Hello faithful reader, it's been too long.
That's my fault of course, over a month has passed since my last post. No doubt this absence has triggered a vast wave of indifference across the country, hopefully we can come together and heal the wounds. I have no illusions that this will be a swift process, only the hope that at some point, the hurt can be put aside.
So we good? Thought so.
Not that any of this was intended as an apology, I've been a busy man. There was no truth to the rumor of a moratorium on posting until the next Vikings victory. If there was, I wouldn't be writing this. There was also no hunger strike pending the end of the Green Bay's undefeated run, or North Dakota hockey's time spent under .500; although if there had been, the timing is now appropriate.
As always, no higher purpose or greater meaning in play, just a ton of holiday activities and wrapping up a pesky little thing called grad school. Good times, grad school...if you're a masochist who dislikes healthy bank accounts and free time. You give them a few thousand hours of your time and an exorbitant amount of money, they give you a piece of paper that will allegedly help with future employment endeavors. The whole thing seems like a dubious deal, sort of like buying "stock" in the Packers, obviously I'm hoping for much greater value.
At this point, it's hard to even recall what the sports landscape looked like in mid-November. What have we figured out about the world that we didn't know five weeks ago?
Well, for starters, we know the college football postseason is really dopey. That's not new info, just a major annoyance that needs to be brought up in each and every discussion. I was really hoping to get an entry in yesterday previewing the Beef O'Brady's Bowl. Guess that will have to wait until next year.
We know that Christian Ponder may or may not be a decent quarterback, but again, nothing has changed there. All ballots should be held for another half-season, or whenever we get to watch him play behind a competent offensive line. So with any luck, the Mayans will end the world before everyone has to come to grips with what some of us knew on draft night.
We know that the Wild are probably going to challenge for the playoffs. Or at least we think we know, based on the fact it would take a historic collapse to prevent it. Mired in a 5-game slump, and having seen a few historic collapses lately, it might be better to hold off on discussing this for a minute.
We know that the NBA will never make sense. First they looked like they were ready to end the season and stand on principle to fix the fundamental flaws in the game. Then they decided to say "screw it", and not bother with any real solutions. Then they block a star player's trade to Los Angeles, only to turn around and allow him to be traded to the other team in Los Angeles. Just when everyone was starting to forget about the ref that fixed games, too. You guys aren't earning any credibility points.
Finally, we know, or are at least starting to get the inkling, that something far more unpleasant than lost games or recruiting scandals might be brewing in the world of sports. Remember when the worst allegations that you had to hear revolved around some football player getting charged with sexual assault at a fraternity or stomping some guy outside a nightclub? Those were disturbing and despicable, without a doubt, but not quite coming close to the run of sports figures now being accused of molesting kids.
A couple of high-profile assistant coaches, and now a well-known sportswriter. I am very nervous about where this might be going. If stuff happened, it needs to come out, regardless of the consequences, but pardon me if I wince at the thought of big-time athletics goes the way of the Catholic church. The whole thing raises the unfortunate possibility that us fans might've been unknowingly supporting people who've done some atrocious things. Hopefully we're done here and not looking at the tip of the iceberg, but when the latest allegations came out this week, all I could picture was Bryant Gumbel wrapping up his commentary on Real Sports with something along the lines of "In retrospect, it makes season that this atmophere, placing young men under the supervision of and in close proximity to their abusers, hid so many secrets."
Tell me that doesn't make you wince.
