Seventeen years ago “Mighty Ducks” turned me into a hockey fan. That’s officially over half my life. Very odd for someone who was born and raised in Texas and a sport that was born and raised in Canada. Before Norm Green moved the Stars to Dallas about the only thing the countries of Canada and Texas had in common was a love for beer and the ability to produce a good bull rider. Now, there is absolutely no doubt Texas is THE predominant hockey state in the South and kids are growing up in Dallas loving the Stars just as much as the Cowboys, Rangers or Mavericks. There are two main reasons for its popularity: the Stars have produced Dallas’ only championship in 14 years…and Mike Modano.

Meeting Modano for the first time, 1994

Although it was pretty much apparent at the end of this season that Modano was more than likely not returning, the Stars officially sealed the deal yesterday. So it’s time to say goodbye. When it came to the growth of a sport, Modano was twice the hockey ambassador to Dallas than Gary Bettman only wished Sidney Crosby was to the United States. Our appreciation for the game, mine specifically, is about 90% thanks to him. In 17 years I’ve only had two actual legitimate favorite players, Mike Modano and Jamie Langenbrunner. The others (such as Petr Buzek) were total personal infatuations and took on a stalking life of their own. So basically, Modano will forever be King of Hockey in my world and in this neck of the woods. I call mutiny if 9 isn’t hanging from the rafters of American Airlines Center before the first puck drops next season.

Modano wants to keep playing and should he do so, seeing him in another jersey won’t be anything less than weird and heartbreaking. I want him to be happy, so a fresh start (as with Marty Turco) just might do the trick. I agree with Mike Heika, “a happy Modano would be fun to watch“.

I know this isn’t officially goodbye, as much as Mike loves Dallas, it’s more like see you later…just not on our ice in our colors. All I ask, for the love, don’t go all Favre on us, Mo.

One of my other favorite lady-ran sports blogs is Ladies… They’re on my blogroll (well, will be on it when it have it up and running again) and I follow them on Twitter. Today they had a post regarding pro athletes use of Twitter and the recent social networking crackdown from the NFL. They asked what we think, I almost commented…but realized that my comment was turning into an entire ramble that was more fitting for, well, here.

I’m absolutely fascinated by the tweets of all these football players. Martellus Bennett is on the Cowboys so I love him, but he is batshit crazy. But as long as he catches the ball, fool can be all sorts of crazy. TO’s bible verses were, what’s the right word, uncomfortable? Completely random? I’ll just go with odd. Pics of his recent mani/pedi were kinda like a train wreck, you just had to keep looking (much like the entire TO Show). Chris Cooley is a douche, but he’s on my fantasy team so I have to grin and bear it. OchoCinco…is self explanatory. But like the Ladies pointed out, it’s the little things I find interesting: what a player thought about a movie he just watched…or what song(s) he’s listening to get pumped up for a game. That part is no different than me saying “ugh, stuck in bloody traffic on the 101 AGAIN, but hey I’ve got Bob Schneider to keep me company” They’re multimillion dollar pro athletes, but they’re also varying forms of normal, just like us.

[Let's pause whilst I think about what it would be like to really have Bob to keep me company...]

I can look at this whole sitch as two different versions of me. The Nikki from over 10 years ago and the Nikki of today. Nikki from today is (on paper) mature, grown up, only internet stalks guys she’s actually involved with on some level (or was), is a huge football and hockey fan still, but is all about being a fan instead of going googly for a player. OKAY, aside from that whole Miles Austin thing, which is why I hope blue eyes NEVER gets a damn Twitter. But for the big pros who do have Twitters, Facebooks or official pages, I think it’s absolutely wonderful and in the age of the deteriorating player image, it’s the best thing that could’ve happen. Especially for poor hockey.

If the Twitter bird can make the playoffs in goal, the Stars should sign him

However, high school/college Nikki was bananas for hockey players. More on that can be found here, here and here. I think about what it would’ve been like if Twitter and Facebook existed THEN and my brain partially strokes out. (My college roommate is totes going to have a major *facepalm* moment when she reads that). I would have been absolutely uncontrollable. I already knew enough, I already made a big enough fool out of myself and I already put myself in plenty of a precarious situations. I’m not even talking about the biggies like Mike Modano and Jamie Langenbrunner. I’m talking about the pups, the rookies, the ones who were already way too accessible to me. Sweet Jesus I loved those boys. Petr could’ve been like “boozer25: going to play game now” and I woulda been all “nikkihearts25: @boozer25 OMG I LOVE YOU AND WILL HAVE 10,000 OF YOUR BABIES.” Now given, I’m overestimating Petr’s use of the English language at the time and underestimating what ability I did actually have to control myself and the words that came out of my mouth. But you get my point.

I was a good girl little girl with stars in my eyes (no pun intended) though, despite what it sounds like, and although I was a basket case over at least two players over the years, I handled myself well most of the time. But for every one of me? There were a dozen crazyspices out there who didn’t quite have my boundaries. I knew a few and although I turned in my Official Player Stalking Club card years ago, I’m assuming they still exist in minor league arenas all throughout the country. THAT is why Twitter worries me. For all these little manchildren playing in the minors out there, oy vey for them.

Can’t lie, now my brain is working on would’ve been tweets for some of the other guys. At least the ones it wouldn’t have completely dumbfounded. *cough*Jon*cough*

Update: the blogroll is back. I know you were worried.

A few weeks ago I was at dinner with a large-ish group of friends. The  conversation was all over the place, which is fine, as my head follows nothing less than random. At some point, we started discussing what our various quirks are. That convo took place late on a Thursday night, by Friday afternoon the only thing I could come up with was I think I look retarded in overly girly earrings and I refuse to eat veal and lamb. LAME.

Somewhere around the same time, a reader posted a comment that started out with “Miles Austin? Really?!” So that got me thinking – and not about Miles Austin, ass holes…

Lucky charms

Sports quirks. Quirks of the sports fan. (By the way, I’ve reached the point where I’ve typed quirk so much it looks like the weirdest word EVER). We all have rituals and superstitions, as all die hard fans do. Because I’m mentally challenged, there were two songs I listened to every time I headed to Santa Monica to watch a game with the Cowboys group – “Gimme More” by Brit Brit and “A Milli” by Lil Wayne. True story, cause why exactly would I make that up? In addition, I have a necklace with The Star on it, the first game I forgot to wear it? We not only took our first loss, we lost to the Redskins. Ew. But superstitions aren’t really quirks, they’re more like examples of our retardedness and how we’ve convinced ourselves a team’s ability to win or lose is dependent upon what color of underwear we wear (or whether we wear underwear at all…wait, what?).

Per my response to the aforementioned reader’s comment, I realized I have a Crazy Little Sports Quirk(ish). Ready for this? I don’t favoritize (did I just make that word up?) players that everyone else does. Meaning, I will move on to my next favorite player once one becomes too popular. Hence the constant question of “Miles Austin? Really?!” I became a Marion Barber fan three years ago when he fell onto my first fantasy team. I bought my white Barber jersey two years ago, my blue Barber jersey last year. Then I went to a game in Dallas. It was like the number 24 had staged an attack on Texas Stadium.  I can’t be having that. I’d already taken a liking to young Miles during Hard Knocks and was keeping an eye on his performance (dirty). So I thought, well, WHY NOT?! So I ordered my custom Austin jersey and as of right now, I’m going to take a guess that there aren’t TOO many out there. I have a suspicion that won’t last long, however. Blurgh. Anyhow, I’ve always been this way, I was even worse with hockey. I worshiped the ground Mike Modano walked on, until he blew the f*ck up, became Mr. Dallas and I was like, okay, not cool anymore – we’re done. I went onto Jamie Langenbrunner. Same thing happened, had to break up with him as well (and then he went and got himself traded to the Devils, he was so heartbroken). Then I picked an absolutely not really known outside of the fans of the teams he played for player in Petr Buzek. I OWNED that number one fan spot and almost ran with it right  into the loony bin (or into a restraining order).

This leads me to admit that some may question my reasoning behind picking favorite players. I don’t pick players for why a lot of people probably THINK I do. I look for potential and I look for heart. I like ‘em when they still play for the love of the game…when they’re still up and coming. So, you can have your mass produced Romo and Witten jerseys. Make fun of me all you want, fools, I’m okay being a crazy with an Austin jersey.

I’ve given in and joined this thing, Twitter, that all the kids are talking about these days. Basically, I want to follow Shaq like everyone else. If you’d like to follow me (as my first tweet states, I’ll be much more entertaining once it’s actually football season – wait, is it ever NOT football season? – but I’ll do my best) you can do so by adding lilsportslady.

Work is a hot mess as our biggest convention/trade show of the year is quickly approaching, the upshot is that means a week in The Vegas. However, this weekend will begin an overall makeover of CLSL, I’m about to get an actual domain and pimp this thing out. Until then, these are the sports related thoughts of the voices in my head

1. Welcome to day 13 of waiting for the Cowboys to sign Miles Austin. That’s right, I’m a one lady army of unnecessary anticipation even though it’s only MARCH 12. Yes, even *I* know how ridiculous I am. There’s a #19 jersey in my closet that’s fine for now, but at some point I won’t be able to keep it from drowning its depression in the open bottle of Grey Goose.

2. Ain’t gonna lie to you, twas a little weird seeing T.O. in Buffalo garb. It halfway tugged on a heart string, but then I kinda got off on thinking about how he can now screw with the Patriots twice a year. And because I love sports shenanigans 10 times more than anything on Dlisted, can’t wait to see who is the bigger big mouth of the AFC East, Eldorado or J Pizzy.

3. Uh, where was I when Marion Barber was throwing down $14K on a bar tab? 3000 miles away – UNFAIR.

4. “Modano can’t be expected to save Dallas Stars“…WOW, the year 2003 welcomes you, JJT.

5. Does Travis Henry not know what causes babies? For serious.

6. Blessed be the Broncos for causing more drama than the Cowboys.

In honor of the Stars first appearance at the Staples Center this season and celebrating 15 YEARS of hockey fandom, I’ve decided to put together a list of my Top 15 Favorite Hockey Memories. I am totally stoked about this. This is the first of three entries. There are many, many wonderful experiences and as hard as it was to choose, I’ve no doubt I picked the cream of the crop. And apparently I didn’t have much of a life outside of hockey from 1998 to 2000. As much as I talk about football, I am known amongst family, friends and former classmates back in Dallas/Denton for being a ridiculously ginormous hockey fan. And I am proud of it. It’s shaped who I am today.

My room in high school, no joke!

For example, when I was home for my 10-year high school reunion last month, a fellow classmate asked

Me with Jamie Langenbrunner

“you’re still a hockey fan I hope? Please tell me you’re still a hockey fan…cause it’s you.” Our senior year we put our hand prints on the wall in paint, mine is signed with my name and a big star. One of my congratulatory ads in the senior yearbook? Included a photo of me and Jamie Langenbrunner. WORD.

When I started this blog, it wasn’t meant to be another armchair quarterback’s analysis of the most recent game or what the team could do better. I obviously know enough to hold decent conversations at the sports bars and do a fair amount of trash talking, but I leave the details to the big guns like Blogging the Boys. They do a MUCH better job of logically saying what is in my head. Therefore, this blog is about me and my life as a chick who loves her some sports and my experiences. So the memories listed over the next three posts aren’t lessons in Stars history…they’re MY hockey history.

Some of these I will go into more detail in future posts…once I find the pictures! I’ve already frightened a couple of people by mentioning I’m doing this. Ah, the power of the interwebs! I hope y’all enjoy, you’re about to find out where the Crazy in Crazy Lil Sports Lady came from. Please note, we’re going in chronological order. Starting with…

The movie that started it all.

1. 1993: The Mighty Ducks. The film hit movie theatres in 1992, home video sometime in 1993, which is how I saw it. I remember sitting on the floor of the living room when it was over thinking, oh my god, hockey is the coolest sport EVER. Screw football! (I know, imagine that…I was 13, obviously confused and going through an identity crisis or some such).

Amid the second or third viewing within 24 hours (seriously) my mom popped into the living room during the scene in which the team visits the North Stars and announced “oh, that’s the team that is moving to Dallas.” COME AGAIN?! Once this was confirmed by more reliable sources than a mom, I dumped Christian Slater as my celebrity boyfriend at once for Mike Modano. (Again…confused).

That October I watched the first Dallas Stars game on my tiny TV, began clipping out any article with the words “Mike” and “Modano” joined together and well, it just gets better…

..Continue reading..

A few months ago someone (he’ll know who he is should he ever read this…I’ll decide if I should thank him later) made this bizarre suggestion that I should do a sports blog. But Nikki there are so many sports blogs, you say. And I say sweet Baby Jesus, you are correct! But this dude and my equally misinformed friends seem to think (suckers!) I am quite the anomaly. Sure there are plenty of vagina carrying humans who love a good athletic competition for time to time. However, it’s safe to say not too many of them let their interest border on questionable personality traits and/or behavior not befitting a reputable, professional young lady raised in the South. Well…f*ck that. I am who I am. And have I mentioned yet my team is better than yours? I can’t hear insults or unnecessary comments through five Super Bowl championships.

So I will attempt to do this. After all, I WAS a writer at some point in my life and have let those talents go to rubbish. Don’t expect a lot. I may not always make sense, I may not always be sober. I get a little too wrapped up and heated up sometimes to control the words coming out of my mouth…or via my text messages. I know what I’m talking about a good 99% of the time, if I don’t…I have a degree in bullshit (no really, it’s a public relations degree). Do expect a good dose of complete randomness. It’s what I do best.

Things you should know before we get started. I have been a Dallas Stars fan since they skated into Big D. I worshiped Mike Modano for a good portion of the beginning years, but gave that up when I realized the water I thought he walked on was actually frozen (pun totally intended). I’ve been all over North America for hockey purposes, stories which I’ll tell as we pass the coming days, weeks or however long you’ll listen (read?) me. I was born a Dallas Cowboys fan and would currently have Marion Barber’s babies even though my father would kill me. Hockey and football aren’t the only sports I follow, but they’re the ones I live and breathe. I detest the Detroit Red Wings and the Philadelphia Eagles with a undisputed and not to be rivaled red hot flaming passion. I play fantasy football and can be quite good at it (and so humble, too!) I used to DVR PTI, Around the Horn and NFL Live every day, but let them go in preparation for fall TV, but still keep up online…religiously. Wilbon is my homeboy. I’m desperately trying to NOT become a Lakers fan, despite the insistence of both my bosses and the fact I like the white boys on the team (I never like the white boys). Plus, the traffic the bandwagonners cause during playoffs annoys me like none other. Not a day goes by I don’t skim and/or actually read ESPN.com, Yahoo! Shutdown Corner, Deadspin, Blogging the Boys and wherever else my clicking takes me.

I have an opinion on everything. You may not agree, hell, many may not agree but I don’t really care. This is one area of my life where I don’t actually care what people think. Enjoy my passion, it’s pure entertainment. I get agitated, I shake, I scream out demands for Donovan McNabb’s painful destruction.

I hope you enjoy, recommend the blog to those who would have fun with it, make comments, LOTS of comments…and get your popcorn ready. (Lord, that was cheesy).