I haven't been writing the last year or so, but I'm still watching all the sports I can. If you see sports stuff you want to share, find me on Twitter or Instagram.

 On my drive home yesterday Cooley and Czabe were talking about their GAF (Give A F@#%) and Hope indices.  Basically they wanted local callers to give them a 1 through 4 ranking of how much they cared about each of the four major local teams (Capitals, Wizards, Nationals, Redskins or Caps, Wiz, Nats, Skins for the true believers).  It's an interesting premise and they weren't too specific with the parameters so callers took a lot of liberty.  Being a transplant city, you had a lot of people calling in who were fans of one or two but indifferent about others.  I obviously fall into that category since I hate the Redskins, follow but don't love the Wiz and Nats (Jazz and Padres for life!), and am a full blown Caps fan.  Anyway, the discussion got me thinking about my teams.  Here are my GAF and Hope indices (I feel like not saying indexes is incredibly pretentious, but I'm also a grammar Nazi.  First world problems . . .)

Brad's GAF Index (as of 2/8/2014)

I defined this as what I care about right now.  I'll try to limit crossover to my Hope Index, but I'm only human.

1- San Diego Chargers.  If I am being honest with myself, the Bolts have to be #1 in every GAF ranking I write that doesn't involve my wife, my family, and my friends.  Sorry, everything else in life, I love the Chargers more than I love you.  We had a very encouraging rebuilding year that saw us return to the playoffs and even win a road playoff game.  We played Denver tougher than anyone not located in Washington State and swept our other division foe, the Chiefs, who also had a breakout year.  Much thanks to Baltimore and Miami for gagging down the stretch, much thanks to Ryan Succop for missing that field goal in week 17, and a big middle finger to the Steelers.  FACE!!!!!

2- US Men's National Soccer Team.  Once again, if I am being honest, I have to put our lovable losers towards the top of my GAF Index.  In a head to head show down with any team not named the Chargers the national team wins every time that doesn't involve a trophy being handed out.  Maybe I'm overly excited because it's a World Cup year, but soccer has me.  I'm addicted.  I admit this openly.

3- Team America.  The Sochi Games are a flaming dumpster fire and I can't take my eyes off of it.  NBC coverage is awful and vindictive.  The timing sucks.  Russia's insistence on making this political is exhausting.  NBC indulging Russia in that political game makes me want to mute my TV.  In spite of all this, sports are sports and I love the Olympics.  It only happens every four years so I am not going to let it be ruined.  I will drink in all the Olympics I can for the next 13 days.  With the exception of ice dancing.  Because that is not a thing.

4- SDSU Hoops.  My Aztecs are ranked 5th in the country even though we only have one player who can score.  We play suffocating defense so the games aren't always pretty, but we get results.  March Madness is going to be awesome.  The games aren't always played at times that are convenient for an east coast dweller, but I am doing my best because this is a dream season.

5- UVA Men's Basketball.  I have adopted my wife's alma mater since I live in their home market.  The team is fun to watch and is actually winning this year (currently ranked #20 nationally).  They have more players that I like than my Aztecs do. 

6- Washington Wizards.  It feels sacrilegious to put them above the Jazz on this list, but the Jazz are in rebuilding mode and NEVER on TV here.  The Wiz aren't great, but they're pretty fun to watch.  There's something compelling about living in the market too.  Hearing the home broadcast, listening to local sports talk, and being able to attend the games go a long way with me.  I doubt I will ever become more of a Wiz fan than a Jazz fan, but you never know.

7- Washington Capitals.  Hockey is really the best thing going right now, but the Caps are frustratingly inconsistent and the net minding is mediocre at best.  They're struggling to score despite The Great 8 leading the NHL in scoring.  Despite all these problems, they would be higher on this list if not for the Olympics right now.  The NHL break from the 9th to the 24th hurts in the current GAF rankings.

8- Utah Jazz.  I've already written too much about the NBA, but I have to admit that I watch Jazz box scores like a hawk and genuinely GAF about how they're doing even if I can't watch and they aren't good.

9- San Diego Padres.  Eight is really low for the team that occupies my favorite sports venue EVER.  PetCo Park is my church.  I LOVE that place.  I guarantee you that the Pads will not be this low once games start. 

10- Washington Nationals.  Like I said earlier, going to the games really influences me.  I plan to attend at least 15 of the Nat's 81 home dates this year (including all 3 games against SD).  I like the Nat's players (shout out to fellow SDSU alum Steven Strasburg!!) and want them to do well.  They have the third highest Vegas odds of winning the World Series this year, so you can expect to see them higher in my Hope Index.

11- SDSU Football.  Not in season.  National Signing Day made me want to puke.  I will GAF about this in August, but not today.

12- Sports in General.  I ALWAYS GAF!!!!  My blessing, my curse. 

Stuff that didn't make the cut but I still GAF about: Golf; Women's Tennis; Men's Tennis; Watching the Lakers when they suck; Laughing at the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and NY Giants; Hating the Patriots; Hating the Jets; Hating the Raiders; Hating Duke; Hating the Dodgers; Hating LeBron; Hating Nadal and his Capri pants; Germany's Men's National Soccer Team (Die Nationalmannschaft); EPL Soccer; USA Women's National Soccer Team; NASCAR (just kidding, I absolutely don't GAF about NASCAR)

The Hope Index

I defined this as "who could actually win a title (do something meaningful) and how soon?"

1- SDSU Hoops.  Bring it on, haters.  SDSU has talent, depth, and the advantage of low expectations.  I don't need a trophy.  Just give me one game in the Elite 8 and I'll be happy.  Hope means different things to different people.

2- Team USA.  We're always a safe bet at the Olympics.  We're gonna win a ton of medals.  Probably not the most medals, but a ton nonetheless.

3- Washington Nationals.  Last year Davy cursed them by talking World Series too early and they missed the damn playoffs.  This year they are going to learn from last year and get it together.  Second week of November, I'll be playing hooky to attend a parade down Constitution Avenue.  It's on my calendar in INK!

4- San Diego Chargers.  Don't stop reading!  Please hear me out.  We could have won the AFC this year.  I concede that Seattle was a buzz saw on Super Sunday so I am not saying we would have won the title, but we beat Denver in Denver earlier in the year and played them tight in the playoffs.  One break goes our way and that's us playing a depleted, overrated Pats team in the AFC Championship.  We're only a 3 point dog going in and we played better on the road all year long.  Totally winnable.  Mike McCoy, I love you.  Thank you for the 2013 NFL season.  While we're at it, EFF YOU, NORV!!!!!

5- Washington Wizards.  Stop laughing.  This team is sneaky good.  Recent wins over OKC, Portland, and Miami indicate that the team is headed in the right direction.  Plus the Eastern Conference is garbage.  My hope here is that they finish 6th or 7th so they can avoid the Pacers until the East finals.  I'm not afraid of the Heat.  They are one LeBron sprained ankle away from being total garbage (think Bosh's Toronto teams). 

6- Washington Capitals.  Scuffling?  Sure.  Injury prone? Yeah, at times.  Dangerous?  Damn right!  The Kings won the Stanley Cup after sneaking into the playoffs as the 8 seed a couple years ago.  This madness happens in hockey.  The Caps showed last year that they can get RED hot and make a run.  I realize that this probably sounds like I am selling myself on this.  Hope is a dangerous thing.

7- UVA Men's Basketball. Wahoo Waa!!!  They're gonna sneak up on a higher seed in the second round.  I predict a heart breaking loss in the Sweet 16, but that is pretty good for this program.  They've been an ACC punching bag for years and they deserve some success. 

8- Sports in General.  I'm gonna try not to get emotional here.  Sports inspires me.  Sports are the ultimate drama.  Sports are poetry in motion.  Sports = hope in my world.

9- Utah Jazz.  The organizational track record indicates that the Jazz will be good again soon.  Their market limitations mean that they probably won't ever win the Larry O'Brien Trophy, but they can get back to winning and making the playoffs.  I'm hoping for the Jazz.  You can't stop me.

10- San Diego Padres.  Recent ownership issues.  Refusal by ownership to spend money.  New Dodger ownership.  Are you sensing a theme here?  This franchise will never be a consistent winner unless it decides to get serious and spend the money that you have to spend to win in baseball (spare me your Tampa and Oakland comparisons.  They're cute stories, but they aren't winning The Series any time soon either).

11- SDSU Football.  The SDSU athletic department doesn't care about football so no one cares about SDSU football.  It's tragic really.  San Diego is a top 10 recruiting area loaded with talent.  Talent that leaves to play at more glamorous programs.  The campus is amazing.  The university offers surfing classes.  There is no reason that SDSU shouldn't be a top 10 program in the Western US.  It's maddening.

12- US Men's National Soccer Team.  Man, this one really hurts.  Having no hope is a terrible place to be, but here's how it is: American's mostly don't care about soccer.  The rest of the world cares passionately.  How are we ever going to catch up under those circumstances?  We got drawn into the Group of Death (AGAIN!!) for the Cup in Brazil this summer.  We'll be lucky to take a single point from our three games based on the competition and the scheduling.  It's JUST NOT IN THE CARDS.  At least we are the best team in CONCACAF (suck it, Mexico!!!)

I apologize for ending the Hope Index on such a negative note.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed hearing about things that matter to me J  I welcome you to leave your GAF and/or Hope indices below.  Comments also welcome.  Unless you use evidence to contradict me.  I don't need you going all Bill Nye with your facts.  I believe what I want!!!!!

Every year American sports fans are faced with the same awful, empty feeling which begins to set in around 9pm EST on the first Sunday in February.  Yet again, the NFL has tantalized us for 5+ months, building to a deafening crescendo that is so intoxicating we forget about the sudden halt at the end of the ride.  The SuperBowl has come and gone.  It all ended so quickly.  Now you're faced with the daunting proposition of slogging your way through February so that March Madness can provide you with your next fix.  Sounds terrible, right?  Luckily, I am here to provide you with a road map to deftly navigate the February sports doldrums.

Plan 1: Embrace hockey for a month.  For all you stick-and-ball sports people, this is your best bet.  Hockey has all the hard hitting of football and is played more frequently.  I know you've been avoiding hockey for years, but I am proposing a limited term commitment.  Just pay attention to hockey for the shortest calendar month.  I promise you won't regret it and here's why: this is a bonus year for hockey!!  You get pro hockey until the NHL breaks for the Olympics.  Then you get the Olympics!!  Here's what you do: Pick a good NHL team (or two) and start following them.  You will get to watch them a couple times before the NHL goes on Olympic hiatus on February 9th.  Then, from the 12th to the 23rd, you get Olympic hockey featuring some of the players from your adopted favorite team(s).  For these two weeks you'll have the option of cheering for one country or all the countries that have players from your teams (think of it kind of like fantasy football).  Once the gold medals are handed out, you only have to wait a couple of days for the NHL to reconvene and, in watching the Olympics, you might even have found some new players to follow (or hate.  I find that sports hating can be just as compelling a reason to watch sports.  May I propose Boston Bruins/Canadian Wing, Milan Lucic if you are unsure of who to start hating.  Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rYgKqDMB9Q and let the hate flow.)

Plan 2: Start prepping for this summer's World Cup in Brazil by taking in some world class soccer.  Before I start this plan, I want to ask you to bear with me.  I promise not to be "soccer guy" and try to shove "the beautiful game" down your throat.  I hate that guy as much as you do and I am a huge soccer fan.  I absolutely respect your right to think that soccer is stupid, boring, low scoring, whatever.  I just want you to hear me out.  February is going to suck anyway unless you follow Plan 1 or simply heave yourself headlong into the other winter Olympic events.  Why not take advantage of the opportunity to know the names of the global superstars before the World Cup kicks off?  Nothing shuts "soccer guy" up faster than spouting knowledge about soccer.  He'll be stunned into silence and your ears will thank you.  So, here's the plan:  watch this hilarious video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KeG_i8CWE8.  I'll wait.  Ok, back?  What you were looking at there, was NBC pitching their new international gem.  They swooped in and stole the English Premier League (EPL) TV rights essentially causing the collapse of Fox Soccer Channel.  NBC has done an amazing job with making the EPL more accessible to us Yanks than ever.  You can catch games every Saturday and Sunday morning.  It's the wealthiest, most star-powered league in the world (apologies to Spain and Germany) and the rosters are stacked with the best players from all the powerful soccer countries.  Remember that douche from the South Africa World Cup in 2010 who got away with a handball that screwed Ghana out of the final four (would have been the furthest an African nation would ever have gone on soccer's biggest stage)?  That douche, Uruguay's Luis Suarez, plays for Liverpool and is scoring goals at a CRAZY rate this year.  Who owns Liverpool?  The Fenway Sports Group.  Yup, same as the Boston RedSox.  Boom!  You already have a team to hate. 

                The other soccer spectacle that can help you through February is the Champion's League Quarterfinals.  Real quick, let me explain what this competition is.  Imagine we had a season long tournament with the best baseball teams from the US, Japan, Korea, Panama, Venezuela, the DR, and Puerto Rico.  These teams would still play their regular league games, but work in "Champion's League" games throughout the season, slowly eliminating teams until you whittle it down to the absolute best.  Champion's League is essentially that, but it only includes European soccer teams.  The quarterfinals are fun because you get to see Germany's "Yankees" take on England's "Yankees," but you also get some Cinderellas in there.  This year's final 16 includes teams from Germany, Spain, France, England, Greece, Turkey, Italy and Russia.  Do you have any idea how many eons of bad blood that encompasses?  It's going to be awesome.  (Thanks for finishing those two paragraphs.  If you are not convinced that soccer is worth trying or even a little curious about the things I mentioned, I promise I will warn you up front so you can skip anything I ever write about soccer going forward)

Plan 3: Catch the Olympics bug for two weeks.  NBC will be televising a ton of this stuff and some of it is pretty interesting.  There is decent variety.  Lots of skiing, skating (speed and figure), and snowmobiles.  Biathlon features cross country skiing with a rifle and stopping to shoot targets.  Curling has been described as "what the staff at Bed, Bath and Beyond do after hours" and it's oddly compelling TV.  And don't forget about the sled events.  At the Vancouver games in 2010, someone actually died doing this (luge, not bobsled).  If you're one of those people who watches NASCAR just to cheer for a crash, this might be a good distraction for a couple weeks in February.

Plan 4: Just be miserable.  Watch mediocre college hoops as they drag through the conference season.  Tune in to NBA basketball that no one takes seriously and watch players just biding their time until May, when the games start to matter. Wallow in the tragic loss of football and start preparing your mock draft.  I didn't say this was a good plan.  I just said it was an option.

Plan 5: Some combination of plans 1-4. 

 I know I have given you a lot to chew on here, so I just want to leave you with one final note about the thing I think is most worth your time, Olympic hockey.  Think about this.  Would the NBA even consider shutting down for two weeks over a scheduling conflict with the Olympics?  Probably not.  That means that Olympic hockey matters to a lot of fans.  Let it matter to you for 12 days.  Pop in your BluRay of Miracle, scream "'Merica!!!!" at the top of your lungs, and climb on the USA hockey bandwagon for a bit.  It's really awesome.  The driver is Chuck Norris and the wagon is pulled by two gigantic eagles.  You won't regret it.

According to USA Today "The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has accused Armstrong and five former members of his support staff — three doctors, a trainer and a team manager — of engaging in a massive doping conspiracy from 1998 to 2011. Armstrong, 40, who retired from cycling last year, could see his Tour titles get stripped as a result."

The last probe was dropped back in February without any charges being filed.  According to the same article quoted above, this new case will be based more on testimony than evidence, kinda like when they got Marion Jones to break down in tears and confess to everything. 

These proceedings could be interesting (at least the highlights will be), but before they begin, I would like to pose the following, simple question: Is Lance clean?  The defense and the prosecution both make interesting claims.

Defense Point of View: Lance has passed more than 500 drug tests over the 13 years in question.  All this at a time when hundreds of cyclists have been busted and Tour de France winners have been stripped of titles after failing drug tests.  How could Lance have been the only one not to have gotten caught?

Prosecution Point of View: Lance won 7 Tour de France titles at a time when doping was rampant.  In a sport where a 5 second lead can be insurmountable and races can be decided by hundredths of a second, how could someone who is not doping beat so many riders who are doping?

Call me a pessimist, but I personally believe Lance to be guilty.  I cheered for him in every one of those 7 Tour de France titles, but, looking back, I just can't make myself believe that he did it clean.  Maybe it's the magnitude of the feat.  Maybe it's jealousy.  Maybe PED's in baseball and the Olympics have cast a negative shadow over all of sport.  Maybe I'm just a total hater.  Whatever the case, I would love to hear what you think.  Please share your thoughts below.  Thanks in advance for your contributions!