The Inaugural 2021 BHGP Mailbag + We Have Questions for YOU

My middle child celebrated his 4th birthday over the weekend, which meant actual errands to run, yardwork to get done, rooms to get cleaned and last minute details to iron out for our first “party” in more than a year. The kid was super pumped for his birthday a year ago, only to find out he was going to be spending it without any friends or relatives and, at the peak of our COVID-19 mental freak out, with nowhere to go. So this year we went as all out as you really can while still abiding by state and local regulations and CDC guidelines. Which is to say we had a pair of vaccinated grandparents at our house, together, unmasked, with presents and cake and ice cream and decorations and all that jazz.

The kid was stoked and things almost felt normal. Which is probably why I woke up on Sunday and had the minor freak out thinking I had a bunch of scheduling to do for this week on The Pants. Normal weeks have planning and a rhythm and stuff to be published every morning.

But alas, normal isn’t normal. This is still the offseason, after all, and there just isn’t much going on. Or at least there isn’t much scheduled going on. There’s baseball and some non-revenue stuff, but by and large this community seems to care first and foremost about football, basketball and wrestling with all else far off in the distance.

So, as we prepare enter the sports wilderness that is the months of May, June and July in Iowa, I come with both questions and answers. That is, we’re bringing back the old mailbag because what else is there to do this time of year? Your boy Jerry is off slinging produce in (west?) Philadelphia (where he was not born, nor raised and on the playground he certainly did not spend most of his days), but I’m here to do my best impression.

But before we get to your questions and my (probably bad) answers, I’ve got questions for you, dear reader. Things like, why are you here? No, really, why do you come here. I don’t believe any of you are here for the news, because there are lots of news outlets that can provide you with that. And I don’t believe it’s the super in depth analysis because again, there are other outlets that do that really well (albeit, likely behind a paywall). But maybe it is. And I’m genuinely curious what it is that brings you here in the first place or keeps you coming back.

And along those lines, what would you like to see more of? Like, we have four months without those big 3 sports and that creates the most flexibility we will ever have in terms of going in depth on topics or getting totally outside the box. What would you like to read about? And once we get back into things like football season, men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling, what angles are we not covering that you’re interested in? Is there anything you really like or really could do without?

Any thoughts you have are more than welcome in the comments below.

Now, on to your questions. There’s been some.... things that have happened in Hawkeye sports recently. Maybe you have questions there. Maybe you have really been wondering what some random guy with a keyboard thinks about the spring depth chart. Maybe you’ve got burning questions for someone totally unqualified to answer about the NFL draft. Maybe you have questions about NFTs, bitcoin or the most recent season of Ozark. Or maybe you’re just questioning it all.

Ask away. We’ll be back later this week with what will try to be passed off as answers.

Until then, as Jer would say, smooches.