The Sports Doldrums

It's official. We are in the most boring time to be a sports fan. We are still a few weeks away from NFL camp (but even that isn't exciting). We are two months away from the start of college football. The NBA just had a month plus of play-offs that started awesome and ended horribly. We saw that Lebron can't do it on his own (which no one could, not even Jordan). We saw that Dwight Howard is not in any way close to being a dominant force in a game; sure he can grab 15-20 rebounds and maybe swat a few balls into the stands, but when it comes to offense it is really ugly. How can a guy picked that high have so little basketball IQ? I knew the Finals were over after game 2 when Orlando showed the Lakers were a tougher team mentally. That's like saying someone is less funny than Ben Stiller.

Another problem with sports right now is MLB. It's not really their fault. But right now is just that time in the season where a few teams are out of it (the Nationals), but for the most part teams are just grinding out the games and waiting out till the All-Star break to see if they have a shot or not.

Sadly, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open have been busts too. Nadal withdrew before the tournament so I think most people are expecting Federer to make it to the final easily and break American icon Pete Sampras's record. And I don't know about you but the I have never disliked an American athlete as much as I despise the Williams sisters. I imagine most people will tune in to the final and the occasional 5 set match, but for the most part it seems to be lacking excitement. The U.S. Open was good to watch, but not captivating. It was cool to see Lucas Glover and Ricky Barnes battling it out and Tiger, Phil and David Duval battle back. But with all the rain, and the overall toughness of the course it wasn't electrifying golf, like last year.

I would say really the only thing that has caught my attention has been the Confederations Cup. It was nice to see the U.S. make a run into their first finals. What wasn't so nice was losing a 2-0 lead. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud and there are valuable lessons the team should have learned about competing with the best. But I think too much was made of just getting there. Landon Donovan said it best when he told reporters it hurts losing because we getting back is never guaranteed. I hope that this made the U.S. players hungrier and less willing to "just get there."

Hopefully this sports dry spell will pass quickly. Maybe if we take a cue from the Ancient Mariner and realize the beauty of even the ugliest (or in this case, least exciting) we can get out of the doldrums.