Here We Go Again...

So this is it. I had to abandon the old site as it lacked focus and direction. Its name didn’t exactly match the contents of the blog. Why have a site called “Hating Kobe Bryant” yet only bring his name up once or twice in three months of posting? It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now that I think about it, its like titling a book, “Love is Forever” and then ultimately writing about people massacring each other. Okay, so maybe it’s not really like that, but I like the analogy anyways. Back to the point, when I decided to create a new blog I wanted it to have a name that better represented its material. So is the writing going to be mediocre? Well, I’d like to think it won’t be but that’s for you to decide. In reality the title of the blog reflects the state of sports in general. Mediocrity seems to be widely accepted in sports these days. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it is embraced. Every NFL team thinks it has a chance to be this year’s St. Louis Rams, New Orleans Saints, or Chicago Bears, therefore most front offices don’t see the need to take a gamble. After all, it’s better to do nothing and finish 8-8 (i.e. not finish with a losing record) than go for broke and come up short. In the NBA there are the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, and everyone else. Rashard Lewis was just given a max contract by the Orlando Magic for averaging 20 points on a team that couldn’t even crack the 40 win mark last year. In today’s NBA 20 point scorers are a dime a dozen. Sure, Lewis will help the Magic win a few more games, maybe they’ll even advance a round or two in the playoffs one day. But the cap space they had been saving for 5 years is now non-existent—spent on a second tier player who they bid against themselves to get. Brilliant. Look, in the NBA you should either be building a core group of young guys to contend in a few years or you should be a team with a legitimate shot to win a championship, or are maybe one piece away (Boston went from one category to the other…interesting summer for them). Anything else and you are wasting time. All these idiotic teams who are content to finish 7th or 8th in the conference every year only to get bounced in the first round of the playoffs and then end up with a draft pick in the low teens need to get their act together. The incompetence in sports in general can be infuriating at times. I long for the days of greatness. When there were rivalries and hatred that caused teams and players to rise to the challenge. Not for money, or the fans, but for pride. But now, in this politically correct world run by guaranteed contracts and driven by advertising dollars, its better to be in the middle of the pack and go unnoticed than to be noticed at all. The end result? The players, the fans, and sports in general…we are all Mired in Mediocrity.

I’ll link to the older site at the bottom of this post, but for now just know that it’s good to have a fresh start. So how will this site be any different than before? Well for starters I’m going to try and adhere to a semi-regular schedule. I’ll also try and throw in more entertaining posts, similar to the “This is Sportscenter” post from the previous blog. Finally, at least in the beginning, this site will be directly tied into the precious few readers of this blog. Should my readership ever expand, well its likely these early posts will still be fairly entertaining. Anyways, here is the potential schedule:

Monday: I plan to have a running segment updating how the fantasy season is going. I’ll be analyzing the upsets, big games, and let downs that will undoubtedly occur during the season. I’ll also highlight any potential match ups in Monday Night Football that may swing a fantasy game either way. I did this type of analysis with some mixed success for last year’s pick ‘em league and will try and implement the lessons learned to this year’s posts.

Thursday: There will be a “this week in sports” segment for all of you non-sports junkies out there. I’ll do my best to compile a series of links to articles and clips about any big games, upsets, milestones, or outlandish moments that occurred in the past week of sports. I know Thursday is kind of an odd day for this, but I’ve got a full load of classes on Wednesday and Thursday so this will be all I have time for.

Saturday: This will be the miscellaneous post day. Random thoughts, a preview of the upcoming fantasy match ups, a discussion of the actual games being played on Sunday and a word or two about the college football season as well.

I hope to have some guest posters from time to time, and hopefully a return of Bestever, but we’ll see how it plays out. Most of the posts will be pretty football intensive but I’ll keep the material as light as possible. I’ll be back on Monday for a recap of the draft.

Thanks for reading.


Hating Kobe Bryant Blog