A Slow Weekend

It was a some what slow weekend for VFLOAB for various reasons that we don’t care to go into right now. The first weekend with no college football is always a bit depressing and the NFL is so bad right now that watching a good game is almost impossible. The four games that VFLOAB had yesterday: Colts/Jags – it was over by half time, Ravens/Broncos – we didn’t even bother tuning in for more than two minutes at a time, ‘Skins/Cards – the second half was pretty good at least, but come on when you’re watching a team that can't gain one yard on a consistent basis (like the Cards) it’s not good football, Packers/Lions – This game was brutal, sure it was close and it looked good on TV (loved the unis for both teams for some reason), but what a bad game. The fact is, the NFL just isn’t that good right now. Sure the Colts are amazing to watch, but besides that VFLOAB watched seven teams that just aren’t that good… are the Broncos better than they looked? I hope so. But jeeze, this is now the third bad NFL season in the last four years (VFLOAB did enjoy last year for some reason).

Will this ever hurt the NFL? If it wasn’t for fantasy football, we’d say yes. But fantasy football has so changed the way we view and watch the NFL that it’s a different league. Fantasy has changed the way we view form cheering for a team to cheering for individuals… it’s a bizarre line that needs to be followed closely over the next few years.

As voters go to the polls this week in Iraq to vote for a government, it will be interesting to watch what happens in the next few days. Though the news of mistreatment continues to get worse, these elections are important and I think everyone is rooting for a peaceful and painless process. But what authority the government will have remains to be seen.

As for the rest of the world/weekend… we need to find some inspiration right now. We’d love to get into the NBA more, but it’s been difficult thus far this season. The happenings in the UK just don’t catch our eye (good for the Torries… Man U doesn’t have it this year… go Watford!).

The thing is, it’s been a slow December where the happenings in baseball, NCAA, and NFL are the most interesting things going on. For various reasons I think everyone in this nation has become numb to Iraq: either trying to forget it or realizing that we can’t go back and changed what has happened. But to be honest, we could use a slow month. It’s been to busy and tragic of a year as it is.

Finally, VFLOAB read Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs, and Coco Puffs a few months ago suspiciously at first, but ended up enjoying the collection of essays. While we don’t consider ourselves fans, Klosterman is still worth checking out especially now that he’s writing for ESPN.com. He made an interesting observation about failure defining us as humans… and while I don’t completely agree, here was a spot on observation from Klosterman:

By erasing his greatest failure, Elway has actually lost his definition. The same thing happened to the entire Boston Red Sox organization: Ten minutes after the 2004 World Series, that franchise was no longer captivating, and all their long-suffering fans immediately became lost, boring and strangely self-absorbed. Today, being a Red Sox fan is almost meaningless.

And it’s so true. Red Sox fans lost their innocence by winning. The nation no longer cares, in face much of the nation has turned against them. And they don't know why... and it's starting to bother them.