Posting for the sake of posting.

Just chilling at a lake by a fire. Nothing else to report. #DontBreakTheChain 

Golf: A Casual Golf Guy's Take On Tiger Woods

I am by no means a golf expert. 

My attention to golf doesn't go much further beyond the four majors and the occasional final round that's going down to the wire. My playing experience is all rolled up into a class I took a few years back; after a semester I still couldn't drive a ball off a tee to save my life.

I can't analyze swings; I can't understand, much less explain, the effects playing four rounds of 18 holes in a weekend can have on a person.

But I know a man breaking down when I see it. And on Thursday afternoon, Tiger Woods' (seemingly rapidly) aging body once again betrayed him.

To say Woods isn't what he once was is too obvious; nobody is at age 40 what they were at 25. That's just the nature of time.

The thing is, Woods doesn't seem to be what he was not even two years ago. During the 2013 campaign, he won five times—although he went o-fer in majors—on his way to being named PGA Tour Player of the Year. He seemed on track to return, if not back to prominence, then at least back to competitive relevance.

Now, Woods' career is heading down a path of uncertainty.

He appeared in only seven tournaments in 2014, battling multiple back injuries along the way. He missed the cut in two of those events and finished in the Top 25 only once—he tied for 25th at the Cadillac Championship.

This season isn't looking any more optimistic. Last weekend he shot a career worst 82 in the second round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, leading to him missing yet another cut. And of course, we now know what happened Thursday, as an ailing back forced him to withdraw from the Farmer's Insurance Open.

To be fair, a unique set of circumstances helped contribute to Woods' latest injury. Fog delayed tee times, which extended the duration between his warm-up and when he actually started his round, possibly causing his muscles to tighten up. Additionally, Woods was forced to wait again when he made the turn from the back nine to the front, which seemed to be the killing blow.

Still, that his body is so fickle further speaks to its possible frailty. Also, there have been far too many blips on the radar the past year-plus to not be proof of a trend: Woods' body just can't hold up these days.

Given all that Woods has been through the past few years—albeit with almost all of it being self-inflicted—I personally have been wanting him to make a comeback, to be relevant again. Remember, I'm a casual golf fan; the sport is just way more fun when he is among the contenders on the fourth day of a tournament.

I just don't see it happening with any regularity ever again.

Sure, I would never rule out Woods winning a tournament or two along the way; he might even pull out a miracle in a major. While he may be an aging golfer, he's still Tiger-stinking-Woods, his natural talent outclassing possibly anyone who's ever played the game.

But one single win will never mean he's back, unless we adjust our expectations and redefine what "back" means for Tiger Woods.

I don't think it means what most of us think it means—at least not anymore.

Don't Break the Chain

This is my third post since I revived the blog. Though there is a small sports/video games spin on it, this will be the second piece that doesn't really have to do with the main point of this blog's existence.

Still, it's a necessary post; here's why.

I was working in the library earlier tonight on another time consuming and mostly uninteresting assignment for tomorrow — well, later today I guess. Not only was I wasting my life away in a cubicle, but I missed out on the Texas Tech men's basketball team defeating Kansas State 64-47. The disappointment of missing a great game is only compounded by the fact that in recent months Red Raider conference victories have been like getting to witness Sasquatch ride off into the forest on a unicorn with a distressed leprechaun chasing after them; in other words, it hasn't happened often and when it does it feels completely random.

So, rather than using the typical "what can I find on Spotify tonight" fare as background noise while I was working, I needed something a little more comical. That led me into looking up a YouTube a channel I haven't watched in a while: Game Grumps.

In a nutshell, Game Grumps is a channel featuring a dude who does animations and a dude who sings in a band sitting on a couch and making dumb jokes while playing video games. Seriously; people watch this stuff.

I found a currently running series, picked a random starting point, and hit play. For most of the night I zoned out on what the two were talking about, but I tuned in just as they began discussing an interesting concept I had somehow never been aware of: "don't break the chain."



(Click >here< if you want to see the exact part I'm talking about; the video has explicit language, so if you're not into that sort of thing or are offended by it, just move on by)

"Don't break the chain" is a motivational tool to make sure one continues to polish his or her craft, and by all accounts was created by Jerry Seinfeld. From the aptly named website dontbreakthechain.com, here are the simple steps:

1. Pick a goal.
2. Mark off the days on which you work toward your goal.
3. Use your chain of marked off days as a motivator.

It's possibly a silly idea, and there's no question it came from a silly place, but I'm curious and willing to try it out and see if it works.

So, in the future, if you're wondering why my posts are irrelevant, random, or non-sequitur in nature, it's because I'm trying to keep in the habit of writing something and making sure this site doesn't grow cobwebs on it again.

Here's to not breaking the chain.

NFL: Six Way Too Late Super Bowl Thoughts

As we all know by now, the New England Patriots staged a furious fourth quarter comeback and then survived one of the weirdest final minutes in Super Bowl history to defeat the Seattle Seahawks.

That was two days ago. Naturally late, here's the cliffs notes version of what I thought of the game. 

No, this isn't a throwaway blog to keep me committed to writing. No, I'm not making it short because I just finished a stupidly time-consuming (yet totally menial at the same time) project for school. Ok, fine, of course those two things are true.

Thought #1: The most talked about and widely discussed moment of the entire game was Seattle's final offensive play, where Russell Wilson inexplicably passed the ball and was picked off by Malcolm Butler. Yeah, it was a dumb play call by Pete Carroll and company, especially with Marshawn Lynch in the backfield, and it was even worse throw by Wilson. Lost in the discussion is what an incredible break on the ball Butler made, essentially gambling on the route being run; he guessed right and somewhat easily outmuscled Ricardo Lockette for the ball. This has been dissected to death, so there really isn't any point in going on and wasting time reiterating what countless others have said.

Thought #2: Tom Brady was named MVP (more on that in a second). Somehow that designation, greatly aided by the play above, is what justifies those who consider him among the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time; apparently six championship game appearances and 13 insanely productive and consistent seasons (excluding the year he tore his ACL in Week One) aren't enough ammo. Look, I love ranking guys with the best of them. But come on, this isn't even a question: Tom Brady one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. For me, it's not worth the discussion, even to compare him to the likes of Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, or other past greats; there's no way to truly rank them given the teams they played on given they all played in different eras against different competition with different teammates. That some, like Tim Hasselbeck, would try to marginalize Brady's accomplishments even slightly, even in a relative sense, is asinine. Again, I enjoy rankings, and I enjoy discussion, but sometimes there are moments when talking heads need to just sit back and enjoy what's in front of our eyes.

Thought #3: All of that said, Brady didn't deserve to be the MVP. Yes, he had the Patriots' offense running like a well-oiled machine in the final quarter. But it's also arguable that he was partly the reason they needed a massive comeback in the first place, having thrown two AWFUL picks earlier in the game, one of which came in the red zone on what looked to be an obvious scoring drive. No, the real MVP of the game was Julian Edelman; not only did he catch nine passes for 109 yards including the eventual game-winning touchdown, not only did he play through getting absolutely destroyed (and possibly concussed, which if the case means there is no way he should have been allowed to finish the game) by Kam Chancellor early in fourth quarter, but he was a vocal voice throughout the game, often talking a fair amount of trash to the usually-more-vocal Seattle defense. He as the heart and soul of the team, providing both big plays and making both his presence and personality felt on the football field; that's MVP worthy.

Thought #4: How football fans across the country haven't resorted to cutting themselves these last couple of days is beyond me; the commercials that aired during the game were some of the most depressing things I've ever seen. Seriously, Nationwide, what the heck was that?

 Thought #5: Someone needs to have a camera on Rob Gronkowski at all times during these coming months. Johnny Manziel only wished he could party as hard as I expect Gronk to get down during the spring and early summer. 

Thought #6: The halftime show featuring Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, and Missy Elliott wasn't quite as good as the previous season, but it was still solid. I couldn't get through the final song without thinking of Kim Jong-un though.

Let's Get This Thing Started. For Real This Time.

I am convinced that the hardest part of anything and everything is taking a first step and actually beginning.

                 

Sure, this blog has technically been around for, what, two years now? Let's face facts, though: other than some silly power rankings I cooked up to rank NASCAR drivers (and boy, doesn't that just get y'all excited?) and some videos I put on YouTube before my previous laptop croaked, I haven't been near as committed to this page as I want and need to be.

                

 I'm a sports guy; more importantly, I'm a dang smart sports guy. After years of telling people I enjoy writing and putting my opinions out there, it's about time I actually proved it.

                

 So, from here on out, I'll be using this space to post thoughts on the goings on around the sports world, as well as any other random things where I feel like I have an educated opinion—excuse me, "take."

                

 The goal is to have multiple posts a day, some short and sweet, some long form. Given how long winded I can be when I write sports, expect the latter. Hopefully I can be relevant, educational, thought-provoking, and, most importantly, entertaining. That's a relatively tall order for someone who hasn't written consistently in years, but I think I'm up to the challenge.

                 

So, now that all of this fluff is aside, it's time to get started. This'll be fun.

                

 Oh, and #TeamLeftShark.