I’ve been reading Gregg Easterbrook for more than fifteen years. He writes the Tuesday Morning Quarterback (TMQ) column for ESPN. (He has also written for Slate and The Atlantic Monthly, and many other publications. And he’s a very good author.) Every Tuesday morning during the NFL season, Easterbrook delivers incredibly detailed analysis of (almost) every game, peppered with news and commentary on science, politics, religion, etc.
Each year he ends the season with the same plea. I’ve always admired it, and so am providing it here:
The stadium lights are turned off, the film rooms have gone dark and the cheerleaders have put their miniskirts away in very small drawers. TMQ folds its tent and steals off into the desert till next season, though will resurface briefly around draft time.
As usual, I recommend you employ the offseason to engage in spiritual growth. Take long walks. Perform volunteer work. Exercise more and eat less. Drink less soda, more tea: green tea is soothing, oolong tea may lower blood pressure. Attend worship services of any faith, bearing in mind Pascal’s wager. Study philosophy and secular ethics: We spend too much time on economics and science, not enough on ethics. Read a book a month. Seriously, you can’t get through a book a month? And real books: history, literary novels. Appreciate the grandeur of nature. Mediate, express gratitude, serve others. Tell the people around you that you love them. Who knows if you will get another chance?
Do these things and you will feel justified in racing back to the remote, the swimsuit calendars and the microbrews when the football artificial universe resumes in the autumn.
Gregg Easterbrook