WTF DAY

I love football… I hate football… The greatest thing about the NFL is that it can make waking up for work on Monday’s tolerable. I’m not talking about the stupid ESPN Monday Night Football commercials I’m talking about the sheer satisfaction of waking up and heading to work after your favorite team wins a game. On your drive to work you listen to the radio and recap your triumphant weekend. Once arriving at work you go over your well thought out statistical analysis of the game with your co-workers and on a good Monday you also get the opportunity to land some well placed jokes on some opposing fans that had the misfortune of losing. Simply put work and life itself just seem better after a Sunday victory.

Now on the flip side when your team loses to the Oakland Raiders your life is pretty much one massive bag of crap until at least late Thursday. Unless you’re a gluten for punishment, (I am) you can go ahead and forget listening to sports talk radio and reading the newspaper for the next few days. All you can really do is think to yourself how can I continually put all my faith into something that inevitably will let me down. I would liken these circumstances with any teen drama. Being a fan of the Eagles is like being the head cheerleader’s best friend. Your the one whose put in years and years of loyalty but when its time for the big victory or in this metaphor the prom (still zero super bowls) there’s always that new guy in school (i.e. Losing to the Cardinals in the NFC Championship game) with the mysterious past that steals your thunder.

I honestly think the work place should build in two WTF happened to my football team days into my calendar year. Instead of giving me 3 personal days I think I’d rather have 1 personal day and 2 WTF happened to my football teams days. I’d be this simple people.

Me: I’m not going to be coming in to work today

Work: Is everything okay?

Me: Well Andy Reid only called 16 running plays yesterday, but other then that I’m just super.

Work: Alright I’ll put you down for a WTF day.

What’s the solution though? There really isn’t any solution. I’ve told myself about 150 times over the last few years that I’m done with this team. I’m just going to watch the games but not get emotionally involved. If you’re a true football fan that’s simply impossible, if your not emotionally invested your not a fan. To quote Jon Favreau from Swingers, “That’s the rub”. Come next Monday I’m going to tell myself all day that I expect the Eagles to lose to the Redskins but come around 7:45 the juices are going to start flowing and I’m going to put my jersey on a live and die with every play. If we lose I’m going to contemplate burning every article of Eagle memorabilia I own and if we win I’m going to check my calendar and see if it’s conceivable to fly down to Miami for the Super Bowl. It’s a sickness people.

Now in an effort to think about anything other then football I’m going to start my NBA preview. The plan is to do one division a day and then wrap it up with one giant Knick preview. Today I’ll start with the Northwest division.

In predicted order of finish

Portland Trailblazers: There isn’t a deeper team in the league then the Blazers. Portland can run 10 capable bodies at you each and every night. Their biggest issue may be finding playing time for all these players. I love Andre Miller and he is the perfect point guard for this team. He’ll take pressure off Brandon Roy and turn them into a better fast break team from day one. If Greg Oden (averaging 14 and 10 during the preseason) can develop into a force down low the sky is the limit for this talented club.

Player to watch: Brandon Roy is a top 10 player in the league right now. He doesn’t get the attention he deserves but he’s a special player that makes others around him better.

Denver Nuggets: Trading Iverson for Billups was a stroke of genius last season. It turned the Nuggets from a circus act into a legit contender. Carmelo Anthony is no longer just a great scorer. He now plays an all around game. I expect the Nuggets to be good but take a step back from last season. There’s no way both Kenyon Martin and Nene give you full seasons.

Player to watch: Chris Anderson is an absolute nut job but he’s great to watch.

Oklahoma City Thunder: First and foremost the nickname Thunder (one of the few sport nicknames that aren’t plural.. Name the rest) is by far the worst nickname in professional sports. Every team I see them play I automatically think of NBA Live 95 when the two created team options were dunkers and bombers. Thunder is pretty much on par with dunkers and bombers on the creativity scale. All that said the Thunder are a trendy playoff pick this year. I tend to stay awful from teams that everyone thinks are on the rise but the Thunder have tons of young talent. It’s not at all far fetched to think Kevin Durant will lead the league in scoring, he’s that good. At 6’10 he’s one of the toughest covers in the league. A nucleus of Durant, Greene, Harden, and Westbrook has a few long playoff runs in them.

Player to watch: Russell Westbrook
Think Rajon Rondo with a serviceable jump shot.

Utah Jazz: I’m going to keep this short and sweet. The Jazz are always solid. The end

Player to watch: Deron Williams is always going to live in the shadow of Chris Paul but come summer 2011 Deron Williams would be one nice consolation prize if we can’t get Chris Paul.

Minnesota T’Wolves: They drafted Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn then proceeded to sign Ramon Sessions and trade for Antonio Daniels. I’m more then a little confused.

Player to watch: Al Jefferson is a beast. Once he gets out of Minnesota the league will take notice.

If anyone cares the Knicks won two games this weekend but continued to look borderline awful.