Bits & Pieces

 

By Kim J. Harmon

Whenever the University of Connecticut Alumni Association tries to hit me up for $25 (which seems like 50 times a year), I always wonder if the money is going to go for something like the 332-page football media guide.

I swear, this thing is unbelievable – every possible scrap of information gleaned from the 2000 season, every possible scrap of information that can be foretold about the 2001 season, and every school record dating back to the dawn of time is all included. And, as if the thing actually needed filler material, there are pictures of stuff around campus, stuff around Hartford, staff photos, photos of notable alumni (for crying out loud), a note on the NCAA’s gambling awareness program, and directions to food and lodging.

It’s like an encyclopedia.

Learn everything you want to know about every player and every coach on the team, study the minutiae of every single game from the 2000 season when the Huskies were 3-8, and then take a look at the opponents who will be running roughshod over them in 2001 – like Virginia Tech and Middle Tennessee (which beat UConn 66-10 last year).

No, it IS an encyclopedia.

But then again, it’s not the Texas football media guide. That one is 568 pages long.

There is something, I don’t know, cool about walking on the field behind Hawley School and seeing a full-fledged Pop Warner football practice in action. Pockets of players all around the field working on their drills, fans scattered along the sidelines, and several pockets of cheerleaders working on their formations, their lifts, and their jumps. Well-oiled and organized . . . it’s going to be weird, this year, heading out to the Harmon/Russell family picnic on the Sunday before Labor Day and NOT being able to hole myself up in the living room to watch the first games of the National Football League season. The 2001 season gets started a little late, on September 9, which means this year I’m actually going to have to go outside and mingle and play with the kids and whatnot. Hey, maybe the Yankees will be on . . . as much of a Giants fan as I am, I still have trouble mustering up ANY desire to watch a pre-season football game. When the Giants beat up the Jaguars the other night, I saw maybe two plays – one with Ron Dayne bursting up the middle and another with Joe Montgomery (I think) getting stuffed at the line. Don’t ask me why, but I can watch a spring training baseball game with no problem, just not pre-season football . . . you know, people were quick to try and blame the coaching staff of the Minnesota Vikings for the tragic death of Korey Stringer and while it does seem brutal to be practicing in full gear when the temperature is over 100 degrees, players have got to listen to their own bodies and tell someone when they are not feeling well . . . I don’t much care for the month of August - not because of the often UNBEARABLE heat, but mainly because this is the time of year when all my fantasy football scouting plans go up in smoke. Like when Jamal Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens goes down with a torn ACL. I’d thought I’d be able to steal him in the second round while everyone was oooh-ing and aah-ing over Marshall Faulk and Edgerrin James. Now what am I_going to do?