I have nothing to write about this week because nothing has interested me in the sports world outside of Stanford lately. My colleagues cover enough over the week, leaving me the tough job of originality. Well, most Stanford winter sports are just gearing up. Lane Kiffin sucks and will probably bring more violations to USC. Pete Carroll isn\u2019t worth writing about. The NBA is boring. There haven\u2019t been enough upsets in college basketball yet. The NFL is reasonably exciting, but let\u2019s come back next week when the Super Bowl spots are on the line. Mark McGwire cheated, but like we were really surprised when we heard that.<\/p>\n
Thus, this column is about nothing. It is about the boring, banal, whatever and who cares of sports. It is the things you wish you didn\u2019t know about, the things you don\u2019t understand why you know so much about, or the things you wish just didn\u2019t exist. It is Brett Favre, Olympic race-walking and fishing. It\u2019s golf without Tiger Woods, the NBA regular season and the Pro Bowl. It\u2019s the things that have you going \u201cwhy?\u201d or \u201chuh?\u201d or screaming an obscenity at the television.<\/p>\n
This column is the things about sports that make me want to turn off the TV or put down the newspaper. The things that are surely a hit with somebody around the world, but in my mind are better reserved for the 3 a.m. TV slot. The things that don\u2019t get me excited or make me glad to be a sports fan. The things that make me just want to go \u201cReally?\u201d or \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be kidding me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a 2-7 poker hand and a 37-0 rout in football at halftime. It\u2019s Roger Federer\u2019s demeanor on the court, the 10th NFL highlight in a row on Sunday, Tony Dungy\u2019s analysis and Pam Ward (YouTube her).<\/p>\n
I can tell you some things that this column is not. It\u2019s not Chad Ochocinco (or whatever his last name is) — it\u2019s not NHL playoffs, Chris Johnson, Venus and Serena Williams, the NBA Dunk Contest, a shootout in soccer or Shaquille O\u2019Neal.<\/p>\n
This column is the Super Bowl halftime show post-Janet Jackson, Bill Belichick interviews, a JaMarcus Russell-led offense, Walt Harris\u2019s Stanford play calling, terrible sports movies, the World\u2019s Best Dog competition and David Beckham.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not<\/em> the World Cup, college football overtime, a play that features a triple option, March Madness, the 100-meter dash, the \u201cC\u2019mon Man\u201d segment of Monday Night Countdown, Gus Johnson (YouTube him) or when Ed Reed intercepts a pass.<\/p>\n It is<\/em> the Favre-Childress saga, the discussion of why the Colts decided to rest their starters, ESPN\u2019s Mike & Mike (especially Greenberg), archery, arena football and the XFL, and billiards on TV.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not<\/em> Kobe Bryant at the buzzer, SportsCenter commercials, Jimmie Johnson, Sunday at the Masters, the night session at the U.S. Open or Nick Robinson at the Stanford-Arizona basketball game in 2004.<\/p>\n It is<\/em> minor league baseball, the WWF and UFC, Lil Wayne\u2019s columns on espn.com, Tim Tebow\u2019s 50th inspirational video segment, golfers from South Africa and athletes taking Twitter too far.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not<\/em> Darrelle Revis, Derek Jeter, the challenge rule in the NFL, New Year\u2019s Day bowl games, a good version of the national anthem before a big game, beach volleyball, the Arthur Ashe ESPY award for courage, Peyton Manning\u2019s commercials or sports montages.<\/p>\n It is<\/em> the Papajohns.com and Little Caesar\u2019s Pizza bowls, the opening coin toss, an intentional walk, Bible verses written on fake eye black, seemingly endless timeouts at the end of a basketball game, player holdouts for bigger contracts, badminton and the \u201cKiss Cam\u201d.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not<\/em> the Kentucky Derby, Mariano Rivera, a triple, icing the kicker, the Little League World Series, a perfect game, Toby Gerhart, Nathan\u2019s Hot Dog Eating contest and Boise State\u2019s trick plays.<\/p>\n Next week I\u2019ll have something more exciting. Come on, men’s basketball.<\/p>\n Danny Belch clearly did not realize that the MLS Draft took place yesterday. Contact him at dbelch1 “at” stanford.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have nothing to write about this week because nothing has interested me in the sports world outside of Stanford lately. My colleagues cover enough over the week, leaving me the tough job of originality. Well, most Stanford winter sports are just gearing up. Lane Kiffin sucks and will probably bring more violations to USC. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}