A New Year, A New Coach, and A New Trophy

Welcome 2010. Hell it can’t be any worse then 2009. Actually for me it started out on a pretty high note. About 10 hours into the new year one finely dressed young man (see picture) stepped up and started the year the way he started last year, by setting a PR in the Montgomery County Road Runners New Years Day 5k. 21:56 was the chip time which was about 30 seconds faster then last year. Word.

The New Year also brings changes. Many of those take place in the National Football League as the regular season wraps up (way to go JETS for crushing the cats from Cincy last night to grab the last playoff spot!) and owners figure that now would be a good time to cut the coaches who aren’t getting the job done. If you had the misfortune to follow the Redskins for the past few years you knew that Jim Zorn was going to suffer one of those cuts at the end of this season. The team’s owner, Dan Snyder, brought in a new management team and their desire to change directions combined with the teams poor performance over the last few...err...dozen years sealed Zorn’s fate. The thing is that Snyder decided to drop the preverbal axe as soon as the team arrived back from their final game in San Diego yesterday. I have two issues to take up here. The first is that the team’s announcement didn’t come out until 4am this morning. This assured the team wouldn’t be ripped on any of the NFL wrap up shows or in the morning papers. Classy job there Dan...I guess old habits die hard. The second item is actually a little more theoretical but still is sticking in my craw. The weather here in DC has been cold to a fault. The wind chill has dipped into the negative degree side of the thermometer and I can think of several places in the Arctic Circle that might be warmer right now. The Skins finished the season in sunny, warm San Diego. Why couldn’t the team notify the coach that he was fired right then and there? Give him a voucher for a first class ticket and just box his office up for him and ship it to any address he asks? This way he can either ride back with the team and clean out his office the next day if he wants or he can stay for a few days in the warmth of the California sunshine (and see if the Chargers might need some help in the coaching ranks for next season!). The way I see it is if he’s going to be axed he might as well get a vacation out of it

Speaking of football....this time on the Fantasy side of things. I am here to proclaim that “Third Floor 3xDope” has just been declared the Best League In Town (BLIT) Champions with a dramatic 2 week win over the Alexandria Parcells. The difference in the end was figuring how to balance the star players that got you to the finals with the real world performances in the last weeks of the season. If they’re playing for a playoff-bound team it is very possible they might sit a large portion of the last few games (ie: Payton Manning, my starting QB!) which means that you have to rely on second string talent like Alex Smith (San Fran) and Vince Young (Tenn). But it worked and I will gladly hold the fictional championship trophy (no Shiva to keep me warm at night!)