The postseason is upon us, and in my line of work that usually means one thing: Cliches come out in full force.
Don't get me wrong, the trite phrases that athletes and coaches love to use are almost always with us. But in the postseason, when competitors try their hardest to avoid giving an opponent any kind of bulletin-board material, they seem more prevalent.
With that in mind, I challenged myself to write my a column using as many sports cliches as I possibly could.
When you're a sports writer, cliches are par for the course. Nearly every athlete you talk to elects to use them. And every time they do, they're substituting commonly used, dull phrases for a chance to expand their minds and tell people what they really think.
Cliches are wildly popular with coaches, too. But for some reason, I cut coaches a break. I guess it just seems to me that sometimes there's only one way to say what coaches have to say.
Sports writers themselves aren't above cliches, though.
Nope. Far from it. I challenge myself to find new ways to say "the game came down to the wire" or "so and so was red-hot from downtown," but sometimes it's downright impossible.
So, from this day forth, I've decided that I'm going to start taking things one column at a time.
No more looking ahead. I can't control what other writers do and what my readers think. I just have to take care of my end of things. No more worrying about what the reaction to my columns might be. I'm just going to sit down with my laptop and give 110 percent every time I type.
Starting now.
You know what they say, sports writing really is a game of inches. For instance, when my editor tells me to write my weekly column, he reminds me that I have roughly 16 inches to get it done.
It's not always easy, but as long as I bring my A-game, I know I can do it.
Some weeks, I'm not sure I'm on top of my game. I mean, occasionally, I feel like I'm just not mentally prepared; like I've been caught on an off-night.
But after a little relaxation and clearing my head, I usually come back firing on all cylinders. What a difference a week makes.
The other day I was working on a story about high school football when one of my colleagues came up to me and asked for my help.
At first, I was gun-shy. I was really on a roll, but I stopped writing and decided to help him out. After all, there's no "I" in team.
When I sat back down to finish the story, I encountered writer's block. That little break just really took the wind out of my sails.
As I tried like crazy to get back into the zone, I heard people around the office muttering, "He's clearly lost a step."
Ouch.
Talk about a wake-up call.
From that moment on, I promised myself that I'd get back into midseason form.
No more procrastinating, no more waiting until deadline to finish stories. I took a long, hard look at myself in the mirror and realized that it was time to put that one behind me and move on.
Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way.
But the nicest thing about having a regular column is that every week I get a chance at redemption.
If I suffer an off week, I just have to fight through it and realize that next week is a whole new ballgame.
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