Bryan Joiner

Why then I

Month: September, 2009

September 29, 2009

The Myth of NFL Parity

American sports are supposed to be about balance. That’s the thinking, anyway. If every team doesn’t have a chance to win it all every five years or so, there must be something wrong with the system. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and a championship are things we believe to be human rights.

It’s galling, then, when your team is out of it from day one. Ask any Kansas City Royals or Pittsburgh Pirates fan how it feels, and they’ll tell you it’s downright un-American. They don’t have a snowball’s chance in August at beating the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, or Mets who toss around money without looking at the numbers on the bills.

To be fair, this works for baseball’s owners—the only people that the sport is set up to serve. Perhaps that’s why, despite record attendance and viewership, baseball can’t compete with football’s popularity. Or maybe it’s the nature of football that makes it so appealing: fast-paced and, with its once-per-week, short-season setup, well-suited to the short attention spans of the HD era. Finally, it could be the old saw that the NFL is the exemplar of “parity”—that American ideal that your team will, at some point soon, get a chance to win it all. What could be more compelling?

The problem is that the last part isn’t true: there’s no more parity in football than there is in baseball. And the problem might be even worse.

The difference is that while baseball fights over money, football teams stock up on brains. Managerially-speaking, baseball is an easy thing to master: get the best players, make sure they get along, and go. Football’s the opposite. There’s so much to know that’s exclusive to the sport that there are precious few people who have it down cold. There are rules on top of rules on top of rules for everything from the draft to the those the penalty mask penalty, and they change every year. Mastering it is a mix of game theory, attention to detail, and brute force. It’s like knowing the code for Deep Blue, or reading a map of Queens. It’s incredibly hard to do.

For all the talk of NFL parity,there have been more World Series winning teams (8) this decade than there have been Super Bowl winners (6). This year, while some new teams (like  the Vikings and Jets) have joined the traditional powerhouses (Colts, Patriots, and Steelers) amongst the league’s elite, there is a slew of teams that will be luck to win four games. The Chiefs, Browns, Raiders, Rams, Pathers and Lions are symbols of the futility of hope. What are they playing for? Not much. At least baseball’s fickle enough to give teams a glimmer of hope for a couple months. In football when it’s gone, it’s gone.

What’s the cause of this? The strength of organizations. The Steelers, Colts and Patriots understand how the game is run: they supplement star players with replaceable ones, and employ a buy-low, sell-high philosophy. It sounds easy, but it’s not, and it takes supreme know-how to pull it off at every level of your organization: CEO, GM, coaches, players. Everything is constantly in motion, and having everyone keep pace is what makes the great teams great. It’s anything but a numbers game.

That’s what makes it harder than baseball, and why football won’t even out anytime soon. In baseball, a good numbers man (or woman) can still exploit the gaps and give the little team a fighting chance. In football, it’s one giant gap to be exploited, and the people who do it at a championship-caliber level are far fewer in number than their baseball counterparts. Football’s not considered a thinking man’s game, but if you look beyond the line of scrimmage, it’s exactly that. It’s like 53-person chess. If you’re good, you’re good, and if you’re not, you’ve got a better chance hoping for a miracle at a Mets game.

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September 28, 2009

The Reminders

The reminders are there, just off to my right. They’re on each level of the bookshelf. Red Sox Century. Patriot Reign. Now I Can Die In Peace. Faithful. Hell, even John Adams.

I am not where I belong.

The books are taunting me, like a child on a playground. What did I watch today? I watched the Jets play the Titans. The Jets.

Flying start aside, watching the Jets, for a Patriots fan, is like the varsity football team for the much smaller school across town. New York may dominate Boston in size, but the Patriots dwarf the Jets in stature. The Patriots resonate across six states, even in the lean years. The Jets can’t even make it out of the Giants Stadium parking lot.

I was walking around this morning when I considered sidling up to a bar to watch the Pats, but it’s just not the same. The three hours, drinking piss beer under cover of darkness, cheering against everybody who’s cheering for every other team? That’s not Patriots football. For me, Patriots football is the slow anticipation of gameday on my hometown soil of West Tisbury, confident that, whatever happens, it will be dissected six ways to next Sunday in the hours and days following the final snap. Of course, it only matters if they won. When the Patriots lose, I don’t want recaps — I want a re-do. All is not right in the world, and there’s no way to fix it. Either way, the only way to catch it is on my own TV, with the real or virtual accompaniment of good buddies. That is, and always has been, Patriots football.

I know how people root for other teams, but I don’t get it. I feel the Patriots in my bones in a way I don’t even feel the Red Sox. The Sox, with their connection to the soul of New England, represent something different entirely. The Patriots make me think of walking out to the car, seeing my breath in the second week of December, bundled up against a blue slate sky and the frost that radiates from the ground up.

As far as I can tell, being a football fan in this city means something different. But then again, being any type of fan in this city is different. The first question you ask isn’t, “Did you see the game?” but “What team do you like?” The fact is, the New York region is either underserved or overserved on teams, but it’s far from on the nose. The popular teams like the Yankees and Giants are so popular that you could halve their fanbase and get one to rival that of the Mets and Jets. From the beginning you’re either a bully or burning with resentment, and in the common case that your allegiances cross those lines, a mess of contradictions.

That’s not the New England way, but it’s a way I’ve come to embrace if only to survive in this sports wilderness. It’s a bit of “water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink” — there will be football on all day, every Sunday, and more baseball than I can handle, but not the right football, or the right baseball. When the Pats do grace my screen, it’s a gift that I know will be gone too soon, and I’m not able to totally enjoy it.

The promise of the 21st century was that you could follow your teams wherever you lived, whether you were in New York, Newark or Nairobi. The reality is that you might just remember how far you are from home.

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September 25, 2009

The Art of Tweeting Gracefully

I’m on Twitter. Sue me. Just make sure to Tweet about it 43 times too.

The last time an Internet phenomenon spread this quickly, it was YouTube. Between the moment I first heard about it and the moment one year removed from that, it had grown from a wisp of an idea to a full-fledged powerhouse. YouTube was the place for Internet video, period, end of story. It served a niche that hadn’t been filled, and did it so well, that it became the brand name for online video. “YouTube” is to video what “Kleenex” and “Band-Aid” are to their markets.

Twitter did the same thing. It’s the blog for people who are too fussy, too important, or too busy blogging to blog. You can find virtually anyone on Twitter, which is what makes it different than blogs. People, and their 140-character thoughts, are easily turned up, making your tweets available to anyone who wants them, and not just in the Wild West internet way: in a controlled, stable environment.

It seems great, right? Well it isn’t.

The problem is that not all Tweets are created equal, or, to be more precise, not all Twitterers are created equal. I care more about what my friends have to say, though I’m careful to mind Twitter as a supplement to, and not a replacement for, our actual relationship. But how am I supposed to find them when CBS Radio’s Mark Knoller Tweets every five minutes, all day? I have (albeit briefly) worked on the White House Unit of a major news operation, so I understand the amount of news created and the importance of every piece of it. Right now, though, it’s 9:26 in the morning and Knoller has tweeted 21 times today. 21 times!

He is far from the worst abuser (and as far as overtweeting goes, you’re not going to find a more informed, more important stream. He’s still clogging my inbox); according to most sources, Tila Tequila tweets about as often as she breathes. In light of a recent lawsuit she’s filed against her NFL-playing boyfriend, her Tweets are “protected,” which means I can’t see them without sending a request that would certainly be accepted. That won’t happen. But “Tequila”‘s Tweets get to the heart of what Twitter really is: the greatest marketing device ever invented. You can connect with brands, people, imaginery characters and they will talk to you — sometimes directly.

Here’s an illustration: the other day, Major League Baseball was giving away a jersey for the 500th person who Tweeted the slogan for their recent advertisement, which was “Beyond Determination.” I tried, twice, but wasn’t number 500. For the contest, you had to go to MLB.com to view the commercial. When I was there, I noticed a repeated spelling error, and I snarkily Tweeted about it. Within 90 seconds, MLB had sent me a direct message — which came ONTO MY PHONE — thanking me for catching the error and attributing it to an third-party company. I immediately felt bad about being snarky, but felt “closer” to MLB as a company — hey, someone was reading! — than I had before.

Contrast that with last night, when I was doing today’s New York Times Crossword Puzzle early. (I’m something of an addict) When I realized the phrase “Don’t Tase Me Bro” appeared in the grid, I jumped for joy — and lunged for my computer to Tweet “Rex Parker,” who runs a great NYT crossword blog. My elation was diffused within minutes, when he responded to my “I’ve been waiting two years for this” Tweet with a zinger of his own: “Good 2 yrs ago when Onion did it 1st.” Now, since I had apparently missed one instance of it two years earlier in a crossword I don’t do, was I not supposed to be excited? I’m not sure that helped.

In short, the rules of Twittering can be summed up with a Tweet-length primer: Be nice, be interesting, and may your tweets be sparing in number. I’m just the messenger. Don’t tase me.

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September 24, 2009

Around the bases Thursday

Lidge_Owned

1. FIRST BASE: BAD BRAD Are the Phillies in trouble? They’re going to make the playoffs, but Brad Lidge blew his 11th save last night, painting a scary picture for their possible first-round matchup with the Rockies. After last year’s perfect-for-the-season performance, Lidge’s woes look prohibitive heading into October, but should they?

Absolutely. Often, saves are a misleading window into a player’s skill level; take Brad Lidge, last year. Was he a great closer? Yes. Was he lucky to save all of his games? Absolutely. The “perfect” season was a mirage, but his numbers backed up the performance of a great pitcher. This year, it’s not that the bounces have gone the wrong way, it’s that the bounces have gone almost exactly as expected. He’s striking far fewer people out, walking more, and, most alarmingly, giving up home runs at a prodigious rate. There’s no mirage here. This is bad.

2. SECOND BASE: BAD BRADLEY Milton Bradley has been suspended by the Cubs for the season, giving credence to everyone, everywhere who said this would work out poorly. The oft-maligned Bradley has been something of a lightning rod for stat-conscious pundits and baseball men for years; he is, without question, a talented baseball player. Former Dodgers GM Paul DePodesta once said that if he could have nine Milton Bradleys, he’d take them—saying something like that would show why DePodesta, one of the sharpest analytical minds in the game, no longer has that job. Milton Bradley is where the stats and reality meet, and very rarely does it work out well for him. He’s just good enough to get passed around to people who think they can either keep him under control or let him blosssom, and it never works out. Playing in the interactive Wrigley Field, with a firecracker manager in Lou Piniella, was one of those situations that was too bad to be true from the very beginning. Turns out that one Milton Bradley is often too many.

3. THIRD BASE: WELKS BACK Wes Welker will apparently play this week versus the Falcons, which is good news for the Patriots. While they were helped by Some Dude Named Julian Edelman in their loss to the Jets, Welker needs to be on the field for the Pats’ offense to run at full steam, or as close to it as it can go at the moment. Tom Brady recently said “it’s not called mid-season form for nothing;” which was, all in all, refreshing. Two years ago, the Patriots came out determined to beat the snot out of the Jets thanks to the Mangini departure scandal; SpyGate erupted as a result of that very game, and then they were determined to crush everybody. They were possibly the best football team in history for the first nine games, but from Week 10 until the Super Bowl, they were a very good, very tired football team. It’s a balancing act to grow into the team you’re going to become, but it is a process to be minded. They didn’t mind it in 2007 so much as they ignored it, and they almost got away with it. One might say karma got them, or bad luck, or that they were simply the worse team by the time the Super Bowl ran around. What’s for certain is that there was no talk of rounding into mid-season form after Week 2. It has to happen quick, but it’s a healthy attitude. No need to panic yeat.

4. HOME: NFL STUFF COMING LATER The NFL Week 2.5 report comes out later today with a look at courage. Be courageous, and return.

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September 23, 2009

Today’s double

The Yankees have clinched a playoff spot. Let’s get on with it.

FIRST BASE: ZACK ATTACK Zack Greinke shut down the Red Sox last night for his 15th win of the season, one of the rare times we were rooting for the Sox to lose. Greinke’s season has been straight out of the Pedro 1999/2000 mold, as has his pitching style. Tim Lincecum has put up similar numbers, but without near-complete control of four pitches, which is what Greinke has. By running his “record” to 15-8—and “record” is in quotes because it in no way describes his skill—he has put himself in a position to win the Cy Young, which is voted upon by people who put more stock in the won-loss record than I do. (I do not disregard it entirely, as some do, but I do not worship the Jack Morris altar of pitching to the score, while still loving Morris. Morris is, invariably, the one person won-loss record proponents will point to, despite numerous incidents where players with better W-L records beat better pitchers for the Cy Young honors). Greinke’s main competition will be Felix Hernandez, who has one more win, an ERA a half-run higher, and 30 fewer strikeouts. It wouldn’t be terrible if he won; Seattle could certainly use it. But it would be wrong.

I have written elsewhere about what Greinke means for baseball. He was promoted too quickly through the Royals’ ranks, and somewhere along the line the crushing weight of expectations began to overshadows his talent. He retreated into himself, and eventually found himself at the edge of a nervous breakdown. The Royals did everything right with him, giving him ample time off, letting him ease back into the game and the rotation, and publicly supporting him all the way. It strongly bucked the que es mas macho culture of baseball for the better. The pressures of being a baseball player today are very adult ones, and they deserve to be dealt with an adult fashion. The Royals did that, Greinke did the work, and it’s time they both were rewarded.

2. SECOND BASE: PLAX GOES TO JAIL Plaxico Burress headed to jail yesterday, sentenced to two years after shooting himself in the leg at a nightclub (the law banned concealed weapons). The sentence has led some to become outraged at the equivalencies for NFL criminals: Plax goes to jail for, ultimately, two years for hurting no one but himself; Michael Vick served two years in prison, yet some people think he hasn’t paid enough of a price for his role in masterminding a dogfighting ring; and Donté Stallworth got a handful of days for community service after working out a plea deal with the family of a Miami pedestrian he killed with his car. These equivalencies are false. All of these players pleaded guilty, and the court, in conjunction with the aggrieved parties, worked out punishments they felt were appropriate. That Plax will serve as many years as Vick shouldn’t anger you; it should reinforce the strength of New York’s gun laws which, in a city of 8 million people, go a long way toward keeping you safe. Most of the complaints, though, are about Stallworth, and his the relative lightness of the sentence he received—but the victim’s family signed off on it, and will earn (presumably) a substantial portion of the salary that Stallworth earns from here on out, and not only that, he can never drive again. He also can’t play football this year: he was suspended by the NFL. Everyone’s paying for what they’ve done in different ways, and each should be judged by their own standard.

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September 18, 2009

Just being Corny

Some colorful little scamp posted an essay on another blog, and wouldn’t you know it, his whole name isn’t on it? That’s odd.

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September 18, 2009

Top o’ the Morning

Good morning, folks. It’s Friday. The Red Sox lose for once, The Office is back on the air, and would a tax on soda really cost you anything? Let’s get to it.

1. SOX GO DOWN The Red Sox’ seven-game winning streak ended last night at the hands of the Angels, who now lead the season series 5-4. These teams will almost certainly meet in the first round of the playoffs for he fifth times, and the Red Sox have won all previous four. The question is: does that matter? And the answer is probably “no.” But the Yankees probably like it nonetheless, given their history against the Angels in the 2000’s (did we ever decide what to call this decade?). They’re 0-2 in the playoffs against the Halos and any Yankees fan will tell you something along the lines of “The Angels own us.” That may or may not be true, but either way, I’m not sure a Yankees/Tigers series would work out well for humanity. Then again, anything can happen.

Of course, the best possible result is that the Red Sox and Yankees meet again, and the Red Sox simply blow them out of the water, despite a weaker team and weaker record. For all the talk of the Red Sox having the “upper hand” in the rivalry after the glorious events of 2004, they’ve never stepped on the Yankees from start to finish, which, Clemens/Pedro aside, the Yankees did to the Sox in 1999. That happens, and Yankees fans will really go crazy.

2. SOME THING We may have just realized the downside to having the blog under one’s full name when one works in certain industries, and will keep you posted if we “read” anything somewhere else.

3. THAT’S IT I’ve been pulled into other things at the moment.

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September 17, 2009

NFL Week 1.5 Report

football-game-couch-nfl

WHAT I’VE LEARNED BY WATCHING

Games consumed: Steelers/Titans, Jets/Texans, Pats/Bills, Giants/Redskins (partial), Bears/Packers (partial)

1. HOUSTON STINKS There was more talk this year that the Texans would be a suprise team, but they looked listless in week one against the Jets. They couldn’t do a thing against the Jets, which has been attributed largely to the Jets’ defense. I wouldn’t be so quick to put all the credit there. It takes hard work for a team to look as bad as Houston did against the Jets — it wasn’t like they were missing opportunities, they just weren’t making any. And this was in week one, where they had months to prepare. If the coaching staff can’t find a way to get a single good drive going with what is supposed to be a talented offense at the outset of the season, here’s betting they can’t scheme up much for the rest of the year. You can forget about them. Texans: written off

2. MARK SANCHEZ IS GOING TO BE GOOD My lack of love for the Texans doesn’t cast any shadow on Mark Sanchez’ performance as Jets’ QB. As has been noted elsewhere, Sanchez’ footwork already puts him far ahead of most NFL quarterbacks in that department and at near-peak Brady levels (the best I’ve ever seen, and the one skill category in which Brady is, I think, unquestionably dominant). He didn’t get a chance to read defenses yet, or deal with pocket pressure, but it appears he’s got all the tools to succeed. Sanchez’ development marks something of a barometer for the NFL-readiness of USC QBs after the Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart experiments. It’s my contention that he’s NFL-ready, but others don’t think so, as baby-buddy-of-blog “Cleveland Frowns” disagrees, and we duked it out in the comments. Will the experiment look as good in week two against a banged-up—but still Belichick-schemed—unit? Highly, highly doubtful. But we’re looking long-term and buying.

3. EITHER THE PATRIOTS LINE STINKS, BUFFALO’S D-LINE IS GREAT, OR BOTH Tom Brady got the least amount of time to throw the ball against Buffalo since, well, the last full game he played (the one were Osi Umenyiora lined up in his ass). The Bills got an amazing amount of push and shut down the Pats’ running game completely. Does this mean we’re going to see a full-fledged Brady-slinging game against the Jets? Maybe not. But maybe. We’re working toward that point, and when the offense went ballistic at the end of the game, the Bills had no answer. Ben Watson’s winning catch was bananas, by the way.

4. THE QBS? FINE Trent Edwards looked pretty damn good in the fast offense; we’ll see how much of it was Pats-D related when the Bills (blech) take on the Bucs (BLECH) this week (kill me). Brady’s a little tentative, and might never hit 2007 form again, but if he’s at 80 percent of that it’s plenty good enough. Actual exchange after the fumble with fashion-language-understanding and unhelmeted-Brady-loving girlfriend.

Her: Is that good?

Me: Yes, they’re going to get a touchdown now and win.

Her: How do you know that?

Me: It’s why Tom Brady is married to Gisele.

Verdict: Brady is a good man

5. THE GIANTS AND THE REDSKINS BLAH One of the dedicated readers of this blog is a Giants season ticket holder. I applaud his enthusiasm. Maybe I’ll share it some day. It’s unlikely. The Giants sure seem to rough teams up, but without Plaxico, it seems like they have that oh so little weakness of Eli’s habit of not quite throwing it to the right place. Osi is scary, good, though: I said after Super Bowl XLII that it might look like less of an upset once Osi and Strahan were both in the HOF, the same way the Rams/Pats Super Bowl result looks completely in retrospect. Not enough attention is paid, btw, to the similarities to those two seasons, down to the earlier, fingernail-close meeting in the season, the 14-point spread, and the miracle last drive. Verdict: I don’t want to talk about this any more, but before I go, the Redskins could compete if they had an offense. Still better than the Texans.

6. I THOUGHT THESE TEAMS WERE GOOD Watching Bears/Packers was like getting hit in the face by errant footballs. I thought these teams were supposed to be good, and maybe they are, just well-matched. But that game was shit. And I could give a crap about the “rivalry,” just like everyone in Chicago. Trust me, they don’t give a lick about beating the Packers more than any other team. They just want to win the Super Bowl. That’s no crime. But to force some East Coast-style rivalry on it just isn’t going to work. Verdict: we’ll know more after this week

7. OOPS I ALMOST FORGOT Steelers/Titans and Chargers/Raiders. That happened. I had four Simpler Times lagers. There was a lot of hitting. I was bored, but I know these teams are good. They’re annoying too.

Teams as-yet unconsumed: Dolphins, Ravens, Bengals, Browns, Colts, Jaguars, Broncos, Chargers, Raiders, Chiefs, Cowboys, Eagles, Vikings, Lions, Falcons, Saints, Panthers, Buccaneers, 49ers, Cardinals, Seahawks, Rams.

Teams written off: Texans (Week 1)

Picks for this week: Each week, I submit to you my picks in the Cheddar Bay Invitational Picking tournament on Cleveland Frowns. Must pick six games vs. the spread, at least one of which is an NCAA game, and have a 100 word essay accompanying a pick. Here’s this week’s entry.

I had a tough time last week. I went 0-6. But look at it this way: the only way to go is up!

Toledo +20.5
Pats -3.5
Seahawks +1.5
Broncos -3
Giants +3
Colts -3

Essay: I’m not confident the Patriots are going to cover against the Jets. But this one seems a bit easy, no? The Pats are 1-9 in their last 10 games ATS, came off a miracle win (and not even near cover) against the Bills at home, and the Jets convincingly thumped the Texans, a popular pick to improve this year. As a result, the Pats/Jets line is dropping downward, but should it? I think it’s more likely that the pundits were wrong about the Texans, and the Jets exploited a bad team, than the opposite, given the results. And I think talk about the Pats’ defense’s demise, while certainly noteworthy, may not be as relevant in this game. Mark Sanchez is going to see things on Sunday he’s never seen in his life, and I think it’s more likely than not that the Pats will pull out a typical AFC East slog victory over Gang Green, but by at least six points.

That’s it for now. See you in the 2.5.

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September 17, 2009

State of the Patriots

patpatriottattooI have a renewed interest in the NFL this year. I’m not playing fantasy football, and we’re two years removed from the Patriots/Giants debacle — the debacle not just of the game itself, or the whole season.

That’s right, I’m calling an 18-1 season a debacle. From the moment Spygate hit until Tom Brady’s final heave to Randy Moss hit the turf in Glendale, it was a miserable season. That’s what happens when you lose sight of what sports are supposed to mean. Pats fans were already excited at the prospect of an undefeated season before Spygate hit, and in its aftermath, saw a perfect record as a road to validation. The push was on, and Bill Belichick appeared to take the bait as well. Through the first nine weeks of the year, the Patriots trounced everyone they played, and the talk of an undefeated season was on.

It’s not bad that Patriots fans were excited, but it’s important to remember that winning is just as much a part of the game as losing. The Patriots have had too many great wins to count over the last decade, and in 2007 Pats fans were acting like wins were a birthright, and alienating the entire country in the process. I wanted none of it. I wanted them to win the Super Bowl, but not at the expense of their fans dignity. If the Pats had won the Super Bowl, we would have never — ever — heard the end of it. So when they lost, I wasn’t even devastated; I was just worried I would be implicated in the mourning process. It was, however, just a game.

That’s why last season’s knee injury to Tom Brady was, in some way, a refreshing way to reset expectations. After the white-hot 2007 campaign, where every game was too important, the 2008 season was the opposite: it wasn’t really taken seriously. Wins were great, and losses were okay too. That’s the healthy way to watch sports, and I was happy for it.

The Patriots aren’t the only team that needed a re-adjusting of attitudes; in fact, their conquerors needed one as well. After the Super Bowl win over the Pats, some Giants fans were devastated at last year’s boucning from the playoffs by the Eagles, including this fine fellow:

Giants fan and friend of the blog Big Dood has responded on Shea Hey! with the rare well-reasoned, mature take on sports on the Internet:

To a good many Giants fans, the ending to last season was doubtlessly a bitter disappointment. Fair enough, I suppose, but I’m here to send a wakeup call to everyone who cried themselves to sleep after a one and done ouster at the hands of the Eagles: It’s all disappointment from here on out. This truth should have risen from the ashes as the dust settled in the aftermath of Super Bowl XXZXXZXZSEQR (did I get those Roman Numerals Right?). To quote Christopher Walken’s character in True Romance “that’s as good as it’s gonna get. And won’t ever get that good again.”

By all rights, the New York Giants should never win anything else again. In the interest of balance, they ought to have tumbled into the bowels of the earth and been left to stumble over and upon one another (for at least a few seasons) in abject misery.

Or better yet, they should’ve simply ceased to be, disappearing in streaks of light and vapor behind falling sheets of confetti in the canyon of heroes.

By this standard, the Patriots should have shut down shop a few years ago, but there they are, on my TV every weekend. Two seasons removed from the nightmare, I’m determined not to relive it. Football’s too great for that, and I’ve seen too much great football recently for it to hurt too much. Maybe I’m not a “real fan,” or maybe I never was until now. I love the sport more than ever, and that’s why one loss isn’t going to get me down. It gives me something to do every Sunday for 5 months; the rest is just details. Details that I’ll scream and piss and moan about for those 5 months, but less than I would have before. Nothing is guaranteed, and I’m not going to pretend like it is or that I deserve it.

All that said, GO FREAKING PATS. Jets game is big this weekend.

I’m done.

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September 17, 2009

Back on the Grind

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here with any regularity, but that’s going to change.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about giving blogging a chance again — I mean real blogging, not the here-and-there type. To that end I tried it for a couple weeks over at The Great Baseball Blog, but it was a little constricting to try to fit everythign in with baseball. (Especially when it’s no longer the most interesting sport to write about) I kicked around other blog idea names, and as many of you know I love starting blogs. (And there are more)

I used my inability to find a blog name as a crutch to put it off, so I’m going to go with the one name that’ll never change — my own, and I’ll just bring you posts from here. I’ve got a lot to say, and you people need to know these things. It’s a moral imperitive.

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