NYSSWA: New York State Sportswriters Association

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(Warning: Today's entry is high school sports content-free as I take a break from our preferred subject matter in order to assess whether I'm in a groove or in a rut.)

I've been saving up a few pet peeves from the world of sports:

(1) Going out on a limb in advance of the Indy 500 because she may in fact finally win something that matters some day, I'm tired of stories about Danica Patrick. I respect the fact that she's pretty good in open-wheel racing -- a demanding and dangerous sport -- but she needs to find her way into victory lane at least once before I treat her with the level of respect reserved for Jeff Gordon.

(2) Chris Berman may have been a good reporter and/or anchor at one time in his career, but that was long ago. Now, he's just annoying. His sound effects, really just noise, while narrating highlights on ESPN are a terrible distraction.

(3) As long as I'm on the subject of ESPN, when did they decide that arena football needed to be covered three or four nights a week on SportsCenter rather than just being mentioned annually? It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the network having a substantial stake in the Arena Football League, would it?

The SportsCenter team's new marketing slogan might as well be, "ESPN: Integrity in Journalism Since 2008"

(4) If Roger Clemens is going to sign contracts for dollar figures with more zeroes than a computer nerds convention, shouldn't he at least be in shape and ready to go by Easter rather than Memorial Day?

(5) Being forced to watch the Detroit Lions rather than a professional football team on Thanksgiving might be grounds for a lawsuit.

(6) The refusal of cable and broadcast networks to show any NHL games this past season was a disappointment.

Huh? What? Versus Network? What's that?

(7) Anyone or anything that gets in my way while I'm trying to watch Pardon The Interruption, talking-head television with a limit on inane screaming matches, qualifies as a pet peeve of the highest magnitude. Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon are entertaining and insightful.

(8) Well, it's more than a year later and the stripper who made the rape allegations against three Duke lacrosse players still hasn't been charged with filing a false police report. Why is that?

9/11/24: Mass. school forfeits over male opponent

9/10/24: Regents table vote on expanding mixed competition

9/9/24: Shot clock experiment will change lacrosse

9/7/24: Garden City sets L.I. football record

9/6/24: Lawsuit takes aim at N.C.'s NIL ban

9/5/24: New York's Week 0 football intrigue