What a sports year so far....

Wow what a sports year it has been for me so far this year. The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame started things off ending their 9 game bowl losing streak by knocking off the Hawaii Warriors 49-21 in the Hawaii Bowl. In the game Jimmy Clausen set the Notre Dame bowl game record for most passing yards with 401 yards while completing 84.6 percent of his passes(21-26) and 5 touchdowns which are also team bowl records.
Then in February the Pittsburgh Steelers won their 2nd championship in 4 years by squeaking past the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in Super Bowl 43. The NFL's Defensive Player of the Year James Harrison returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown before the end of the half changing momentum and giving the Steelers a 17-7 lead. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 256 yards and 1 td which was the game winner with only 35 seconds remaining. Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes, finished with 9 catches for 131 yards, was on the receiving end of the game winning touchdown in which he had to catch the ball over his shoulder and keep his feet in bounds as he was falling out of the back of the end zone. The Pittsburgh Steelers became the first team to win 6 Super Bowl Championships. The Steelers won a divisional round match up against the San Diego Chargers 35-24. The Steelers won the AFC Championship against the Baltimore Ravens 23-14 after Holmes caught another controversial TD pass against the Ravens.
In April I got to go to Ford Field in Detroit to watch the Final 4 teams practice and I got Wayne Ellington's autograph. The North Carolina Tar Heels routed the Michigan State Spartans 89-72 to win the 2009 NCAA National Championship. The Tar Heels were led by Junior PG Ty Lawson who finished with 21 points, 6 assists, and an NCAA title game record 8 steals while helping them win their 2nd championship in 5 years and their 5th overall. The Most Outstanding Player of the 2009 Final 4 was Wayne Ellington who ended the game with 19 points and Senior star Tyler Hansbrough had 18 points to go with 7 rebounds.
The end of April brought along the NBA playoffs and the Chicago Bulls were facing the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics in a first round match up. The Bulls pushed the Celtics to the brink of elimination but came up just short losing 109-99 in Game 7. This was probably the most exciting series in a long time for the NBA with 4 games going into overtime and the teams trading clutch shots. The Bulls stole game 1 in OT, lost game 2 on a buzzer beater, were blown out in game 3, needed OT to even the series, lost in OT, evened the series again but this time in 2OT, and ran out of gas in game 7 ending the most entertaining playoff series this decade.
The Pittsburgh Penguins went 18-3-4 over the last 25 regular season games to finish 4th in the Eastern Conference Finals and they got a 1st round match up against the Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins dispatched the Flyers in Philadelphia in 6 games. Pittsburgh then squared off against the Washington Capitals. The Caps took an early 2-0 series lead before the Penguins won 3 straight including Game 5 on the road. The Pens failed to wrap it up at home but showed a lot of grit by blowing out the Caps at home in Game 7 6-2. The Penguins swept the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals wrapping the series up in Carolina winning both games by a combined score of 10-3. The Penguins would get a rematch against the Detroit Red Wings and knocked them off in 7 games winning in Detroit in the clincher. Evgeni Malkin won the Conn Smythe trophy for the playoffs MVP. The Penguins won the 3rd Stanley Cup in team history.
I'm not sure what the rest of the year will bring but I'm pretty excited about the possibilities. My wife and I may go to Pittsburgh for our anniversary to attend the Steelers training camp. I plan on making it to a couple of Steelers games this year, they play in Detroit in December or the Penguins and Flyers are up for the Winter Classic game in Happy Valley on New Year's day. I may be the road engineer for the UT Rockets again which would mean I will go watch the Rockets play at Purdue, Florida International, and the Ohio State Buckeyes at Cleveland Browns Stadium. So who knows but the possibilities are endless.