To some, the additional week of previewing, speculating and
predicting that precedes the Super Bowl is just too much analysis to handle.
All the football talk might seem painstakingly repetitive right now, however,
but in another couple of weeks, don?t think it’s not going to be missed.

Take this weekend as an opportunity to look ahead. Not to
the upcoming Super Bowl, mind you, but at what lies just beyond the final
meaningful football game of the season. We?re about to enter the almost three-week-long
dead period that takes place between February 3 (this year?s Super Bowl Sunday)
and the start of spring training games, and it?s not going to be pretty.

This period of time takes place each year, and this time
around it appears like it’s going to be just as boring as ever.

As far as football goes, next Sunday?s matchup between the
Patriots and the Giants may not be the last event that?ll occur before the
draft in April, but it certainly will be the last one worth paying any real
attention to.

With the NFL Network airing countless hours of weigh-ins and
40-yard dashes at the combine, football fans at home, as well as the scouts
present in Indianapolis with nothing better to do, will drool over the next
receiver to show up and run a 4.3.

Although speculating about who might be a steal might be fun
now, by the time Tennessee Tech?s cornerback with the blazing speed gets
drafted in the sixth round, he?ll have long been an afterthought even in the
most diehard fan?s mind, and the hours watching the combine will reap little
benefit.

The Pro Bowl will also provide an opportunity to watch
football, but due to injuries, real or fake, and general laziness, the game
never proves to be anything exciting.

So, as long as there?s nothing going on in football, it
looks like an all-right time to start paying attention to other sports, right?
Wrong.

The NHL All-Star game is this weekend, and because the
league?s biggest star, Sidney Crosby, will not be playing in it, the usually
overlooked game should go even more unnoticed this season. In fact, with Crosby
possibly missing the next eight weeks with an ankle injury (which would put his
return at a little before the start of the playoffs), there isn?t really any
professional hockey worth watching for the casual fan until the Stanley Cup
playoffs begin. Of course, that clashes with the start of the baseball season,
so the prospect of watching hockey this season is looking dim for most.

With hockey and football providing little to watch during
this stretch, it’s basketball that the brunt of the sports-watching load seems
to fall on during the upcoming lull.

Unfortunately, the ?highlight? of NBA play during February
is the All-Star Weekend. In recent years, the once-fiercely played contest has
turned into little more than an afterthought to what has became a party
weekend. Now that it?s more of a place to see and be seen, all the activities
on the court seem secondary to the ones going on off it. And with the game
being played in New Orleans this year, the 2008 version should be no different.
The weekend?s other main event, the slam dunk contest, no longer attracts the
names it once did, and the celebrity game that precedes the professional one
offers little more than an excuse to laugh at the 3-point shooting abilities of
Frankie Muniz.

With the NBA playoffs lasting as long as they do, February
might even be a good time to take a month off from watching the NBA ? lest fans
be bored of it by the time the season gears up for its playoff season that
extends to mid-June.

College basketball tries its best to bail out sports fans,
but even NCAA games come up short in February. Conference play is heating up
and the NCAA Tournament picture starts to become clearer. But March is known as
the sport?s signature month for a reason. Games between league rivals during
the regular season, like the ones that occur in February, are no match for the
ones that they play in March. And with tournament play so close, it’s tough not
to pine for it to come more quickly.

Actually, the only truly exciting thing going on during this
timeframe is the start of the NASCAR season. The Sprint Cup Series opens Feb. 9,
but the sport, despite its massive popularity, doesn?t appeal to a diverse
enough group of fans to lift their collective spirits very much.

Perhaps the only good thing about the period between the
Super Bowl and baseball is that every year the same thing happens, so hopefully
by now fans have found a way to cope with it.

Maybe it’s devoting hours to posting on web forums about
pitchers and catchers reporting. Maybe it?s watching NASCAR for the first time.
Or maybe it’s just diving into the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, which
conveniently comes out the week of Valentine?s Day. Whatever it is, I suggest
you enjoy the week of anticipation leading up to the Super Bowl now, because
once the final whistle blows, you?re in for a pretty tough time.

?

Mike Ackerstein is a sophomore majoring in political
science. If you know a good way to kill a few weeks that doesn?t involve
devoting more time to studying, he can be reached [email protected].