You probably noticed that I haven’t been writing much lately (who am I kidding? No one noticed). Well, the wait is over, patient followers, as I’m back from assignment after spending the past six days covering the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

During the past two decades, I spent an absurd amount of time worshipping the NFL. I operated dozens of fantasy football teams, bought the latest Madden videogame as a rite of fall and spent upwards of 200 Sundays parked in front of a television watching football. That all changed before last season when I decided that the NFL had become too fair.

The process was gradual. It did not happen overnight and it cannot be pinned on a specific Stephen A. Smith rant. However, after more than three years of deteriorating programming, ESPN has successfully alienated one of the world’s biggest sports fans from its network of television stations.