Review of my NCAA Men's Bracket

Well, my NCAA Men’s Bracket is screwed, like most of America’s. Depending on when you read this, the Regionals, or the Sweet 16 for those who like to say that, start tonight. Before you can go forward, you must look back and that’s what I’ll do here.

Midwest Region

Current matchups: Northern Iowa vs. Michigan State, Tennessee vs. Ohio State
My projected matchup: Kansas vs. Michigan State, Georgetown vs. Ohio State
My projected regional champ: Kansas
My best prediction: Ohio Stat and Michigan State
My worst prediction: Kansas
What happens now: Northern Iowa over Michigan State, Ohio Stat over Tennessee, Ohio State is in the Final Four

Thoughts: I thought that Northern Iowa could give Kansas a game but didn’t expect them to win. It didn’t reach my elite mid-major vs. average BCS team rule but it was close. The Jayhawks have a history of coming up short and I should have had them losing in at least the Elite Eight and not winning my whole title, that’s why I will lose my pool. Lucked out with Michigan State getting a last second shot over Maryland. I’m not mad about losing the Georgetown vs. Ohio matchup because you can’t project a below .500 MAC team beating a solid Big East team. Should have had more faith in Tennessee, even though when your path to the Regionals is San Diego State and Ohio, that’s not great. As a Georgia Tech fan, Paul Hewitt failed as a coach this year and has been for the past five years. If he wants to go to St. John’s let him.

West Region
Current matchups: Syracuse vs. Butler, Xavier vs. Kansas State
My projected matchup: Syracuse vs. Vanderbilt, Xavier vs. Kansas State
My projected Regional champ: Syracuse
My best prediction: Three out of four Sweet 16 teams
My worst prediction: Vandy in Sweet 16
What happens now: Syracuse over Butler, Kansas St. over Xavier, Syracuse is in the Final Four

Thoughts: Follow your own rules Etienne Marcel. If I did, there is no way I would have taken Vandy over Murray St. However, to be fair, I was a missed jump shot away from that prediction coming true. Shouldn’t have taken UTEP over Butler. Syracuse is the quietest top team left and I think the team wants it that way and as a fan, I don’t mind it as well. Feeling very, very shaky about not putting Kansas St. in Final Four

East Region

Current matchups: Kentucky vs. Cornell, Washington vs. West Virginia
My projected matchup: Kentucky vs. Cornell (damn right I did), New Mexico vs. West Virginia
My projected Regional champ: Kentucky
My best prediction: Cornell of course
Worst prediction: New Mexico in Sweet 16, Wofford over Wisconsin
What happens now: Kentucky over Cornell, West Virginia over Washington, Kentucky is in the Final Four

Thoughts: I knew Cornell was a legit team when I saw them lose a very close game to Kansas on the road earlier in the year. The 12 seed was insulting. You mean to tell me that Minnesota, San Diego State, heck Florida was better than them this season. Absolutely not. Even Northern Iowa should have gotten a five or six seed and got stuck with an eight. I can go on but lets move on. So that was a good pick by me. Kicking myself for not having Kentucky winning the whole thing. I’ve said since the beginning of the year that they’re the most talented team with the best coach for them. Honestly, I got scared off by Cousins but should have realized that they have Wall, Patterson and Bledsoe to cover up for Cousins if he gets moody. Didn’t expect New Mexico to get run out of the gym like that by Washington.

South Region

Current matchups: Duke vs. Purdue, Baylor vs. St. Mary’s
My projected matchups: Duke vs. Utah State, Baylor vs. Villanova
My projected Regional Champ: Villanova
My best prediction: Baylor in the Sweet 16
My worst prediction: Where do I start? Villanova in the Final Four…Utah State in the Sweet 16, Siena over Purdue…bad region for me.
What happens now: Duke over Purdue, Baylor over St. Mary’s, Duke is in the Final Four and CBS rejoices

Thoughts: Why, oh why, did I have Villanova? Not only should I have seen St. Mary’s beating them (the elite mid-major thing), but Nova was seeded too high at two AND I didn’t include a major rule in picking games in my prediction post and therefore thought about it too late. Look for how a team does in its final ten games BEFORE it’s conference tournament. Nova lost five of its last six games, major red flags there. Took a chance on Utah State, it happens. Underestimated Purdue, gotta acknowledge that.

OK, so that was a review of my picks, enjoy the games.

A Young Lion Inspires the Old Lion and Law School...It May Go Down

What’s up everybody, hope all is well in your world. Time for me to talk about some developments in my life in the past few weeks. But first…

Music to listen to: Trampled Under Foot (live) by Led Zeppelin



I love all types of music but lately I’ve been on a major kick of Zepplelin, who actually started my interest in rock music in the early 1990’s when I was in junior high. I would listen to the classic rock station in the NYC and they always played Zeppelin. Anyway, this is maybe their most badass live performance from arguably their best recorded concert. They were at their peak at this stage, 1975, before the drugs, injuries, drama and death came into play.

So your boy has been contemplating a lot of things the past few weeks. It all started when I returned to Kennesaw to see my oldest nephew, Alex, participate in a Nike Football Combine in Atlanta a few Sundays ago.

He did really well and had one of the best scores in the entire country. He’s a current junior and now he’s now getting attention from top schools around the country and I’m happy for him but a lot of work needs to be done. He still has to get his highlight tape out to schools, visit schools, prepare his application, take his SAT exam, get recommendations, write essays, etc.

Point being, I’m taking a role of assisting him through this process and its been fun.

I wrote a status on Facebook stating that I’ve never wanted to see someone succeed more in my life than him, including myself and I mean it. He’s my nephew but he’s my little brother in nature. I will sacrifice my time, money, energy, whatever it will take for him to reach his highest level. I see how hard he works in school and his commitment to football from practicing, weight training, his determination is inspiring.

I guess this how parents feel about their children.

So while I’ve been preparing him for all of this, I’ve thought about my own career.

If I’m telling him every day to strive for his goal to become an elite college football player, I can’t be hypocritical and not do the same for myself in relation to my life.

I’ve thought about what I want to do for the rest of my career. I know that I want to stay in sports so that’s a given.

Its funny because by the time I was Alex’s age, a junior in high school, I had visited about a dozen colleges, had my recommendations lined up, knew all of my financial aid options, I was a beast when it came to my academics and college preparations. I was determined to get into a great school and dominate in it. That’s right, I actually looked at college as a chance to come in and dominate like a sporting event.

I’m trying to get Alex close to that level and speaking with him today on the phone I think he’s getting there. But what happened to me?

Not to sound ungrateful but at my age and experience, I should have a better job. If anyone at my job is reading this, they would agree with me if they were honest about it. How did that pitbull from the NYC turn into a softie in Nashville?

During my senior year as an undergrad at Vandy, I took the LSAT with aspirations of becoming a lawyer. I didn’t do well on that test. I then applied to about eight schools and got rejected by all of them. It was devastating. So I decided to take the LSAT again, improved by about two points, applied to another set of schools and didn’t get accepted to any of them.

At that stage, I’ve gone through two application processes and gotten nowhere. To be fair, I was applying to schools that were outside of my reach and looking back, I wouldn’t have accepted myself to those places. I

f I went to law school as a 23 year old, I would have flunked out in a year. I wasn’t ready for it and I think that the admissions people at the schools could see that.

After that ordeal, I worked different places and even got a masters degree in sport management, which has taken me a step closer to my sports career goal. What is that goal you ask?

I want to run my own sports organization, become a general manager, team president. Do I dare dream of the sports executive trinity, meaning commissioner of the NBA, NFL or MLB?

Damn right, I would dominate at that job, a commissioner. Even better, I love mixed martial arts. Why not aspire to be Dana White, the president of the UFC, or Scott Coker, prez of Strikeforce?

So I look at those options and I’m getting hyped about it but how do I reach that goal? The sport management degree is nice but I need more. I did some research and saw a common thread in the sports executives in positions that I would want.

A legal background.

Every aspect of a sports organization from the front office to players to marketing and everything else in between deals with the law. What’s the best way to learn about the law?

Going to law school…but do I want to put myself through all of that stuff again that I mentioned above?

I did some initial research on this. If I wanted to go to law school, I would have to start from the beginning. My LSAT score doesn’t count because it was taken too long ago. My recommendations are not useful because its talking about a 21-year old me and that was years ago. New personal statement, new application fees, you get the idea.

I weighted all of that out and still came across unsure. The next step was to actually visit a law school and see if it would be for me. Being in Nashville, the only law school here in town (actually just did a quick google search for accuracy and there is actually a place called Nashville School of Law but work with me please) is Vandy Law. So this week, I returned to my old stomping grounds of Vandy Law to meet an admissions rep and visit a class.

My first two years of undergrad at Vandy I worked in the Law Library and had a blast. I enjoyed being in the environment of people learning about our laws. A lot has changed about the school since then but it still has the same vibe.

I get there and meet my host and she was very nice and introduced me to different people. There was a diverse group of people in the school, different ages, races, etc. However, the median age of the school is 23 so I was a little older than most of the people.

Then I went to a Constitutional Law class and it was very educational in two ways. It was useful knowledge for your everyday life and I was already making tie ins to how I would apply the rules as a general manager or commissioner. Sitting in the class got the pitbull inside of me going and you know what that meant. I had the feeling that I would dominate in that class and law school overall. I’m getting hyped thinking about it now. Being in that environment was amazing and made it very, very tough to head to work later that day.

After the class, I met with an admissions rep and laid out my plan and he didn’t scoff at it. In fact, he mentioned a Vandy Law tie-in to one of those sports organizations I mentioned earlier that was very impressive. After that, I went to work with a lot to contemplate.

Does this mean I’m going back to school? Will Vandy get more of my money? Not necessarily but the odds are siding significantly towards yes to the first question, the second question is too early to tell. Years ago, I was applying to law school and trying to become a lawyer because everyone else was doing it and it would sound impressive to my mother.

Now things have changed. I’m older and wiser. I can handle the commitment of school. It would help progress my career and would help me intellectually greatly. My approach from the application process to choosing schools would be so much better now.

The 28-year-old version of me is better prepared for this step.

The only major issue is finances but I may have a plan for that and if you want something enough in life, money doesn’t have to get in the way.

In the end, the young buck in my life has inspired the old bull to give school another try. While I’m trying to teach Alex something,, I’m learning more from him than he’ll ever understand.

Rules to fill out your NCAA Basketball Bracket

Hey everyone, happy St. Patty’s day. I’ve always enjoyed this holiday. At my staff meeting today, someone asked why everyone was wearing green and we told him it was St. Paddy’s Day. He said he was Jewish and couldn’t participate. I told him I’m Black and I was still wearing my green tie.

Of course, this always leads to the Black Irish joke, which I don’t mind at all.

This day also reminds me of one of my first college campus visits as a high schooler, when my tour pulled into Georgetown on this day and this incredibly attractive blond woman comes up to us and in a drunken state tells us to go there. We proceeded to have a fun night, no drinking at that level, we were too young, but it was still a good vibe.

OK, on to the purpose of this post…the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

First..

Music to listen to: Coma Pony by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez



So chilled, I love this type of music right now, puts me in a reflective mood.

I love the Tournament, you love the Tournament and the most enjoyment you get out of it is making brackets and placing predictions on who you think is going to win.

Now, not to brag, but I’ve done well on more than one occasion on these brackets because I follow a few simple steps which I will share with you now. After that, I will fill out my own bracket here so you may witness my methods in effect.

Rule 1: Business is business

Save your emotions for your children or a puppy.

Rule 2: Loyalty is for losers.

My favorite team is Vanderbilt. It’s my alma mater, love the place, proud to be a Commodore. However, I have no problem picking them to lose to Murray State if I see it happening. In fact, if it will ultimately help me win a pool, hate to say it, but Go Racers!

Rule 3: Biases are for suckers

I don’t like Duke and I despise Tennessee with a passion. However, if Duke looks like they’re going to win a national title, I have no problems projecting that. If I think that Tennessee finds a way to make a run to the Elite Eight, then it shall be.

Rule 4: Beware of the overvalued BCS school.

If there is a battle between a top mid-major school and an average or below-average team from say the SEC or Big 10, the mid-major school is going to win the majority of the time.

Now, the only three mid-majors that don’t apply this season are Butler, New Mexico and maybe Gonzaga.

Matchups like this that I see at first glance of the bracket include San Diego State v. Tennessee, BYU v. Florida, Utah State v. Texas A&M, Siena v. Purdue, Old Dominion v. Notre Dame.

Rule 5: Beware of the “hot” conference tournament champion

A few years ago, I remember seeing Syracuse win the Big East Tournament in 2006 by winning four games in four days, including upsets over Connecticut, Georgetown and Pitt. All of the games were decided by four points or less. Everyone was hyped that they would make a run in the NCAA’s accept for me. I picked them to lose to BYU in the first round and they got smoked, just like I predicted.

This happens for two reasons. First, if a team had to win that many games in a few days, its physically taxing on them, I don’t care how young the legs are. Second, after the euphoria of winning the conference tourney, they have to go back to campus, get everyone patting them on the back, then get back to work without feeling too high about themselves. That’s a lot to ask from 18-22 year olds.

Victims of this for the Tournament may include Houston, San Diego State, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Wofford, West Virginia, Notre Dame and St. Mary’s

Rule 6: Guard play is important but post play is just, if not more, crucial

We’re all excited to see guys like Collins out of Kansas, John Wall from Kentucky, Evan Turner from Ohio State, Schyer and Singler from Duke, Butler from West Virginia and other perimeter guys do their thing, but the reason that Kansas and Kentucky are probably going to meet in the finals while the other guys would be fortunate to reach the Final Four is post play.

Kentucky and Kansas both have post players who can get points inside and can give you solid rebounding. The thing that happens in the Tournament is that the pace slows down and rebounding becomes paramount. Keep this in mind when doing your bracket.

Rule 7: Beware of the One-Man Gang

I’m looking right at you Ohio State. Not since Danny Manning with Kansas in 1988 has one player alone led his team to a title. If Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley, David Robinson, Grant Hill at the end at Duke, John Wallace, etc. couldn’t do it, then its not going to happen for a while.

Rule 8: Upsets are cute for the first round but it’s a marathon

It may be cool to pick North Texas over Kansas State but if the Wildcats win and make it to the Final Four, you aren’t going to win your pool. Its pretty much mathematically impossible. If you love to pick upsets for fun, stick to 5 v. 12, 6 v. 11, etc.

Rule 9: Don’t get silly with your picks

You may like their uniform, have a girlfriend that went to the school, had a good time in the city the school is in, know someone that knows someone who had a cousin take classes there, you get the idea.

Don’t be stupid with this, accept for which mascot would win in a fight, because that’s an awesome debate.

Rule 10: Don’t trust Crappy Big 10 basketball

I love to pick on the Big 10 because their sports suck. Football, basketball, baseball, you take your pick. They never do well nationally on this stage accept for Michigan State basketball and I’m not so sure about them this year. Purdue was a legit national title contender, no joke, until Hummel went down and now they aren’t as good but they have a reason. Avoid ALL Big 10 schools.

Rule 11: Only do one bracket

Just fill out one bracket, don’t look at it for about 20 minutes, take a deep breath, review your picks and submit them. None of this five “different” brackets with various outcomes. Don’t be a pussy, be a man.

Rule 12: Coaching matters…to a degree

Coaching is important but at this stage, talent usurps most. When all else fails, take the team with the most talent.

Rule 13: Don’t listen to experts

I don’t look at other people’s brackets unless by accident. It muddles my thoughts. You start playing this game. I think that Washington is going to beat Marquette but everyone on ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Twitter, etc. has Marquette. So now you doubt yourself and take Marquette only to see Washington cruise to a win. Even if you lose with your pick, at least it was yours and not influenced by anybody. Trust your own instincts.

Finally…

Rule 14: This is unpredictable

You’re placing your hopes on 18-22 year old men. I don’t know about you but when I was that age, a girl could look at me funny and it would place me in a funk all day. I could have gotten a bad grade and it would ruin my night. Point is, its not a rational age to expect consistency. All it takes is for one guy to be mad at something, lose focus and ruin things for his entire team.

The team that wins a title has to win six games in a row in three different locations. If your national title team hasn’t shown the ability to win consistently, than its probably not going to happen now.

OK, on to my picks…

Midwest:

First round “upsets”: San Diego State over Tennessee and Northern Iowa over UNLV

Sweet 16 teams: Kansas over Michigan State and Georgetown over Ohio St.

Regional Final: Kansas over Georgetown

West:

First round “upsets”: UTEP over Butler

Sweet 16 teams: Syracuse over Vanderbilt (yes, I have Vandy there, and I’m nervous about it) and Kansas State over Xavier

Regional Final: Syracuse over Kansas St.

East:

First round “upsets”: Cornell over Tempe, Wofford over Wisconsin, Missouri over Clemson

Sweet 16 teams: Kentucky over Cornell, West Virginia over New Mexico

Regional Final: Kentucky over West Virginia

South:

First round “upsets”: Utah St. over Texas A&M, Siena over Purdue, Old Dominion over Notre Dame, St. Mary’s over Richmond

Sweet 16 teams: Duke over Utah State, Villanova over Baylor

Regional Final: Villanova over Duke

Final Four: Kansas over Syracuse, Kentucky over Villanova

National Championship: Kansas over Kentucky…of course, I could be wrong

My mid-career crisis

Hey everyone, hope all has been well in your world. Its been a while since I’ve written on the blog, actually its been a week but I used to write everyday and I’ve heard from some of you about that.

I would love to write everyday…before I continue, time for you know what…

Music to listen to: In a State by UNKLE

Some chilled music for you.

So, I would enjoy writing on Pourtout Pancakes every day, but life honestly gets in the way.

When I was a grad assistant at Belmont in athletics, I had more free time, especially during the day, so there was more opportunity to write. I could cheat and actually write posts while at work. I don’t have that luxury with my current job.

My schedule consists of waking up about 6:30 a.m., going to the gym from 7-9, working at the job from 9-5:30, getting home at 6 p.m. and taking care of personal needs before going to bed around 11 p.m.

The job has really drained me of energy and when I get home, the first thing that I want to do is go to bed. This doesn’t lead to good times to write.

Its even affected my New Year’s Life Alterations. I haven’t taken one French lesson, haven’t played one note on a guitar, haven’t talked to my father, you get the idea.

Before this turns into me bitching about my job, that’s not the case. The job is good but it’s a job, if that makes sense.

But the reality of the matter is that I haven’t been happy with one aspect of my life the past few weeks.

I’m going through a mid-career crisis.

I’m unhappy with the path of my career and where I’m at with it right now. I’m 28 and my current position is entry level and is in essence a paid internship.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a history of changing my career interests. When I was in fifth grade, I wanted to be an engineer so that I could design sports stadiums. Maybe it was attending games in the dump known as the old Shea Stadium to see the New York Mets that inspired this, me wanting to build something better. However, my interest in math didn’t stay and I moved on.

When I first started high school, I wanted to be a doctor that performed surgeries on professional athletes like Dr. James Andrews. The process of reaching this goal, particularly medical school, didn’t interest me.

When I first started undergrad at Vandy, I wanted to be a sports psychologist but that got sidetracked when I wanted to become a sports agent. This even led me to applying to law schools for three straight years after I graduated college. I didn’t get into any of them.

Since graduating college, I’ve interned at a fashion magazine, worked in a public relations firm that specialized in clients in the financial industry, worked at a men’s clothing store, was a communications assistant for a non-profit organization specializing in assisting underprivileged children in public schools, was a media relations assistant at two colleges and got a masters degree in sport administration. Now, I work in professional wrestling.

You would think with all of that stuff, I would have a more established career but it hasn’t happened. Part of it is economics. Every industry has experienced hard times in the past two years but sports has been feeling it a lot. If it was 10 years ago, I would have a full-time job, probably middle-management and be in a better financial position. Now, people like me are getting turned down for unpaid internships.

But some of it has to go on me as well. I underperformed in college and barely graduated, which I was reminded of last night and will get to later. If I got better grades, I would have probably had a job right out of school and my path may have been different. I could have been a better employee at some of those other places I’ve worked. Shoot, I can be a better employee right now, you can always improve your work performance.

So, I sit here writing on my blog late on a Wednesday night and want better for myself. I’ve been evaluating my career and learned that there is a connection between my professional happiness and personal contentment, meaning if I’m unhappy with my career, it affects a large part of how I feel overall.

I’ve been thinking about whether I want to work in sports at all. it’s a fun industry that I have a lot of experience in but the grind is a bit much, especially if I want to have a family of my own in the future. Plus, the pay isn’t good.

But then I think about how important sports are in my life. it’s the one thing outside of my family that has kept me sane over the years. I love it too much. Plus, I’m pretty darn good in the industry. I’ve never had a lot of money in my life so having a lot or a little of it isn’t going to worry me.

So then you go into what part of sports do I like the most. Do I want to get into coaching? Maybe game management? Public relations and marketing? Journalism? Law?

I then think back to my studies in sport management and my favorite class was sports law. I’ve always enjoyed studying law and merging that with sports was exciting. Learning about labor law, antitrust issues, constitutional law, things like that excite me. I still crack open the sports law text book for fun reading.

So do I want to be a sports lawyer now? Dare I say it, does this mean that I have to go to law school? Can I even afford law school? The questions keep coming.

I do know that I like sports, particularly the legal matters in relation to it. I also like business journalism, how do I merge these things together? Do I start my own sports law/business journalism publication? Do I make a blog? Do I work for a publication, sports or non-sports related, to gain the experience in that field?

To do these things, do I have to move to a bigger market than Nashville?

I like mixed martial arts, do I start my own MMA organization?

One final thought. I was talking with my buddy Andrew last week and my interest in law came up. I told him about how I applied to law schools and decided not to go in the end. So last night, I decide to check to see if my LSAC account was still open…oh, to apply to law school, you register with the LSAC and they handle your LSAT, transcript, letters of recommendation, sometimes school applications, etc.

Sure enough, it still is and all of that stuff mentioned above is still on file. I even got to see my Vandy transcript for the first time in years and saw my grades. They weren’t good, in fact, they were pitiful. My LSAT scores weren’t much better. Now I understand why law schools didn’t accept me as a 22-year old with those credentials.

I think I wasn’t ready for it overall. I was still in a sheltered state and didn’t have life experience. Honestly, if I went to law school at 22, I would have failed out of it.

But now, I’ve matured greatly in all aspects of my life and have gotten smarter or at least know how to handle it.

I’m seriously considering this option now but I may change my thoughts tomorrow, hence the mid-career crisis.

In the end, I'll figure something out or it will be done for me. Either way, I'll keep focusing and keep it moving.
　

Curling...Sport of the 21st Century?

What’s going on everyone, hope you’ve had a good few weeks. Things have been OK for me. I’ve learned over time that as long as you wake up in the morning in good physical condition and you have people that love you, things are going to be all right.

Music to listen to: Lateralus by Tool

I’ve been a major kick right now listening to Tool, maybe besides The Mars Volta, my favorite rock group ever. This song takes me to a positive mental place.

So I’ve developed a love for curling the past few weeks when it was on the Olympics. I would come home from work and immediately flip to CNBC to see the latest games. I guess I wasn’t the only one that caught on because it became the sport that gained the most buzz from what I’ve seen. People were Tweeting about it. The participants, especially the women players, became mini-celebrities, especially Cheryl Bernard from Canada, whose the one in the picture above and known as the “Curgler.” Yes, it means exactly what you think if you say it out loud.

I listed on my Facebook my thoughts about the game as it was going on but I’m going to elaborate about it here with the five reasons the sport is great.

One more thing before I start the list, I’m playing this sport in my future. I’ll get into it more on the list but its gotten to the point that I was looking up the Nashville Curling Club information, but its Web page was down. I would have loved to have gone to the 2010 USA Curling National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich. From Mar. 6-13 but frickin work is getting in the way.

I have to start training for the 2011 U.S. Nationals Qualifying Rounds in January of that year and eventually go to the World Championships in Esbjerg, Denmark in March.

OK, on to the list

1) The rules are simple. Its like shuffleboard on ice. You throw stones and try to get yours closest to the center than your opponent. Of course there’s a LOT more strategy to it such as protecting your shots, putting out guards, keeping the “hammer” on your end, etc. However, its not as complicated as sports with judges. I can’t watch figure skating because of this, well, I take that back…I can’t watch it because I just can’t sit there with a straight face and see dudes in those outfits performing dance acts. I’m pretty liberal with my sports viewing and respect the athleticism of it but I have my limits.

Anyway, the rules are not difficult to comprehend and the scores are low, which is a good thing.

If curling scores got into the high teens or to the thirties or forties, it would be hard.

2) I could play it. I have some athletic skill but I’m not going to become a luger. Am I going to be a competitive snowboarder? No. Will you see your boy making a run at joining the speed skating team? You already know the answer to that.

This may sound like I’m underestimating the athleticism of curlers and that’s far from it. In fact, the curlers at the Olympics made their sport look easier than it is. I would have busted my butt dozens of times moving across the ice like they did.

What I mean is that I don’t see a specific body-type that you have to be to play curling. I’m a big boy and I can actually see myself being a competitive curler with the proper training. I don’t see that in many other sports, which bring me to my next point…

3) Unique scope of player. In many of the sports that we watch, the athletes are at a physical and mental level above us. Whether it’s the height of basketball or volleyball players, the size of football players, the leanness of track sprinters, the thickness of hockey players, most of us see them and not ourselves.

However, when I saw the male curlers, accept for the Norwegians and their hideous checkered pants, I saw men who were in good shape to perform in their sport but nothing outside of the ordinary.

4) Attractive players. It is what it is. There were some very attractive female curlers in the Olympics. You had some cute Canadians, the Sweden team didn’t disappoint (yes, I catered to the stereotypes), I dug the Danes and their black skirts with black leggings, not in a perverted way, but for it being stylistic. And I fell in love with Carmen Schafer of Switzerland. She’s also above, the brunette in the red shirt.

That was a pleasant surprise for me. I don’t intentionally watch women sports for the attractiveness of the athletes but if it happens, I’m not going to complain.

5) Calm chaos. The beauty to me of a sport like baseball is that it may look like nothing is happening when 20 things are taking place. Before a pitch is thrown, you look to see where the fielders are placed, where the catcher receiving the ball is, the body language of the pitcher, the stance of the batter, what the runners on base are doing, etc. Then the pitch is made and things go into motion.

The same takes place in curling. When a stone is thrown, you see the direction of the throw. Was the stone thrown fast or slow, was it curled, are the sweepers going hard or soft, is the stone going for the center, is it a guard for another stone, is it a guide or setup for another shot.

Most viewers just see somebody sliding a stone down the ice and don’t realize the strategy of it, same as baseball. Personally, I love it.

With many good things in life, there are flaws. Here are mine.

1) The men’s uniforms. I frickin hate to bite off of someone else’s idea, especially with how popular he is, but listening to Bill Simmons, aka The Sports Guy, on his pod cast a few days ago, he suggested the men have jerseys in an American football style and I agree. Seeing Great Britain in their snuggly fit white polo shirts made them look overdressed and I think contribute to their weak showing.

I would say get rid of the Norway pants but if that’s the style that they want, let them.

2) You need ice to play curling. I live in Nashville, Tenn. The amount of locations that have ice are less than say in Minnesota or Wisconsin, which seems like the American hotbed of curling from my limited experience. Similar to ice hockey in America in general, its going to be tougher for some people to play it. You can play football or basketball anywhere. Ice is harder to come by. This may limit the growth of the sport.

3) It has elements of boredom. I love baseball. It was my first sports love, before basketball, football, soccer, mixed martial arts, all of them. However, there are some baseball games that make me want to crawl out my skin. I mentioned all of that cool stuff about baseball and curling and the action but when you have a 2-0 game when nothing really happens, it turns off an American society, me included, that has been trained into the fast pace of football and basketball.

That’s why soccer and hockey will only reach a certain level of popularity in this country. People

would rather see a score of 35-28 or 105-98 than 4-3 or 2-1. We accept it in baseball because the sport has been around for so long.

So is curling going to take over the world? Maybe, maybe not but I’ve been hooked and want to play. Who’s going to join me?