It’s a good thing
February is the shortest month of the year, for it is certainly the coldest,
most barren page on the sports calendar. The month that gave us both Washington
and Lincoln is one of only two without any professional football or baseball
(regular season or playoffs). Wait, you say, one of the best Super Bowls ever
played was on the first of this frigid month. And that came merely hours after
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer played another epic tennis match for the
Australian Open title. Both teasers, I say, that make the next four weeks even
chillier for a sports fan.
Two of the biggest
events of the month happen to be exhibition games. And there is nothing more
over-inflated and less competitive — less sporting, you might say – than the NFL
Pro Bowl or the NBA All-Star Game. The last time there was a big hit in
football’s year-end luau, it was between agents elbowing one another for
elevator space, that winter’s top free agent merely a signature away. And as for
defense in the NBA’s midseason showcase, you may as well look for angel wings on
Rod Blagojevich.
The NBA’s regular
season, of course, is in full flight this month, All-Star Weekend merely serving
as an interruption to the 82-game trek for playoff position. Snowbirds will
negotiate their cable dial for National Hockey League action, wondering if the
Atlanta Thrashers will ever have the kind of cross-continent rivalry with the
Calgary Flames (a franchise born in Atlanta more than 30 years ago) that might
stir interest among sports fans south of the Mason Dixon. (Damn right that’s a
stretch, folks. Just like the viability of a 30-team NHL.)
The Daytona 500 is
February’s star child, and for millions of race fans, Super Bowl XLIII will
merely be this month’s second-most significant event. But I’ve always found
NASCAR’s signature day hopelessly misplaced, the equivalent of playing a Super
Bowl on Labor Day weekend, then determining a “champion” by playing four months
of football to all but erase the memory of the big opener. There was a time when
NASCAR needed the kind of season-opening splash the Daytona 500 provided, to
fund the rest of the overlooked race season. No more. Despite what it would do
to frigid February, the Daytona 500 needs to be a fall event, NASCAR’s climactic
Chase for the Cup ending on the track where the sport’s legends are made.
Now, here in
Memphis, we have the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South
Cup, an all too rare week — outside tennis’ four Grand Slam events — when men
and women gather and play before the same fans, on the same courts. When Borg,
McEnroe, Connors, and Agassi were winning championships, The Racquet Club of
Memphis even drew some national attention during a month when it’s hard for the
entire nation to pay attention to anything beyond Groundhog Day. As splendidly
as they’ll play, the men at this year’s Memphis event will be competing to
merely be in the conversation about successors to the game’s twin titans,
Federer and Nadal.
The sports deck is
simply stacked against the second month of the year. You won’t see any NFL
football or major-league baseball in March either, but the third month has an
event so grand that it has actually adopted the month’s name in its three-week
mad dash to crown an NCAA basketball champion. Where’s the February madness,
people?
So cheer a little
louder for the Tigers and Grizzlies this month. Among home games, I’d highlight
the Tigers’ tilt with longtime rival Southern Miss. Our NBA outfit actually
plays an opponent it should beat: the Oklahoma City Thunder. Alas, February
still can’t win: these games are played on the same date, the last day of the
month.
Perhaps the lesson
for us all comes on February 14th, when we’re reminded of what and who is really
important, where our hearts need to be when they’re not pounding through our
chests with the game on the line. A box of chocolate and a rose can go a long
way, even in the shortest of months.
