Assuming you can get your car out of your driveway this afternoon, or you live within walking distance of your favorite shopping mall, this is your annual Take Back Day, Exchange Day, Return Day or Get This Junk Out of My House Day.
Whether that certain Christmas gift was a wee bit too big, too small or just too weird for words – “No, really, Aunt Ester, a fiber-optic fig tree is just what our den needs” – this is the day to get rid of it. Especially if they’ll trade you that reindeer sweater with the blinking red nose for cash.
But you aren’t the only one out there who would probably like to return something this weekend.
Across the broad spectrum of American sports, there surely were a lot of folks who would like to take back something they said or did during the past 12 months.
For instance, you don’t think Brett Favre wishes he’d stayed retired this past summer rather than return to the Minnesota Vikings?
In the past three months, Favre has found himself linked in a messy sex scandal involving former New York Jets employee Jenn Sterger – Favre, of course, is married to someone other than Sterger – been injured severely enough to end his NFL record streak of 297 consecutive regular-season starts and seen the Vikes plummet to a 5-9 record this season after coming within a Favre interception of possibly reaching the Super Bowl last year.
For the third year in a row, Wrangler Man is saying that this is his last season, but this time it looks like if Favre isn’t serious, the NFL may be, thanks to the Sterger situation.
Favre is not the only Mississippi native probably wanting a do-over for 2010.
Or do you not think Mississippi State wishes it had never said a word about whatever transpired between its football coaches or football boosters and Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton’s father Cecil?
If MSU had stayed quiet instead of attempting to get Auburn in trouble, it might not be on the NCAA’s radar – and possibly FBI’s – radar these days.
On the subject of the Newton soap opera surrounding Cecil Newton shopping his son for a figure somewhere north of $100,000, there are at least a few of us in the media (blush, blush) who may have to take back more than a few words regarding both the player and Auburn if nothing materializes from the NCAA’s investigation – which, at this moment, has found no wrongdoing by the Tigers.
And shame on those Heisman voters who elected not to vote for Newton over rumor only. If he is at some point found guilty, let the Heisman Trophy Trust strip him of his award. But until there’s proof of that, we may have never seen a more dominating performance on the field in one season than Cam Newton delivered for Auburn this season.
Speaking of take-backs, would any coach or athlete on the planet – not just the United States – like to take back the lies Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl told the NCAA regarding secondary recruiting violations?
Those lies now appear as if they could cost Pearl at least a full season of suspension once the NCAA gets around to handing down a ruling sometime around the Fourth of July, 2011. Moreover, those lies exposed Pearl as a schemer rather than a dreamer when it comes to following NCAA rules.
No longer does Pearl look like an ethics policeman for turning in Illinois more than 20 years ago for NCAA violations, but rather a slimy opportunist hoping to erase a recruiting competitor for personal gain.
Whatever ultimately happens to him, it would be difficult to persuasively argue he didn’t deserve his punishment.
Lastly, there’s Tiger Woods, who went the entire year without a victory, eventually losing his No. 1 ranking after losing his marriage over repeated infidelities. Yes, the scandal began on Thanksgiving night of 2009, but His Stripeness would surely like to take back his hurried attempt to return to the golf course rather than devote more time to correcting his private problems.
Or don’t you think he’d love to take back his career-worst 18-over-par finish at Bridgestone, a place where he’s won seven times?
It’s not all about sports, of course. In a year ravaged by an uncertain economy, wretched weather, natural disasters and unthinkable personal tragedies, a lot of us have surely wished we could take back all of 2010.
But then came Christmas in the Scenic City, our entire region lovingly blanketed in white, an event delivering uncommon peace and tranquility to what has become a maddeningly hurried and harried time.
And despite what has often seemed like 359 days of madness and sadness, I wouldn’t exchange the wonder of Saturday for all the gifts that won’t be returned the world over.
For at least one unusually silent day, much seemed calm, much seemed bright.