I think I take a lot for granted as a sports writer for a student newspaper at a nationally renowned school like Wisconsin.
I get courtside and press box seats for sporting events. I get to talk to famous athletes like Lee Evans and Wendell Bryant and best of all, I get to do it for free.
However, I don't want to look greedy (at least no more than I do now), so in this time of giving, I thought I'd give some thanks of my own.
Thanks to the Badger football team for giving everybody on this campus an excuse to drink Saturday night, not that they needed one.
Also, thanks to UW freshman cornerback Brett Bell for having the guts to come out after the debacle against Michigan and talk to the media.
An added thanks to Bryant, Nick Greisen, Mike Echols, Nick Davis and all the rest of the seniors who showed up and played their hearts out in Saturday's game, only to have them broken in the final seconds.
Thanks to SportsCenter for finally playing up some Wisconsin highlights, even though they weren't the kind of highlights Badger fans wanted to see.
Thanks to the UW volleyball squad for being the best team on the Wisconsin campus.
Thanks to the Badger women's basketball team for ensuring there might be at least one good basketball team on campus this year.
Not to say that I expect the men's team to lose every game, but it'll be tough for UW to face off against teams like Iowa and Illinois, no matter how good Devin Harris turns out to be.
However, I give thanks to men's basketball head coach Bo Ryan for being the funniest head coach on campus.
Thanks to my loyal readers for checking out my column every week. I know it's tough for the three of you to find enough free time.
Thanks to the Green Bay Packers and quarterback Brett Favre for making me realize that there's no such thing as an easy game in the NFL this year.
Thanks to the one guy who voted for Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia for the American League Rookie of the Year. Ichiro's great and all, but a Rookie of the Year who's 27 years old and has already won boatloads of batting titles in Japan? That's like giving Brett Favre the Heisman Trophy.
Thanks to new Texas Tech men's basketball coach Bobby Knight for going an entire game without choking a player or tossing a chair onto the floor. Keep up the good work, Coach Knight!
Thanks to my co-editor James, for knowing more about sports than anybody legally should.
Thanks to this week's issue of \ESPN The Magazine"" for somehow translating Dick Vitale's annoying brand of commentary into print form. Hopefully, Fox doesn't have the same technological capabilities with John Madden and Pat Summerall.
Finally, thanks to those pilgrims who invented Thanksgiving all those years ago so that one day, overweight men could eat turkey, drink and fall asleep in the second quarter of the Packers-Lions game. Man, is this a great holiday or what?
Alan also wants to give thanks to his mom and dad for giving him a chance to live this year. He really appreciates it. Any responses to this column, funny or otherwise, can be sent to sports.
