The Love Of The Game Revisited
Filed under: baseball, basketball, college basketball, football, hockey, sports
Dear @tat2dsteelergal, @Tailgate365, @Pigsknlvnglady, @MDBirdLover, @steelergurl, @carolinaware and @thenflchick:
So What Do We Do Now?
Ladies and gentlemen, the 2009 NFL season has ended. The New Orleans Saints brought one home for NOLA and its thirsty for a championship fans, beating the favored Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV by a score of 31-17. With the final gun of the final game of the season, we are all left to football withdrawal for the next few months. Oh sure, the scouting combine is coming up shortly, the NFL Draft in a couple months and training camp a couple months after that.
But no games.
No Sunday afternoon communals in front of the tube or in the stands, or with friends or via internet meeting places. Sundays (and Monday nights) will be a lot quieter without NFL football.
No smack talk. No great hits, great plays and great laughs and sorrows to share.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we all will be entertained in the months to come until the NFL ramps up again. Some of us will follow hockey, some college and NBA hoops, some with baseball, and some with all of those. And oh yeah, there’s the Winter Olympics about to begin too, if you’re interested. Life goes on for all of us outside of the sport we love; and we got to deal with that as well.
But the gridiron quiets down just a bit. The sporting passion of fans like yourself and many others recedes ever so slightly, only to build again as we inch ever closer to the beginning of another NFL season. As we move on to the next one, the sport faces an uncertain future: labor questions in the distance with the possibility of an uncapped year next season and a possible lockout for the season after that. Let’s not dwell on that; there will be time to focus on and discuss the possibility that after next season a football season won’t start on time, or at all.
For me, personally: I just want to thank you all again for making this season extremely enjoyable. First with your participation in my original Love Of The Game post, and throughout the season as we commiserated about the greatest game on the planet: NFL Football.
P.S. To so many others on Twitter that I shared Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and even Saturdays with over the past NFL season, thank you as well. I’ll try to name as many of you as I can, but if you think you should’ve been mentioned and you weren’t: hey, you know what I say-charge it to my head and not my heart.
@SidelinePass, @asportsscribe, @dfolkens, @cosadulce, @Inkognegro, @MkRob, @ltma, @brownsugar63, @ninerchick05, @cowboychick, @mrsFAB, @12kyle, @jeffw171, @GelaTrish, @edthesportsfan, @ay52, @stephsherman, @snwann, @khaijg, @Hail_Mary_Jane, @MDSteelerGal, @JUS_chillin, @BigDubz, @julythirteenth, @sbolen, @BMoreGoHard and @lovejonz618 (her Saints are champs at last!), thank you all.
A Ravens Post-Mortem
Filed under: MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, baseball, basketball, college basketball, following the locals, football, hockey
Sadly, the Baltimore Ravens fell short in their quest to go to the Super Bowl by falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the third time this season, by the score of 24-13. While it was not a work of art, it was a very competitive, hard-fought game. The Ravens can use this season as a springboard for the future, with a now proven head coach and the future of the franchise hopefully entrenched at quarterback. However, the Ravens head into the off-season with several questions: notably what will happen with the starting linebackers, each of whom is about to become a free agent? What will the Ravens do about addressing needs, such as a playmaking, deep-threat wide receiver and a shutdown cornerback? How will the Ravens draft to meet those needs and add depth to several positions?
Those are good problems to have when you come off a 13-5 season that went beyond expectations. Despite my disappointment at how the season ended, I am proud of the Ravens for having a very successful season. I have hope and excitement that will build as we get closer to training camp and the new season. Until then, however, football goes on hiatus (after the Super Bowl and the meaningless Pro Bowl) while fans give their attention to the NBA, the NHL, college hoops and the upcoming baseball season.
Speaking of baseball, let’s hope that the Orioles can follow the Ravens’ example. While there has not been much big news on the Oriole front, I hope that Andy MacPhail is following the plan that he has laid out for our birds (if there is such a plan).
College Hoops: It's Here!
Filed under: MLB, NFL, basketball, college basketball, gambling, golf, hockey, sports, tennis
March Madness is here.
This is my favorite time of the year. Yeah, spring training for the Orioles, NFL free agency, college football spring practice, NHL and NBA playoff positioning, even golf and tennis getting their groove on…but nothing tops March Madness for me. I live for this. So much so, I have purchased the Mega March Madness package for four years in a row. So much so, I’ll be taking leave from my job to enjoy the games. So much so, I was foolish enough to enter yet another pool.
If anyone who reads this blog has seen some of my earlier ramblings about my success (mostly lack thereof) in the NFL football pool from last season, you know this is not necessarily a good thing. I mean, in 21 weeks of football, I won once. My wife, who knows next to nothing about sports except what she learns from me, won five times and finished ahead of me in the final overall standings. And yes, she will be in this pool as well, which affords me the opportunity to be embarrassed yet again. I have a feeling I’ll do better this time around; don’t have any rational reasoning behind this belief-but if you don’t believe in yourself and your ability, you have no business fooling around with picking games for money. Then again, a smart person doesn’t look for ways to watch his money leave his pockets.
Don’t get me wrong, at various times of year I will pay serious attention to any of the sports I mentioned earlier (well, except hockey), but I love the NCAA Tournament. It goes back decades, to when Michael Jordan and North Carolina beat the Georgetown Hoyas for the 1982 championship, NC State’s improbable title run in ‘83, Villanova playing the perfect game to defeat Georgetown (again!) in ‘85, Maryland’s title run in 2002, to George Mason’s cinderella run two years ago. There’s something about the format, the simplicity of win or go home, that appeals to me. Of course it helps that there are upsets that you would ordinarily never dream of seeing in a sporting event that seem to happen as a matter of course in this one. And to my eyes, it’s a far better way to crown a champion than that BCS used by Division I (or bowl subdivision) college football.
I will try to blog about my adventures relating to the Tournament as the weeks and games go on. For now, though, it begins with the smaller conferences staging their tournaments to crown their champions, who then get an invite to the big show. While ESPN has been showing the championship games of these tournaments, they spent most of this Saturday hyping the North Carolina-Duke game. Hey, I live in ACC country. North Carolina-Duke is not all that special. A great rivalry, sure. But it isn’t the be-all and end-all for college hoops. They get their shine every time they are on TV. Let some of the smaller schools get some spotlight, at least for a little while.
If you are a fan of college hoops, enjoy the madness.
Following The Locals: Not A Whole Lot Of Fun
Filed under: baseball, college basketball, college football, following the locals, football, hockey, sports
For the purposes of this post, I’ll include the Washington, DC area teams.
- Baseball: The Baltimore Orioles. No news is not necessarily good news. The overhaul so far has only been on the coaching staff. Trades, free-agent signings, and outright releases have yet to be made. Andy MacPhail has his work cut out for him, trying to reverse a decade of losing/fourth-place finishes. The Washington Nationals seem to have a plan in place…stay tuned.
- Football: The Baltimore Ravens. Playoffs look far off. Overhaul possible in off-season, starting with head coach and several “name” players. A disappointment, based on how last season went. Poor offense, defense decimated by injuries, bland play-calling among factors to torpedo the season. The Washington Redskins look average one week, world beaters the next. Playoffs? In the weak NFC, anything can happen.
- Basketball: The Washington Wizards. A season that looked to have much promise has gotten off to a slow start, with a 1-5 record (the one win coming on Sunday). Gilbert Arenas, the team’s star player, is also off to a slow start and may not be 100% after knee surgery. Still having trouble playing defense, and now the offense has been less than great. Let’s see where they are after 20 games.
- Hockey: The Washington Capitals. Not a hockey fan. Can’t make any comments, other than they are currently the worst team in their conference.
- College Football: The Maryland Terrapins and Navy Midshipmen. Terrapins a .500 team needing one win in its next two games to become bowl eligible. Some great wins (Rutgers, Boston College) with some head-scratching losses (Virginia, Wake Forest, North Carolina). Injuries a major factor. The Midshipmen have already accepted a bowl bid and have ended their long losing streak against Notre Dame. A victory over Army and in their bowl game will make this season a success, even if it isn’t as good as some of the previous ones.
- College Hoops:Too early to tell. Both Maryland and Georgetown survived early scares to record victories.
Not a whole lot to get excited about as yet.
Twitter: @mindpinball
- @ninerchick05 hence, I should've picked Wake Forest to win. Even with Dino Gaudio's 0 for postseason record.
- @ninerchick05 I should have remembered: Rick Barnes isn't trying to win the championship. He's trying to get his guys to the NBA....
- But that Rick Barnes has a roster of NBA wannabees...
- Wake Forest. WTF? #ncaa
- @PigsknLvngLady There you go!
- @bigbruhBT sorry to hear that. Mine is severely wounded. Had GTown in the elite 8.
- @PigsknLvngLady How does your bracket look? I seem to remember you winning the ETSF bracket pool...
- @ninerchick05 you speak truth, fam. How does Marquette let him get that close?
- @PigsknLvngLady Yeah. I'm good now. Believe me I'm really enjoying the games even as I live and die with every game. LOL
- @edthesportsfan Lehigh was dreaming...then they woke up.
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