3/6/06, My Worst Day As a Sports Fan Ever

1st: My favorite Redskins player of the last 10 years, Lavar Arrington, was released by the Redskins yesterday. He was oft criticized by some football insiders and reporters for various things including: not playing within the system/freelancing, being selfish and some other things over the course of his 7 seasons with Washington. I love the Washington Redskins. I also love Lavar Arrington.

For the majority of his career, the Redskins have not been very good. In fact, through a couple of those years, they were awful. It pains me to see my squad in the depths and its hard for me to watch. During those awful years, there was one reason above all others that I tuned in every Sunday. Lavar. There was always a chance he was going to do something incredible. He made more big plays for our franchise than any defensive player that I can remember in my lifetime.

Quick list of my favorite memories:

-The absolute grizzzzzbah he put on Troy Aikman which ended Aikman's career and stopped him from continuing to torch the Redskins
-The chasing down of Kordell Stewart and the subsequent throwing of Stewart to the ground with one arm and the exaltation of 90,000 as Stewart lay on the ground wondering how a 250 pound man just chased him down from across the field
-The game winning sack of Kurt Warner to beat the Rams right at the goaline
-The interception of Chris Weinke and subsequent taking to the house to give us our first victory after an 0-5 start that turned our season around (we ended up 8-8)
-Hitting Brett Favre so hard he had to get carted off the field with his head in a towel to hide his tears

There's more. A lot more. Thank you Lavar. Thank you for everything. It looks like he might sign with the New York football Giants. I of course could never do this because the giants, eagles, and cowboys are evil ambassadors of the dark forces of the world. But, I can understand how an athlete who did not grow up a fan and gets a raw deal from his team, would wanna go to a rival and come back and stick it to his former squad twice a year. What a bitter pill this is to swallow. Sadness.

My sad feelings were compounded yesterday when I got the shocking news that one of my childhood heroes, Kirby Puckett, passed away after a stroke. I loved that guy. I loved the way he played. He flew around the field, hustled everywhere, and always had a smile on his face. he came from the most humble beginnings as the youngest of 9 kids in a horrible ghetto in Chicago. He wasn't allowed to play football with the other kids so he excelled at baseball.

He won 2 World Series with The Twins. The '87 Twins team was one of my 14 favorite baseball teams of all time with Tom Brunansky, Kent Hrbeck, Steve Lombardozzi, Greg Gagne, Dan Gladden (one of the 24 greatest sports mustaches of all time), Jeff Reardon, Frank Viola, Bert Blyleven, Randy Bush, Juan Buerenger, and of course Kirby. The entire world of baseball will miss Kirby Puckett. RIP Puck.

Sorry there was no humor today. I blame the internet.