18-1? Doh!

Maybe sports is more than a habit. If it was just a habit, I don't think I'd be depressed today.

Yesterday the NFL staged one of the best Super Bowls ever and I missed it completely. I didn't listen on the radio, watch the highlights, or read about it afterward. All I did was talk about it at the office all day. Or more accurately, I listened to my many sports-knowledgeable colleagues give me a detailed recap of the game while I answered with my lame excuse for why I missed it.

It's true that during the game I was driving home from Tahoe in a snowstorm, averaging about 13 miles/hour between Tahoe City and Auburn. But it's not true that I forgot to TiVo the game or that I couldn't find it on the radio.

I haven't told anyone at work that I've given up sports for the year. I've told a couple of guys I'm trying to watch less sports in 2008, but that's it. It's easier than explaining the whole project.

(As an aside, with March Madness rapidly approaching I may have to come clean. There will be no other way to explain my decision to skip the office pool and miss all the games, especially since my passion is already well-known amongst my colleagues.)

Anyway, back to the Super Bowl. It was not only the biggest upset since I stopped watching/reading about sports (big deal, a whole month), but it's one of the biggest ever. Upsets are what makes being a fan so fun. If the favorite always won sports would be a totally boring experience. And teams like the Bears would have absolutely no fans at all.

So today was the first day that this whole project seemed like a genuinely questionable idea. I suppose I can take some solace in the fact that it took a full month to feel that way. And certainly it's not surprising. When I was deciding whether to give up sports for the year I made a list of the things I would miss most. #1 was Cal vs. U$C (football, of course). #2 was March Madness. And #3 was the Super Bowl.

So here I am. One down, two to go. But the gap between the Tournament and the Super Bowl is light years - if this hurt I can only imagine how I'll feel in March. And for good measure, the Bears swept their road series this weekend and are actually back in the Tournament hunt again. If they rally with a late season Tourney run, I'm going to implode.

With that, let me introduce the first recurring features of the Blueshirt blog:

- The Temptation Index. It measures how tempted to tune into sports I am for the coming week (on a scale from 1-10).

- The Regret Index. It measures how depressed I am that I missed the previous week's events (also on a scale from 1-10).

This week's Temptation Index is 2. I'm not convinced the Bears' road sweep will turn into a bona fide win streak (it never, ever does), plus I don't even know who they are playing this week.

This week's Regret Index is 7. I suppose it's kind of low considering it was the best Super Bowl ever, but even the best SB is still a lot worse than the first weekend of March Madness. I'm leaving room in the scale for the expected pain to come. Maybe I'll get lucky and it won't be that bad.

Signing off for now.....

Cheers,
Chris