Photo: BuffaloBills.com

A quick note to wish the only recent Buffalo Bills quarterback not to give the fan base heartburn a good retirement. Late last week, Gibran Hamdan, former Bills third string quarterback, announced his retirement from football at the grand ol’ age of 29. Hamdan had been released by the Bills midway through last season, having taken only two NFL snaps. He had signed with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in March, and had been competing against Cleo Lemon and Ken Dorsey – two quarterbacks with NFL experience – in training camp.

I wish Hamdan had been given a chance to take a few snaps with the Bills (his two NFL snaps were with Washington). He had shown his worth in NFL Europe (where he was a league MVP in 2006), and had a few inches on Ryan Fitzpatrick and a bit more sturdiness than Trent Edwards. All things considered, Hamdan was the only Bills quarterback of the past two years not to evoke any ire in the fanbase (because he didn’t play, but still.)

WGR 550 reports that Hamdan aspires towards a broadcasting career – not surprising, given that ESPN football writer Tim Graham once remarked that Hamdan was one of the “more passionate and insightful interviews” he had done on the beat. Happy trails, Gibran Hamdan. Best of luck in your future endevors.

Luke Popko in the 2009 Hockey East Championship Game (InsideHockey.com)

While livetweeting the Beanpot for BU Today last week, I remarked how much I enjoyed watching BU senior forward Luke Popko on the penalty kill. He may be diminutive, but he is one of the most effective penalty killers I have ever seen. He is especially effective when BU is two men down. He also doesn’t shy away from blocking a shot, and stays out there and gets peppered, often barely limping off the ice after taking several shots to his body. He truly plays like a second goalie, just without the extra padding.

During the Beanpot championship game this Monday (which BU lost 4-3), I was watching Popko on the penalty kill for the seemingly millionth time in the past four years when it finally hit me. Popko is a short, extremely effective, and fearless special teamer.

He is, by analogy, the Steve Tasker of the Boston University Terriers.

For those of you who think Tasker was just the sideline reporter for Sunday’s Super Bowl (who had the un-enviable task of interviewing Indianapolis Colts head coach Jim Caldwell post-game), au contraire. Tasker, as much as Doug Flutie, is every short Western New Yorker male’s inspiration for living. (Just ask my 5-6 tall father.) He was a member of the Buffalo Bills for 13 years, playing from 1985-1997.

Tasker is considered by many football journalists, football players and the like to be the greatest special teams player to play football in the modern era. He was tiny – listed as 5-9, but that must have been when he was wearing the Buffaloian uniform of five layers of socks, huge snow boots, and standing on a snow drift – but was fearless, throwing himself at punters and kickers, tackling kick returners twice his size by the ankles, and speeding down the field like a stolen Ferrari at 3am on kick returns.

He got kicked in the head, he got flattened by men double his size, and yet he yearned for more playing time. He rarely got looks at wide receiver (much like Popko is mired on the fourth line), but when he did, he made the most of them. Quarterback Jim Kelly begged head coach Marv Levy to insert him as a receiver because Kelly could count on Tasker’s athleticism to make a difference on the down. You could rely on Tasker to make key special teams plays in every game, much like you can count on Popko to be one of your most consistent penalty killers (considered special teams in hockey) no matter how many of his teammates are hanging out in the penalty box.

Much like Tasker never makes it to Canton (he has made it to the list of semi-finalists several times, but the voting committee is loathe to give a spot to special teamers because they only play a “third of the game”), Popko is never going to be Player of the Week, Player of the Month, or under Hobey Baker consideration.  But heck, you don’t want to be on the penalty kill or kickoff without one of them.

(For those of you who did not grow up with a father who promoted the legend of Steve Tasker at every single meal, here is a good summary from the NFL Network.)

So given all that has happened to me sports-wise in the past year, I have nearly too much fodder for a “What I’m Thankful” for post. I’ve whittled it down to some of the most amusing or important points – I apologize if I’ve left out anything or anyone.

Thank you, Rian Lindell (#9). (Photo: BuffaloBills.com)

- Like last year, I am thankful for Rian Lindell. He is the only consistent part of the Buffalo Bills. I still do not understand why more baby boys born in the Western New York area are not named Rian. He’s made 90% of his field goals this season, and is a perfect 100% on point after touchdowns. He’s trick play savvy, and may actually be a better quarterback than any other quarterback currently on the Bills roster (just kidding…I think.)

- I am thankful for the Penn Quarter Sports Tavern, located in Washington, DC. This tavern became our home base while in DC for the Frozen Four. The bartenders were accommodating, hysterical, and can handle large crowds of somewhat rowdy college hockey fans extremely well. When I was back in DC for some work travel in August, I went inside and the bartender – who is known to wear either a UNH hockey jersey or a Normar green Red Sox jersey when he tends bar – remembered me and got excited because another New Englander was at the bar. Penn Quarter, hands down, is my favorite sports bar of all time. Thank you for taking good care of us college hockey fans.

- Thank you to Curt Styres and the Rochester Amerks for making AHL hockey relevant again in my hometown of Rochester, NY. I attended an Amerks game at Christmas time last year, and while it was the one of the highest attendances of the year, it was anemic compared to the crowds of my youth.

This season, the Amerks have turned it around. After owner Styres contracted Ted Nolan to work for the franchise over the summer, forked over thousands of his own wealth for player salaries, and seemingly convinced Florida (their parent) that it was important to grow quality players in Rochester, the team has gone 15-2-1. 15 wins, including 11 consective wins. This is Amerks hockey, folks – they’re back, and the rest of the AHL needs to get used to it.

- I’m thankful that I can listen to WHTK, Rochester’s young sports radio station, online. It’s important that I perform my Boston-sports-blogger penance and listen to WEEI and The Sports Hub on a regular basis, but listening to anything more than the bare minimum of both stations leave one screaming at their radio dial and lamenting the downfall of society. To reaffirm my faith in human sports-fan kind, I’ll turn on WHTK online. It doesn’t always work, but when it does and I get the opportunity to listen to the John DiTullio Show, I am a happy camper. People talking about sports – all kinds of sport, all teams, all genders, with a understanding of sports history thrown in – in an intelligent, civilized, indoor-voice manner is wonderful.

- Thank you to the Food Network for keeping me company while I was recently dignosed with H1N1. Your channel was the only one I could watch in my fever induced dizziness. I am especially thankful for Sandra Lee, whose programming may be funnier than anything on Comedy Central. (I’m a lazy cook, don’t get me wrong, but Lee takes it to new levels of laziness.)

- Thank you to the 2008-09 Boston University men’s hockey team. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Their season not only gave me awesome blog fodder, but convinced me that there is no better sport in this country than college hockey.

- Thank you to every blogger, Twitterer, writer, journalist and editor that I have worked with or who has promoted my work in my first full year of actively pursuing freelance sportswriting as a large hobby/second job. Thank you for giving me venues to share my writing. I may not be the world’s best writer, but regardless, I’ve been given so many opportunities to contribute.

- Thank you to the bloggers and journalists out there who I am not huge fans of. Just because I don’t like their work doesn’t mean I don’t respect it. Additionally, many of them have much larger audiences than I have, meaning they have to be doing something right.  As someone still working up the ladder, I can learn from every single one of them, even if I do not agree with them.

- Lastly, thank you to my fiance and my cat. They put up with me writing lacrosse stories until 2am after coming home from my full-time job at 8pm. I have no idea why they let me do what I do, but I am thankful they do so.

The NFL Snuggie. The horrors.

I never truly believed the apocalypse was near until I saw this.

To celebrate the beginning of the NFL pre-season, HSN has been selling the NFL Huddler (aka an NFL Snuggie) all day. To demonstrate its use, they are continuously showing a group of male and female models sitting on the back of a pickup truck eating with various teams’ Huddlers on.

Oh, because the people tailgating in Orchard Park, Pittsburgh, Philly, or Oakland aren’t going to beat you up for wearing a massive piece of team printed felt with arms while grilling and kicking back beers in their vicinity.

Sports fans, if you fear being cold while watching a game, I would like to introduce you to this nifty invention called a jacket. Last I checked, they worked really well for most of human kind.

As any early reader of this blog might have discerned, I may have been a giant Bills fan as a youngster, but in addition, I was a giant Steve Young fan. After Young won Super Bowl XXIX in 1995, thirteen year-old me asked my father if he thought Young would make the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “Maybe. It really depends what else he does,” said my father.

“Well, if he does, can we go to Canton to see the ceremony?” I asked.

My father, knowing that this was several years down the road at that point, if it happened at all, nodded. “Sure. Why not?”

I’m sure he thought I had forgotten his promise, until I called him on a Monday morning in February of 2005 – ten years later – to tell him I had four tickets to the Enshrinement Ceremony, and that we were going to see Steve Young get inducted.

Being in Canton during Enshrinement Weekend was one of my favorite experiences as a sports fan. It is a true celebration of the sport of football, one that even the most marginal of football fans will appreciate. To read about our trip to Canton in 2005 – the first family vacation my immediate family had ever taken – read the following blog post: “Earning the Fabiola.”

I plan on returning to Canton at some point – hopefully for a 2010 induction of Jerry Rice and Steve Tasker? Rice is next year’s shoo-in, and as evidenced by both Wilson’s and Smith’s speeches this evening, Tasker greatly deserves the honor, but he’s been overlooked by voters for a few years now. Maybe his continued broadcasting career will help him in securing spots in the voters’ minds. All I know is that if I was choked up watching Smith’s induction speech on NFL Network tonight, I would just bawl through Tasker’s.

“T.O. signs with Buffalo,” it read.

“What?!” I yelled, interrupting my fiance’s rant on Northeastern coach Greg Cronin and his hobby of throwing sticks onto the ice when incensed. “T.O. is a Buffalo Bill?!”

My fiance laughed, not looking at the screen. “Stop changing the subject. That would never happen.”

“He signed with Buffalo.  Look at the screen.”

In the nearly four years we’ve been dating, I have never seen the guy’s big brown eyes bug out of his head as much as they did when he looked at the screen. “What?!” He immediately opened another tab on the browser and typed in ESPN.com. There it was, the main story: Two days after being cut by the Dallas Cowboys, Terrell Owens had been signed by the most improbable team ever, the Buffalo “We Don’t Spend” Bills. The team who spends less money than me at the last week of every month as I try to make my ridiculous Boston rent.

“It’s not April Fools Day,” he said.

A day I never thought I'd see: T.O. with the Bills

I shook my head. “Did Ralph Wilson pass away? How did this happen?”

We set about reading the article. I quickly glanced through it, read enough to realize that yes, this was true, Owens had actually signed a legitimate contract with the Buffalo Bills, a sense of euphoria came upon me.

I looked at my Patriot fan fiance, who was still reading, who probably hadn’t digested the idea of Owens ever playing in his own conference, let alone for my favorite team no less.

“In your face!” I exclaimed. “You try to beat us with your bum-kneeed Brady now!”

As I did a happy circle dance in my place next to him, which involved me hopping around in a circle to a tune I was making up on the spot that had to do with Edwards passing to Owens, TD, AFC East Champions, Super Bowls, and whatever came to mind, I heard him say, “I have to put up with this all off-season now?”

**********

There is a lot of bad that comes with Terrell Owens – the outlandish statements, the diva behavior, the Sharpies – that immediately turn fans off to his existence. So if he was going to stay in the NFL for his 15th season, it was going to be one of two places. One, with a coach with just as big of an ego or mouth as his own, which seemed to be the most obvious option. Secondly, with a team so down in the dumps, with absolutely no personality, with no voice, and thus no one for Owens to rebel against. But the only team that fell into the second category – Buffalo – was mired in that category because they continually refused to spend money and take chances. So how would Owens ever come about in the royal blue and red of the Bills?

The Bills can handle everything that comes with Owens because it has a big gaping hole in its exsistance. The Bills had become a laughable, meaningless franchise, with nothing to make them memorable. Owens’ history and personality can fill a gorge as large as the Bills’. So he’s going to make outlandish statements here and there, maybe offend an opposing teams’ fan base, probably get in an argument or two with his teammates. If it gives the Bills’ heart or some reason to exist, then I am okay with it.

The negativity could only hurt a franchise that had a good thing going in the first place. When you have a franchise complacent and meaningless, Owens’ negativity is either going to inspire the rest of the team against him, or inspire them to be with them. And either way, it’s inspiration where inspiration didn’t exist previously.

And really, things couldn’t get any worse for the Bills. So even if the grand T.O. experiment blows up completely, it’s not rock bottom, because at least they got out there and took the chance where they hadn’t previously.

***********

T.O. once played with my favorite QB, and now he'll play for my favorite team. (Photo: Jamd.com)

I’m eager to see the Owens led Bills for not only the excitement factor it is already bringing to the franchise, but because he seems to be bookending his career with my two favorite teams. Owens entered the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, and was one of The Reason I Like Sports (aka Steve Young)’s favorite receivers in the twilight of his career. And now, in year 15, Owens is heading to the Buffalo Bills, to try to salvage his floundering career.

Many sportswriters – including the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s Bob Matthews, who I’ve had a love-hate relationship with since I was ten -  have already analyzed the Owens move as one of the most shrewd marketing moves an NFL team has ever made. The timing and execution of the deal was perfect. For one, it was a relatively slow sports weekend, in comparison to the next few weeks of March Madness and the start of the baseball season.  Then throw in how quickly they had him available for a press conference, and how quickly my email box was flooded with emails from the Bills Store and the organization themselves, telling me about Owens jersey pre-orders and ticket office hours. And then they give him jersey number 1. If that’s not a good marketing move, or an excellent concession to Owens’ ego, I don’t know what is.

This team had reached rock bottom. It had become irrelevant to the rest of America. It had become meaningless to those in Western New York. And the few fans it had left felt absolutely hopeless. In a matter of hours on Saturday, however, the Bills became relevant again to all parties.

Just call it the Buffalo Bills’ Stimulus Package. No matter how this ends, Bills fans will be talking about this move for years to come.

A sad Dolph-fan after Sunday's game. (Photo from Yahoo Sports)

After a few minutes of him telling me about a play in the third quarter that had gone awry, one that could have definitely changed the tempo of the game, he paused, looking for an encouraging word.  I didn’t know what to tell him.  I’ve been there before – as a Steve Young fan in the late 1990s, there were many early playoff exits that I just wasn’t okay with, and nothing anyone tried to console me with in the days following would make me better.  I usually didn’t recover until I would go on my self-imposed Steve Young hiatus for Lent in mid-February.  (This did include me thumb-tacking a sheet over my bedroom wall shrine to Young.  To adolescent me, this was more of a sacrifice than giving up anything else – giving up my lust of a Mormon quarterback to fulfill my Catholic religious obligations.)

So what was I going to tell the Dolph-fan? “Give up Chad Pennington for Lent?” The Dolphins shouldn’t be hanging their heads. They went from finishing the 2007 season 1-15 to winning the AFC East the next. Sure, having Bill Parcells on your side never hurts – I’m convinced that he could lead a Pop Warner team to beat an NFL team in the Super Bowl just merely by being involved.  But Dolph-fans shouldn’t stay crushed and depressed. So much progress was made, and if they hadn’t suffered some very key injuries at wide-out the last half of the season, I am sure we would have seen a different result this past Sunday.

Thus, there was only one point of solace I could share that would somewhat console the Dolph-fan.

“Look, it could be worse. It’ll be okay. At least you’re not a Bills fan.”

And with that, I think the Dolph-fan finally put things in perspective.

See, it’s after receiving emails like this from your local Bills Backers group that you feel like you’ve reached the lowest depths. There is no place worse than this state of mind in fandom. Even Detroit fans may have more hope than the overall sentiment put forth in the following message.

From the Bills Backers of Boston season wrap-up email, received January 2:

Hi everyone,

A season that started with so much promise ended in yet another disappointing finish.  And to top it off, Bills fans everywhere were insulted by the team that they love with the word that Mister Mediocrity, Dick Jauron, will be returning to coach the Bills in 2009.  With one simple press release, the 2009 season has been ruined even before the 2008 season has ended.

We all sympathize with Tony Bogyo, a member of our chapter since the good-ol days, when he said, “I have truly never felt so low as a Bills fan. I know what next season holds, and it isn’t pretty – it’s the same as what we’ve seen the past 3 seasons.” (Read his entire article on Bills Daily, here: http://www.billsdaily.com/articles/bogyo/2008/jauron.shtml).  No matter what happens in the offseason, the Bills will still be buried in the AFC East basement, their weak and spiritless coach defining their personality.

The Bills Backers of Boston will certainly be back next season, but will the fans?  Time will tell.

Well, don’t we all feel like jumping for joy after that missive.

Despite my initial reaction that this message was a tad on the melodramatic side, after more thought, I understood their point. How can you be a fan of a team that seems to be most interested in exploring depths of depression and incompetence unseen by any other professional sports teams in the history of professional sports teams? I think fans of the Washington Generals carry more hope in their hearts than those that the Bills’ collective fanbase now possesses. We have a quarterback of the future who shows a troubling propensity to injuries. We have a star wide receiver who admittedly only likes playing for the washed up backup quarterback.  Our offensive and defensive line corps are dropping like files. Our owner is elderly, a miser, and might think the year is 1969, not 2009.  His family has already stated that they want nothing to do with the team after he passes on.  We tried to showcase the team to Toronto, who rightfully turned their nose at the inferior product.

At least Lions fans get to scrap it all and start over. While I’m not ready to lay all of the blame on Dick Jauron, I would have been okay with the Bills firing the man my mom affectionately refers to as “Sketlator.” I think getting rid of him, along with Turk Schonert (despite his funny name), would have begun an overall shakeup of the team that may be needed.  As my father kept saying during my sojourn back to Western New York for the holidays, the players only like Jauron because Jauron doesn’t work them hard, doesn’t demand much of them, and was okay with their late season lack of hustle. I think the Bills needed to make an overall statement and send a message that, “The way that this season imploded was not okay.” And the best way this could have been done right away was by firing Jauron.

The Bills could still send this message.  They could make a splash in free agency and move for a big name quarterback, wide receiver or running back.  I love Edwards and Lynch, and don’t mind the wide receivers, but they aren’t the best in the NFL, so the Bills can justify bringing a big name in any of those positions on board. That might announce to the rest of the league that the Bills don’t want to be the next Detroit Lions.  That they’re sick of losing to the likes of the New England Patriots 5000 to 6. But my sneaking suspicion is that such a big deal is just not going to happen.

Let’s be frank about the whole Bills situation. The Bills can’t sign big name players without revenue, and the revenue is no longer there. The Bills are a small-market team without any money who  haven’t won in a long time. They don’t have many, if any, star players.  They can’t win their division. Their owner is a laughing stock because of his age.  The team lacks the keys to make money, and lack the leadership to make needed changes to the franchise. They are not taken seriously.  Thus, merchandise isn’t going to sell, season tickets aren’t going to sell, training camp activities aren’t going to sell, jerseys aren’t going to sell, individual game tickets aren’t going to sell, parking at the Ralph isn’t going to sell – this team will continue to make no money. As a franchise, what do you do when you have this scenario on your hands?

The sports marketing tendency when you have a mess of a team like this on your hands is to gimmick the heck of of the games. Let’s give out Governor Rod Blagojevich bobble-heads. Let’s offer to pay a lucky fan’s mortgage. Everyone bring your disco records and let’s blow them up.  Sometimes, these gimmicks work.  You’re looking at the girl who attended a North Shore Spirit minor league baseball game to get a Doug Flutie bobblehead (it was for my father, I swear.)

But after a while, your intended audience wisens up, no matter what they may have initially fell for. To be blunt, if you are putting out garbage on the field, ice, or court, there’s only so many ways you can pretty it up and spray perfume on it before people notice that it’s garbage. The marketers around the Bills are going to start having to gimmick around the team to make them somewhat viable.

Thus, I fully expect to get all of these coupon deals and buy one-ticket-get-one-ticket free offers from the Buffalo Bills braintrust next season.  I expect Rian Lindell to greet my unsuspecting mother at many a Tops.  And you know what? We’re not going to fall for it.

We’re the Buffalo Bills. We’re led by Dick Jauron. We’re quarterbacked by Trent Edwards. Our owner is Ralph Wilson. And that’s the football equivalent of my mom telling my grandma while bouncing baby me on her knee back in 1982, “We bought a house. But it has no closets, no yard, no driveway, bad plumbing, and only one bedroom.”

So Dolph-fans, put your chin up. You’re a million times better off than us.

First off, he called ESPN “dumb.” Oh Steve, for all of your smarts, you can sure put your foot in your mouth sometimes. Like the time you called out Phil Simms on national television. I despise Simms as well, and think he was wicked overrated as a quarterback (just like his son), but I’d never call him out on it on national television.

Hmm…maybe I would, but I would do it under a pseudonym and hide for a few weeks following.

Steve, I’ll offer you the same piece of advice I offered Bill Simmons a few months ago. Don’t publicly “dis” your employer. Don’t blog on a underground Blogger account about how ESPN is the man and how they don’t let you post every 7,000 word tomb you write, even if you have a legitimate point. Don’t call out ESPN on ESPN, even if you have pent up anger about having to do a show with Emmitt “I Have Never Heard of Subject-Verb Agreement” Smith and Stuart “Boo-yah!” Scott. Both are examples of burning bridges. I tell my students all the time not to burn bridges, especially with employers, potential employers, and the like. If you ever want a job, it probably isn’t a good idea to burn bridges.

Steve and Bill, you need a career counselor to give you the counseling you obviously didn’t receive at Brigham Young and Holy Cross, respectively. I volunteer. Email me. I’ll help you.

Secondly, in the most egregious assault of one of my favorite athletes since Saturday night’s BU-BC game, a Carolina Panthers fan threw a beer cup at Steve Young. Fortunately, he missed. Steve stayed calm and professional throughout the incident, which does not surprise me. Think about it. For one, he’s a lawyer. Lawyers get stuff thrown at them all the time. (Well, I mean, not all the time. But they are the recipients of a lot of vile comments and hate, which are metaphorically thrown at them. Right?) Additionally, Steve Young has like five children under the age of 10. He has toys, clothes, diapers and cut-up-bits of food thrown at him every single minute of his waking life.

Therefore, having a empty beer cup thrown at him was not going to phase Steve Young. Nothing phases Steve, except for sharing a show with Emmitt Smith or Michael Irvin. But then again, wouldn’t that bug you too?

-Everyone’s Favorite Goalie (aka John Curry) lost his first NHL start for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday against the Buffalo Sabres. Despite the Pittsburgh announcers practically blowing out their microphones with the calls of his crazy contortionist saves in the third period, the Penguins defense neglected to play, and he was defenseless against four goals.  I was able to view the FSN Pittsburgh coverage online, and on the bright side, the announcers and commentators did seem quite fond of Curry, and very pleased with his performance.   It just would have been nicer if Sidney Crosby’s hat trick from Saturday had occurred one day earlier to help Curry out. 

Dany Sabourin reaffirmed his spot as the Penguins’ current #1 goalie with a good performance agains the New Jersey Devils, meaning Curry is left to hang out near the bench door or on a folding chair in the hallway, dependent on the arena he’s playing in.  Oh well.  Marc-Andre Fleury is now listed as “week-to-week,” so The Everyone’s Favorite Goalie Watch continues.  Maybe another start for Curry is out there?

- In Sunday’s “Hailey’s Comet” game (I refer to any San Francisco 49ers – Buffalo Bills match up as a Hailey’s Comet game because it is a meeting of my two favorite childhood teams that seems to happen only once every seven years), the Bills lost to the lowly 49ers, 10-3. Bye bye any logical playoff hopes.  We are back to scheming up all the “well, if every team in the AFC except us loses at least 3 of the next 4, we’ll make it to the playoffs as a wild card” scenarios, like we do every year.  Then the Bills start emailing us fans, pushing the “Bill-ieve” t-shirts, telling us that we should still “Bill-ieve” because if we win against the Dolphins, the Patriots tie all of their remaining games, and the Jets organization ceases operations, we’ll still make the playoffs!

I don’t know if I can be Bill-ieving anymore.  There are only so many times my heart can be broken by the Buffalo Bills, and I may be running out.  It’s only been broken every year since I was ten,

- And in the “Hailey’s Comet” game, Trent Edwards was befallen by a groin injury.  He was replaced in the second half with JP Loser-man, which I am sure made Lee Evans’ day, but did not make the rest of the team’s.  According to many retabile news sources today, Edwards will be a “game time decision” against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday in the motherland (aka, Toronto.)

Trent Edwards, I want to believe – excuse me, I mean Bill-ieve – in you as the Bills’ quarterback of the future. However, if you are going to continue to suffer more injuries than I did in my lone season of running cross-country (right knee swelling, then left knee swelling, then left heel, then both knees again), this whole starting quarterback gig might not be the ideal job for you.

- The FWNICM was benched. As in, didn’t dress for Boston University’s Saturday night game against St. Lawrence.  We will not discuss this further.  I am still verklempt.

Every sports fan goes through his or her ups and downs, but gosh – it was like everything that could have happened to my favorite teams/athletes, happened.  I almost expected to hear that Gabe Kapler had retired…and then I checked and he’s still exploring free agency. Thank goodness.  That would have been too much for me to handle.

Don't worry, Rian Lindell - I'm still thankful for you.

This Thanksgiving day, I have a lot to be thankful for. In the spirit of many blogs today, I will now provide a laundry list of all the things – sports related, that is – that I am thankful for:

I am thankful that the Buffalo Bills are still in Buffalo.

I am thankful that Dick Jauron has resisted the urge to throw in JP Losman when Trent Edwards has gone through his growing pains.

Reluctantly, I am thankful for Rian Lindell, because for every 47 yarder to win the game he misses, he blasts 50 other field goals and extra points through the uprights. (And I still don’t understand why more people are not naming their sons Rian with an i.)

I am thankful for the Buffalo Sabres’ third jerseys, because they remind me of my childhood.

I am thankful that the Florida Panthers aren’t completely running away of the mess that the Rochester Amerks are in, and actually will face the fans and address their growing concerns about the team.

I am thankful that Gabe Kapler came back from retirement and coaching the Single – A Greenville Drive to play for the Milwaukee Brewers, and had a few moments of greatness during the season.

I am thankful that of all the players the Boston Red Sox could have received in a trade for Manny Ramirez, they got Jason Bay. From a pox in the clubhouse to everyone’s favorite humble Canadian.

I am thankful that the NCAA is recognizing Steve Young’s accomplishments both on and off the field in January by giving him a 2009 Silver Annerversary Award. In case you aren’t familiar with his story, while Young was setting passing and rushing records in the NFL, he was going to law school in the off-season.

I am thankful for the lacrosse dynasty that is the Rochester, NY professional lacrosse. Big ups for making my hometown relevant.

I am thankful for all of the junior and senior elite gymnasts, like those I saw during the US Championships, who might not ever make it to the Olympics, but put such effort and energy into their sport anyway.

I am thankful for original floor exercise routines and music, which are way too few and far between. I am also thankful for unique and fun balance beam mounts.

I am thankful for Phil Kessel finally, finally, finally being used correctly in the Boston Bruins playbook and having a smash up season so far because of it. (I am also thankful because he’s cute.)

I am thankful that a college hockey player I watched while I’ve had season tickets has actually played in a NHL game (John Curry.) You don’t have to leave college early and/or be drafted at age 18 to play in the NHL.

I am thankful that former Hockey East goalies are getting mega NHL love this year, with Ben Bishop playing with the St. Louis Blues, Cory Schneider getting called up by the Canucks, Curry playing with the Penguins, and Jonathan Quick getting time up with the LA Kings.

I am thankful that the senior class of the Boston University Terriers men’s hockey team have kicked the intensity up a notch this season, and hope despite the current slump, they continue to play with such drive.

I am thankful that the Mullins Center at UMass Amherst is so amusing.

I am thankful for the Skating Monk, aka the Providence College Friar, and his participation in the Hockey East Semifinal mascot game despite PC not being in the semifinals.

I am thankful that hockey has such a lively and fun online community.

I am thankful for all of my blog readers, for letting me fulfill my teenage dream of being a sportswriter (despite in a much different way than what fourteen year old me imagined.)

And, I am thankful for coffee, without which none of this would be possible.