COLUMN: 'Tis the season for thanks

By DANIEL O’BYRNE
Sports Reporter

Thanksgiving might be the most underrated holiday of the year. How can anyone go wrong with turkey, mashed potatoes, family and football?

As I was sitting in the living room, watching Brett Favre rip apart the Lions defense and waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven, I began to think about what I was thankful for. Of course the first things that came to mind were family and friends. But I also realized how big sports have been in my life. Sometimes everyone needs a distraction and something to be passionate about, and for me that thing is sports.

So, with this being the last Creightonian of the semester, I wish everyone happy holidays and present the things in sports that I am most thankful for.

I am thankful that I am not a Notre Dame or Nebraska football fan (though I think Notre Dame just became BCS bowl-eligible with their win against Stanford last week).

I am thankful for the most stable athletic department in the country. Before Creighton hired Bob Hanson as men’s golf coach this summer, the Bluejays had been the only division I school in the nation with the same head coaches in all its sports each of the past four years.

I am thankful for Pierce Hibma in Des Moines. The men’s basketball senior has a career average of about three points per game, but the last two years he has gone off while visiting Drake. He has a combined 23 points on 7-8 shooting from behind the three-point line in those two match-ups. It’s safe to say he has the Bulldogs “Hibmatized.”

I am thankful for my projector that displays a 102-inch television onto my wall in picture-perfect high definition. Not only is my TV huge, but when the Chiefs give up another 14-play, 85-yard drive, I can throw anything I want at it while only risking a smudge on the wall.

Speaking of the Chiefs, I am thankful for bye weeks in the NFL. I am also thankful for off days in baseball. These are some of my happiest days because I do not have to put myself through the torture that is Chiefs football or Cubs baseball.

I am thankful that Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR championship. Why? Because it means that NASCAR is over and ESPN can stop talking about a “sport” where they drive in circles repeatedly for an extremely long period of time.

Speaking of ESPN, I am thankful for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPN Classic, ESPN U, ESPN 360, ESPN.com and ESPN Eight, the Ocho. I can now choose to watch the national cup stacking championships instead of unimportant things like the local news or presidential debates. Along those same lines, I am also thankful for sports-talk radio.

I am thankful for DVR. On the rare occasions when there is nothing of interest on any of the ESPN channels, I can now repeatedly watch Bluejay P’Allen Stinnett posterize Nebraska seven-footer Shang Ping.

I am thankful for Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson. They might be annoying to teammates and fans, but as a journalist they are just entertaining.

I am thankful for pajama pants. I can show support for my team with official Chiefs, Cubs and Creighton pajama pants, while at the same time staying warm and ultra-comfortable.
I am, however, most thankful for my parents, who gave me my first basketball.