The Lull

If you are anything like the average sports fan, this Sunday is something much more than Super Bowl Sunday. Regardless of who wins, the Monday following the game begins a period of about a month where there is nothing worth watching in sports for a good percentage of people. I disagree a little bit as I am an avid hockey fan, but for the majority of the “major 2” sports fans, you cannot wait for opening day at your home baseball park. Even with hockey to watch, I do feel a little piece of myself missing during this time.

The Super Bowl is built up to be this extraordinary game. You would think each team hired a few super heroes to come play for them. The stories about who needs a game because of a tough past, a down and out story, a comeback season, beating cancer/drugs/alcoholism, death of a loved one, etc… are all on the table. Who doesn’t remember how the Saints gave New Orleans something to believe in last season? Credit the sportswriters for beating a horse dead and beating it some more. A week after last year’s game, did New Orleans really still believe a football team can fix their city? Of course not. I’m sure everyone woke up a few days later, probably on a dreaded Wednesday at work, and said “Aw man! Saints aren’t on this Sunday. And half my house is still floated away.”

What options do we have this coming Monday? I don’t particularly care for the NBA much anymore, although I will follow what ESPN tells me are the marquee matchups. If I watch a quarter of these games, it is a lot. The game isn’t good until the last few minutes or it isn’t good at all. College basketball is a bit more intriguing, but honestly not until March Madness for me. The NHL I love, but is the cancer of the major 4 sports to a lot of people who like the others. Soccer will never be what Baseball and Football are here in the states. Not until we’re taken over by, or become by ways of stupidity, a third world country. Even then, people will just go back to using milk cartons for gloves before kicking a ball around mindlessly. I am pretty sure you can catch a sweet bowling match at 2PM on a Saturday or Sunday during this stretch. Get excited!

To me, all professional sports I follow are an escape from reality. It is why I post these nonsensical paragraphs from my office. It is why I spend way too much of my discretionary income on going to see the teams live. It is why it doesn’t matter the Yankees won it all two years ago. Of course it is fun to re-live these moments in memory and conversation – but it never truly takes us back or away from anything anymore. Us as sports fans – hell – as human beings, have a nature to say “Okay, now what is next?” Well ladies and gentlemen, this coming Monday the lull will start. You can choose to fight it and watch these other options, or stick it out in the trenches. Either way, just make sure to check back here for some entertaining (as always) posts.