The professional sports season is much like a dog chasing its tail. You don’t ever get caught up and it’s always still there!
It is mid-June and we just finished the professional basketball season. That the Denver Nuggets won their first-ever NBA title is lost on most Americans as their interests turned from basketball when the tulips popped out of the ground announcing that Spring was here.
Baseball jumped into our senses in February when Major League teams headed for Spring Training and started playing games in the Cactus League. Royals fans already think the season is too long as our Boys in Blue stumble toward anonymity! Still, the professional baseball season will be with us until late October when night games will numb the fingers of most fans in attendance. The World Series, this year, will be the 119th in history.
The National Football League will open training camps and begin playing exhibition games in the middle of the summer. Yet, if you pay any attention to the media grind that the NFL puts out, the National Football League is in the news nearly every day of the year! If you don’t believe me, just figure how many stories you’ve seen and read on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes since the season ended! The braintrust of the NFL is expert at staying in front of the public almost on a daily basis. There was a time when that position was owned by professional baseball but they have been mugged by the NFL and lost their place as “King of the Mountain!”
Then, to complete the “chasing the tail” scenario, the National Basketball Association starts their season in the middle of the football season! None of that mentions the National Hockey League which seems to never have an off-season! Skating on ice should be for the wintertime!
I am thinking of becoming more of a Beach Volleyball fan, ladies version. At least I can always tell what season it is because of the clothes (?) they are, or are not, wearing!
CHALK TALK
Here’s something that just might slow down the giving of money for these NIL funds in college athletics. The Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service says that donations made to nonprofit NIL collectives ‘are not tax exempt”. That should cause a few “Whoahs” around college athletic departments!
— Count me as one of those who are AGAINST college football games on Friday nights. Kansas University has announced that their first two games of the season will be on Friday night. Why? Money! ESPN dictates those Friday night games and there are more and more of them. Kansas State and nearly every major football school is doing it. Not a good thing for high school sports!
— Missouri has announced that they have hired a new baseball coach. That’s not what they said, however. Their announcement said they have hired the “First black baseball coach at Missouri”. Isn’t that kind of stuff getting a little old and shopworn? First this, first that. It is not relevant in this modern age!
— New to the Big 12, Houston has signed Kellen Sampson to a new contract as the top assistant basketball coach for the Cougars. Of course his Dad, Kelvin, is the head coach, so that helps. The new contract essentially makes Kellen the Cougars’ future head coach.
— Louisiana State University (LSU) has announced that their players will be wearing air conditioned helmets in the 2023 season. Yep! The helmets will have battery-powered air conditioning units that last five hours with a lifespan of about four years. I can just hear it now when a coach is chewing on a player who just made a big mistake: “But coach, my thermostat stuck and it froze my brain!”
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune. His views don’t necessarily reflect those of tha paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
