June 11, 2005
On Sports - Part One
Well, if I'm going to begin with a topic, it might as well be my favorite.
Let's start with a little background, since everything makes more sense with context. I love baseball and hockey. I really like football. I like NCAA basketball a little. I don't pay much attention to golf or tennis. I pay practically no attention to NBA basketball. I make fun of soccer and auto racing. So don't expect to see a lot of posts about NASCAR, or Danica Patrick, or the NBA Finals, or the World Cup, or the outrage over Malcolm Glazer purchasing Manchester United, or whether Annika Sorenstam could win on the PGA Tour, or whether Tiger will ever win a major again, or about which Williams sister is better. Well, that last one's easy: Serena.
In those sports that I care about, my favorite teams are Boston (where I grew up and went to school) and Tampa Bay (where I live now). Usually, but not always, in that order. Similarly, in college sports, my favorite teams are the Boston College Eagles (alma mater) and the University of Florida Gators (no affiliation, just like them). (Note: from what I've learned, it's OK to call the Florida teams the Fighting Gators. From personal knowledge, I know that it is NOT OK to call the BC teams the Golden Eagles. They're not the Golden Eagles. Just the Eagles.)
As you can tell from putting all of the above together, the last four years have been the best sports years of my life. It all started in April 2001, in Albany, New York, when Krys Kolanos took a pass and sped down the left wing, cut in at the bottom of the faceoff circle, used his reach to get the puck around a pokecheck by goaltender Karl Goehring, and slid the puck into the open net, winning the national championship in overtime for my beloved Boston College Eagles hockey team.
Then in 2002, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in one of the greatest upsets in sports history, Tom Brady got the ball deep in his own territory with almost no time left, and thankfully didn't listen to John Madden suggesting from the television booth that Brady's New England Patriots would take a knee and play for overtime. Instead, Brady led them on a last minute drive against the heavily favored St. Louis Rams, culminating in a game winning field goal by Adam Vinatieri to give the Patriots their first Super Bowl championship.
The next year, in San Diego, California, the worst professional sports team for the entire decade of the 1980's finally reached the promised land, as Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, Warren Sapp, Ronde Barber, Dexter Jackson, and the rest of Monte Kiffin's stifling defense led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a romp over the favored but overmatched Oakland Raiders for a victory in the team's first ever Super Bowl appearance.
In 2004, the sports success jumped right off the charts. More on this later. So many good things happened that this post will get even more unmanageable than it is already. So I'll deal with 2004 sometime soon.
Let's start with a little background, since everything makes more sense with context. I love baseball and hockey. I really like football. I like NCAA basketball a little. I don't pay much attention to golf or tennis. I pay practically no attention to NBA basketball. I make fun of soccer and auto racing. So don't expect to see a lot of posts about NASCAR, or Danica Patrick, or the NBA Finals, or the World Cup, or the outrage over Malcolm Glazer purchasing Manchester United, or whether Annika Sorenstam could win on the PGA Tour, or whether Tiger will ever win a major again, or about which Williams sister is better. Well, that last one's easy: Serena.
In those sports that I care about, my favorite teams are Boston (where I grew up and went to school) and Tampa Bay (where I live now). Usually, but not always, in that order. Similarly, in college sports, my favorite teams are the Boston College Eagles (alma mater) and the University of Florida Gators (no affiliation, just like them). (Note: from what I've learned, it's OK to call the Florida teams the Fighting Gators. From personal knowledge, I know that it is NOT OK to call the BC teams the Golden Eagles. They're not the Golden Eagles. Just the Eagles.)
As you can tell from putting all of the above together, the last four years have been the best sports years of my life. It all started in April 2001, in Albany, New York, when Krys Kolanos took a pass and sped down the left wing, cut in at the bottom of the faceoff circle, used his reach to get the puck around a pokecheck by goaltender Karl Goehring, and slid the puck into the open net, winning the national championship in overtime for my beloved Boston College Eagles hockey team.
Then in 2002, in New Orleans, Louisiana, in one of the greatest upsets in sports history, Tom Brady got the ball deep in his own territory with almost no time left, and thankfully didn't listen to John Madden suggesting from the television booth that Brady's New England Patriots would take a knee and play for overtime. Instead, Brady led them on a last minute drive against the heavily favored St. Louis Rams, culminating in a game winning field goal by Adam Vinatieri to give the Patriots their first Super Bowl championship.
The next year, in San Diego, California, the worst professional sports team for the entire decade of the 1980's finally reached the promised land, as Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, Warren Sapp, Ronde Barber, Dexter Jackson, and the rest of Monte Kiffin's stifling defense led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a romp over the favored but overmatched Oakland Raiders for a victory in the team's first ever Super Bowl appearance.
In 2004, the sports success jumped right off the charts. More on this later. So many good things happened that this post will get even more unmanageable than it is already. So I'll deal with 2004 sometime soon.
