Happy New Year from the Yard

At the heart of a New Year’s resolution is the desire to resolve to do something, ideally to the betterment of something or someone. Resolutions are easy to define and elucidate. Resolutions require resolve if they are going to happen. The Yard has defined many resolutions to pursue. Resolve is a more difficult resource to allocate with our limited focus, sports myopia and vices. We have resolved to take a much closer look at this resolution thing in 2012. We have created a task force internally and expect to have suggestions by Q2 2012 and hope to have a plan in place by this fall.

This post was going to be a New Year’s Day-ish post but the Yard plays by the same rules as college football and the Rose Parade. We don’t blog on New Year’s if it falls on Sunday. College football was very sacrosanct that there will be no college football whenever New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday. So when the BCS starts on a Sunday we have college football games all week most of which used to be played on one day. Apparently, on Sunday January 8 it is possible to play a college football game and not just any Sunday college Football game-The Go Daddy Bowl! So the Rose Bowl can never be played on a Sunday but Go Daddy on the following Sunday?! Bring it on! It is more about the Benjamin’s than the guy in the flowing robes.

The blog was having fits and starts underscored by issues with resolve to get to post for the New Year. Monday, we got caught up in the most amazing Rose Bowl Game in recent history. Oregon has been tearing up the Pacific-10 or 12 for the past three seasons but never won a bowl game. Wisconsin has been lighting up the Big Ten or Big Eleven-ish but lost to TCU last year in the Rose Bowl. Oregon and Wisconsin would have played in last year’s game if the Ducks had not traded up to play Cam Newton and the Auburn Tigers in the 2011 BCS Title game. It was a game for the ages and having the Ducks secure the final win in a nice Yard parlay helped ease the pain of the Bruins not saving hunger in the Kraft Fight Hunger bowl on New Year’s Eve.

The Bruins played in a better bowl game than the team deserved in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. The Bruins were the first team in NCAA history to earn a bowl berth with a losing record. It was a second tier bowl for a third tier team and they played like they would rather be at home eating rather than in San Francisco leading the fight against hunger one miserable play at a time. We also forgot that one of the brother-in-laws went to the University of Illinois when the post-game phone call reminded us. The Illini were navigating on the precipice of mediocrity as well in 2011 but they were the cream of the crap on New Year’s Eve. The game was the first game since the end of the Neuheisel era if there was one. UCLA did play in the first Pacific 12 championship game although they were 31 point underdogs. Yard interns are researching that but that might have been the heaviest underdog in any championship game in any sport, at any level…ever! The Bruins easily covered the spread losing only 49-31 in Rick’s last game. The 50-0 beat down by USC the week before is one of many reasons Rick is not coaching today. Our earnest wish for Christmas was a bright future in the NFL for Mr. Barkley in 2012. It has been a wonderful season but that gift was not found under the tree.

Barkley decided to return for his 6th or 7th year at USC. Lane Kiffin told the press that Barkley really needed one more year at USC to be ready for the NFL. What Lane meant was that USC really needed one more year of Barkley to compete with the SEC for a BCS berth. When Barkley won the starting job as a freshman, not too many top prospects were eager to come to USC and play the Matt Cassel role. It is hard to understand why Barkley would come back for another season. Even with the new NFL labor deal, a first round pick will be getting nearly $15 million on a guaranteed contract. At time of press, the Yard is not certain how much of his USC money is guaranteed but anonymous sources say that it is not Reggie Bush type money. Barkley should have considered that he will never have another opportunity during 2012 to earn $5 million. He will earn NFL money and probably a lot of it. But the $5 million that would have been in his checking out account next year will be gone forever. Barkley should have also considered how his predecessors fared by staying for one more year of being Trojan nation’s epochal center. If the end game is being well paid in the NFL, staying one more year at USC is bad bet on your future. Carson Palmer and Matt Leinhart stayed one more year when the NFL beckoned. Palmer has wallowed in Cincinnati and now Oakland. Leinhart has just wallowed.

It would be impossible to review all of the stories that we thought of covering in 2012. The popularity of the Kardashians was one carousel we missed. We just do not get that one but Kim’s porn tape is not bad…from what we hear. Ruth Madoff’s revelation that she and Bernie attempted suicide after the scandal broke was not surprising. Trying to commit suicide by taking a couple of Ambien before going to bed did not show much resolve in their plan! Yard favorite Adele had a break out year in music. Her soulful songs about boyfriends who wronged her have been atop all of the award lists. One universal axiom for the Yard audience is never date and then piss off a chick songwriter. Taylor Swift, Alanis, and Avril have all had chart toppers about failed relationship and the bastards that failed them. Russell Brand better keep an eye out for the Katy Perry shit storm heading his way in 2012.

As the sun rises in 2012, we at the Yard sincerely hope that our musings and rants have provided humor and distraction in your day. We never have set the bar high just a constant stream of random utterings about stuff that incites or amuses us. We appreciated your feedback all year and plan to continue with the same random resolve that makes this all possible.

New Year's Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Mark Twain