Philadelphia Eagles’ Carson Wentz holds up the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the NFL Super Bowl 52 football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018, in Minneapolis. The Eagles won 41-33. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
After the Eagles beat the Patriots in the worst Super Bowl in history, we now have to wait six months for football. I don’t think I could physically write a recap of a game that featured two of the worst teams in the league, so let’s talk about what’s next for football fans.
We can watch the highlights of our favorite players, the NFL Draft and the absolutely beautiful performance of Eli Manning and Odell Beckham in that “Dirty Dancing” commercial, but nothing will replace live football.
So, what do we do for six months?
Luckily, the Olympics start this week. I’m sure nobody knew they were coming so soon until NBC aired about 20 advertisements about the Games over the course of the Super Bowl, but the Winter Olympics are rapidly approaching and it’ll provide slight relief for every sports fan outside of Philadelphia.
Sure, sports like figure skating and curling might not compare to football and hockey won’t even include NHL players this year. But even the Winter Olympics provide a smidge of quality content for your football-deprived soul.
Flip through the channels until you find some speed skating. Look up what time ski jumping is scheduled for. Set your DVR for the snowboard events. The Winter Olympics get a deservingly bad reputation, but quantity eventually produces some quality.
The entertaining events of the Winter Olympics might be few and far between, but we’ll take what we can get. More importantly, the few weeks of the Olympics will distract sports fans from the endless drama that is now the NBA.
Nothing about the NBA matters until the Warriors-Rockets Western Conference Finals, where Houston might take Golden State to six games before the Warriors go on to win another championship. The Celtics are going to cruise through the Eastern Conference on their way to lose in the Finals. It’s a result everybody sees coming, so don’t get your hopes up for the NBA to cure your football fever.
We’re beyond tired of hearing about the soap opera that is the Cleveland Cavaliers and the meaningless debate of whether LeBron is actually the greatest of all-time. After the upcoming All-Star Break, I’m sure most people would be happy to fast-forward to the conference finals.
Before that, we’ll vaguely turn to college basketball for a few months leading up to the NCAA Tournament. When it finally comes, March Madness is undeniably the best sports event of the year. Everybody will turn to college students for their fix of entertainment in a time of year that sports don’t provide much.
Essentially, we have two or three weekends in March to look forward to and that’s it. The football hangover will take a while to be fully cured and we’ll continue to relive the nightmare of this Super Bowl.
It’s a rough time for sports fans, but keep the faith. Putting aside my hatred for the Eagles and Patriots, we saw an amazing Super Bowl and we’ve been spoiled with big games lately. Now it’s a matter of which one is next.
Josh Buser is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at joshua.buser@uconn.edu.