The 8 Most Boring Stretches of the Sports Year - OMG Lists - When we list, the world listens- The Ultimate Pop Culture List Site!

Professional athletes take a lot of punishment but at least they get an off-season to recuperate and heal; sports fans don't have it so easy. Sports is a year-round proposition, thanks to ESPN, sports-talk radio and the Internet. The good news is that we can talk about and think about sports every single day. The bad news is that there are days (and even weeks and months) in the sporting calendar that absolutely suck. For every memorable event like the Super Bowl or the first pitch of the season, there are dead spots where sports fans are left begging for something interesting to happen. These are the 8 worst times of the sports year where the stars do whatever the opposite of aligning is and we're stuck with a day's worth of Jai-alai and WNBA recaps on SportsCenter.

8- All-Star Weekend

Fact: All-Star games suck. But you already knew that right? The only real reason why All-Star games still exist is because it's profitable for the league and they draw in non-fans who 'ooh' and 'aah' at the pretty light show. Real sports fans know that the All-Star game is pointless; hell, even the athletes involved know it. Yes, there is a certain honor in being recognized as an All-Star but fan voting has turned All-Star rosters in a popularity contest, meaning you're more likely to get voted in based on name recognition than on actual skill and stats. Couple this with the fact that the outcome is absolutely meaningless (don't get us started on Selig's ridiculously stupid decision to grant home-field based on the All-Star game) and you have a recipe for a craptacular game that's bookended by a lot of craptacular "entertainment" like home run derbies and ice-skating races. What sucks is that the leagues make such a big deal out of them, shutting everything down so they can put on a glorified dog and pony show; is it any wonder why All-Star celebrations are looked upon with such disdain by true sports fans who aren't fooled by the glitz and the glamour?

7- Post-Elimination Depression

The beginning of every season brings with it a renewed sense of hope. If your team won last year's championship, there's the hope that they'll win it all again. If your team made the playoffs, there's the hope that they'll build on their success and find a way to be the last team standing. Even if your team was a cellar dweller, there's the hope that they'll turn it all around and bring the franchise back to respectability. But hope is a double-edged sword, especially if you root for a perennially terrible franchise like the Lions or the L.A. Clippers. Sure, you can start the season thinking "maybe this is the year" all you want but then your team's mathmatically eliminated from the playoffs with half the schedule still remaining. Even worse are the fans whose teams remain in contention up until the very last day (Mets fans, we're looking at you) only to watch their team blow it somehow. The worst part is that even after your team's eliminated, the sport continues on and you have to keep hearing about it. Then, when the playoffs end, you have to hear daily reports about another team's glory. It's like getting rejected by the girl of your dreams months before the prom then having to watch her go to the big dance with some other guy; oh, then you have to watch them have sex in their hotel room later too.

6- BCS

Ah, the BCS, college football's moronic money grab that leaves everyone but a select group of individuals happy. Unless you profit from the BCS, you absolutely hate it. But much like the shriveled up slice of month old pizza that you find under couch when you're dead broke, it's the only thing on the menu. We love college football but we can't stand the yearly discussions of how the BCS is broken and how a playoff system really is the only solution blah blah blah. Every freaking year, there is some deserving team that's left out of the BCS and every freaking year there is some controversy about whether or not the two best teams in the nation are playing against each other in the championship game. Every freaking year, we have to listen to the pundits and talking heads ramble on and on about how terrible the BCS is. It's enough to render what should be a satisfying end to the college football season completely meaningless.

5- The Pre-season

Our thoughts and your thoughts about the pre-season can be summed up by the following sentence: "Just shut up and start the damn season already!" You get pumped for your favorite sport to start but before it does, you have to suffer through a million meaningless exhibition games, hours upon hours of conjecture on potential starting line-ups and injury reports as well as meaningless predictions on which teams are and which teams aren't title contenders. Let's face it, the pre-season is to sports what foreplay is to sex, amirite guys?

4- March Madness

People in the know will tell you that college basketball is far superior to the professional product simply because it puts more emphasis on fundamentals. It's also great to watch a group of young men actually compete as a "team" rather than watching a bunch of millionaires play a pick-up game while wearing the same colored uniform. But as great as college basketball can be, we absolutely cannot stand the monstrosity that is March Madness. Like a loudmouth who just has to be the center of attention, this month-long tournament stomps in and completely dominates the sports world during its existance, leaving those of us who have little interest in the sport with no other option than to plug our fingers into our ears and go "Lalalalalalalala." The worst part are the March Madness pools that crop up, which means you have to listen to your damn co-workers use the word "bracket" a million times. It's enough to make you want to suplex Frank from Accounting; the self-proclaimed "Bracket King" totally had it coming anyway.

3- Trading deadline

The trade deadline can be the source of some much needed mid-season drama, especially if a blockbuster deal is pulled off. Contending teams load up for their title run and rebuilding teams unload salary and stock up on draft picks for the coming year. Superstars suddenly switch uniforms and entire lineups can be changed overnight but the weeks leading up to the trading deadline are absolute torture. All those possible scenarios and possiblities; the sports talk shows with their "Will so and so get moved? Will X team address Y need?" discussions: It's even worse when absolutely nothing happens-a common occurance in the salary cap era-and teams either stand pat or make minor deals that barely register on the radar. It's a lot of anticipation for a lot of nothing-kind of like that date we just went on last week.

2- Superbowl Week

To paraphrase Allen Iverson, "we ain't talkin' about the game, we talkin' 'bout everthing related to the game." The week and a half long run up to the event, the bloated half-time show, the ridiculous commercials and the navel-gazing end of the season coverage-that's what we talkin' 'bout. Not the game, not the game that we love and die for. Not the game. But everything else. That's what we talkin' 'bout, man.
We love the damn Superbowl. Unlike college football, it truly is a match of the two most deserving teams. Computers and polls didn't decide the matchup-the players and coaches decided that on the field, which is the way it should be. But the Superbowl has become such a spectacle that it's become something of a monster. It's become so layered with crap that it's hard to remember that you're basically sitting down to watch a game of football. Yes, it's great to get glimpses into the lives of the players involved and there are some great stories that come out of the pre- and post-Superbowl coverage. But the focus strays so far away from the actual game itself that by the time kickoff rolls around, there's no mystery anymore.

1- Off-season

Even though we've spent the entire list crapping on the yearly sporting calendar, the honest trust is that we still love sports. This is why the most agonizing part of the sports year is the off season, that barren, joyless time when your favorite sport is not being played. At all. The champion has been crowned, the headlines have all been written, the highlights have been all watched-and there's absolutely nothing left to do but wait until the new season starts up again. You basically become a junkie who's just had his last real fix-you're fine at first but soon, you get that itch. You try to fill the void by watching old games and reliving past highlights but it's just not the same. There's really only one way to curb your hunger and that's for the new season to start. But that's not happening for a looooooong time.