The Sports Conundrum

                                    The Sports Conundrum

       Here it is--just past mid-January and I am a tired sports fan.

       I have just watched 8 NFL playoff games, some of them with tremendous finishes that defy description (See Seattle-Minnesota, Pittsburgh-Cincinnati and Green Bay-Arizona).

       This is the midst of the college basketball season. Conference games abound. They are available on ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN News, BTN, FS 1 & 2 and sometimes on YES and SNY in a seemingly non-stop merry-go-round of compelling (and not so compelling) match ups. Plus there are a slew of women's games telecast notwithstanding UConn's seemingly unending dominance of its sport. I am even compelled on occasion to watch my alma mater, Franklin and Marshall play, telecast on the computer.

       Moreover, there is the NBA in full swing. There is the march of the Golden State Warriors to try and unseat the Chicago Bulls as the winningest regular season team. Add in the Cleveland Cavaliers with Le Bron James and the San Antonio Spurs playing exceptional ball under the radar from the Warriors. Plus checking out the locals--the improved and playoff hopeful Knicks and the woeful Nets. That's another full slate.

       So, too is the NHL in the midst of its season. The three local teams--the Rangers, Islanders and Devils are all making heavy playoff pushes.

       All of this comes after the exhausting bowl season has ended and the college football championship was decided in robust fashion, anointing Nick Saban and his Alabama Crimson Tide (again). And the New Year's Day NHL Stadium Series with Original Six rivals Montreal and Boston meeting before a sellout crowd in the New England Patriots home in Foxborough,,MA. And on the heels of the conclusion of the NFL regular season which saw my New York Jets lose to the Buffalo Bills coached by their former leader, Rex Ryan on the final Sunday of the season in early January.

      Which has led to a carousel of changes in head coaches, including the New York Giants removing Tom Coughlin and replacing him with offensive coordinator Ben Mc Adoo while Coughlin engaged the Philadelphia Eagles in talks to become their head coach, an opening created when the Eagles fired Chip Kelly who resurfaced as the new head in San Francisco with the 49'ers. And Rutgers football has a new man at the top--Chris Ash, the former defensive coordinator at national powerhouse Ohio State--whose machinations are chronicled locally on the sports pages.

       Not to be denied, baseball, while in its off season and about a month away from the start of spring training in Florida and Arizona, has grabbed headlines with the Hall of Fame announcements and free agent and arbitration signings.

      It does not get any better as the NHL, NBA and college basketball seasons come to their ends with playoffs, tournaments and March Madness to crown an NCAA champion. Only to have baseball join in with its start of the 162 game slate televised in its entirety locally and with a whole lot of ESPN, TBS and FOX/FS telecasts. The NFL will have its draft and then signings, trades and free agency.

      Oh, did I forget that the Australian Open has started for men's and women's tennis, with a short hiatus in Grand Slam events until the French Open in May?

      Mercifully, I only have a partial season ticket to Rutgers men's basketball and I attend a hockey game or two in Newark (although I am doing a bucket list trip to see the Devils play the Maple Leafs in Toronto) and I go once or twice to see the Yankees on Senior Citizen days when the prices are vastly reduced. I do add to the stress by my obsession to see a game in every MLB locale and that I do have Jets season tickets of which I get to usually 2 games a year. Could I help it that I am curiously going to see top ten-ranked Rutgers wrestle against Michigan? Or drive to Piscataway to see RU play Big Ten baseball in the spring sitting in my lawn chair beyond the outfield fence? Factor in my slavish devotion on a daily basis to ESPN's Pardon The Interruption and savants Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon formerly of the Washington Post  sports pages.

       Lest we forget the PGA and the Masters in April and the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing commences in May. It is also an Olympic year.

      Which is why, in the end, a good book, a fun movie, an enjoyable TV series or three, a fine dinner or even cleaning the house and many a nap is a necessary respite from the TV sports carnage we are exposed to.

      Just think if I had any interest in boxing, bowling, Alpine and Nordic sports, the MMA or WWE or the Kardashians...