Chiefs at Raiders - Week 4 - Record: 4-0

They have got to do more to prevent the insane tackles that absolutely wreck players' limbs. I do know they are trying, and they have done a lot to protect the NFL's assets -- and sorry I don't mean to make it clinical. I do believe they consider them human beings and are doing things to keep the hits from being wickedly injurious. Early in the game the Chiefs' Nohl Williams got a very justified "defenseless receiver" hit call against him, and I'm fully behind those things.

The NFL has indeed done well to make the hip tackles illegal, but I don't think they call them enough. They did, however, call the penalty against a Raiders player when Tyquan Thornton, who'd been having a phenomenal game and had just caught a dandy long pass from Patrick, was hip dropped just short of the goal line and... sure enough...

Had his ankle gruesomely wrecked.

That's all that matters, really. Just that Tyquan will be better, soon, just to be healthy and good even if he doesn't play another down of NFL football.

But I will add that it seems the injuries are piling up a bit too much. I don't really watch much of any other NFL things, but what little I see it seems this player or that player is just getting taken out of games for long periods of time. Sure injuries have been a reality in the NFL, but I wonder. Maybe, maybe not. Are there more? Are the players so skilled and conditioned that, while they may be better at withstanding the punishing hits, are still more susceptible to the ones that damage limbs?

We ended up pulling this one out, but it was way too close, and way too stressful towards the end of the game. The Raiders are now a genuinely good team, with what looks to be a genuinely good coaching situation.

Along with Tyquan, Kenneth Walker was amazing today. Those two guys scored two touchdowns apiece. There is this thing and that thing that needs improvement, definitely, and I could riff on all that, but for now, I'm just spent. Yeah, that sounds waaay too stupid because I wasn't out there slogging through this game like our Chiefs were, but well, next week is a bye week and I may have time to write a bit more.

Nice that we're one of the few undefeateds, but still, the price of Tyquan is just really very not-good.

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The photo is from Kyle Rivas at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Dolphins - Week 3 - Record: 3-0

Well that was ugly. We should have dominated in this game, but, well, Any Given Sunday.

Give the Dolphins credit, they played well considering they lost their fine running back to an injury early, and they lost their backup later when he was doing well in his place. They did as much as they needed to do to slow our offense and make plays against our defense to be in this one for most of the game.

We got a couple of early touchdowns from Kenneth Walker, but they stuffed him for much of the rest of the game. Our defense did just enough to keep the Dolphins from doing any damage, they were always playing from behind but proudly close enough throughout.

We had too many dropped passes, on both offense and defense. One of the drops was Rashee allowing the ball to bounce off his hands up into the hands of their guy. They didn't get points from that turnover, but we also didn't get the points we should have gotten in continuing that drive. Our D dropped a couple of easy picks that would've represented more of the capacity we should have had stopping them.

We also had too many dumb penalties. And I do concede, they were all pretty-much legit. One was early, a ding-dong holding call when we had the Dolphins at 3rd-&-18. 3rd-&-18. That is a major fine for somebody in the kangaroo court. They went on to score their only touchdown.

Even though we beat a team we should've had no trouble with, there'll definitely be some heavy-duty assessments of what happened.

Our pass rush was not good, but got a little better later as the game wore on, so that was okay -- Karlaftis got a nice pick off a Jones tip to seal it late. Our receiving core needs to get better separation to help out Patrick, but they did make some key catches when we needed it. Yet still, where is Xavier Worthy? Why isn't he getting untracked? His vanishing act is getting to be more and more discouraging.

And let's hope Patrick is healthy -- he got hammered after completing a pass from the middle of the end zone, so bad they called a roughing the passer penalty for dropping the body on the guy -- also very legit even though some will say it isn't! Errgh.

He stayed in the game and seemed to be okay, but we'll have to see how he is this week.

As it is we're off to a very nice start this season.

Next week we're at the Raiders, a team that itself has started well this year.

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The photograph is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Colts at Chiefs - Week 2 - Record: 2-0

Every time we play the Colts, it is a slog. There've been only two games that I really know about, in my immediate memory, that we handled the Colts well. One was that second Monday Night Football game ever in 1970, when the then World Champion Chiefs blasted the eventual World Champion Colts team that year. The other was our handling of the Colts in that 2018 divisional playoff game when Patrick just made sure we were not going to lose to this team in the playoffs again.

Otherwise we've either been shocked losing to them (how we all want to forget all those playoff losses to this team) or they've given us the worst time. We did win last year for our last win of the season, but it was at home and we barely did, in OT. Other losses I remember are our first loss of our 2019 Super Bowl winning year, that one on Sunday night, remember that one? Also at home? Uggh.

How about in the agony dome in Indianapolis? Another recent Super Bowl winning year for us a few years ago featured a very silly early loss when Chris Jones mouthed off something, no one knows what, yet we got seriously penalized and the Colts went on to win in part because of that incident.

How many more instances must we endure in dealing with this Colts insanity?

Right now I'm writing this with us up 27-20 and having to rassle too much with this thing. There are six minutes left in the game and just now our pass rush is all over their QB Daniel Jones, and he still completes the pass. Too insane. Annnd, now they score the touchdown to tie it.

I know NFL teams, all of them, really, are good enough that the veritable reality is indeed Any Given Sunday. I know.

But this Colts things is just exasperating because more than half the time we are just a better team than they are, and, and... seems every single game...

In fact a number of times the officiating is messing with us again. It is indeed helping keep them in the game. The Colts offensive lineman was holding our guy on one key play in that last drive, very obviously. No call. Meanwhile on our last drive working it working it working it to try to get that touchdown to give us more breathing room, our tackle Kahlil Benson was called for a hold which plainly wasn't. It didn't look good, but it wasn't a hold. We only got a field goal.

To be fair, I will say that earlier in the game Kristian Fulton was called for a pass interference when he barely grabbed the receiver's jersey. But you know. That was indeed a PI! I agree! Good call! I'm not going to be unfair or inaccurate in my assessment. Thing is, earlier Fulton was called for a PI that wasn't! This is the kind of stuff that keeps this Colts team in this game. They are just making the charmed plays.

But yeah, that is NFL football.

More of the Colts weirdness, just now on 3rd down the second string cornerback just barely got his hand in the way of Mahomes' super-nice pass to Rice which would have been a 1st down. He can't handle it. With three minutes left we must punt instead of move a bit further down the field at least kick the go-ahead field goal.

We are playing well enough to have 27 points so far. We are making some fine plays, I could list them.

But one of the key not-good things is, whereas last week against the Broncos Mahomes was way more over center to take advantage of Kenneth Walker's talents, tonight he was over center not even half the time -- mostly shotgun. This just stunts our running game and our ability to use play action. And because of this I just believe we really should have at least another touchdown score in our favor.

Right now at the two-minute warning the Colts are at midfield, and if they get a bit more yardage and run clock, they'll just bang through the game-winning field goal. Sorry, it just should not have gotten to this point.

Earlier we had one touchdown drive that was amazing, the one that finished with Worthy's TD catch. I mean it was wonderful, mixing it up, running unique plays, keeping the D on its heels. It was nice to see us matriculate the ball so easily, so nice to see Eric administer the offensive attack like that -- we never saw anything like that last year. We just need to do that more often over the course of the season, we should be fine.

Okay on 3rd-&-4 our pass rush got to Jones. They punted. Still 27-27 with 22 seconds left...

Now OT. Should have never come to this...

We start with the ball, yet sure enough, Mahomes not over center hands the ball to Walker, and he goes nowhere. Then he is over center and tries to pass, and gets sacked.

Except an amazing catch on a deep pass to Thornton saves us on 3rd-&-long. Right after the catch he gets clobbered. Goodness. Thornton has been really clutch for us tonight.

We get the ball in the red zone, but Patrick right now just threw the ball in the dirt. He has done that a number of times in this game. I think he just needs more time to get into his rhythm. He is definitely showing he's got it, don't get me wrong. When he can make a play, he's been at his amazing best. Tonight when he's passing comfortably, straight up, not so much pressure, he is making laser beam throws.

As it is we have to kick a field goal. There is that. But this team should be scoring touchdowns. Standard procedure tonight: One play we do exceptionally well, then other plays in the mix are just duds.

We get the field goal to go up 30-27, but the Colts get the ball.

Okay, now a crazy play. The Colts receiver makes a deep-pass catch, he goes down, then gets up again and gets the ball punched out and the Chiefs recover the fumble. If that holds we win.

The question is, is he ruled down by contact because of the bare touch by a Chiefs defender.

Right now as I write this they are reviewing it, yet the television official says the barely barest of bare touches means he is down before he gets up to then fumble.

Yepp. Down by contact, Colts 1st down at about the 20. It is this insane Colts thing. Yet again again again...

But yeah, as ludicrously silly is this yet again going against the Chiefs in Colts games, the official made the right call. I promised I wouldn't get as much into the officiating stuff this year, not that anything shared before is invalid at all, still... so, I won't write any more about any of this, so yeah.

They get the game-tying field goal, and with three minutes left in OT, Patrick does get the ball back. All we need is a field goal and we can finally sock this thing away.

After the modest kick return:

Play One. Walker with good yardage.

Play Two. Walker for the first down.

Play Three. Walker again for decent yardage.

Play Four. Mahomes looks to pass, must scramble right and gets a few yards. 3rd-&-1.

Play Five. Yes! Patrick over center! Play action! Float pass to Walker in the left flat and he runs to the 20.

Play Six. Walker for a couple.

Play Seven. Butker in for the field goal. He gets it.

We win.

Going to bed right now.

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The photograph is by Sam Lutz at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Broncos at Chiefs - Week 1 - Record: 1-0 - The Take

Okay a few thoughts about last night's delightful beatdown of the Broncos.

First, I did catch on my radar that everyone was saying the Broncos were supposed to whup us and whup us bad. I got a little nervous myself just wondering how our tackles would hold up.

Didn't have to worry at all. Kenneth Walker took care of all of that. Before the draft everyone's draft crush seemed to be Jeremiyah Love, but good thing Brett Veach is running this team and not anyone else. He knew it'd be unlikely he'd get Love even drafting as high as the Chiefs were, so right away he went after Walker, and got him.

Wow.

What a difference maker he has already shown himself to be. A good friend with whom I occasionally converse about Chiefs things told me to just wait until teams start putting nine men in the box. With Mahomes matriculation abilities, look out.

Some may consider our wide receiver groups stinks. Not. They may look at Mahomes' pick deep in our own end and think, "Worthy sucks." Not really. Yeah on that one play they were not in sync. And overall it did seem the WR effort was underwhelming.

But remember, this Denver defense is really good. They have an excellent secondary, and I just believe that contributed to our WRs not getting the best separation they could. Give the other team credit.

Just let things play out. Let them all work out getting on the same page, Eric will definitely make sure of that. Let Patrick get back into his old self, remember he hadn't played a real game for almost a year. It did seem last night he bailed on the pocket a tick too soon, but again, let him get his feet back under him.

I was wondering, with Walker running up and down the field like a madman, why they didn't do play action more often. But you know? Why? Keep setting up things for later when they will really mean something. You don't need to play your whole hand in one night.

And that leads to Andy Reid doing precisely what I know everyone is thrilled he is doing.

Starting plays with Patrick over center.

When Walker arrived he clearly announced he runs best that way. So Reid adjusted, set his offense that way, and voila. Instant offensive dominance. Again when teams start having to account for a beast of a running back now, then comes the play action, then come the shots Patrick can take down field.

Real quick our D was solid too, and sure enough, people just forget about what a defensive mastermind Spags is. We also got great contributions from our rookies, and we have to hope our nice new corner Mansoor Delane will heal from his shoulder injury soon. He got a pick on the third play of the season. I remember it took Trent McDuffie, what, 57 games before he got his first one? I'm exaggerating, but it was forever.

So yeah, what a super fun win, and you know -- you may certainly know -- this was our first win since last November 23rd when we barely beat the Colts, remember that game? After that we lost six straight to close the season. We'll be playing the Colts again next week, and fortunately again at Arrowhead.

Let's keep this train rolling!

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The posted photograph is by Sam Lutz from the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Broncos at Chiefs - Week 1 - Record: 1-0

Ahh the old Chiefs look to be back.

I could pound out a decent length post with all the great things about our win tonight, but really, you know it -- you could make a full, rich, complete blog post about this game in just four words. 

Four, that's it.

You know what they are.

Kenneth Walker the Third.

I mean.

Oh my.

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I may certainly put in something more tomorrow, that's cool, but for now it's bedtime and tomorrow a day of work. For tonight, sweet dreams of K9 galloping across the Arrowhead tundra!

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The photo was by Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Preseason 2026 Note

I have been peeking in a bit at what's been going on with our team this off-season. We got a nice new running back. We had a nice draft and some rookies are balling out right now. We added a few nice new pieces. We still have concerns about certain areas, yes. And of course Patrick is on track to start Week One and simply will not be held back. Awesome.

But I can't neglect to mention that the main things that really hold back the Chiefs are the NFLers and the Scorecasting conditions that afflict us. Last year I detailed all the things that happened that kept us from being competitive. Not going to repeat those specifically now, but they did happen, and will likely happen again. When that changes I'll be more enthusiastic about this season. We'll see.

I've also mentioned that a key thing that I believe is a critical part of that is the profound impropriety of sustaining official gambling organization associations, really just an attempt to draw in more fans. If we can readily place bets on anything and everything, we'll pay more attention, and we'll spend more money on NFL football. That's it, and it is ugly.

I'd been reading a book, Everybody Loses by Danny Funt, and it goes into great detail about how much the online betting world has infected professional sports -- everywhere. The fans, the players, the coaches, the gamblers, the media personalities, the organizations -- all of it, and it is gruesome. I had hoped to write a longer piece here about it, but why? I've already written so much, and nobody gives a crap.

I will share this one passage in his conclusion, because it pretty much encapsulates why this is so significant.

If indeed gambling becomes the default way most people consume sports, the financial toll will be enormous, but there's so much more than money at stake. The betting boom also threatens to shatter faith in the integrity of sports; in the independence of sports media; in commissioners to protect their players, coaches, and referees from threats of violence; in lawmakers to prioritize the well-being of their constituents over the wish lists of gambling lobbyists.

This is wretched. So much of it is criminal, even lethal.

So all I will say here in this preseason post is, I still like my Chiefs and still want them to do well. I will still post after every game, but realize my remonstrations about the afflictions just don't mean a whole lot, which is still extraordinarily discouraging. As such I'm making a commitment to refrain from writing about it this season. In the past I've written tons and tons about the wickedness, sometimes even about the things that have happened not just to the Chiefs but to other teams and players as well.

Even though it has been good therapy, I'm just going to post about game things. It doesn't mean I've closed my eyes to the injustices, and I'm sure my disappointment with those things will seep out somewhere, it is just I've really got to be doing other things than laboriously pounding out stuff here about it all. If there is something major going on -- that the NFLers get exposed more, that indictments of important people are brought down, or simply that the Power-That-Be actually do something about it like not just disassociate from them but reprimand them and even seek firm legislation that would put those online betting organizations out of business...

Should those kinds of things happen, I'll note them here.

And cheer.

Otherwise, I'm just going to post about Chiefs on-field things.

Yesterday, even though we lost yet again in exhibition play -- we've lost something like 11 or 12 straight preseason games going back three or four years -- our fine kicker Harrison Butker made a 69-yard field goal, with room to spare. Sweet. If he can regularly do that, our offense can make it to midfield and still get points on the board.

Reminds me of the Jan Stenarud days when making 50-yarders was a big deal -- and Stenarud regularly hit from everywhere, demoralizing teams. Some say his 48-yarder in Super Bowl IV to start the scoring put the Vikings on their heels right out of the gate.

So yeah, from this point forward, just the best of our Chiefs, no matter what.

At least there should be some fun enjoying that this season.

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The second image there is a nice artwork piece with that iconic Super Bowl IV Chiefs huddle, and forgive me when I clipped it years ago I didn't note who did it. Please forgive the lack of attribution, but it is great, I'm honored to post it, and thank you.

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The Latest is Still the Oldest - Mammon Still Reigns in Professional Sports

When I was a young lad I'd almost always enjoy the 11:15 PST major league baseball game shown on Channel 4 every single Saturday during the baseball season. It did seem that the network showed a variety of major league teams, even though some say it seemed as though the Dodgers and Reds appeared more than their fair share. I never thought so. There were enough of other teams to watch, so the audience could enjoy those team's players and their style of play even if not the local favorite. If a team was decent it was showcased -- the Pirates, the Orioles, and yes throughout the 70s the very good Royals were on Saturday baseball often enough. 

I say this because I'm pounding away here on my Chiefs blog on a lazy Saturday without any baseball to watch. It hasn't been on national television Saturday middays for years now -- I don't even know how long it has been. I wouldn't be watching any of it anyway because of my sworn sports celibacy, though I'll pay attention when others remark so I may be in the conversation to some extent. But as I've shared many times in this blog effort I do deliberately work to avoid seeing any of it. There are reasons. But one of the main ones is all of the duplicity that happens within professional sports that has eviscerated competitive integrity.

When you look carefully at the history, you'll see it has to a large extent been that way for a long time.

I really believe it started in earnest, institutionally anyway, with Babe Ruth. His oversized hero status then in the 1920s and 1930s generated so much interest in the sport that the Yankees regularly winning became an important part of not just baseball but all professional sports. When teams in other sports attained some kind of grand mythological status they too needed to succeed, and some of those nudges to that end were justified to keep the entire enterprise thriving. 

In baseball that has always been the Yankees and the Dodgers. In basketball the Lakers and Celtics (who're both yet again doing exceptionally well this present NBA season). In football the Cowboys and Patriots. Any New York team works fine, even though the basketball Knicks and football Jets have been so horribly mismanaged that they don't fit. But for a while the football Giants worked fine, as well as the long-ago Los Angeles Raiders until Al Davis lost his mind and wrecked the team. 

Anything New York or Los Angeles works.

Again, the baseball history. After Babe Ruth the Yankees managed to put together powerhouses that always won -- at least enough to keep things rolling in the dough--er--rolling along nicely. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s the Kansas City A's served as a Yankees farm system -- that's the major league A's, not minor league. It wasn't an accident, it was made to be that way be virtue of the relationship the owners had with one another.

In the late 1960s when the majors had to allow other teams to compete and look like legitimate contenders so the whole thing wouldn't appear arranged to benefit those favored teams, the Yankees and Dodgers were nowhere to be seen. This couldn't hold if the majors were going to survive, so, voila, free agency was born. Instantly the Yankees and Dodgers were now able to buy the better players, and sure enough from 1973 to 1988 New York and Los Angeles teams won 11 pennants and 5 World Series titles. 

The strike of 1981 and the playoff arrangement thereafter alone was proof of the way the majors absolutely had to have the Yankees and Dodgers appear in the playoffs, it was deliberately manipulated to be that way.

When the Yankees and Dodgers slipped a bit from the tops of their divisions in the early 1990s, another strike was arranged so the bountiful benefits of free agency could further advance the cause of the New York and Los Angeles teams -- and by default all of major league baseball. The 1994 season ended without a postseason at all, but afterwards it was interminable glory days for those teams. You could add the Boston Red Sox in the mix a bit because they are the Yankees main rivals. (Ever see a Brewers-Pirates game on an ESPN Sunday Night Baseball event when a Yankees-Red Sox game is scheduled?)

Since that infamous 1994 year, a total of 31 baseball seasons, the Yankees have made the postseason 26 times -- 26 times! They've won five World Series titles and eight pennants

For the Red Sox, though not having the stature of the Yankees by far but still heavily favored to be successful with the benefits of free agency, they have made the postseason 15 times and won it all four times. Yankees success does in large part depend on something of a Red Sox success.

And the Dodgers, of course, have made the postseason over that same time period 19 times and have not missed it since 2012. (I can't help but add this "X" clip that happened to be posted in my feed just today -- even though I have no baseball things appearing there, nor even any Chiefs things! -- if they show up I remove them immediately. But there was this one, just about what it is like in a stadium packed with too many of these kinds of belligerent fans paying that kind of money for this. It appeared that just about every one of those people fighting in this video clip were wearing Ohtani jerseys. Yhee.)

It should be worth noting, from confirmation of powers-that-be who've been willing to share, that these favored teams do not have to win championships to make all of this work for them all.

They just need to get into the postseason. 

If they win it all, that's a bonus. If they don't win a title but they are still appearing in every postseason there is, (1) it keeps their legion of fans (and their $$$) interested and attentive, and (2) it keeps the ruse going when most people can bleat, "Hey look! Another team won the championship! So there is competitive integrity after all!"

Why am I sharing all of this? Here in my Chiefs blog? A few reasons. One, I just like to pound my keyboard about this, really, for the therapy. I have an insane desire to tell the truth about it all because, well, I'm just that kind of Jeremiah (the Biblical truth-teller) and Cassandra (the Greek legend truth-teller) Both were punished severely for their devotion, but, well, not many people read this blog, and a whole lot of not many people pay any attention to the duplicity to care.

Two, it does impact the Chiefs. Not going to belabor a point I've made a number of times in this blog effort, but even though it is harder for the NFL to do what the baseball major leagues had done, by the Scorecasting exploitations they can still manipulate things for favorable outcomes in some meaningful ways. This past season the Chiefs got majorly hosed by the most antagonistic officiating in so many close games that those horrors affected outcomes specifically to keep the Chiefs from dominating the sport when they have the greatest quarterback ever to set foot on the field. We simply can't have too much of Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, can we.

The NFL also does have free agency, and I hate that we must lose players we've drafted and developed. Bryan Cook, Leo Chenel, Jaylen Watson, and others, all gone. Fortunately the Chiefs GM Brett Veach knows about the limitations of free agency and the salary cap and adjusts accordingly, and does so brilliantly. Much more on that in a later post, after we see what we've got in the draft next month.

In this post I also just wanted to share a couple of links. One, to this article showing up in the Atlantic, just about a journalist's journey into the seedy world of online sports gambling. It is quite revelatory, I could emphasize a half-dozen different things shared there that make the whole online "Official Wagering Site of Such-&-Such Sports League" a fully reprehensible evil. I've written about this also a few times here.

I should add it isn't just the gambling connection that demonstrates how much Mammon is worshipped in all of this. One of the reasons I simply can't enjoy a regularly scheduled widely broadcast game any more is because of all the insane streaming and cable requirements needed to enjoy most games. I like NASCAR racing, too, yet almost every race is either on cable or streaming, for which a customer must pay a huge chunk of change for programming he doesn't care about just to have games show up on the television. In some profound way it just makes my sports celibacy commitment that much more robust -- that's a very good thing.

Finally there is this, my own elucidation of why exactly it is that teams like the Yankees and Dodgers are given the advantage they have. I've shared much of this already in this blog. I know it isn't Chiefs at all, but as I just shared the whole duplicity does impact their success in extraordinarily prohibitive ways.

The only redeeming value in any of it is that Veach and company know what they are up against and must work that much harder to overcome it. I can't neglect to share too that maybe these things are there to draw people from that wicked ugliness and into a deep abiding faith in The One Who Is The Only Deliverance from any of it.

Again, I'll likely post again when there is something of a shape of our team for next season, maybe in April or May right after the draft, or maybe as the preseason activities merit a preview post. Until then, find your vibrant fellowship with ones you love and do rich meaningful sportsy things with them that don't involve any of this, and yeah, make it part of your worship of the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.

Blessings.

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