I'm a calm guy.  Patience is my middle name.  Even Steven, that's me.  However, sports bring out another side of me.  While watching my team, I'm not quite as reserved when showing my excitement or frustration.  Even so, I try to stay positive, and I hold on to only those memories of joy.  I've gotten over every angry moment from my past when I lost my cool... well, except for Rex Grossman's Super Bowl performance last year and USC's miracle fingernail conversion on 4th and 9 against ND in '05.  But that's it... other than Bartman's interference of the Cubs' Moises Alou in '03.  I'm over everything else though, besides ND's 7 fumbles against BC in '02 and Bob Davie's broken play after a time-out at Purdue in '99.   And that one apartment door did take a beating when Brant Brown dropped that fly ball during the Cubs' '98 pennant race; it's hard to forget that. 

But those are all fairly recent, fresh wounds, so cut me some slack.  Anything that happened more than nine years ago, I'm totally at peace with.  You know, like Hugh Hollins' phantom foul called on Scottie Pippen in the '94 Eastern Conference Finals that freaking cost the Bulls a trip to the NBA Finals.  And I can barely recall the '91 Orange Bowl anymore.  Something about a clipping call, I think, as Rocket Ismail returned a punt 91 yards with 1:05 left to beat #1 Colorado.  It's not clipping if when you block a player from the side, your head is in front of him, right?  Well, Mr. Ref 20 yards down field who has no business making that call anyway, I believe his (i.e., Greg Davis's) head was in front.  But that's ok, I've almost completely forgotten about that chair cushion I beat up.  And it's not like I've watched the tape of that play 100 times or anything silly like that.    And don't try to bring up Steve Garvey's home run against the Cubs in the '84 NLCS.  I've completely put that womanizing prick out of my mind.  And c'mon, anything before that, I was too young to get upset anyway.  Like in '82, I didn't know any better when that stupid ref in Champaign couldn't count to 3 while Herscher's Mark Bauer quickly ran across the lane.  I remember tearing up my stuffed Tiger only to see what was inside. 

 

The reason I bring up my violent side is that I know many of you are worried about me during this season's historic performance by the Irish.  First of all, I can feel your prayers and thank you.  However, please don't worry.  As you can see, I've changed my ways.  Not one thing was broken during last week's brain lock by Coach Weis.  Today the Irish stooped to a new low against Air Force, and I just wanted to report on my condition. 

During the second half, I had enough sense to take the necessary steps in order to cope with the mounting frustration over the season.  We were hosting a gamewatch with ACErs so I didn't want to embarrass Sarah in front of company.  I decided I better excuse myself from the party and lock myself in the den.  First, I put my glasses on (my contacts don't do well with tears) and then changed into a white shirt to put me in a peaceful mood.  I thought it would be better if I just followed the game action on my computer... alone.  Little did I know, we had left our webcam on, so I'm able to share how well I was able to keep my cool.  I think you'll agree that considering the circumstances, I kept it together pretty well. 

See for yourself: