A Tipping Point?

Mike Wilbon writes today about his moment of not caring about New Years' Day bowl games:

"The bowl games, for the first time in my life, didn't matter. The people who run college football had succeeded, finally, in killing New Year's Day. Instead of college playoff games commanding our attention, we were left with a bunch of BCS exhibitions that meant absolutely nothing. I didn't know what games were being played at what times, nor in several cases, what day."

He also noted that he and a fair number of his acquaintances bailed on the bowl games to check out the Winter Classic.

My own alma mater played on New Years Day... didn't watch a minute of it.

College football has made the impossible happen -- New Years Day doesn't matter any more, not for football, anyway. Meanwhile, grown men were playing a game -- a game that meant something to their seasons -- like kids on a pond.

College football had better get with the program. They're so worried about regular season games meaning nothing if there is a playoff. In doing so, they now have several dozen bowl games that mean nothing so that there can be a game on a Thursday night next week that "crowns" a Beauty Contest System champion.

Their system is badly broken, and the NHL has gotten something very right.

A night in the life of beat writers

We haven't seen any reference to this at the Washington Post website yet, but Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersburg Times has this interesting account of a night in the life of the beat writer...

"As we rolled up to the arena's parking garage exit, we noticed the large metal door that spans the opening was open about four feet high. As we got closer, we noticed the bottom of the left side of the door was crumpled outward as if something had tried to bash its way past. As the door is supposed to automatically open as a car approaches, the fact that it was stuck in that spot did not bode well."

Apparently, it didn't.

Tweet, Twit....t'what?

We don't profess to be up on the internets as much as you young kids, although we do have a Twitter account (perhaps the least used in the inventory). But we were wondering what some tweets might look like from some NHLers...


"Spending time watching old Reebok commercials from when I was the darling of the league."
from SidCros87


"Colin called -- wants to talk"
from Great8


"burning video of Winter Classic"
from ChiGoalie


"not pinching myself"
from ClaudeInBos


"Almost ready...maybe in a week or two"
from NooCanuck


"Maybe we should sign Conklin, maybe then we'd get to play in the snow"
from 28otherGMs


"What was I thinking?...penalty shot??"
from NHLref25

"ugh"
from Smitty41

Do you realize...

...that Boston has lost only one game since Thanksgiving (15-1-0)?

To Washington, 3-1.