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In order to thank you, dear readers, for your support of Prayers For Blowouts, we reward those of you who reach the 50-comment plateau with a chance to take the PFB Sports Survey.

Today’s spotlight is on reader Geof Morris, who probably loves his local college hockey team more than you love your favorite college football team.

Geof Morris is a great friend of the site here at PFB because he’s a great friend of mine (bryan). He and I have partnered on numerous interweb adventures through the years including caedmonscall.net, derekwebb.net, squarepegalliance.net, and indieriver.net (see that, and you thought I was only into sports). Geof is a regular blogger, so be sure to add him to your feedreader of choice.

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1. What number best describes the role sports play in your life on a scale of 1 to 10?

GM: I used to be on the order of an 8.5, but then I went to engineering school and got too busy to keep up. Let’s put it this way: I edited a weekly sports ezine, TOTK[.com, for Top of the Key] from 1996-2002, and sporadically wrote a daily column in there called TOTK Today. I was sports blogging before blogging was cool.

But now, I’m probably a solid 6. I’d be a 7 if bryan hadn’t gotten back in front of me in the roto league the last couple days, though.

2. Rank your 3 overall favorite sports, college or pro.

GM: College hockey is my greatest love; my alma-mater, Alabama-Huntsville , has Division I’s southernmost men’s ice hockey program. I used to be a columnist for USCHO.com, I’ve traveled with the team [at my expense!] to be the color commentator for radio, and I’ve filled in as public address announcer. It’s … a passion. But since most people don’t know Hobey Baker from Oscar Meyer, I recognize it’s a niche. Major League Baseball is my #2, even if the 1990 Cincinnati Reds fade farther into my rear view mirror every year. [That said, I still have my unopened Wheaties box with the team on it.] The NFL is my #3, even though I’m breaking up with the Cincinnati Bengals after two decades—and no, not over Ocho Cinco. That’s a whole other column, though, about whether it’s okay to become a Pats fan.

3. What is the one team that you root for more passionately than any other, and is there a team that you hate, maybe a little too much?

GM: Well, if we’re talking college hockey, it’s my UAH boys and our chief rival, the Bemidji State Beavers. [Yes, the jokes write themselves.] But in terms of sports that anyone might have ever really heard of, I’m a Reds fan first and foremost and hate every other team in MLB save the A’s and Red Sox, purely because of how they run their organizations. I had deep-seated hatred in my heart for the Yankees back in the Gene Michael days, back when he fleeced Mama Marge, and they’re still there. Jesus keeps asking me to repent, and I’m … not so sure.

4. Do you play fantasy sports?

GM: I do, casually. I’m only in our roto league [that I roped bryan into a couple years ago] at this point, though. I think my peak was a roto league and fantasy football with the same group of folks. Simply put, I don’t choose to put my time into it like I know I could. It’s the same reason that I don’t gamble on sports—I could easily see it becoming an obsession, because I’m a narcissist and really do think I can whip you, so … yeah.

I’ve never won anything. I got to first in our roto league 2 weeks ago and resisted the urge to call bryan at 0615 to let him know. The Roto Karma Gods got me the next morning. Back to third.

5. What is the most memorable sporting event you have ever attended in person?

GM: Easy: UAH’s lone D-I ice hockey tournament appearance. We took Notre Dame to the second overtime. That game went longer than I slept the night before. I was delirious from driving from Huntsville to Grand Rapids in the previous 18 hours, and giddy that we might take down the #1 team in the country after being 10-19-3 in the regular season. That was the worst team I’d seen in my decade of being a UAH fan, until March … BOOM! Unbelievable. Night and day. Those guys were like Freddy Krueger—just couldn’t be killed.

6. What is the best highlight and/or worst lowlight of your sports playing career as a child or as an adult?

GM: I scored one, repeat, one goal in rec league soccer as a kid. I was slow but smart, so I played fullback and goalie—well, until the goals grew and I didn’t. I’m 5-11 now, but I was 5-7 in high school and like 4-6 back then. So that one goal was a lot of fun for me, even though it was a complete garbage goal thanks to the opposing goalie muffing an easy save. I felt bad for him as the ball was in the air, but not as it went in the back of the net.

7. If you could change one thing about sports, what would it be?

GM: The NHL’s instigator rule is absolutely terrible and has crippled the league. I think the NHL would have better ratings *and* better games if fighting came back.

Okay, so you want to talk sports that people care about … it’s probably the post-1994 changes to baseball’s structure: three divisions, the wild card, and interleague play. All are an abomination. Now that baseball is back on good footing, let’s expand twice more, go to four four-team divisions in each league, and kill Inter-League Play.

8. Do you have an opinion on Christian athletes who, without being prompted, talk about their faith in post-game interviews?

GM: Most of the time, it feels fake, expected. But we don’t know any of these people or their hearts.

9. High school gym class…your favorite 45 minutes of the day or the source of countless nightmares and embarrassments?

GM: I was pretty bad-ass at kickball, man. I played soccer, and I had a good leg. I also figured out that, if I hit a homer, I didn’t have to run hard.

10. Sports are often the whipping boy of pastors and clergy because so much passion, money, time, and energy is poured into them. Do you think this criticism is valid, or are sports okay as a diversion from the stresses of life.

GM: Both? It’s a great diversion, but man, any husband that ignores his wife because he wants to watch “the game” all weekend has his priorities out of whack. That said, TiVo may well save marriages, because hey … timeshift that badboy.

11. If you had to compete against other NASA guys, in which of these 5 competitions would you have the best chance of winning? 5-mile run, 18 holes of golf, free throw shooting contest, arm wrestling match, or a game of bowling.

GM: Mark it eight, Dude. [If you get that reference, you're all right. If not, well ... SHOMER SHABBOS!]

12. What is your favorite sports movie of all-time?

GM: As a UAH fan, I might be expected to say “Miracle”, because Kurt Russell’s son is one of our goalies. But honestly, it’s probably “Slap Shot”. [I would say "Field of Dreams", but that movie is no more about baseball than "Shawshank Redemption" is about prison---both are movies about life that use their motifs as setting for explorations of the greater social problems of the eras in which they're placed.]

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Anyone who (legitimately) racks up 50 comments can participate in the Sports Survey, and revel in the fame and glory that comes with it. You could be next!