A look back at everything, part 2

Yes, quite a year. Both personally and in the sports and media world.

Actually, looking at this past year of craziness in sports and the media, I see how its eerily similar to what unfolded in my own life.

For starters, college football. OK, nobody, but nobody, could have predicted such a bizarre and insane season. Sure the Michigan loss to Appalachian state was a precursor of things to come, but the thing is, it just kept happening, over and over again. Stanford beat USC. Stanford??? I believe the odds were 45 to 1 on that one. West Virginia didn't make the national championship because they lost to their last opponent - an unranked Pitt?? Illinois took out Wisconsin. LSU lost in 4 Overtimes. Oregon lost. So did ASU. Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, Florida, Boston College, etc. This of course set up a truly woeful Bowl schedule, and its even worse now that OSU lost their two best defensive backs. I'm sure Hawaii will put up a fight, NOT. It quite literally was the season of bombs, if not Nuclear bombs, in college football.

This sheer madness in college football bizarrely coincided the unfortunate events in in the economy, which resembled nuclear bombs as well, when the credit issues widened beyond measure in November and December. Nobody still has answer of where all the liquidity and financing will come from once this crisis bottoms out, given that it seems unlikely investors will buy sub-prime, wrapped bonds.

Coming back to me though, while this was playing out, sad events were unfolding at the same time in my own life, in part brought about by my own doing. Just like college football powerhouses underestimated their opponents, and banks engaged in predatory lending, both actions which came back to haunt their owners, so it is that I brought about a fare share of the difficulty I encountered this year. Not that either of these phenomenons are solely explained as being caused by the teams or banks alone - and that applies to me as well. Far from it, but oh if I had simply not started a few things or approached situations differently, I would have spared myself tremendous amounts of grief and stress. Still the concurrence of the events in my personal life, and the other two areas I mentioned above was rather strange, and something I didn't notice until I sat down to write my final post of this year. Strange times indeed.

Looking further back...the Yankees failed to get it done again in the first round of the playoffs. The fact that mosquitoes flooded the field during game 4 should have served as an ominous warning of things to come throughout the sports world, and also in my own personal life. Problems of Biblical proportions, seriously. I mean it appeared as though locusts were preventing the Yankees from winning against Cleveland.

And of course A-Hole, I mean A-Rod, decided to opt out of his contract during Game 4 of the World Series. Sorry, but his entire 60 Minutes interview was bull shit. He did the same contract stunt once before, with the Mariners, in pursuit of his first ridiculous contract. Why did he come back to the Yankees? Because no other team would pay him what Boras and he wanted once the Yankees backed out. I'm sure he was embarrassed, as he claimed, but he could care less playing with the Yankees or not, or winning in general. If he did care about winning, he would have stayed with Seattle, who went on to win 109 games the season after he left. The interview was all about damage control after it was exposed just how selfish he really is. Fine, greed and making money are undeniably part of America, but at least be open about it, and don't purport to be a team player dedicated to winning. Just be like Barry Bonds, which is one thing you can't fault that guy for. He chose instead to blame his agent, and make up some ridiculous story about how they are not talking. Then why is Boras receiving $15 million for such poor performance as an agent?

Other embarrassments = the New York knicks. Instead of settling for under $1 million, Dolan and Thomas decided to go to court. Apparently they wanted the public to see how dysfunctional the Knicks really are. Well, the public got their money's worth, once Stephon Marbury's extracurricular activities became known, which, by the way, involves interns in SUVs outside of Costcos in Queens. And how could we forget Isaiah Thomas's references to season ticket holders, which apparently the Knicks still have a few of.

Let's not forget the Mitchell Report, which simply implicated the players who cycled through New York because the entire report relied on the testimony of steroid-dealing Met's trainer (only the suck-ass Mets could fill that role). Nobody seems to care Mitchell is an active director of the Red Sox, which, as we say in banking, is a conflict of interest. In related news, Curt Schilling claims Clemens should give back his Cy Youngs, even though the entire report on clemens contains no actual evidence.

Then there was the bizzare Spy Gate scandal surrounding the Patriots. I love how the New York Jets were the ones to blow the whistle. How great is that? Perhaps that is because they knew how terrible they were going to be this year. And Tom Brady can tell the media how good the Patriots are until he is blue in the face, but that will never change the fact that the Patriots had someone studying defensive plays in a truck and tipping him off to what play was coming once it was signaled. When Britney Spears's sister (more on that below) announced she was pregnant, Tom Brady had to reassure fans he wasn't responsible. Ouch, too soon?

All kidding aside, I guess I experienced some embarrassment as well, in front of my family and friends, especially twice over this past year, and both times it could have been avoided if I had played my cards slightly differently. The words live and learn are an understatement here.

Turning to the media and entertainment world for a second, 2007 was the year of the celebutards. Britney Spears was outed as the crazy, and most likely meth-addled, pop tart we all knew her to be. I actually think K-Fed was lucky, for once, in getting away from that piece of work, though its a real shame he can't form two sentences back to back. Please don't forget her umbrella incident, where it appeared Uncle Festor was attacking an SUV while flailing an umbrella. Just when you think you can't make anything else up about the gas station traveling, fast food eating Britney, it comes out her 16 year old sister is pregnant??? WTF! Huh?

Paris Hilton yet again showed how useless she really is. Its a shame the media storm surrounding her stay in "prison" isn't the same for other issues, say Iraq or Aids in Africa. Not to sound completely self-righteous, but who cares if Paris goes to jail for like, what, her third DWI? Normal people like you or I would be in jail for at least 90 days, after the second offense. I still haven't figured out what other talents she has, beyond attracting media attention for clubbing and amateur film production.

What's even more surprising is how La Lohan only served 83 minutes in jail. She actually jumped in someone else's SUV, while under the influence of cocaine and alcohol, and chased down an assistant and her mom. Cops actually found cocaine on her as well. To think, I always liked Lohan more than the others too, because in addition to being very attractive, she appears to have some talent. Oh well...

The media still fails to report all of the positive progress taking place in Iraq. That's strange, because when there was bad news coming out of that mess every day, it was all anyone ever heard about. But now that the attacks and death toll are down, the media is surprisingly silent. What's even worse, is that the Bush administration doesn't even mention it. Obviously the GOP asked Bush to remain quiet, because he is a liability to the candidates, given his record. But I don't understand why nobody running, or nobody in the White House, has the balls to stand up and say, "See, things are beginning to work, and we should stay the course." A lot of people died, and even more went through hell to get where things are over there now, and not acknowledging their efforts and the progress made is criminal.

Other bizarre incidents include: Anna Nicole Smith dying, Jessica Simpson's appearance at the Dallas Cowboys game, that Prison Break star's ridiculous initial defense of his fatal DUI accident, Rosie vs. Trump, Hugo Chavez v. the King of Spain, the Television writer's strike, the genius but perplexing ending to the Sopranos, Lance Armstrong's dating activities with the Olsen twins???, Dog the Bounty Hunter stating he's always been Black, Eli Manning's 4 interception game against Minnesota's horrendous defense, and my I-Phone's bill...

2007 was also the year I rediscovered soccer, both watching the games and playing in leagues in New York City. I used to play in High School, and some in college, and one day when I was bored, I decided to start playing again. Now I can't get enough of it, and I often find myself playing three times a week when the weather permits, and getting up to watch games at 8 in the morning. If you haven't seen it, search YouTube for the Didi clip when a fan "attacks" the French keeper. The fact that UEFA suspended the goal keeper for that acting job says enough.

Finally, people always say they want to move on into the new year, and forget the past year. I don't. You can't forget the past, and even if you do, you certainly can't erase it. So I chose to remember it, and learn from the hard lessons I learned this year. I had a lot of positive things going for me this time last year, and I ended up losing more than I could have imagined. Still, no matter how painful things were, the knowledge gained is invaluable and something that I'd be forever guilty of forgetting and not applying. While I intend to never forget the past, I look forward to what lies ahead with the knowledge of all that I learned this past year. Despite how corny that sounds, it be true.

Two things that recently occurred gave me hope. The first comes from the world of sports, which this blog is of course primarily focused on. Two Sundays ago, Manchester United was tied with Everton 1-1, up until the 88th minute. They had to win, or they would fall 4 points behind Arsenal for the top of the Premier League table. The entire second half had been one unbelievable scoring opportunity after unbelievable saves by the Everton keeper and defenders. Suddenly, when a tie seemed inevitable, an Everton player committed a foul in the box against Man U. Truth be told, he committed the foul because he was exhausted, along with the rest of the Everton defense, from the relentless onslaught. It wasn't a weak foul, and the call was definitely warranted. I would hate for a game to hinge upon a questionable call, which this foul wasn't. As Ronaldo lined up, the stadium was deftly silent. The blast went in over a diving keeper, and Man U won and dramatic fashion. With only two minutes left, and the game seemingly destined for a tie, despite a full-out effort for 45 minutes, they came through when they were given such an unexpected chance.

Second, in the middle of writing this post, my buddy IMd me a YouTube clip that brought back a lot of memories. The below link is from the same creators of the "I'm the Juggernaut" clip, which hearkens back to very different times for me. This clip is relatively new, and just as funny as the original. The irony of looking back over the lessons of last year, and my friend sending me this clip, is far from lost on me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN3EnanKbhM

P.S. I'm Jose Canseco @&#$@!