Midweek Musings - Favorite Non-Football Sport

With the cancellation postponement of the Big Ten football season, after an already long off-season, I’m doing some searching to find other things to fill the void. That got me thinking about sports in general, beyond just the pinnacle of human struggle which is college football, and made me realize just how many sports I actually enjoy.

MWM asks - what’s your favorite sport after college football?

A bit of a cop out, but I’ve got a few.

NHL - New Jersey Devils

I’m a Devils fan, which means lately things have been #notgreat, but I was molded as a NJD fan in the early aughts watching Martin Brodeur, Ken Daneyko, Brian Rafalski, Scott Neidermeyer, and Scott Stevens put up one of the most suffocating defenses hockey has ever seen. They ran the trap to perfection, and with Brodeur - my all-time favorite hockey player - as the backstop, every game was a potential shutout.

You like Big 12 football, with all of its shootouts and high scoring affairs? GTFO. Give me a sweet, sweet, triple overtime 1-0 victory any day of the week.

That the NHL saw fit to modify its rules to try to limit the efficacy of Brodeur speaks volumes to just how much of an impact he - and the Devils - had on the game in the 2000s. The 2000 and 2003 Stanley Cups are some of my most cherished sports memories.

NBA - Los Angeles Lakers

True fact, growing up I was much more of a Kobe Bryant fan than a Lakers fan, but the two became interchangeable at some point or other. Now, the Lakers have been #bad for some time, and now that they’re finally on the upswing, COVID-19 and social unrest in the country have pretty much put the kibosh on what could have been a championship season.

MLB - New York Mets

You want to talk about suffering? The Mets are weird, because they spend a ton of money, but don’t actually get much for it. Oh, sure, every 3-4 years they make the playoffs, and even make a World Series every once in a while. But they haven’t won a championship since I was literally a baby. Feeling like they’ll never quite get there is just karma balancing out after being a Lakers fan.

NFL - New York Giants

Admittedly I used to be a much bigger NFL fan. The Super Bowl wins over the Patriots will be cherished forever (seriously, the Pats are the worst). At some point in the 2010s, college football got a stranglehold on me, and just has not let go. With that, my #2/#3 team, the Giants, have fallen by the wayside. The addition of Saquon Barkley has certainly helped renew my interest, but their general #badness makes it tough to get overly excited.

So there you have it! Beyond college football, I basically coast on championships from 10+ years ago from my favorite teams, and yearn for a day when they can all actually be competitive.

What about you? Other than Penn State football, what keeps your sports interests piqued?