It's about to be August and there is a strange mist in the air again. That is because football season is right around the corner and I could not be less excited for the NFL while also not being able to be more excited for college football at the same time. Why the difference you ask? My answer is this guy...
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| All hail the hypnocommish! |
Nobody (not even Bud Selig) has taken my love for a sport and completely destroyed it in the fashion this bumbling buffoon has and I know that I am not alone in that sentiment. The NFL is a complete joke with their random punishments and demands to lead in sports headlines on a day-to-day basis. The product on the field has only gotten marginally worse with refereeing at an all-time low and yet, we're all just going to be a bunch of audience members at a hypnotist's show and have fun watching the whole damn season anyway.
Moving on, I can only vent so much about the major football league and my formerly favorite sport so much and I feel like it's time to dig a little bit deeper into some other sports that have caught my eye in the past month.
MLB
It's Deadline time and Cole Hamels, Scott Kazmir, Brandon Moss, Troy Tulowitzki and many more have already been dealt before the actual date of the deadline (July 31st). The on-the-field product is as good as it has been since the steroid-era (let's think 2003-ish) and local markets are thriving. The one thing that I have noticed is that there is a near no-hitter that everyone is sure to take notice of after six innings EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. I think I finally realize what sportscasters were talking about whenever they used to say no-hitters are losing their lore (although really it's like 1% of my fascination with no-hitters is gone, they're still really cool to witness and should be noteworthy forever). Baseball should be feeling pretty good about themselves right now and with an exciting playoff run where the Royals, Astros, both LA teams, Nationals, Mets, Cardinals, Pirates, Giants and Yankees are all in the hunt, this is turning into their best season in a long time.
Tennis
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Getty Images
Tennis?! Yes, Tennis. |
Tennis only recently grabbed my attention when I accidentally woke up early on a day off and saw that Wimbledon was just starting and I thought "I'll give this a try". I was not truly hooked onto what I was watching until I saw Serena Williams almost lose in the third round of the epic tournament of 128 to some woman named Heather Watson (I'm not an expert) and it was thrilling to witness. I stuck with Wimbledon throughout the rest of the tournament (I also watched some of the men's side) and got to see Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic win their respective titles. Looking through Serena's past wins and watching her play occasionally in the past, I have to one conclusion. Serena Williams is the greatest athlete in American history. There is no doubt in my mind on this scalding hot take.
Golf
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Getty Images
Zach Johnson won the three-golfer playoff against Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman at the British Open. |
Growing up with golf on television every few Sundays out of the year was a very weird form of torture that I thought my father used to get information out of me or something (I don't know, I was six.). Now that I'm out of my teens and have high-definition, I get it. Golf is really un-watchable for me (still) unless it's in high definition and there aren't many more relaxing yet semi-exiting things to do on a rainy weekend afternoon than watch some of the most beautiful (or ugliest 2015 U.S. Open course) golf courses being played by the most polarizing golfers in the world. Golf is in a fantastic position right now because even though Tiger Woods late-thirties run has been a colossal disappointment that ESPN likes to focus way too much time on, the younger golfers are playing better than they have historically. Jordan Speith is pretty fascinating because we still don't know THAT much about him other than he's one of the most clutch 21-year olds in the world. I would love to see him get to around 10 majors at least and root for him in the future as we try to bury the Tiger Woods timeline in the past where it, at this point, belongs.
NBA
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Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Lebron James on a banana boat.
This photo is the best summary of the NBA off-season and what players are doing during it. |
The NBA is such a cool league to follow in the off-season. A bunch of trades happen during the draft, all free agency moves take place over a week, no sport is more social media-friendly, there's always some NBA player playing basketball whether it be on the street or in FIBA/Pan-Am/Olympic games and Lebron is in a nationwide hit comedy (Trainwreck) while rumors of Space Jam 2 float about. The NBA is pretty chill right now and doesn't need to command headlines on a day-to-day basis. Other sports should take note of how the NBA conducts it's business and aim to be as good as this league is right now.
But, football season is afoot and outside of the MLB postseason in October and the NBA preview in October, it looks like football will be the dominant topic from here on out through the rest of 2015. God help us all.
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