BlogPoll Roundtable #3,719: EDSBS gets personal

Apparently, football season is getting close. The BlogPoll roundtables are coming fast and furious now, and the latest to jump on the bandwagon is the wonderful Florida fan blog Every Day Should be Saturday.

And for the first time, I think, in BlogPoll history, the poll isn't all about college football.

It's personal.

You'll see what I mean.

1. Education. List the region of the country you were born in, what universities you attended and at least one other you would have attended if your alma mater didn’t exist.

I was born in the lovely metropolis of Superior, Wisconsin (right across the MN/WI border from Duluth).

I attended UW-Eau Claire and UW-Superior in my fruitless attempt to get a real college education. If Madison wasn't a five-hour drive away from home, I would have gone there (I did get accepted there). Well, there was the five-hour drive and the whole probation issue. But that's in the past, and I'm not here to talk about the past.

Wait.

(OK. I made up the "probation issue" part. Or at least that's what I'm telling you.)

2. Sports Affiliations. List your top 10 favorite teams in all of sports in decending order. For instance, your alma mater’s football team may be number 1, but perhaps there is a professional team that squeezes in before you get to your alma mater’s lacrosse team.

10. Minnesota Timberwolves
9. Minnesota Wild
8. Wisconsin basketball
7. Wisconsin football
6. UMD basketball
5. UMD football
4. Milwaukee Brewers
3. UMD hockey
3 (tie). Wisconsin Badger hockey
1. Green Bay Packers

I could work as the play-by-play guy for UMD hockey for another 20 years, and I will probably never lose my Badger fandom. It's hard to do that when that's where I grew up and that's who I grew up rooting for.

3. Movies. List the movie you’ve watched the most, your favorite sports related movie, the movie you secretly love but don’t like to admit it (possibly a chick flick or b film), and the movie you were (or still are) most looking forward to from this summer’s season.

Movie I've watched the most: Major League
Favorite sports-related movie: Field of Dreams
Guilty movie: The Girl Next Door
Looking forward to: Cars

4. Music. List your favorite band from middle school, high school, college and today. Also, as with the movies, include the song you secretly love but don’t like to admit. If Nickleback is involved in any of these responses, please give a detailed explanation as to why, god, why.

Middle school: Alice in Chains
High school: Alice in Chains/Metallica/Nirvana
College: Alice in Chains (the three-legged dog CD and Unplugged both came out at this time)
Today: Nickelback Disturbed

(I have to say something in defense of Nickelback, if only because I have received plenty of exposure to them. My wife likes them, and my son adores them. Of course, he's only four, but it's hilarious how many Nickelback songs he can sing. And even Nickelback sounds cool when being accompanied by a four-year-old boy.

Anyway, my theory on Nickelback has stood since their first major-label release, "The State", which still stands as their best work by a pretty large margin. They're one of those bands that can be tolerated in small doses. As long as the exposure is to either their first CD or the most recent one, because the two in between are less than good. I would never pay to see them perform. Hell, I probably wouldn't open the window if they were playing in my front yard, because they're awful live. But I did want to mention this, even though it may subject my family to undue ridicule.)

Song I secretly love: "Lose Yourself" by Eminem would make this spot, but I'm not ashamed to enjoy that song. I'm going to have to go with "Hazard" by Richard Marx. Yes, I just typed that. So sue me.

5. Books. Favorite book you’ve finished, worst book you’ve finished and the book you really should read but haven’t gotten around to it.

Favorite: "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis. My goal in life is to convince Joe Morgan to read it. Honorable mention to "Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot" by ESPN Radio's Mike Greenberg, which reads like someone wrote my life's story. It was so much fun for me to read that I made my wife read it so I could see if she would have the same reaction. I was frightened when she did.

Worst: "Game of Shadows". I'm not a Bonds apologist, but much of this book has "witch hunt" written all over it, and much of this book is uninteresting drivel about people you can't possibly care about.

Book I really should read: "Wisdom of our Fathers" by Tim Russert.

6. Travel. Favorite city you’ve every been to and the one place you still must visit before you shuffle off this mortal coil.

Favorite city: Bonita Springs, FL. Especially since I got to go there the day after Christmas. That ruled.

Place I must visit: Tokyo.

7. What do you love most about college football in 20 words or less?

Passion, effort, Jump Around, College GameDay, goalpost destruction, and making fun of Ohio State, Minnesota, and Phil Fulmer.