Monday Morning Quarterback

Ah, February. The great sports void of the year. A time when faithful fans find themselves burnt out from the rigors and stresses of following their favorite team with a little too much passion and hope, a time when lesser sports fans rejoice that they don't have to hear about football on the local news every second they turn the television on, but most importantly it is a time when the national attention doesn't glare so strongly on a single sport, as it does in April, July, October, or January.

Indeed, February is a black hole in the galaxy that is American sports. Football is over. Baseball hasn't started. Most people don't care about college basketball until March. Nascar's season is too long to have any one central time of interest, even if you could find someone younger than 35 to admit they followed the sport. Golf is two months away from its first Major, and is missing it's meal ticket to boot. Hockey is on a 3 week break, and the NBA is stuck in a lag of being too far away from both the beginning of the season and the playoffs. Evidently, TNT got its first ratings win of the season from the NBA All Star game boost, but when you're the major channel for a professional sport and you haven't defeated the USA Network in a significant time slot for the first 7 weeks of the year, things might not be so glorious.

In the midst of this peril you might think the average male would be forced to debate an issue in their own life or society that doesn't revolve around who the most feared strong safety is, whether or not LeBron will play in New York, whether Jay-Z could make the Nets not terrible, is it possible for anyone to care about hockey, will there be a 5 peat, and if a certain crumpet stuffer will ever get his just dessert. Thus on a Sunday night, smack in the middle of primetime, one can turn on NBC (a supposedly reputable national network) to catch a glimpse of something that comes around as rarely as our presidential elections.

The Olympics.

So much to witness! The United States fighting to improbably win the most gold medals of any country, luge tracks and ski runs which shock with their speed and dangerousness, athletes who the media have chose to represent an entire country of competitors in a fit of soul patches and pseudo bad-ass names. So on a Sunday night, instead of grinding my teeth through the dredge that is American Dad, instead of watching whatever the hell comes on at 10pm on a Sunday, and certainly instead of laughable activities like reading or exercising, I flip over to the Peacock to find the best the world has to over battling for Olympic glory in:

Ice Dancing.

A reevaluation of my priorities might be necessary before I find myself clamoring for baseball.

I wonder if the CW covers equestrian competitions in March. It might be worth checking out.