Syracuse, #29 in the AP Poll, #1 in your hearts!

Hello everyone. It's been far too long. I guess we're both to blame, me for not writing my blog and you for not reading it. It's ok though, I'm back. At least for this week. I can't promise that you'll be interested in the content, or that it will be well organized, or that it will be funny to anyone besides me. So yeah, it's pretty much the same as it has always been.

So I'll go into the reasons why I need to get back to writing a little bit more regularly. I no longer have a no holds barred, say anything I darn well please vent for all of the pent up anger and aggression that you all know I am so filled with. But not really. Second, nobody else really cares about the Broncos, so this is my forum to discuss them where you can just scroll past the whole thing and then I can pretend you read that section. But most of all, the reason why I created the blog in the first place, Syracuse football, is having their best season since their war against Carthage in 300 BC. For serious, at this point in the season, not only have we won the most games we have won in a season since 2004 when we went 6-6.

It's starting to come back to me now a little bit. I did put some non-sports stuff in here now and then, didn't I? Well, in honor of my fellow blogger Frank Warren, creator of Post Secret, I'll give a shout out. He came to speak at Syracuse last week and I have to say that he is one of the most normal people I have ever met. I mean that as a compliment. He is known by millions, trusted with their deepest secrets, and he doesn't let it go to his head at all. Every person he talks to is the most important person to him, every secret worth his time. I stood in line after his talk in which he reminded me of myself fidgeting and moving around during class. In the first 20 minutes I moved forward about a foot, maybe less because the line was going so slow. A friend involved with setting up the event came to talk to me while I was in line and said that Frank's itinerary had him going back to his hotel in about 10 minutes. I looked ahead of me and saw about 75 people in line. I am proud to say that Frank got to every single one of them, never making any impatient gestures, never turning aside anyone who wanted to talk to him, and giving his full attention to each person. When it was my turn, I talked to Frank for about 30 seconds. He kept eye contact, made me feel like I was the only person in the room, and just listened. I left the short conversation in awe of the fact that after 5 years of secrets from thousands of people, he could make me feel like he truly cared. I applaud Frank and all that he does, hoping I can find something in my life that means as much to me as Post Secret does to him.

Moving on, remember how I said I wasn't getting my hopes up about the Broncos this year? Like how I knew they were going to suck and I would wait until they got good players? Well, long story short, I lied. My hopes got high, and they've been dashed again and again. The most recent triumph of the universe over the Broncos was a game that I have and will describe as a sledgehammer to the nuts. Oakland Raiders 59, Denver Broncos 14. I first saw the score about 8 minutes into the game, Denver down 21-0. I thought it was a mistake, or a horrible system malfunction, or the Matrix taking over my mind or something. But alas, it was true. I tortured myself by keeping an eye on the game, but now I know what our true goal for this year is. Suck a lot, get a good draft pick, and spend it on a kicker or a blocking tight end or something. Gotta love them Broncos.

Howwwwwever, the Syracuse Orange have been a bright ray of sunshine into the F5 tornado that is my sports world. Going into this year, I had higher hopes for the Orange. My arch-nemesis Greg Paulus had finally thrown his last no-look bounce pass for the Orange. We had a solid defense comprised mainly of converted running backs and wide receivers. We play in the world's suckiest football conference. The only potential downside to this year is that our starting running back was a jerk who punches people in the face and gets away with it. I'm talking about you, Delone Carter. No matter what "punishment" you got for your actions, there's nothing that can be done to make you an upstanding citizen again. On the absolute contrary to Carter is Syracuse's other RB, Antwon Bailey. I have got to say that I'm terribly impressed by him. My experience with athletes in class is that they never go. Not even if it is the world's easiest class and you don't have to do any work for it. So when I found out Bailey was in my Sport Finance class, I had low expectations for him. To my surprise, he has actually showed up to class, answered questions, and, as far as I know, contributed to his group project. To be a key player to a college football team (now ranked 29 by the AP I might add) and to still feel like class is a priority is a pleasant surprise to me in a world where academics come second at nearly every Division 1 school to sports. It is a world of polar opposites in the Syracuse backfield, with a drunken idiot and an upstanding student. My opinion is this: Carter stinks! Support Antwon Bailey, the true Hogwarts champion! And now that Carter is injured, my painful second thoughts about the team might finally be relieved.

I think that's enough for today, thanks for still coming back after all we haven't been through over the summer and the beginning of this year. Stay classy, Syracuse/Boston/Philadelphia/Clifton Park/anywhere else you might be!