Dear NFL: Give It A Rest Already! Sincerely, All Other Sports.

This is the 40-Something Files!

A weekly take on the state of Seattle Sports through the lens of a guy whose four decades of fandom has earned too many scars, and seen too few celebrations.

I can honestly say that I know the time has come to turn the page. It’s springtime already, for Goodell’s sake! But what sports fan among us can really pry themselves from the gravitational pull of the NFL?

“Hello Spring Training, and you pesky little Mariners, with your misguided debut of cream flavored Sunday duds (literally and figuratively, duds), and the hopeful addition of a “Cruz” missile launcher ready to take a swing at Safeco Field. It’s nice to see you again, I like what you’ve done with your facial hair…”

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Aside from the fact that it’s going on eight weeks since our beloved ‘Hawks broke our 12-shaped hearts, there are also some fairly important celestial bodies making their annual appearance in the sports universe sky. If there ever was a time to make a smooth transition, now is that time, isn’t it?

But, sorry, other members of the great sports entertainment expanse, there’s just not enough light to shine on you during the NFL’s new off-season “eclipse everything program.”

For most of February, it was all about “The Call” that ended “The Game” and crushed “The 12’s” and quite possibly retired “The Beast.”

Then at the end February and into March here came the M’s, and this was most definitely the right time to move on. Or was it?

Just as Free Agency began, along came a barrage of hits, the likes of which you don’t get from Spring Training: Jimmy Graham for Max Unger… The Michael Bennett twitter hoax that crashed the internets… and even the world wide launch of Twelf on the Shelf!

A few more weeks pass, still held hostage by the NFL and our lust for anything Seahawks, but now it is definitely time to turn the page… after all, there are brackets that need filling as March Madness descends upon us!

I rock paper scissored my bracket (except for making sure Gonzaga is my pick to win it all – it’s a Northwest thing, even for a Husky), and before I could figure out which freaking channel was overlapping viewing for what games and when, along came a menacing shadow cast upon it all.

Enter the NFL’s first ever Veteran’s Combine… featuring Keith Price, Michael Sam, and just to round out the audience demo, the second coming of Tim Tebow. Seriously.

I’ll tell you what… the NFL’s got “ONIONS!”

I didn’t even watch that gimmicky addition to the NFL parade, but mostly because I wasn’t in the vicinity of a flat screen at the time. Given the choice between chasing dreams of a salvageable bracket via various CBS affiliate networks, or just relaxing and getting a kick out of watching a bunch of washed up NFL re-hopefuls on the NFL Network, I am pretty sure I know what I’d have done. Still hadn’t moved on…

This week, it’s been the NFL owner’s meetings taking center stage around flirtations with ruinous rules changes designed (some might say) with clear intentions of destroying the pending Seahawk’s dynasty, if not the game as we know it, in general.

And to top it off, the NFL just announced a maniacal plan for the coming Superbowl 50 golden anniversary championship year, whereby they will plate every single item available in the on line store with 14 karat gold and sell it for 50 times it’s actual value. Or something like that.

In spite of the fact that the NFL ditched the Roman Numeral “L” to signify the 50th version of the world championship game, this golden everything plan strikes me as “Roman Numeral L” shades of lame.

But that’s how it’s done by the NFL’s powers that be, when each and every ill-conceived promotion, or rules change, or pink referee’s flag somehow still turns into gold (literally hundreds of billions of dollars worth). It’s just too easy when nearly every sports seeking eye-ball is as quickly transfixed by off season NFL news as a dog is to “SQUIRREL!”

So join me Seattle Sports Fans and let’s once and for all turn the page on the Seahawks and NFL season that was. Opening day at Safeco with King Felix on the mound is right around the corner. April 6th will be the day.

The Mariners, by most accounts, will be contenders this year, playing a brand of baseball that should easily grab and hold our attention throughout the entire sunny Seattle summer!

Or at least for a few weeks… until April 30th.

That’s the night of Roger Goodell’s Gold plated prime time TV showcase, the awkward hug-fest we won’t be able to turn away from, also known as the 1st round of the 2015 NFL Draft. And the draft will continue for the entire weekend to follow.

I have no idea who the M’s play NFL Draft weekend and I may never know. But you can bet after it’s all said and done that I’ll be able to tell you with certainty who “Mr. Irrelevant” is.

Some forces in this universe cannot easily be explained.

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