February Blues [J. Mark English]

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
o the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow.

- William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

That morbid quote represents how darkness is cast around the sports world in the month of February. Football leaves us for good now, and we are left with almost nothing to watch until March Madness.

The NHL and NBA seasons are still in full force, but the shaping of seeds will not really gain a clear picture until March, but we won't pay attention until April, because of the NCAA tournament.

We have to wait three weeks until the conference tournaments in NCAA basketball.

Although we're only eight days away from pitchers and catchers, we still have to wait until the beginning of March till we can see any spring training baseball games.

This coming weekend offers up little in sports entertainment. The NFL Pro-Bowl will be on, but CBS would be lucky to get a five percent of the viewers that the Super Bowl received.

The NBA All-Star game will be in Las Vegas, but is it really worth taking time out of your evening to pencil in watching that game?

This really is a depressing month. Thank goodness its only 28 days long (except for those damn leap years).

I think the NFL could do us all a favor and extend the regular season to 18 games. This way the Super Bowl would not be until President Day weekend, and we'd all get Monday off to catch up on sleep.

Statistically speaking, the day after the Super Bowl represents the day most amount of sick calls are called in. So why not just make the day after an official holiday? Then we'd only have to wait a few more days for the excitement of March Madness.

Until the NFL decides to do that, sport fans will have to figure out other ways to occupy their evenings. Maybe its not a coincidence that Valentines Day falls in the middle of February. Its the one time that men can fully throw their attention towards their loved one, without being distracted by a game.

Hurry along March, please come as fast as you can...