I get it. It's a blog with a title that screams "sports-theme" and yet here we are, 8 full weeks into the NFL season and the author hasn't posted anything at all since early July.
Call it a general malaise, call it lack of free time at work, call it what you will. Only I know the true complexity of the reasons leading to my absence from the blog-o-sphere and we'll leave it at that.
Here's a few things that, had I been actively blogging, you could bet the farm I would have weighed in on over these last few months:
1. They are who we thought they were:
My last post was about the Pirates and how they had appeared to be salvaging something out of the season going into the all-star break. OK, perhaps that's a little understated because I believe at the time, I stated the Pirates were only a couple of wins away from being a contender in a weak division (or something like that... if you want the exact wording, just scroll down). Considering the Pirates had multiple, extended losing streaks in the second half of the season and quickly guaranteed themselves a fifteenth consecutive losing season, believe me when I say that I was not without my fair share of humble pie over the aforementioned post. In fact, there were many times when I considered actually deleting that post from the public record, but since I'm the type of person who values intellectual honesty I decided against it. What type of society would we live in without principles?
That said... they're still my team and always will be.
2. Mike Tomlin is "DA MAN"
I don't usually agree with Bob Smizik because I've always seen him as the quintessential "grass is always greener" type skeptic, but he's got a surprisingly rosy outlook when it comes to Mike Tomlin. I've come to realize that if Smizik can say something positive about a Pittsburgh sports figure, it must be because they're doing something right.
3. I couldn't care less about New England sports
I never thought I'd ever say this, but I miss hearing (endlessly) about NY/NJ sports. The overexposure by the national sports media of the Red Sox/Patriots/Celtics is really starting to irk me. Sure, we get it, things are good for you. Sure, we get it, a number of you nationally syndicated columnists/humorists/talk show hosts are from New England. Sure, we get it, Ben Affleck and Steven King are from there too.
Do you realize that people from the rest of the country don't give a flying f-bomb about most of it? If I have one more Patriots' fan ask me my opinion on the question of whether or not they're running up the score, I'm going to go all Ned Flanders-from-that-episode-where-he-loses-his-house-to-a-hurricane-and-checks-himself-into-the-Calmwood-mental-hospital-after-freaking-out-in-front-of-the-entire-town on their ass. Do I think they're running up the score? Yes. Do I think it's wrong? Not necessarily. Does it piss me off that they're doing it? Abso-f'ing-lutely. But if we're going to spend all season talking about it as opposed to the GOOD stories in the NFL this year (e.g. Kevin Everett is almost walking again) I'm going to start advocating for suspension of all major sports teams from New England for at least 2 years so that we can pay attention to other things for a while.
4. Here's a shocker
It only makes sense that Barry Bonds would be unwilling to accept the will of the hundreds of thousands of fans who voted to put an asterisk on his 756 home-run ball. He's even willing to keep himself out of the hall of fame for it. Way to go... ya jagoff.
