Scott Cordischi On Sports: Hello NFL!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
With the NFL lockout all but over with, it’s time for sports fans to celebrate.
For as much as we may say that we love baseball, basketball or hockey, it is football that is this country’s new national pastime.
The NFL’s popularity dwarfs that of Major League Baseball the NBA and the NHL. Why? Because every game is an event and has meaning attached to it.
Unlike the other 3 major professional sports, a win or a loss during the regular season could have a major impact on a team’s postseason chances in the NFL. Unlike baseball (162), basketball (82) and hockey (82), football plays only 16 regular season games making them all quite meaningful.
It is because of this that Sunday’s in the fall and winter have become like sacred holidays here in the states. Fans are either tailgating in parking lots at NFL stadiums throughout the country or parked in front of their TV’s Sunday at 1pm to catch all the action.
What also makes football so much fun for American sports fans is the gambling aspect of it. While many may bet the actual games themselves, fantasy football is another form of gambling that has become huge in this country. Regardless of how much or how little someone might pay to play fantasy football, the excitement derived from drafting your own team, putting in your line-up and tracking your players each week is palpable.
Hank Williams Jr. is getting his pipes ready. Are you ready for some football?
-It would be nice the Patriots could bury the hatchet with Logan Mankins and sign him to a long-term contract which would put an end to this whizzing match.
-Watching his demeanor in winning the British Open, it’s easy to see why Ireland’s Darren Clarke is so well-liked by his peers on the PGA and European Tours.
-Which reminds me of a story from a few years ago when, word has it, Clarke had to be carried back to his hotel room at the Westin in Providence by his fellow European golfers. Clarke and many of the Euro’s were staying at the Westin for the Deutsche Bank Championship and went to the Irish pub Ri Ra where he apparently had a few too many that evening.
-Josh Beckett has pitched better than his (8-3) record would indicate.
-The Yankees’ CC Sabathia has a Major League best record of (14-4) yet is (0-3) this season against Beckett and the Red Sox.
-For all of their regular season greatness (14-2 last season), the Patriots will be judged on how they fare in the postseason where they have lost their last 3 playoff games.
-In those 3 playoff losses, future Hall of Fame QB Tom Brady has thrown 7 TD’s and 7 INT’s.
-Tiger who?
-Give all the credit you want to Japan but the U.S. Women’s World Cup team choked not once, not twice, but three times in the championship game.
-Many people think that our government should stop wasting taxpayer dollars by chasing Roger Clemens and the steroid issue which is a good point. But doesn’t anyone care that Clemens allegedly flat out lied to Congress in his earlier testimony?
-If Matt Light has played his last game in a Patriots uniform, it was a heck of a career for the talented left tackle out of Purdue.
-The Red Sox can’t beat up on Buck Showalter’s Orioles enough for this baseball fan.
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