Vytas Mazeika Can you tell Mazeika lives
on an island by himself? E-mail him the name of a good psychiatrist
at [email protected].
I never thought I would say this, but there is something called
football overkill.
I like the idea of an offseason, a time when we the fans get to
relax so that our effervescent love of football can be rejuvenated
when September rolls around.
I want time off, a vacation from football when I can concentrate
on MLB, not to mention the NHL and NBA playoffs. But Paul
Tagliabue’s NFL and Vince McMahon’s XFL have screwed
that up for me.
From the end of January to the end of April there’s
supposed to be almost three months that go by with little mention
of football.
That hasn’t been the case since the St. Louis Rams won the
Super Bowl in 2000, with the whole Ray Lewis and Rae Carruth
fiascos.
With almost daily updates, I was reminded of Lewis’
involvement with a pair of murders and Carruth’s plot to kill
his girlfriend, who was to be the mother of his child. Then, before
the media was done abusing those two stories, the entry draft took
a lot of the headlines in late April with free agency ready to rear
its ugly head in June and July.
With an inordinate number of players switching teams on nearly a
daily basis, the NFL teams resemble revolving doors of mercenaries
rather than the stable franchises of the 1980s. Mini-camps and
preseason show up around August and the NFL season starts in
September.
Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl in 2001 and I
hoped that I could finally take my first vacation from football in
well over a year.
But McMahon got the bright idea to team up with a bitter NBC
network and fed me that crap they called the XFL.
Instead of providing entertainment, it just showcased bad
football. I admit to having watched part of some XFL games, but
simply because I’m the kind of person who can’t look
away from a horrible crash on the side of the freeway.
I enjoy carnage and it was humorous to see NBC push Jesse
Ventura into our living rooms because they were upset CBS took the
AFC television rights away from them.
In hindsight, I now realize that my unhealthy obsession with
football is the cause for my complaints. But our society likes
scapegoats, and I’d like to reassure myself by saying that it
was the XFL, and not my distorted mind, which took away that time
from the end of January to the end of April that I cherished so
much as my football offseason. By the time the draft came around in
late April, I felt as if football had lingered on, as if the NFL
season had just recently ended and I didn’t get my
much-deserved vacation.
Needless to say I was ecstatic when McMahon announced the
XFL’s disbandment.
My last hope for an offseason was to cling to May. After all,
free agency didn’t start for more than a month, the draft had
already been completed, MLB was reaching its groove and the NHL and
NBA playoffs had kicked into fifth gear.
So, of course, I picked up a copy of the L.A. Times this week
and saw a couple of NFL-related stories. And to drive it home,
Wednesday’s Daily Bruin ran a couple of wire stories from the
Associated Press about those very same articles.
Al Davis and his Oakland Raiders lost their $1.2 billion lawsuit
claiming control of the Los Angeles market. The claim is ludicrous
and should’ve been dismissed from the very beginning, which
would have provided me with some much-needed offseason time.
Not that a judge dismissing Davis’ case would’ve
done me any good, because as soon as the jury came back with the
decision, the NFL announced its plans for realignment.
Could someone please explain to me why owners felt the need to
burden someone like me with realignment in May? Couldn’t they
do this in October, when these pressing matters are most relevant?
Why do owners’ meetings even have to take place in the
spring?
Now free agency is around the corner and preseason is on the
horizon. I’ll have to wait until February 2002 for my
vacation, although I’m sure the NFL will find a way to
capture the headlines then, too.
I’m telling you, it’s one big conspiracy to keep me
from enjoying a nice, quiet and relaxing football offseason.