"It was the ____ of times..."

Non Football Thought:

With Texas facing hurricane destruction, the newspaper industry on the fritz and Wall Street imploding before our eyes, I've been channeling my inner Dickens lately. If not for sports, and specifically football, I think I'd just as well sit in my pajamas all day with the shades drawn sucking down Shiner Lights and watching SportsCenter.

But we all have to remember, what goes for sports also goes for life... Remember when Notre Dame was a juggernaut under Lou Holtz and USC was but a 7-4 Holiday Bowl mainstay and Pete Carroll was a washed up coach for the Jets? Remember when the Kansas City Royals were good? Remember when hockey mattered? Remember when Tom Brady was a backup? Remember when the Tampa Bay Rays couldn't buy a win and played routinely in front of crowds of 6,000? (Actually, that last part is still true.)

Point is, America is pretty much Tampa Bay circa 2006. We're in last place. We're pushing 100 losses. We're playing out the string with our Triple A guys. It's ugly and unpleasant, I know. It looks like things just aren't going to turn around for the rest of eternity.

And then, at some point --- and God knows when it will come --- but, at some point, things will turn around. We'll make that Herschel Walker trade, sweep the Yankees, upset USC at the Coliseum, beat the Russians in hockey.

We'll get there, for sure. All it takes is time, patience and the hope for a better tomorrow.

I'm Ted Kim and I approved this message. Keep choppin'!