By Julie Buehler
Full disclosure: I’m sitting in my underwear, hammered on Keystone Lite writing this.
My parents must be so proud.
But that’s what happens when I don’t have football to watch. I end up moping around my house without clean clothes, aimlessly hoping someone will throw a pigskin in my face and snap me out of the doldrums of no NFL.
But its just hope. It’s not reality. We have 29 Sundays before the NFL is once again our weekly mainstay.
Thing is, when I was in New York City for Super Bowl XLVIII, roaming the streets of Manhattan with Broncos and Seahawks fans shouting in my ears, that reality wasn’t a factor in my mind.
I was focused on the unlikelihood that the top ranked offense could upend the top ranked defense. We knew only the ’89 49ers #1 ranked offense beat the ’89 Broncos #1 ranked defense and we knew that even in the pass-happy NFL we live in now, the single most disruptive force in all of football is a potent pass rush. And now we know how Super Bowl XLVIII turned out. Ugly.
Did I mention I am hammered on Keystone Lite? If it were football season, it’d be Guinness. That’s how far I’ve fallen.
So now the question is: what to do with this newfound spare time?
We have some options; I’m hoping getting you excited will get me excited.
Option A- Watch regular season NBA. With 82 games a season and players actually exerting full effort in 4 of them, it’s difficult to guess which game on any given night will be the game that players showcase their pure athleticism, explosiveness and understanding of the sport. BUT, I’ll take the Clippers average effort over the Lakers full effort any day. So we have that going for us.
Option B- Watch February college basketball. This is getting slightly more interesting now. Syracuse is dominating, North Carolina is struggling, the Pac-12 has some great teams and San Diego State is a darling of this season. Time to erase the Week 1 matchup of the Packers versus the Niners and add some Jabari Parker to my DVR.
Option C- Watch more NHL. If you haven’t been watching the Ducks roll through the NHL or the Blackhawks on their title defense tour or the Kings rollercoaster season, then you’re really missing out. Hockey is SUCH a great sport, yes, in person, but also on TV. Currently in the Olympic break, now we get the beautiful fluidity, physicality and national pride steeping in every game. THAT’s a solid way to replace football.
Option D- Play fantasy baseball. Call me a glutton for punishment, and I wouldn’t likely admit to this publicly if it weren’t for the liquid courage known as Keystone Lite, but I’ve decided to play fantasy baseball this year. And thoroughly ensure I won’t have a social life through 2014.
The good news is the NFL combine is coming up in a little over a week. That will give us numbers to discuss and prospects to dissect.
Until then, you can find me at the Beerhunter, watching whatever is on the big screen, watching the calendar countdown to the 2014 NFL season.
Julie Buehler hosts the Coachella Valley’s most popular sports talk radio show, “Buehler’s Day Off” every day from 3-6 on 1010 KXPS, the valley’s all sports station. She’s an avid gym rat, slightly sarcastic and more likely to recite Steve Young’s career passing stats than American Idol winners. Tune in M-F 3-6 pst at www.team1010.com or watch the show on Ustream.
