Forgiving Rian Lindell, Finding Fun Balance Beam Mounts, and a Successful Phil Kessel: What I’m Thankful for This Thanksgiving

Don't worry, Rian Lindell - I'm still thankful for you.

This Thanksgiving day, I have a lot to be thankful for. In the spirit of many blogs today, I will now provide a laundry list of all the things – sports related, that is – that I am thankful for:

I am thankful that the Buffalo Bills are still in Buffalo.

I am thankful that Dick Jauron has resisted the urge to throw in JP Losman when Trent Edwards has gone through his growing pains.

Reluctantly, I am thankful for Rian Lindell, because for every 47 yarder to win the game he misses, he blasts 50 other field goals and extra points through the uprights. (And I still don’t understand why more people are not naming their sons Rian with an i.)

I am thankful for the Buffalo Sabres’ third jerseys, because they remind me of my childhood.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The air is crisp.  I broke out my vast collection of lightweight coats.  Everything is pumpkin or apple flavored or scented or both.  A new TV season starts (although, truth being told, I only watch three shows that aren’t sports related.)  Those things alone makes late September wonderful…but then, let’s add:

• the start of football season
• the pennant race
• NHL and AHL training camps
• and, most importantly, the countdown to college hockey season. (T minus 8 days, if you are a Boston University men’s hockey fan, and if you follow the women’s team, 2 days.)

Those aspects alone make this time of year one of my favorites.  It’s all sports, all the time.  I can’t complain.

In addition to these general reasons why late September is wonderful, here are four things making this week better than most:

Gus Frerotte’s Continued Career as an NFL Quarterback Makes Me Feel Young

It's GusGus (and I don't mean the mouse from Disney's Cinderella.)

Oh, the quarterback woes of…well, half the teams of the NFL.  The latest team to play quarterback musical chairs is my dad’s childhood fave Minnesota Vikings, who today benched Tarvaris “I Can’t Seem To Make a Name For Myself, and Will Probably Continue to Follow the Unsuccessful Career Path of Daunte Culpepper” Jackson for Gus Frerotte.

As much as I think this move by Brad Childress is questionable (the Vikings weren’t the worst team in the NFL last week, they just came out on the losing end of a bad call on a Joseph Addai touchdown), I welcome the continuation of Freotte’s career because it makes me feel young.  Frerotte has been an NFL quarterback since I was 12 years old.  I am now in my mid-late twenties.  It always makes me feel better about my age when a quarterback from my formative football watching years is still active on a NFL roster, and there is a fair share of them – Frerotte, Brett Favre, Mark Brunell, Brad Johnson, Trent Green, Todd Collins…heck, half of me expects Rick Mirer to still be on the Oakland Raiders roster somewhere!  (You’re telling me a thirty-eight year old Mirer wouldn’t be an improvement over JaMarcus Russell?)

Oh, Canada!

I have a new favorite member of the Boston Red Sox. After the Kappy-Kap (the nickname for Gabe Kapler that one of my students created four years ago) left, I had no favorites. No one could replace the Kappy-Kap with the Sox. No one was that awesome, hot, and as good of a clubhouse leader.

That is, until this afternoon, when Manny Ramirez was involved in a three-way trade for everyone’s favorite Canadian baseball player.

Jason Bay, welcome to the Red Sox. I finally have another hottie outfielder to drool over. And, did I mention that he’s CANADIAN?!

Obviously, Massachusetts Schools Neglect to Teach Geography of Areas outside of New England (or No, Western New Yorkers are not Yankees Fans.)

MEMORANDUM

TO: The Collective Population of New England (especially the Citizens of Massachusetts)

FROM: A Disgruntled Western New Yorker Turned Bostonian

RE: Geography of New York State and the Sports Fandom it Dictates

DATE: November 2, 2007

 

I feel it prudent at this time to provide you with a refresher geography lesson of New York State (or for those of you who did not pay attention in social studies, a first lesson.) This lesson was spurred on by the absolutely drunk (and I believe underage) Bruins fan and native New Englander who sat in front of me during Thursday evening’s Bruins-Sabres game. This fan proceeded to taunt all the Sabres fans (of which there were many, including myself) by telling us that the “Yankees suck,” and that A-Rod does several unrepeatable acts of a sexual nature. He then decided to mention that “Look, who won the World Series this year – the Red Sox, not your stupid (insert-bad-word-here) Yankees.”