Pat Dooley’s Back Nine: Paris Olympic Games Have My Attention

The Back Nine comes at you after a weekend of having Olympic Fever. It sure beats COVID.

10. After watching the opening ceremony Friday, I was less than enthusiastic for the Summer Olympics. It was very French (oh yeah, they are in France) and I was not a fan of the athletes going down the Seine instead of marching in the stadium. But then, the Games began and I was so into everything. At one point, I had my own little sports bar going with all three TVs on the Olympics. It is so funny how fired up you can get over sports you normally would not watch if they were taking place in your back yard.

11. Like, I cannot watch an NBA game from start to finish. That’s just the way I am built (no jokes, please). But I watched U.S. vs. Serbia and rooted like a madman for players I usually can’t stand. I’m looking at you Kevin Durant. And I was so into the rugby final and Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel and Simone Biles and one of my TVs was actually on cycling time trials. I know I am starved for sports this time of year, but the Olympics rarely disappoint (unless the Russians are stealing a basketball gold). The great thing is that it’s just getting going and most of the 41 athletes (14 representing USA, the other repping 21 countries) from the University of Florida still haven’t started.

12. OK, I have to confess that at one point I had the women’s tackle football national championship on one TV. It was actually entertaining. But what really gets me excited is that we are just three days away from being in the month where college football begins. Actually, we are 27 days away from the first weekend, even if it’s not that compelling.

13. That means I don’t have that much time to make sure I know which players are where and which teams are in which conference. We all have to realize that as much as we don’t like the way college football has changed, it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.

14. For example, Florida right now has 26 players on its active roster who have transferred in over the last three years. It’s just the way it is. And with the roster changes coming, it’s going to get really bizarre. By the way, the mighty Gators are now two-point underdogs in the opener at home against Miami. It opened at six and might be a pick ’em game by Aug. 31. The closer this season gets, the more I wonder about what the final record of this team will be.

15. Seriously, there has been a run on national hot takes about how people should not be sleeping on the Gators. I’d rather leave the sleeping crocodiles lie. See what I did there? Made it French? I’m just saying I want people sleeping on a team that was picked to finish 12^th in the conference. The schedule is rough, but we have been through this before. Players love playing in big games way more than playing in what Urban Meyer used to call “stat games.” I think the ceiling is 9-3 and the floor if 4-8. I’m not sure there is as wide a discrepancy with any other SEC teams.

16. I have a lot of friends who are Mets fans (too many you say?) and they were giving it to me pretty good after the Amazin’s took the first two games from the Braves and took over their spot in the wild-card race. I didn’t know what the texts were about, because I forgot the Braves were even still trying with all of the injuries they have had. But I paid attention to the last two games of the series. Baseball, I can remind my friends, is a daily game. And we still have more than a third of the season to go.

17. I also watched as lot of golf this weekend and was really happy for Johnny Vegas, who has overcome two surgeries to get back in the winner’s circle on the PGA Tour. I tried to watch the LIV event, but I can’t get over the bizarre scoreboard on the screen.

18. I did take time from the Olympic to come up with a playlist and all of the songs are in English:

• “Lies For You” by Palmyra Declan.
• “Half A World Away” by R.E.M., my third favorite group of all time.
• And for an old one, “Gimme Some Truth” by John Lennon. We could all use some.

WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.