Over the years, numerous people have told me that I should stop writing treatises on Facebook and just write a blog already. My tired response was generally that I didn't want the regularity that a good blog requires. Posting on Facebook enables me to write occasionally, when a subject really moves me. But a blog? A blog requires constant writing. Yuck.
Well, here I am. It's time. There are enough thoughts running through this brain of mine that it's time to do some writing. I anticipate a few weekly posts, with a higher frequency of posts at particularly big moments in the sports year (an NFL Sunday, major bowl games, any drafts). That's my hope anyway.
By way of introduction, I'm in my mid-20s, married for 2 1/2 years with a 16-month-old angel daughter, and with a borderline unhealthy love of sports. I love playing almost anything competitive, but as a fan, my allegiances are clear. I was raised in a Chicago sports family in West Michigan, so the Bears and Cubs dominate my thoughts. I also like the Bulls, although the NBA tends not to tickle my fancy.
It's a bit trickier with the NHL and college football. In hockey, I'm a serious Vancouver Canucks fan. It all started with the Messier Rangers in '94, the first year I really remember hockey. As most good Midwestern kids do, I grew up hating New York teams. When the Rangers reached the Finals, I latched on to the Canucks and fell in love with Pavel Bure; then, the internet showed up and what should have been a passing affection turned into a lifetime of listening to games on Team 1040 online into the early hours of the morning. From Bure to the West Coast Express to the Twins, I love that team. My relationship with the Chicago sports community definitely gets tricky whenever the Canucks and Blackhawks try to start WWIII, but in some sense I've relished the clarity with which I've had to realize I'm a full-fledged Vancouver fan.
As for college football, I spent the early part of my childhood allegiance-free, coming from a family without a love for the college game. But a particularly inspiring family friend from church had an infectious love for Penn State football, so here I am suffering through the last year as a Nittany Lion supporter. I'm sure I could write a novel by cutting and pasting my Facebook posts on the subject into one spot. Suffice it to say, I still cheer for the white and blue.
For the sake of simplicity, the Bears and Cubs are solidly in the lead, with the Canucks, Nitts, and Bulls following behind.
Writing here may take a few different directions, but I expect the general tone to be consistent: reasoned, rational thought about happenings in the sports world. While I may hit on some big issues (Jay Cutler's pouting, the Cabrera v. Trout MVP debate), it's more likely that I'll be writing about an individual moment or player that seems overlooked. The first post after this introduction should provide some guidance.
I'm quite confident that my status as a law student will rear its head from time to time. For example, I'm interested in the responses taken by different actors to the Jerry Sandusky mess. In particular, I have disagreements with the institutional authority of the NCAA and Big Ten. It may be unfair to raise that without going into deeper detail, but I'm sure the time will come where I can go a bit deeper. Anyway, the point is that, if you're looking for writing that says, "Jerry Sandusky is a bad man, he should burn forever! PSU should be given a 50-year death penalty!" then this probably won't work for you. If you're more interested in something like, "The legal system is specifically enabled to deal with situations like this: Sandusky will rot in jail until he dies and Penn State will pay severely for allowing a predator to persist within the football facilities in the form of lost revenue, civil suits filed by victims, and negative exposure. However, even with the heinousness of Sandusky's crimes, it doesn't naturally follow that the NCAA has carte blanche to mete out punishment," then you're probably in the right spot. Hopefully you'll have to think a bit after reading.
There may be some references from the non-sporting world, including those of politics, films, television, music, and possibly even religion. I'm not in the limiting phase of this endeavor. Still, sports will dominate.
I think that's plenty for now. Hopefully this can be a fun experience for all of us. Let's get going...
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