Happy Thanksgiving from TNL

Before we run off and enjoy the busiest drinking night of the year* and then stumble out of bed around the crack of noon to gorge ourselves on Meleagris gallopavo and Pumpkin Pie**, we would like to wish everyone a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.

With that in mind I would like to give you my list of things I'm thankful for in 2009 (not in any coherent order):

• Football
  

  Of course this goes without saying, I would not have started this blog had I not loved football, but this year was a really good year. Think about it, we saw underdog programs like TCU, Boise, and Cincinnati crash the BCS party making a mockery of a sham of a system. USC lost their usual head scratcher of a game and then got unceremoniously dumped from the Pac 10 race by none other than Stanford and their flamboyant coach by a score the likes of which was never before witnessed by Trojan players. Both Michigan and Notre Dame teased the mindless drones of the media early in the season making them take notice and begin salivating before getting flushed down the shitter. Admit it, the heart attack kids from Iowa were a fun bunch to watch, yeah you knew they would eventually loose but watching the miracle comebacks week after week was extremely entertaining. Pitt is once again relevant and you know what that means this offseason: talks of "the rivalry" will certainly pass the time. All in all, not a bad season of football and I for one am thankful
  

• Charlie Weis and Dick Rod
Speaking of Michigan and Notre Dame, how could you not love these two guys? And by love I mean how can you not love to watch two programs you love to hate, that once loved these guys, fall flat on their faces. It's a cornucopia of schadenfreude. The total arrogance of Weis with his flaunting of his super bowl rings, his now famous "9-3 isn't good enough" line after his first season, the botched gastric bypass and the corresponding FAILed malpractice lawsuit, he's the gift of FAIL that keeps on FAILing and it couldn't happen to a more arrogant school with a more arrogant fan base. I'm going to miss that fat bastard.

Then there's Rodriguez, the man that was going to bring the spread to Michigan and take the Big Ten by storm. Two seasons a record of 8-16 and a last place finish in the Big Ten this year' how's that working out for ya, Michigan fans? Rodriguez was Penn State's answer to "the streak" and how can I not be thankful for that? Thanks Dick Rod.


• Fantasy Football

  Yes Fantasy Football is very frustrating and no I haven't won dick in half a decade now but it's still fun to play. If it were not for fantasy football I wouldn't even watch the Pros. But thanks to it, every Sunday I'm at my local watering hole that has 10 TV's and the NFL ticket bouncing around from TV to TV like a drunken butterfly following my players. I honestly don't even have a team to root for; I just pray that the game in which my QB is playing goes into overtime so I get those bonus points.
  

• Boobs
  

  Yeah it's juvenile but I can't help myself; there are two things that make anything better, Boobs and bacon. I'm 36 years old and yet there's nothing that can get my attention like boobs. In fact, if only for a very short time, when I see these they trump everything else on my list. The male fixation with boobs is primal, now I can't explain it but if you want an explanation here's a great book that can (it's also the best book I read in 2009). Hey, there's a reason I read Boiled Sports and that's Sideboob Friday.
  

• DVR
  

  Still don't know how I lived without this thing. Record your series of shows you like, watch them whenever you like. Best… invention… ever.
  

• Beer

Always have been and always will be thankful for beer. We can sit and wax poetically about which beer is the best but at the end of the day we all love it.

"The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer."- Egyptian Proverb

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." - Benjamin Franklin

"Beer: The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."- Homer Simpson

Happy Thanksgiving from TNL everyone!

*no really the night before Thanksgiving is one of the best selling and busiest nights for bars and clubs

**by the way, this is how pumpkin pie is made: