The first set of games were probably just finishing up by the time I even realized March Madness had begun. A coworker came in around 2:30 and, after covering a couple of pending work topics, paused, smiled and asked me, "So, how are you doing today?" Without missing a beat I started to respond with something about how busy I was and how this person wasn't doing that, and that person needed this faster than we thought they would. Just as I was realizing what he was really talking about, he interrupted, saying, "No, I mean with the tournament!"
I was shocked to realize that, even though I was keenly aware of the buildup to the tournament over the previous several days, March 20th was sixty percent over and not a single thought about college basketball had entered my head. If I hadn't been reminded, who knows if I even would have thought about it the for the rest of the day? For the rest of the week?
To understand how big a moment this was for The Offseason, you have to understand the reverence I have always had for the Tournament. I wrote about the roots of this relationship in a previous post. Often, in the years following high school you could find me skipping class or arranging ahead of time to have the day off of work for at least the first couple of days. There's just nothing in the sports world quite like those first two days. The field of 64 (don't even talk to me about play-in games) is cut in half through a furious spree of 32 individual games. Essentially, from noon to midnight, there is a never-ending parade of frantic, fun action. Teams you've never heard of battling it out with the big fish. There's always a few amazing finishes and several results that NO ONE could have ever predicted. It's the one sporting event on the calendar that truly never disappoints.
In later years, I wouldn't skip work, but I could always be counted on to be running the office pool. More than once I got in a bit of hot water for even suggesting the idea, as the legality of such activities remains somewhat dubious. Still, the folks who were interested always seemed to find their way to me. The buy-ins were small, and the pay-outs weren't much, but the bragging rights were well worth the effort. In recent years, we moved to a bracket system where each participant would draft a collection of teams and get points for each round a team would advance. It's a fun way to change it up, and I highly recommend it.
As a part of this process, every year during the tournament my office door would feature an oversized poster of the bracket. I would fill in each result as it happened (or thereabouts) and keep score, dolling out points to each team based on wins and seeding. Honestly, it was real work, but I loved it. I rarely did particularly well, though I also rarely finished last. I've been at my current job for almost 8 years and I've run a pool for the office every single spring. Occasionally former coworkers would participate from their new jobs in other towns. When I took on the challenge of abstaining from following sports for a year I knew this was going to be one of the toughest stretches for me (until I realized it was an Olympic year AND a World Cup as well, that is).
But here I was, well beyond the time of gathering participants and researching teams. Here I was, days past creating the files to print out a bracket for my door and a couple to use for keeping track of scoring. In years past I would have already been scouting where my big upset potential games were and when my own favorite teams would be playing. Instead, I was simply living right through it, oblivious. This just two months after the excruciating NFL season ended with me doing everything I could just to avoid Patriots games and the Super Bowl.
I haven't been completely unaware of what's been going on, of course. There were headlines everywhere I looked over the weekend, and a good friend made sure I was aware of the (early) departure of Duke and the (as expected) end of my Tar Heels' season. But beyond that, I've been shocked at how easy it is to stay away from my old flame. It brings to mind the old saying, "You don't know what you've got til it's gone", but that's not quite right, is it? If it were, I'd be pining away. I suppose the real lesson here is that I never really "had" it in the first place. I was just watching.
No comments:
Post a Comment