This one goes to '11...

Where did the last twelve months go? 2011 is about to get into our rearview mirror. Great! A time for lists! One quick spin through the last 365 days in the most shallow of ways-- by hitting 11 random stops while trying to make sense of the year gone by.

Super! Bowled-- let's face it-- we are an NFL Nation and once again pro football's championship game didn't disappoint. Unless you had purchased tickets to seats that didn't exist and had to stand outside Cowboys Stadium in the freezing cold. Far from the Super Bores of yore-- last year's 31-25 Green Bay victory was the 6th decided by single digits in the last ten years (and only Tampa Bay's trouncing of Oakland in 2003 would qualify as a blowout).


Lucky with Lockouts-- unfortunately the NFL and NBA offseason delivered unnecessary daily drama ("Day 13 of the Lockout...Day 132 of the Lockout..."). Thankfully only Canton's Hall of Fame Game was cancelled-- and a ten year deal is in place for the NFL. And thank goodness the NBA and its players woke up to realize that as a league they are a luxury item and not the need pro football is for the public. See you when the deals expire. On the Wizards front, a rebuilding 66 game season is much less miserable than a rebuilding 82 game season. And at leas the uniforms are cool again.


A March with Thrills, Chills and Spills-- the NCAA Tournament provided grand theater with all #1 and #2 seeds getting bounced before the Final Four... VCU going from the "First Four" to the national semifinals... and the NBA guys on TNT waxing on about how much college basketball they watch and know. Even referring to the round of 64 as the "second round" and pushing Sunday tipoffs to after 8pm can't ruin my favorite three weeks of the year.

College Coaching Carousel-- after years of relative calm in and around the beltway... major ripples locally with Gary Williams retiring, Jim Larranaga moving to Miami and Karl Hobbs getting fired. While the Terps and Colonials look to be reloading, the Patriots are primed for another solid season in the CAA.


Cap-itulation and regime change-- what will we do now that the Bruce Boudreau commercials are no longer gracing the area? After an impressive first round series win over the New York Rangers (the only one in the Eastern Conference that didn't go seven games) the Caps were broomed out of the playoffs by Tampa Bay. Then after a 7-0 start the team hit the wall and Boudreau hit the road. Despite being unable to lead the Capitals into the conference finals, Boudreau elevated the expectations from the mess he inherited Thanksgiving weekend of 2007. One could make the case that if he had flopped as a then-interim coach... George McPhee would have followed him out the door back then. Instead, Dale Hunter tries to provide a midseason transfusion.


Toothless Tiger... and the next big thing?-- Tiger Woods went another year without winning a major tournament. As he approaches his late 30's one wonders what sort of window he has for catching Jack Nicklaus...but for every Tom Watson that stops winning in his early 30's there's a Mark O'Meara who experiences a resurgence in his 40's. While I once thought he had a "true slam" where he won all four majors in one season... the possibility remains for him to pickup four more championships within the next ten years. Meanwhile, fans at Congressional Country Club were treated to Rory McIlroy's run at the US Open... let's wait for the kid win two before we elevate him to the level of even Padraig Harrington or Angel Cabrera.

No Joking-- Tennis saw Novak Djokovic grab dominance by the throat... the Serb won three majors to scale the heights previously claimed by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. After a somewhat democratic era where dominance meant two majors(1989-2003)... we've seen a triple-play five times in eight years. Between Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and everybody's English hope Andy Murray... majors are compelling after the Andy Roddick flameout.


Terrapin Fall-- nobody saw the 2-10 Maryland football season coming. Fresh off a 9-4 season with the ACC rookie of the year everything went wrong for the Terrapins... with more than a few players transferring. View the first year of coach Randy Edsall as the clearing of a site for the placement of a foundation-- construction sites are rarely pretty during their first year. With the return of Mike Locksley as a primary recruiter, expect an instate talent upgrade.


Baseball's Crazy Finish-- the final month of the regular season saw legendary collapses by Atlanta and Boston... with the Braves and Red Sox trying to outdo each other in tripping right before the finish line. Meanwhile, St. Louis and Tampa Bay did the right things down the stretch and entered the playoffs in spectacular fashion. Some are calling it the best night ever in baseball and that you can't get that anywhere else in sports. Umm... the final Sunday of the NFL's regular season? The final weekend of conference tournament play with bubble teams bouncing every which way?

Skinsationalism-- another strong start (3-1) proving to be merely a mirage. Another quarterback situation implodes. The defense gets better but still not good enough. Suspensions rock the offense. And somewhere in a season that was honestly over before Halloween the Burgundy and Gold mattered because they were so irrelevant.

The Sad End of Happy Valley-- for years State College, PA was more than just about wins and losses... bowls and Heisman candidates. It was about the team before the individual. No names on the back of the jersey. Doing things with class. Graduating players. Never a whiff of an NCAA scandal. Even the "Grilled Stickies"--a breakfast roll that can't possibly be healthy in any way--had an image of innocence. But it's a different world now that the Gerry Sandusky revelations have come out... and continue to come out. You wonder exactly who knew what and when. And why nothing was done-- again and again. The quote I first thought of last fall...: "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing"-- from all I know Joe Paterno is a good man. And from all I know-- he did nothing. So the victims try to heal. The accused stands charged. And the future of Penn State football arrives in a manner nobody could have envisioned.