Talking NFL

Quick calendar note – today is Valentine’s Day! Hopefully, you planned ahead & got that special lady of yours some flowers and a reservation at a nice restaurant. If not, well, you’re screwed. The good news? Those flowers will be 1/2 off tomorrow, and the restaurants empty, so you can make it up to her on the cheap! Make no mistake, you still won’t get any, but at least you’ll be saving some serious bank…

Interesting side note: my girlfriend took a glance at P.T.F.S.D. Part 1 and mentioned that she had used that same acronym with me many times. Still, like a typical guy, I will not ‘Put The F^&*ing Seat Down!”

Thank you, thank you…I’ll be here all off-season. Hey, speaking of which – I owe you guys Part 2 of my ‘what do I do with myself without football’ article! (Click here for Part 1) Of course, one option is to pull a Costanza and treat your body like it’s an amusement park, but in case that gets a bit ‘rough’, here’s Steps 4, 5 and 6:

Step 4: Volunteer for a Cause You Believe In

OK, I’m going off-topic for Step 4, and yes, I’m going to get a bit socially conscious on you as well. If you want to skip ahead to Step 5, you go right ahead. It doesn’t make you a bad person. Really. Just someone who doesn’t give a crap. Anyways…

One of the big debates going on back in my home state of Massachusetts is the proposed Nantucket Sound Wind Farm that is being planned by Cape Wind. If green lighted, the 130 off shore windmills would provide Cape Cod with over 75% of its energy needs through a clean and renewable energy source. It would also be the first off-shore wind farm for the entire United States, which would be nice for us to join the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Denmark, that are a bit ahead of us on the curve. (Denmark’s wind generation provides about 25-30% of total electricity demand in the country, with many offshore windfarms.)

Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of opposition to the wind farm. Most opponents have brought up arguments about the effect on ship navigation, marine life, and birds (there’s one woman in particular who’s appointed herself the official spokeswoman for the birds - it’s like she’s the Bizarro world version of the Lorax). All of these points, by the way, have been counter-argued successfully by Cape Wind. Their newest argument du jour is the fear that wind turbines mind mess with military radar (no proof, mind you; they’re just worried that Iran or the Taliban might be able to lob a nuke through Buzzard’s Bay without us seeing it through those turbines). Spare me, please…

What this debate really comes down to for those against it, is a case of NIMBYism, pure and simple. Some narrow minded and overweight politicians, for example, don’t want to ruin the view from their multi-million dollar compounds:

Well, this past fall I was fired up enough about the whole thing to contact Cape Wind directly and ask them how I could get involved. Sure enough, there was a Transition Team meeting for new governor Patrick Duval being held in Barnstable, where I could speak my peace & try to influence the new government. I’d never been to a meeting like that before, and was impressed by the turnout – it was standing room only. Anyways, I said my thing, met some of the folks over at both Cape Wind and Clean Power Now, and it felt great. Gave me a big old warm fuzzy.

Anyways, point being – you’ve got some time now; try doing the volunteer thing or the socially conscious thing. It’ll make you feel all special and stuff inside. (That’s right – I’m a bit of a tree-hugger. Deal with it.)

OK, for those of you waiting for NFL talk to resume, here’s where you can jump back in.

Step 5: The NFL Network

I think it was right about 2 years ago that I stumbled across Channel 265 on Comcast to find the glory that is “The NFL Network”. You probably know it by great ads like this:

What I remember most about finding the channel that I was watching with my girlfriend and they ran a promo ad outlining all the off-season topics they were going to cover. They finished with the tag line, “The NFL Network, Where Football Season Never Ends!”

After that, I was laughing hysterically while my girlfriend had her head buried in her hands.

Guys, if you haven’t found this channel yet, do it now. If you don’t have it, pony up the extra moola and subscribe now. If you’re one of those few, unfortunate Adelphia or Cablevision subscribers that can’t get it yet, call both your cable provider and the NFL Network everyday and complain until they figure out a deal. Then watch the magic. There’s so much good stuff here that I could devote a whole week to it, but it would ruin the surprise. I want you to have the same experience I did when I found all the features that you could dial up through the ‘On Demand’ menu. I may have shed a tear of joy – I can’t remember…

Step 6: Talking NFL

The last & most important step? Keep it right here, baby! (Duh. What did you think Step 6 was going to be – affirmation?)

Seriously, like the NFL Network said – what off-season? There is no off-season! There’s stuff going on all the time; just within the last week, we’ve had a surprise coaching hire in Dallas, the stunning dismissal of Marty in San Diego, Andy Reid has announced he’s taking a leave of absence, the Giants new GM Jerry Reese has started house cleaning, and those are just the major headlines!

And take a look at the following key off-season dates just around the corner:

February 21: NFL Combine
February 22: Deadline for designation of Franchise/Transition players
March 2: Free Agency
April 28-29: NFL Draft
June 1: Detroit Lions mathematically eliminated from 2007 Playoffs

Honestly, it’s almost too much for one guy to keep track off. Fortunately, I’m up to the task, and have a small army of interns hitting the internet, filling me with coffee, and scheduling me for seven months of regimented, strategically planned, hard-core blogging. (Actually it’s just me with a bunch of goofy ideas in my head, but I’m ready, baby!)

So to surmise: take a deep breath, paint a picture, watch some spring training games, plant a tree, watch the NFL Network, and subscribe to Talking NFL. It’ll be September before you know it!