|
Offseason? What Offseason?
by CJ Sanchez
6/2/2008
Would you step into my office for a second please?
Close the door thank you. Take a seat.
Right, I’ve brought you in here today to talk about your intensity. It seems to me that it’s an element of your game that’s been sadly lacking since Sunday.
Yeah, I know the incredible Giants upset in Super Bowl XLII marked the end of the season, but what’s with the dour expression? What’s with the lack of enthusiasm?
And what do you mean ‘I’m just a fan, why do I need intensity?’? This is football kid, not lawn bowls! Just what in the heck is wrong with you?
 Football NEVER ends. So what if there aren’t any more games to watch? There’s plenty of other stuff that demands your full attention.
Take for instance, The Pro Bowl. Whilst it may seem like a total waste of time, to the *true* fan, it’s an opportunity to see the NFL’s finest all in one place. If those guys can get out there in the bitter conditions of Hawaii and show intensity in a pointless game that nobody cares about, then why can’t you?
I bet you haven’t even started to properly analyse your team needs yet have you? Never mind all that namby-pamby regular season whinging, it’s time to get into some nitty-gritty analysis of your team’s roster. Who’s staying? Who’s going? Who do you need to pick up?
The Scouting Combine runs from the 20th of February to the 26th and if you weren’t so busy mourning the end of the season, you’d see this as a fantastic opportunity to scout some talent. Sure, you might have heard of your Dorseys or your Longs, but what are you going to know about the guys who get picked in the second and third rounds hah? And what about the sixth and seventh? You need this knowledge if you’re going to continue to out-do the jokers on the message boards. Seriously son, you’ve got to keep up your momentum up throughout all of this so-called ‘offseason’, there’s no time to relax.
And what about Free Agency? It’s a time when anything can happen and where will you be? Moping around watching darts? Free agency opens on March 3rd and you better be ready for it.
All 32 NFL owners will be gathering in Palm Beach, Florida for their annual meeting on March 30th, but where will you be? Ignore this meeting at your peril kid; this is where all the big decisions for next year are made. No doubt the Cardinals will put forward a motion to add an extra two teams to the playoffs and no doubt the rest of the teams will tell them where to go, but what if they didn’t? What if they agreed and you missed it? Come December you’d be in terrible shape!
This is what I’m talking about here kid. All of this stuff is important and yet all you can give me is a blank expression. Come on now, dial it up a notch and plug yourself in for goodness-sake!
I might be willing to cut you a bit of slack and here and there, but if you’re not ready for the draft on April 26-27th then that’s inexcusable. What’s not to get excited about over 24 hours of names being read out?
 The draft is the future of your team and the future of the NFL. How could you not want to sit in front of your computer watching or listening to updates that could potentially change the landscape of the NFL? Call yourself a fan?
What’s wrong with you?
Now I know the summer months can be a bit of a slog for us heavyweight fans, but with mini camps, roster cuts and NFL Network programming on Sky Sports, there should be plenty to keep your head firmly in the zone.
Come August there’s the pre-season and a first chance to see how those new signings, rookies and veterans, are looking out on the field. It’s a difficult time of year because you’re so close to real NFL action and yet so far, but with the right mentality you can make those pre-season shenanigans matter. Just see it as a chance to practice shouting at the screen and be outraged by heinous calls.
If you can keep that intensity up, you’ll be ready come September kid. Forget the offseason, there is no offseason in the NFL.
Seriously kid, you need to suck it up, walk it off and for the love of God, get back out there.
|
