How awesome is it to be a sports fan who doesn't live in Indianapolis or Miami right now? For the love of pure sport, it is a great time.
The Detroit Lions are 5-0 heading into a matchup against the San Francisco 49ers who are 4-1. Detroit is 5-0 for the first time since Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office (1956 for those of you playing the home game). The last time they had been 4-0 was before Reagan was elected to office (1980).
We are enjoying some record setting passing numbers. Some sportswriters (Bill Simmons) think it is because of rules changes to prevent concussions. If you can't ram a receiver's head up into the fourth row of the stands, then you can't effectively cover them. Other sportswriters (Gregg Easterbrook) link the "passing stat-o-rama" to the fact that the NFL had a lockout during the off season and canceled training camps. Secondaries, especially those with new coaches or new free agents/draft picks/trades, didn't have training camp to gel. These guys don't know each other as well as secondaries in the past. We're seeing blown coverages, not guys pulling back from coverage because they don't want to be fined for knocking Chad Ochocinco into next Tuesday.
Fines never really worked in the first place. A linebacker would lay a slobber-knocker on a defenseless receiver and then empty his own pockets and with the pocket change he found pay his fine. Fining multimillionaires $25,000 for helmet to helmet hits is asinine. Fine them a few million and put it toward helmet design research to protect against concussions, then make the new helmets mandatory. Better yet, show that the NFL really cares and take all the fine money and invest it in revitalization projects for inner cities for the communities in which the NFL has teams. Put it to education. Put it to "high risk" kids.
After the final night of the regular season, the single greatest night in baseball history, the MLB has not disappointed. Three of the four first round match ups went the distance, going to five games each. The heavily favored teams, Philadelphia in the NL and the Yankees in the AL were knocked out. Who says there is not parity in baseball? We are guaranteed to have the fourth different World Series champ in as many years. Philly won in 2008, Yankees in 2009, Giants in 2010. None of these teams are left in the playoffs. Who won in 2007, how far back can we go before we get to someone who might have two wins. 2007..Red Sox? Yeah, Red Sox. 2006 Cardinals. Okay, the Cardinals are still in it. If they survive the Brewers (and given that the Brew Crew has woken up Albert Pujols, arguably one of the top 25 ballplayers ever..EVER..E.V.E.R, I'd say the Cards have a good chance.
Seriously, who is going to tweet something calling the greatest player on the other team "Alberta?" Did you ever see what Michael Jordan would do to teams who said something against him? Or just New York in general? A fan trash talks Jordan. He drops 50 on the home team. Jeff Van Gundy claims that Jordan exploited friendships on the court. MJ drops 55 in Madison Square Garden. Nyjer Morgan, an outfielder on the Brewers, tweets and calls Albert "Alberta?" Hey, how ya doin? Oh, and I just tied the record for extra base hits in a playoff game. And we just beat you 12-3. In your house. Seriously, why the hell would you tweet that? Are you mental? The Cardinals stole one at your house. They are now the favorites in the NLDS. Congratulations on that tweet, genius.
But you don't have to look to post season baseball or the multimillionaires in the NFL if you want to watch great athletes. Go down to your local high school and pick up a fall sports schedule. Pay your five bucks and go to a volleyball game, or soccer, or football. You will see as good of plays there as you will in the pros. You may not know everyone by name, but it will be entertaining. I've been sportswriting for a local news paper and covering girls volleyball for two towns in our area. There is an outside hitter on a team I regularly cover who hits as hard as I've ever seen. I played a bit on men's club. I was a middle hitter. I love blocking, it is my favorite part of the game. I would not want to be across the net from her. She's going to continue playing at the next level. She'll go to Gonzaga or WSU, no problem.
These kids are everywhere. Go watch your local sports teams. Be supportive. Don't be one of those psycho fans who ruins it for everyone around you while you are chewing out the ref for something that happened so quickly that it was almost a coin flip as to what happened. But go down and watch some great local sports. You'll be glad you did. These kids need the support. They need someone to go out there and watch what they do. Make an evening of it, or a Saturday afternoon. If it's friggin cold, bring coffee or hot chocolate (in the case of soccer or football). If it's friggin cold, and you're watching volleyball, then you don't have anything to worry about. Have you ever been in a cold gym while an event is going on? No. These things are great to watch. Going in and watching one team develop over the span of a season is one of the greatest sporting experiences you can have. It's why we watch sports on TV. It's why we choose our favorite teams. We can invest in these players. But with high school sports, you're favorite player isn't going to get traded in the middle of the season. Granted, there are possibilities of their families moving somewhere else, but it doesn't happen often. Watch these kids develop. Invest in them. Yes, they do move on in four years or less (four year varsity players are rare), but then you get to see then next crop of talent.
You don't have to go far to realize that it is a great time to be a sports fan.
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