2/15/08

11 days have passed since my last post. If that much time passes between columns it normally means that I have a bad case of writers block, but I don’t really think that is the case here. I mean it sort of is, but at the same time, it really is not. You see, if I have writers block it usually means that there is no shortage of stories to write about but I just can’t write about any of them well. But this is February, the most boring month of the sports year. The NFL season ended, and now there is only regular season basketball and hockey and pre-spring training baseball. I could write about steroids, but I don’t think I will because I’m tired of watching the Roger Clemens v. the world soap opera unfold. I don’t care that Brian McNamee (allegedly) injected Clemens’ wife with HGH before they posed for the SI swimsuit issue. I think Roger Clemens took steroids. All that I have gleaned from the Congressional hearings is that many members of the United States Congress lack anything resembling the ability to articulate in an intelligent fashion. If you complain that many athletes don’t have what you might call a firm grasp of how to properly speak the English language, I think you should seriously consider giving athletes a temporary break and ripping on some of the members of the United States house of representatives. Athletes play sports for a living, while some of those idiotic members of Congress supposedly write laws. All things being equal, I would absolutely take Allen Iverson in an academic decathlon against a few members of the House.
The Rockets have won eight in a row but I can’t write about that because most of you won’t read about actual sports until the playoffs unless football is involved. Many of you might enjoy a column on Shaq desperately attempting to get into shape so that he can keep up with Steve Nash without keeling over and dying on the floor, but I think that Shaq is damaged goods and until I see the Daddy moving up and down the floor for the first time, I will assume that the Heat made out like bandits getting Marion for the overweight, oft injured diesel.
I have NHL observation regarding Richard Zednik’s injury. Seeing Zednik take a skate to the jugular is the most frightening injury that I have witnessed in my lifetime. The image of Zednik desperately skating over to the bench leaving a trail of blood behind him gives me Goosebumps. The Panthers deserve credit for keeping excellent doctors on sight because had the medical personnel not acted so well, Zednik may well be dead.
Beyond that, I really don’t have a lot of compelling stuff to write about. I could subject you to a pathetic, time filling ploy like Sportscenter’s “Greatest Highlight ever” segment, but I figure that you already have to see enough of that garbage on ESPN so I will just stop writing. I only wish to recommend that this might be a good time to read a book or take your wife out to dinner because during the month of February, compelling sport stories are on vacation.