So March Madness is past, and now we are into the NBA Playoffs. I find those terribly resistible.
I love watching sports, yet the NBA Playoffs just leave me cold. I imagine I will only watch scores and be mildly aware of how each series is going until (about 6 months from now) we finally work our way around to the Conference Championships. Even then, though, I will only be able to muster up interest if there are teams remaining that I love or that I hate.
It is unlikely that I will be watching teams I love, since there are only two of those, and neither is in the playoffs. Teams I hate, on the other hand, is a rather larger pool. Chances are good there.
Still, the fact is that I find myself just as interested in the nascent baseball season as I do the climax of the NBA’s.
Through it all, of course, what is most important to me is the NFL. And the league, even amidst its disheartening labor problems, still is providing us something to watch: the unveiling of the 2011 schedule and then the 2011 NFL Draft!
If you haven’t seen it, you’ve got to click on and watch the NFL Draft commercial that is airing these days. It’s brief, but very gratifying for a Packers’ fan! (Also, we must admit that it is a kind of tacit endorsement of Ted Thompson. He is never mentioned, but these 16 seconds and the Lombardi Trophy surely serve to vindicate him.)
Meanwhile, ESPN2 devoted a hunk of evening programming to the revealing of the 2011 Regular Season Schedule. It didn’t deserve as much time as they gave it, and in some respects it served as a long and continuing promo for ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Still, by virtue of being defending Super Bowl Champs, they gave prominent attention to the Packers’ schedule, and that was good viewing, indeed!
Here is the Packers' schedule. Most noteworthy is the 4 prime time appearances, the perfect timing of the bye (Week 8), and the nice end-of-season stretch as 3 of our final 4 games are at home. The strength of schedule calculation says that Green Bay has the 13th toughest schedule. By contrast, the Bears are 18th, the Vikings are 12th, and the Lions are 4th. Ouch!
A more detailed analysis of Green Bay’s schedule is found here. And we’ll give it more attention in this space, too, in the days ahead.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment