Here at Eight at Eight, we deal with single men and women. In so doing, we've developed a pretty solid understanding of where stereotypes about men come from. Its been said that stereotypes begin for a kernel of truth and snowball into hyperbole. Such is the case with men and sports.
We've found that the notion of guys watching no other channel than ESPN to be a grotesque characterization. Don't get me wrong: gentlemen, by and large, love their sports. However, the image of them being glued to the television watching the popular sports (basketball, football, etc.) and the peculiar ones (golf, bowling, poker, etc.) is kind of misleading. Our experience has indicated that this short-changes men, as they typically have greater, more variagated interests than sweat spectacles.
That being said, there is a reason why Valentine's Day falls in February. Its after the madness of the end-of-year holiday season and post-New Year's Eve. Every four years, we have the presidential elections, which, as I'm sure we all recall, commands a great deal of our collective energy, and rightly so. Moreover, the Super Bowl officially signals the end of the Fall sports calendar and brings us into the short-lived dead zone of sports: February.
Think about it: no football, no baseball, no meaningful basketball, no major golf tournaments. February is a natural repreive from all things sport. However, its only a brief hiatus, for the greatest confluence of sports begins in March. First, the beginning of the college basketball tournament, with all its bracket-busting glory. This gem of a sport (when even the most casual fan spends hours glued to the screen) concludes just in time for the beginning of the Masters golf tournament. The Masters begets the start of baseball season, that most glorious Spring-to-Summer American mainstay. Thus, March to April is booked solid of meaningful, major sporting events that catapult us out of the winter doldrums and into Spring Fever. Which, of course, means that vacations can't be far off...
So, there is no more appropriate time Valentine's Day (a Hallmark-derived, marketing bonanza). Ladies deserve a little loving and reassurance during this time. Likewise, guys need to concentrate on their love lives a bit in February, as their free time is about to become somehwat limited from March to May. So, as much as we hate the commercialization of Valentine's Day, let's raise a toast to February, the month of connections and love renewed, for those Springtime distractions are just around the corner. And remember, a #12 always defeats at least one #5 seed...
