It’s a new year and with a new year comes the promise of change; a chance break bad habits; to do things better.  Well, while we love to blame players, coaches and owners, we sports fans need to look in the mirror and admit that we need to make some changes as well.  I propose the following resolutions to help us all become better sports fans in 2007.

1. Less Sport Radio.  I’ll admit that this one is a personal pet peeve.  I hate sports talk radio shows.  There is not another segment of sports media that I find more annoying.  Pompous hosts, who typically aren’t all that knowledgeable (yes, I’m talking to you Steven A. Smith and Michael Kay) use the airwaves to spout incoherent rants, recycle clichés and support their own agendas.  It’s suppose to be a forum for fans to express ideas and opinions but usually if a caller’s opinion’s differ from the host’s they call him crazy and hang up.  So please in the best interests of everyone, let’s stop calling and stop listening. 

2. Think Before You Vote.  The All-Star vote is one of the last pieces of power the sports fan has left, but frankly we as a group are doing a terrible job lately.  All you have to do is look at this year’s Pro Bowl balloting where John #### and his whopping zero interceptions, zero sacks and 5 passes defended made it to Hawaii over Kerry Rhodes who has 5 interceptions, 4 sacks and 3 forced fumbles.  This happens all the time in every major sport, then fans turn around and complain that the same players make it to the All-Star game every year. Well then we as a whole need to do a better job.

3. Try Something New.  We all consider ourselves sports fans but are we really?  How many of us have been to a minor league baseball game? Or checked out a basketball game at our local community college?  Maybe you’ve never been to an Arena League game (which is actually pretty fun in person).  We could all diversify our sports portfolios a bit. 

4. Cut Down the Clichés.  Not all teams that lose “just didn’t want to win” sometimes they just get out played.  And not all athletes are “overpaid”; actually basic economics tells us that for the most part they all are compensated properly.  Can we get rid of clichés completely? Of course not. But as a group lets make an effort to actually think before we speak.

5. Keep Things in Perspective. Sports fans speak in way too many absolutes.  We crown players superstars in their first year. Or we call them busts after a few bad games early in their career.  Some of it comes with being a fan, I understand that. This is not completely our fault.  Sports media outlets love to proclaim a player, a team or even a league as reaching super star status or “in crisis”.  A perfect example of this is Tony Romo.  He was being compared to Brett Favre after his second NFL start.  Now? Not so much.  Let’s just take a little time before we proclaim the end of baseball as we know it or send Frank Gore to the Hall of Fame.

Some thoughts before spending the rest of the day watching football and rooting for my fantasy team:

How the hell are the Raiders involved in a nationally televised game for the third time this year? The Raiders were part of the Monday Night Football opening week double header, a Sunday night game against Denver in week 6, and now they are playing at Seattle on Monday Night this week in a game that will feature both teams starting back up quarterbacks and back up running backs..  Can’t say I’ll be rushing home from class to catch this game.

I’m glad to see someone has their head on straight in comparing Tony Romo to Brett Favre.  I will not insult Favre by taking the time to list the reasons why these comparisons are absurd.  I’m just glad that Romo himself realizes that making this comparison is ridiculous.  Can the guy win two games in a row first? It’s unbelievable how quick we pass judgment (both positive and negative judgment) in sports these days. 

I thought I was a sports fan, but I guess I’m really not. I say this because I would never name my child ESPN like this couple.  And we though the name “Apple” was bad. One of my friends once told me that in this country we are getting to the point where the government is going to have to approve names, just to save kids from their parents.  I can’t say she is wrong.   

It’s good to see that the Knicks are making my decision to root for them to lose very easy.  I caught the second half of the home opener against Indiana last night and nothing has changed.  They gave up wide open jump shots off of simple high screens; allowing someone named Jasikevicuis to score 16 points on 5-10 shooting. They had 14 total assists; the Pacers starting point guard, Jamal Tinsley, had the same amount.  And last but not least the Knicks shot 43% from the field, compared to the Pacers 52%.  The positives were that home opener was not sold out, which will hopefully force Dolan’s hand even quicker to dump Isiah, and David Lee and Nate Robinson are still hustling.  Hopefully a new General Manager and Coach can salvage something out of the three young guys and maybe Eddy Curry before they blow the team up.