This past weeks roundup and th...

I don’t always relate to everyone but I will share with you my passion for watching sports. Like a lot of you I once was a decent athlete who enjoyed playing sports more so than always watching them. But as the years progressed and my desire and abilities to get out and get on the field diminished, I found my desire to replace that excitement with that of cheering for more talented individuals on the TV. I have quit well-paying jobs because they interfered with my sports viewing schedule. It’s the honest truth and I’m not a bit ashamed to admit it.

The Fall months, beginning in late August, are a particularly precarious time for my employment status due to the start of football season. What can I say? I’m a fanatic. Working on Saturday or Sunday is out. It’s not gonna happen. It’s possible to get me for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning before the noon time pre games shows but Saturday morning is off limits due to College Game Day. And no I don’t record it. I watch all 4-5 hours of it, live. There are NO exceptions. And by the way, Monday and Thursday nights are a 50/50 working commitment as well. So, to my other employers don’t count on me. With this said let’s look back at the recent week in sports and see what’s in store for us on the horizon.

In The NFL, The Deshaun Watson saga seems to have run it’s course, at least for now. A heafty fine and lengthy suspension of 11 games has brought the matter to a temporary close, at least in the national media. It remains to be seen how and how much this will affect the season for the Cleveland Browns. The starters position now passes to Jacoby Brissete who, not being without prior experience, is no Deshaun Watson. Pending Watson’s ability to abide by a mandated treatment program and successful passage of a professional evaluation following such program, his return is set for November against the, you got it, Houston Texans. That will be a tough game to bet on, I’m curious as to what the spread will be.

The NFL pre season always seems to favor the rumor mongers, especially on the topic of who will become starting quarterback for their respective team. Several teams have their starters locked in. Arron Rogers, Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, Kyler Murray and several others have strolled the sidelines while the second and third stringers battle it out for back up positions, while some teams have a definite quarterback battle brewing. I’m looking for Kenny Pickett of The Pittsburg Steelers To make a move upward, as soon as he has shown considerable poise and ability as a rookie. He may indeed be the player to fill Ben Rothlesburger’s shoes. Time will soon tell with that prediction. The regular season starts in two short weeks. For me, it can’t get here quick enough.

College Football has no pre season, although the release of individual “polls”, ranking the teams in order by either the coaches or sports writers opinion, begins the debates and rumors non the less. Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Georgia, Notre Dame all round out the top five. Not exactly a shocker. As usual, Alabama claims the top spot in just about every poll as the South Eastern Conference teams seem to dominate the top twenty poll positions. With just one week to go till the start of the college season look for the teams to start finalizing their starting positions. Many of the top teams start their respective season with a soft start, some not so much. Alabama opens the season against Utah State, Notre Dame goes up against Ohio State. Good luck to The Irish on that one.

In Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees appear to be having a complete meltdown after a very successful first half of the season. Thirty days after the all star break they are at 4 wins and 14 losses for the month. Ouch! It seems that a powerful lineup and a pitching rotation worth hundreds of millions of dollars does not a championship team make, maybe. Look for the Mets, The Dodgers, The Astros and Phillies to continue streaking towards the playoffs in September. It’s a long season and there’s still time left for teams to nave a move into the divisional leaders and wildcard spots but for many teams it’s time to sit back, regroup, fire a manager or two and think about next year.

I like to tell people that I think Covid has changed just about everything in our lives. The way we work, the way we travel, the economy, politics, entertainment, just about every facet of our lives has changed or been touched in some way.

One thing that the Covid era has left us in sports with is a new found appreciation for “Docu Series”. Docu Series are these made for TV programs that focus on certain teams and certain players. They’ll run for several night, in some cases over a couple weeks. The first I believe was The Last Dance. Remember that? It focused on the Chicago Bulls during their glory years and ran during the period when just about the entire world was on some sort of lockdown. Everyone was watching it. It was very popular. Of course, the only alternative at the time was South Korean Baseball on ESPN (yes I wachted that as well).

The thing is, Docu Series have literally taken on a life of their own. It’s like a trending entertainment medium now. Production companies, mostly streaming, are spitting them out like tennis balls. I believe we are on a third series about The Los Angeles Lakers (non of them very flattering), maybe one or two about Michael Jordan himself, Derrick Jeter (The Captain) The Championship New York Mets(they were still smoking in the dug outs) and so on. It could go on forever. I do however have to admit that reliving those moments in sports history was a well needed distraction. The Lakers vs. The Celtics, Koby and Shaq, all the amazing plays of Jeter, Bill Buckner and an easy ground ball(I’ll never forget where I was for that), they brought back a flood of memories.

Thinking on it, Docu Series might be one of the few good things that come out of the Covid era. The possibilities are endless. I vote they continue on!