Reflections on the Sports Landscape of the 2000s

Looking back at the decade that was in sports, there were a lot of memorable moments. Time and space do not allow to cover all of them but here's the ones that register in my mind. Feel free to comment about yours:

*The Music City Miracle: I was there and I saw it live. It was considered one of the top 10 NFL plays of the decade (it was even in the top 5) and I saw it in person. To this day, I still remember the excitement and the celebration that happened when Kevin Dyson scored that TD. Hearing the radio call later by Mike Keith and Pat Ryan still gives me chills. Awesome.

*The World Series in 2001: Probably the only time in my life that I liked the Yankees. After the events of 9/11, it almost seemed fitting that the Yankees were in the World Series that year. It was something to watch that series and see all the dramatic elements that came with it. In the end, I was glad that the Diamomdbacks won but for a time, I did like the Yankees.

*Steroids at the forefront in baseball: Nothing disappointed me more than all the things that came out when steroids, HGH and performance enhancing drugs were brought to light in baseball. It's sad to know that for most of my life, especially my childhood is now tainted by the label "steroid era". If there's any good that comes out of this, I hope it cleans up the sport. But it doesn't take away (like the strike in '94) the disappointment.

*Return of football to New Orleans in 2006: I watched the first game in the reopened Superdome with the Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. It had the feel of a Super Bowl and it showed. The game itself was a good one and it was really cool to watch.

*The Olympics: It was a good decade for the Olympics. With the Winter (2002, Salt Lake City, 2006 Turin, Italy) and the Summer (2000, Sydney, Austraila, 2004, Athens, Greece, 2008, Bejing, China) there was a lot of memorable performances. It'll be interesting to see how the next few Olympics turn out as well.

*Red Sox and breaking of the Curse: Obviously, the championship run by the Boston Red Sox in 2004 was memorable. To beat the Yankees four straight in the ALCS after being down 0-3 was simply sweet and then to then sweep in the World Series was icing on the cake. 86 years without a title and then finally one. Along with winning in 2007, it was a good year.

All this and more made for a memorable decade. Looking forward to the sports decade that is the 2010s

To Go Perfect Or Not And Other Random Sports Reflections

I can't believe 2009 is nearly coming to an end. There's been a lot of sports stories that I haven't been able to cover as I would like. Given that I'll have a lot more flexibilty in my schedule it is looking like next year, it'll be a better time with posting and reflecting. I hope tomorrow to do a decade in review of reflections regarding sports. Today I wanted to hit on some things I've been mulling over.

*I (along with millions) are very disappointed in Jim Caldwell and Bill Polian in their decision to not go for an undefeated season. Anytime the '72 Dolphins celebrate is a bad time. What gets me is it seems like multiple contridictions that those two were about. They don't care about history yet Polian in an interview said they wanted to have the record for longest winning streak in the regular season and the most wins in the decade. Hmmmm, how are those better than an undefeated 19-0 season? The mantra of any sport is to take it one game at a time and to not look ahead and yet when you rest players you're looking ahead to something that may or may not happen. Herm Edwards got it right, you play to win the game. You don't play to rest players to play in a game you may not even make it to. The most condemning aspect of their rationale is they've done this two other times in the past four years. What happened to them? They lost and didn't make the Super Bowl. The one year they played hard to the end, they won the Super Bowl. I haven't done my playoff predictions but I'm going on record, Colts aren't making the Super Bowl and it goes back to a game in December deemed "meaningless" by Caldwell and Polian.

*I saw my first NBA game on TV on Christmas Day...and it was like I hadn't really missed it much. I still hold the NBA in not high standards after the debacle with Clay Bennett and David Stern allowing the Seattle SuperSonics moving to Oklahoma City. Honestly it's disappointing because there's probably some good action going on. But when I think about how that transpired and how uncaring Stern was to the people of Seattle and state of Washington and the tradition of the Sonics, it makes me sad. Until that is rectified, I will continue to be ambivilent about the NBA at best.

*As much grief that Brett Favre got about his waivering, I hope Urban Meyer gets the same amount of grief. I think it's one thing to take a break to take care of health and family, it's another to say you'll retire, to then say you'll take an indefinite leave of absense to then say you'll more than likely be back next season. As much as I didn't like Steve Spurrier when he was at Florida, I can be pretty sure in saying even he wouldn't do something like this. It seems Meyer cares more about himself than the school and when that becomes the case that ends up hurting the school.

Special Fantasy Football Thursday Edition

Sorry for the vacation of sorts but life kinda got in the way. In the midst of this fantasy football kept going. This year was not kind to the three highlight leagues as I can finish no higher than 5th in the three of them. This includes the end of defending my championship in the Speed Kills league. The good news is that I'm still in line for two championships...they just happen to be in leagues that weren't highlighted. One league is where me and three buddies from church are in and the other is a friend of mine from seminary and his friends. I'm already strategizing for next season including being in at least one maybe two less leagues so I can better focus on the ones I'm in. But overall it's been an exciting year as always.

Update...upon further review it seems that I still have a chance in the Speed Kills league. Woke up this morning (Christmas day) to find out that Yahoo adjusted the score and in fact I won instead of losing. So I still have an opportunity to get the three-peat. We'll see if that plays out but it's still awesome that I have the opportunity.

On Blogging Vacation....

For those few and faithful who've been reading, I've been on a blogging vacation. One week I was in Kansas for Thanksgiving break and with no internet and this last week I've been busy with papers and projects. I hope to be back next week :)