of each hole together in the same round. 

The above paragraph might be very obvious. But that is drastically different than basically every sport out there. I cannot dunk. I cannot survive one play on a NFL field. I cannot hit a MLB pitch if you gave me 20,000 attempts.

But to sit here and say, I'm good enough to make par on any hole, given a large handful of chances, that's actually crazy. 

I'm not sure if I should say the next goal is to hit 95, or if I should just say, I hope next time to improve on today. Let's just go with that.