Trudging along through the worst six weeks in Sports

February is the worst month of the year.  The weather is still frigid here in the Delaware Valley, the football season ends on the first Sunday of the month, and there’s nothing else to really get excited about in the world of sports until March Madness.  Then things start to heat up again with the NCAA Tournament, NFL free agency, the beginning of the baseball season, The Masters, the NHL and NBA Playoffs and the NFL Draft.  But in between Super Bowl Sunday and Selection Sunday, there isn’t much to get excited about.

So what does this mean for someone like me?  It means I read lots of NFL mock drafts and free agency rumors, scour through oodles of fantasy baseball analysis, and making sure I check ESPN.com’s college basketball page on Mondays and Thursdays to look at expert bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s updated bracket.  Anything to pass the time in February before things ramp up in mid-March, even if it’s just a bunch of guesses as to who plays where next season in the NFL, who I draft on my fantasy baseball team, and who the NCAA tournament’s four number one seeds are.

NBA All-Star weekend is tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday.  So there’s that.  But I hate All-Star games.  The Saturday events are cool but the game isn’t really a game especially when you consider a lot of players have pulled out this year due to injury.  Maybe I’ll get a call before Sunday.  At least I won’t have to play defense if I end up suiting up.  The NBA trade deadline is on Thursday, so guess what that means? More rumors!  Welcome to February.

An e-mail sent by New York Knicks owner James Dolan is a bigger deal in February, because there’s nothing else to talk about. A Little League team losing its Little League World Series championship as a result of not cooperating with geographical boundaries sounds a little bit worse in February, because it’s February.  Every Summer I’m always wondering how those kids are no older than 13.  I’m sure plenty of other strings are pulled besides bending age restrictions and this time somebody got caught.

The Sixers unveiling a new mascot was so February.  The All-Star break has arrived so why not introduce Franklin the dog? Ray Rice just apologized to everyone in Baltimore and what a perfect time to do it. Josh Gordon got suspended again but that’s not really news at this point is it?  LeBron James tweeted something that may have been directed at teammate Kevin Love and in today’s media atmosphere, that’s important, especially when nothing else going on right now in sports is.

The point is that between now and Selection Sunday, all the nonsense stories in sports tend to come out.   Right now we’re just waiting for the bracket to be released, for NFL free agents to start signing contracts, for first pitches to be thrown across America, for tee shots to be hit at Augusta National, for the NHL and NBA regular seasons to end, and for Roger Goodell to stand at the podium in Chicago and start calling names. 

While media outlets across America are stuck with releasing stories that really don’t mean anything, I’ll stick to reading mock drafts, Joe Lunardi’s brackets, and fantasy baseball magazines.  It’s what keeps me going. Bring on the spring.