Last Saturday, we had a fantastic sports day in Jackson, Mississippi. We woke up and headed to Millsaps College to watch the New Orleans Saints in training camp (incidentally, we got pretty pumped when Brees and Shockey connected up the seam). After lunch we hit the links for 18 holes of golf, then went to see the Double-A Mississippi Braves--for whom Tom Glavine was starting on a rehab assignment. All in all, including Olympics watching, we spent the hours from 10 AM and 10 PM enjoying sports. The cool thing about was that it was August 9.

Obviously, even a day like that doesn't come close to the satisfaction of a trip to DKR--or, for that matter, to a Saturday on the couch watching a constant flow of college football games. But for an off-season sports day, it was pretty great.

The experience made us wax philosophically (a rare occurance) about what is the ideal off-season sports day. We agreed that it should probably include watching the fourth quarter of the 2006 Rose Bowl (with the volume turned down and the Craig Way call playing on the iPod). Minor league baseball (with a future HOFer) and golf were also pretty stellar additions. And the Olympics viewing only sweetend the deal.

We are nearing the end of a long and arduous off-season. Our long national nightmare will soon be over and the FAU game will be upon us to provide relief. However, January 2009 is an unavoidable reality and fans should be prepared. In the comments, we'd love to hear about your ideal off-season sports day. Let us know about the best one you can remember, or just lay out the perfect plan that you haven't been able to pull off yet. For to paraphrase Homer Simpson, all we can do in the off-season is try to make the days not hurt so much until football comes around again.