Dealing with Withdrawal - The First Weekend without Football

So here we are, a week removed from the Super Bowl. We're a few weeks away from free agency, and months away from the draft. The Pro Bowl was moved, so we don't have that to calm our nerves in the transition to the offseason. Thankfully, the sports world has made sure to pack this first football-free weekend with other diversions.

NBA All-Star Weekend

With everything else going on, this will probably be the least watched of this weekends events. The pros and cons are easy: The NBA's best and brightest play in a series of events and skill competitions, leading up to the All-Star Game itself, which, unfortunately, Kobe Bryant will not be participating in. In his place will be Dallas Maverick Jason Kidd. Still, nobody plays defense in these games, and the entire thing is sometimes like watching a live highlight reel.

You can't tell me the idea of seeing those plays happen live isn't at least a little bit exciting. The East lineup of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Dwight Howard is worth a watch by itself. In fact, the events are just getting underway at NBA.com, and they continue all weekend long.



Daytona 500 Weekend

Maybe you aren't a fan of NASCAR, but it is one of the nation's fastest growing sports. This weekend is one of the biggest of the year. It's the first weekend for Sprint Cup racing, and it starts at one of the most exciting tracks in America. Starting in just a few hours, you have the Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy Resources 250. Sure, boring, unless you're a big fan of the sport. The moment a lot of people are waiting for comes tomorrow in the Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300, where Indy Racing star Danica Patrick makes her debut. It will be Patrick's first real competition outside of open-wheel racing, and if practice is any indication, it should be an interesting day.

The big race, of course, is Sunday's Daytona 500. It's one of the most prestigious races in NASCAR, and one of its most watched every year. It may be the first race of the season, but the stakes always seem to be high. Remember, this is the race that Dale Earnhardt Sr died in nine years ago. It's also a race he only won once in 22 years of racing, and that came in 1998. Looking at the Acheivments section of his Wikipedia page, the fact that the 1998 Daytona 500 is the only listed out of all the races he won is a testament to how respected this race is.

Beneath the prestige and fanfare of the race is underbelly of why people watch NASCAR: the crashes. Daytona International Motorspeedway is a restrictor plate track, so everyone is racing around the same speed, and a lot of cars tend to get bunched together. It has led to some of the bigger crashes in NASCAR history, including this one from last years race:

The one thing you can always count on in the Daytona 500: There will be a big crash.


The 2010 Winter Olympics

Maybe you aren't a basketball fan, and watching cars race around an oval for 500 miles isn't your thing. Chances are, you can find something to interest you in the Winter Olympics. Events haven't even officially started yet, and already there's controversy. First, 30 athletes have already been banned for doping, in a mix of positive test results and failure to comply with testing procedures. An ongoing problem for this year's games, being held in Vancouver, British Columbia, is the lack of snow. While the Mid-Atlantic seaboard of North America has been hit by snowstorm after snowstorm, Western Canada has been mostly snow-free. Snow is being created, trucked in, and flown in by helicopter. Unfortunately, the biggest controversy is just beginning.

A little over two hours ago, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during a practice run. Kumaritashvili was traveling near 90 mph when he lost control of his sled near the finish line, went over the track wall, and slammed into an exposed metal pole. The track being used for luge, skeleton, and bobsled races has been called the fastest in the world, due to its light top portion, allowing speeds to climb before reaching the sharp turns at the bottom(for a much better analysis of track safety, check out Deadspin's coverage). On top of that, the track was one of the locations kept secret, in order to give Canada a home-country advantage. Very few foreigners had seen the track, and even less had ridden on it before this week. In its history, Kumaritashvili is only the fourth competitor to die at a Winter Olympics.

It is currently unknown if the luge will still be raced, as many believe the track is no more dangerous than any other. The Games themselves, however, will continue. In fact, they have technically already begun, with ski jumping already completing its qualification round. What follows will be two weeks of intense international competition, ending with the Men's Ice Hockey Gold Medal Game on February 28th. It will be two weeks of the world's greatest winter athletes competing at the highest level. Let's hope the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili will not cast too great of a shadow over it, or over the Opening Ceremonies taking place later tonight.