The harsh reality of post-Derby May in Louisville is officially upon us.
Sure, the weather is unrivaled and I find it comforting to have a baseball game to watch casually on weeknights again, but there isn't a soul among us who is not brutally aware of the fact that the sound of pads colliding inside Papa John's Cardinal Stadium will not be heard for another four months, and the sound of sneakers squeaking inside Freedom Hall for another two months after that. This is when things like what I'm about to describe happen.
I am now accepting your nominations for the eight competitors in the Least Cool Person of 2007-2008 Tournament (pertaining to Louisville sports, of course). We're (I'm) looking for the people who had the biggest role in preventing your Cardinal-related happiness, who did something outrageously annoying, or who you just felt like fork-stabbing because they acted like themselves.
The first five names that immediately jumped out at me were:
Larry Taylor (unfair catch)
Tyler Hansbrough (almost single-handedly killed the dream in Charlotte)
Jeremy Hazell (out-of-body performance in huge upset)
Mike Tranghese (poor bowl tie-ins/recent BCS comments)
Steve Johnson (winning TD catch in first loss to UK in five years)
So now it's up to you to throw out some more names and create a field less cool than Scotty Smalls (I don't care if he's the main character, the kid - and man - really is an L-7 weenie). I'd like to start this thing tomorrow so that we'll have something at least semi-interesting to do as soon as possible.
One piece of advise: don't be afraid to nominate Crean...or - in the rare case that she drunkenly threw your hat on the ground and embarrassed you in front of a large group of people outside of a Charlotte bar (hi Dan) - a random girl.
