Well, Hello 2011!

Welcome back everyone!  Happy New Year!  We sincerely hope you all had a happy, healthy, safe and fun 2010 holiday season.  It was a banner year at the GameTime, TBD© household, with the whole family in town for some good, old-fashioned (read: drunk) fun.

And just when we thought we had finally worked off the hangover (apparently you don't recover as fast in your 30s as you do in your 20s . . . getting old sucks . . . but I digress), the Los Angeles Kings go out there and string together five straight losses.  Nothing gets the Chief in a salty mood faster than a prolonged slump by the Kings.  Mix that together with the Chief's re-focused attitude as to weight-loss and training and, well, things have been getting a little tense around the office.  In fact, unless you are an incredibly attractive blond (read: my Better Half), you might want to avoid him until the Kings win one.  On the plus side, we are four weeks away from the Chief's next go at a half marathon, and all signs point to him peeking at just the right time.  But we do not want to share too much right now as you will get all the juicy details in our first fully-original content post of the new year, our annual New Year's Resolution post, which should be up sometime early next week.

Aside from the Kings' winless start to 2011, things have been pretty crazy around the office here to start the year.  Between technical difficulties and actual work blowing up, it has not exactly been the calm start to the new year we had become accustom to around these parts.  Yes, of course this is all code for "short introduction to our first Link Dump of the year", but rest assured we are still bringing you the goods on this, the first of fifty-two Fridays of the 2011 calendar year.  So, we are just going to stop talking (typing?) now and get to the real reason you are here:

• There is nothing like getting the year started with some perfectly-timed sports photos.
• Speaking of photos, this photo pretty much captions itself . . .
• Yes, we live in Los Angeles.  But we still appreciate great sportswriters from other cities; writers like Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald.  That is why we recommend you take a look at his most recent piece.
• Thank you Captain Obvious.
• "The habitually upbeat Carroll became agitated, however, when reporters began to question whether he had a complete understanding of how the playoff system worked, and whether, by extension, he misunderstood the entire structure of the NFL."
• Rounding is a [censored].
• He might be out of football, but Freddie Mitchell still loves him some Freddie Mitchell.  
• Every now and then we try to do something for our female readers, like by introducing them to a real winner.
• Nantz goes up for the rebound and puts it back in.
• Those Russians sure know how to celebrate a victory . . . with vodka, lots and lots of vodka.
• This (attractive) female reporter has been banned from talking smack about CR7 . . . or, at least I think that is what we were supposed to take away from this overly-dramatic female-written soccer blog.  [Editor's Note: chicks . . . (sigh).]
• The Hooters' Golf Tour (yup, a real thing) would kindly like to remind you to not pull a Johnson.
• Not going to lie, we are a little disappointed none of you gave us the heads-up.  I mean, come on, we could have taken these two jagbags.
• We could not decide whether to count this as an article or video, so we decided to put it here as the last link in the article section before moving on to videos (sneaky, right?).  So, if you have some time to spare, here are the "50 Biggest NFL Playoff Fails" . . . video style.

 If you actually clicked on that last link, went through each of the fifty fails, and watched all the videos, we are guessing you are reading this sentence on Saturday.  That is the kind of dedication we like to see around these parts.  If you did not click on that link, or did click on the link and realized it was a little overwhelming (like we did), bookmark it and watch them over the next few days when you have some down time.  I mean, there really is nothing like fifty fails to make you feel better about yourself.  Oh, and speaking of fails:

• It is the best fails of 2010.  You.  Are.  Welcome.
• I know the year is only [counting on fingers] seven days old, but is it possible that we already have our soccer fail of the year?
• And our marathon running fail of the year?
• And since we are on this negative kick (I told you the Chief was headed for a dark place), here are one hundred great movie insults to make you feel better about yourself.
• And here is the coolest fail you will ever see, compliments of the NHL.  [Editor's Note: wow, turrrrrrible pun totally intended.]
• Let us take a turn towards Positivetown with some "sick" whiffleball pitches.
• And some "extreme" shepherding.
• And, of course, there is nothing like a "This Week In Unnecessary Censorship" to bring us down the home stretch.

Once again, Happy New Year!  Have a great weekend everyone!