I was sitting on my beer-drenched couch in the bowels of Henle last Saturday, watching the Hoyas dismantle Boston College, and then it hit me like a Brett Favre spiral across the middle: it’s great to be a college sophomore in America on a day like today. Sitting on the couch on a mild January weekend, with a cheesesteak on the way and 10 hours of uninterrupted sports coverage on tap is just an affirmation of everything right and true in the American spirit. My college’s team was beating the defending Big East Champs by 25 points on national TV, and it was only the tipoff to a great day of compulsive, catatonic sports viewing.
However, I am digressing from the real point, and that is that days like the past Saturday only come around every few months or so at best. It had it all?college basketball, the start of the NFL Wild Card Weekend, Lindros coming back to Philly with the Rangers and, as it turned out, wild and crazy times in the NBA that very night.
The Hoyas’ win will be amply discussed elsewhere, but I will say one thing: thank God! I am not a religious man by nature, but I have a theory that the win over BC was divinely inspired. A loss could have done to the season what a connecting right hook by Shaq would have done to Brad Miller’s face. But we won, and as a Vegas gambler might say after being floated a loan by his mom, “We’re back in business!”
Lindros and the Rangers eventually lost to the Flyers, and I was inconsolable for about 10 seconds, before I realized that in addition to not being a religious man by nature, I am not a hockey fan by nature either. Great sport, great action, just haven’t gotten used to that invisible puck and only knowing that something big goes down when the players raise their hands and stick above their heads.
Moving on, it was time for the NFL Playoffs to kick off, and the first game of the day was the Wild Card showdown between Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. As expected, the Eagles won big, and it wasn’t because of Donovan McNabb and their stifling defense. Rather, it was the opposing QB, ex-Redskin Brad Johnson, who lost the game even before it started. Having consistently watched Johnson play last season for the ‘Skins, I have come to the conclusion that he cannot make a big play to save his life.
The analysts can say whatever they want about him being one of the most “accurate passers in NFL history, blah, blah, blah. That’s just analyst talk, kind of like Dookie Vitale saying that Duke could beat the Chicago Bulls or that Jason Williams is one of the best point guards in the country, NBA included. Has Vitale not heard of Kenny Anderson, Chauncey Billups or Brevin Knight? He gets paid for the all the hyped-up drivel that comes out of his mouth?
Saturday continued with Kansas losing to an inspired UCLA team in La-La Land. I didn’t really care which team won, until I remembered that a UCLA win would probably put Duke back as No. 1, and so I transformed into a Jayhawk fan for a half. However, just like a true Jayhawk fan, I was disappointed at the end. I can see Kansas losing in the second round of the tourney to some no-name college in a “huge upset.” It happens every year, Kansas pulls a Chernobyl and has a major meltdown at the most inopportune time. You heard it here first.
Just when you thought the day was over, Sports Center came on in the middle of a kegger I was at, with pictures of Shaq throwing a roundhouse at the head of Brad Miller, and then Charles Oakley jumping on top of him. Just a tremendous culmination to a great day in sports. The Chicago Bulls bringing the old Pistons Bad Boy ethos back to the NBA? What are they gonna tell me next, Brad Johnson made a big play?
