2009 in retrospect

Too much Tiger? Too much Tebow? Too much Yanks? Say so long to 2009 with me.

The thing I took away from this year most is the way that sports is now blending in with more entertainment. WWE was ahead of the curve 10 years ago by stating that it wasn't sports, but sports entertainment. We have no choice but to slowly realize that all sports is now hitting a gray area in out public eyes. The overexposure of the Tiger Woods' issue. The constant celebrity dating within the Yankees clubhouse. The web making regular people celebrities. Tim Tebow being the poster child of everything that is great in sports all while representing everything that is extremely annoying at the same time (how can a good wholesome quarterback who gives of himself by going on missions in the off-season be a public enemy No. 1 outside of Florida?). ESPN is synonymous with E!, Bravo, WE, and any other stupid network that focuses on the image of what it's portraying versus the end product that should be focused on.

But with the Tiger issue. His infidelity is the most over-hyped and over-covered media story in the entire decade. It says a lot when Tiger got more coverage than 9/11. But this is a blessing in disguise for him (at least professionally). What this will do for him is refocus his game. In the last two years, Tiger seemed human. He seemed beatable. Yes, he had a terrible knee, but there was a false hope amongst the field that they could hang with him. We all know now that it wasn't his injury, but his lust for the ladies. I believe the PGA will benefit most from this ironically. For those of you who don't believe golf will prevail, but yet crumble, you know nothing about golf.

When any great player dominates their respective sport, it is easy to look beyond the rest of the league, association, and/or teams and players. When Michael Jordan was dominating the NBA, nobody considered that the 90's saw 10 of its top 50 players play and only two of them won an NBA title, solely because of MJ. He was so good that he made the NBA better because of it. We are seeing the benefits of the MJ era now. Basketball is better than ever and it's because of MJ. He elevated everyone's game so much that the result is Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Kevin Durant, etc. If MJ stayed retired after his first retirement, would the NBA be as good as it is now? When he retired the first time, the NBA was able to catch its breath. Even though the ratings plummeted, the play of the game increased. It's like the old adage of playing someone better will make you better. It's the same case in golf. Everyone in the PGA will be able to show what they've learned from losing to Tiger for so long. We're going to see a crap-shoot of players making runs that would normally overlooked because of Tiger. There won't be anymore stupid frat boys getting drunk as if they were in a Happy Gilmore scene.

And then he'll return. More focused. And even deadlier. And everyone will benefit from the increase of play from the likes of Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and of course everyone's Lovable Lefty. Take a quick page out of Kobe Bryant's rape case a few years ago. When he returned, he was better and faster and stronger. Why? It's because he focused all of his energy to getting better because that's a way out. An outlet. Tiger will do the same and Tiger will break Jack Nicholas' record within 5 years. Easily.

You know the funny thing about the NFL is? Is that the NFL is sort of like the popular kid at school where everyone likes him; he dates the hottest chicks, he gets good grades, and he's the star jock and is in the newspapers all the time. The problem is though, he knows it. That's the NFL. It knows it's the best league in America right now and it's overthinking itself. That's all I'll say about it. I watch it, I love it. But I can't watch it 24/7 like the NFL wants us all to do. To over-analyze everything about it. To talk and talk and talk about Bellichick's decision to go for it on 4th and 2. To contemplate about going to a 17 games season. It's the natural evolution of sport and if we were getting scientific or philosophical about the theory of evolution, the NFL just stood upright and claimed that it's America's game. In 50 years, football will be known as America's pastime, which is said because I always kind of liked how baseball was.

For me, 2009 was forgettable in the NFL. Where to begin about my beloved Seahawks? To begin with, I think we as fans get a break here. I don't like what Deion Branch said about the fan base because the 12th Man is here. The difference is the irony of it all. If this season happened in 1999, their 5-11 record would be forgivable. We, as football fans, have also evolved. We have expectations. We want to win mainly because we know what it feels like to win. Like losing your virginity. You want more and when you don't get it, you feel like a worthless piece. Like flying in first class for a couple of years, but then getting bumped to coach (sorry Bill Simmons, I ripped that off you, but it's such a great analogy. If you ever read this, not sure why you would, but if you do, I'll give you your ups.).

But this pre-season, the Seahawks on paper didn't look as good as we thought. The writing was on the wall and we didn't want to look at what color it was. We thought because we had a healthy receiving corps and a new hot shot receiver to go along with a healthy receiving corps, a new young buck linebacker, and a new vibrant head coach, we all thought it was a coast and a give in to the post season again. Me included. We were for the first time delusional. But let this be a lesson to us. Just because we are loyal, we cannot, I repeat, cannot be out of our minds and incomprehensible. We have to be harsher on these guys. We deserve better. I refuse to watch the Seahawks crumble to mediocrity, irrelevance or worse, a laughing stock, a place that 'Hawks fans know. So this offseason, we as fans can't treat the Seahawks the same way we treated the Mariners or the Sonics. We can't be soft fans or we'll have a soft team. We can't have that liberal attitude of "at least we were good for a while and at least we have soccer now." That's bullshit to me. We should demand better so we'll reap the benefit of having a good team. No longer when we leave the area and express how much we are Seahawk fans will we be laughed at. I want us 'Hawk fans to stand up and say "This isn't good enough. 5-11 is never good enough. 13-3 isn't even good enough. We want that Super Bowl NOW!"

So now, the Seahawks have the #6 and #14 picks in the draft. Getting an offensive lineman is a give in. Many of those think a quarterback should be next, however, if C.J. Spiller or Javid Best is at 14, I say we take them. People gave the Titans grief for taking Chris Johnson out of East Carolina when they had two running backs. Look how that worked out for them.

The MLB got the Yankees back on track. Which is weird because without hating the Yankees, watching baseball kind of seemed like there was something lacking this decade. Hating them was fun. It makes watching baseball a little more fun. And I thought I'd never say this, but I'm happy they won. The universe is back to where it should be. The Yankees suck because they're good. And the Mariners are coming back. I can't believe the Mariners are having the offseason they are having right now. Getting both Chone Figgins and Cliff Lee is like getting a good job and then getting a really hot girlfriend at the same time. Neither may last, but at least it'll be a good summer.

And we all know the BCS is flawed. Just watched BSU beat TCU in the BCS. All these acronyms are making me SICK. But gotta hand it to BSU. They showed up. TCU didn't. And in a perfect world where a plus one playoff game would decide between the two, BSU would be playing the winner of Texas and Alabama. I honestly don't think BSU would win and if you do, you're delusional (see above).

Two-thousand and nine also saw the return (of sorts) of the University of Washington and the hope that is behind both Steve Sarkisian and Jake Locker. The following year will be a different year. The Huskies will have a great shot at finishing the year in the top 10 and possibly the Rose Bowl. I know that's far fetched from a season ago, but they have a chip on their shoulder. Word is that Locker's reason for coming back is to beat Oregon. When you have those sort of goals, watch out Oregon.

Now on to the NBA. I am reading "The Book of Basketball" by Bill Simmons. An ESPN writer who is probably the best sports writer today. I'm talking pure sports writing. None of that basketball beat writer for the LA Times or the Seattle Times. I'm talking about a sort of poetry that only comes along once in a while from someone who truly loves the game of basketball. Reading Simmons is like reading your own inner thoughts on paper. I don't know how many times I sat on the toilet reading "The Book of Basketball" thinking "I totally know what he means!" or "I was thinking that too!". Weird. I feel like he has tapped into all of the basketball purists and read their minds, including mine. When the Sonics were stolen away I haven't been able to think about basketball the way I used to. Now, Simmons is showing me a new light. Thank you.

(Speaking of the Sonics. For all of you who said, "F@*k the Sonics, they suck anyway." Look no further than the NBA standings in your newspaper and you'll find OKC in 3rd place with a pretty good record. And oh yeah, Durant might win a scoring title soon. Like, really soon. So thank you Queen Christine Gregiore, Howard Schultz, Greg Nickels, Clay Bennett, David Stern and the rest of you pathetic sports fans that didn't give to shits about the Sonics because they sucked at the time. Even though YOU let the winning-est sports franchise in Seattle history leave because YOU wanted the money to go somewhere else like...where again? Have you seen Key Arena lately? Have you seen the unemployment lately? Oh yeah, having the Sonics in town definitely wouldn't help either of those. Let's put the money into wasted spending and continue to watch OKC reap the benefits of a good basketball team. But hey, at least we have the Seahawks! Oh yeah, they're not any good. At least we have the Sounders! Oh yeah, they can't score any goals. At least we have the Mariners! Oh yeah, it took all decade for them to get good again.)

Let's just hope 2010 will be a good start to a new decade. We'll need it.