In business, the Quarterly Review is a critical opportunity to pause and look back at all the things you accomplished in the last 90 days and gear up for the next 3 months.  Using this principle as my guide, let’s take a look at how close I came to my prognostications for January, February, and March 2015.  My guidance is prepare to be underwhelmed.

I came close to picking the NCAA National Title winner but I didn’t see THE Ohio State University beating Alabama and then Oregon in the 1st “College Football National Championship Game.”  I thought ‘Bama would beat up THE Buckeyes pretty good but then again I didn’t expect Cardale Jones to completely rise to the occasion and single handily defeat the Tide with a 3rd string quarterback’s game for the ages.  It was heroic and the very stuff sports dreams are made of.  Ezekiel Elliott dominated the Ducks in the title game and set a single game rushing record in the championship game.  Oregon had no answer for this punishing attack.  I am oh for one in January and I won’t be showing off my abs.  If you watch a lot of Sports Center on ESPN, you’ll know exactly what I mean about stomach displays for attention.

Things in February didn’t get much better.  The Patriots miraculously defeated the Seahawks on Malcolm Butler’s improbable interception.  The Seahawks were literally one yard away for the win until Mr. Butler stepped in front of Russell Wilson’s pass.  It was an incredible individual effort.  Just like Jermaine Kearse’s catch, which now no one will remember because of the immaculate interception.  So much has been written about Pete Carroll’s play call (which was actually brilliant because EVERYONE knew The Beast was getting the ball) but no one seems to be talking about how crazy good the interception was.  As a former high school cornerback, the slant is almost impossible to stop unless you guess and guess correctly.  Butler did and Tom Brady rightfully gave his cornerback the car Brady won for the MVP award.  This crazy ending of the Super Bowl makes me now oh for two.  The abs are still safely tucked away under my tee-shirt.

Which brings me now to the Cricket World Cup.  My favorite March sporting event after March Madness.  South Africa’s history of failure at the World Cup continues.  There will be no parades in Cape Town because New Zealand knocked out the South African cricketers.  The South African’s bowling just didn’t spin enough and the poor fielding were the root causes of their nail-biting loss.  But, South African sports minister Fikile Mbaula said he was proud of them.  Which is saying something.  Last year, he called them them “a bunch of losers” and “useless, unbearable individuals.”  Now if that’s not motivation from your sports minister, I don’t know what is.  No wonder they lost.

What have we gained from all of this?  Simply this – sports are unpredictable.  That’s why you play the games.  It’s the beauty of sport.  You never really know who is going to win.  At least, I don’t.  It is why I have an emotional connection to sports.  Why it’s a multi-billion dollar industry.  It’s why men and women play and it’s why men and women watch.  It’s also why sports predictions are so fun.  It’s all a big, fat guess.  I’ll check back in with you for my mid-year review to see if I’ve gotten any right.  For now, I’m simply oh for three.  Nine more sporting events to go.

My abs are hidden from view.