Welcome to The Dead Zone!

[DanOregon]

Although - I'm never quite sure when the official start of the "dead zone" of sports begins - obviously it ends with the start of NFL training camps, but is the start the end of the NBA Finals/Stanley Cup? The US Open? The end of OTAs in the NFL? The NBA draft?

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Baseball is still a thing. If you think this is a dead zone, you ain’t paying attention.

 

[DanOregon]

Of course baseball is still a thing, but this is the "lull" in the sports year. Just didn't know how it was particularly defined.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I used to call it “sportswriter vacation season.”

 

[Batman]

It's usually the end of the Stanley Cup/NBA Finals — that's the end of the "sports calendar" for the year — but with the U.S. Open going on this weekend maybe this year it's Monday. There are some NFL mini-camps going on as well.
Working in Mississippi, this year is making me realize how spoiled I've gotten the past few years. We had Mississippi State and Ole Miss get to the College World Series several times, and of course win it all the past two. Other than the COVID year, of course, this is the first time since 2017 that we don't have that to fall back on. That was great material to carry us through at least the first half of the doldrums.

 

[MileHigh]

Father's Day/end of U.S. Open

 

[dixiehack]

I always thought the back half of the baseball all-star break marked the doldrums. You look at how much season is left and unless you cover a true contender it looks like 500 miles of two-lane desert road. You get halfway excited for NFL preseason until you watch a quarter of a game and it feels like fries that spent all day under a heat lamp.

 

[mpcincal]

It may be just me, but I always considered it the period between the Super Bowl and the start of spring training. I'm mainly a baseball and football fan and don't follow the NBA or NHL very closely.

 

[MTM]

It may be just me, but I always considered it the period between the Super Bowl and the start of spring training. I'm mainly a baseball and football fan and don't follow the NBA or NHL very closely.

I was coming to write this. That’s the doldrums of the NBA, NHL and college basketball seasons.
Then spring training starts and the winter sports head into playoffs runs and March Madness.

 

[DanOregon]

But now - with the NFL going into February - spring training literally started the day after the Super Bowl this year.

Used to be you'd have a month or six weeks - hell, even if they wanted to bring "Superstars" back, there is no place or time to do it.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Locally speaking, it used to start after the last local (usually baseball) team in our area ended its season and ended with the start of football two-a-days in August. That window has shrunk with the advent of 7-on-7 football, with the state tournament coming up at the end of June. Legion baseball used to get us through July, but that isn't a thing anymore in a lot of places.

 

[Bubbler]

Although - I'm never quite sure when the official start of the "dead zone" of sports begins - obviously it ends with the start of NFL training camps, but is the start the end of the NBA Finals/Stanley Cup? The US Open? The end of OTAs in the NFL? The NBA draft?

It wouldn't say it ends with NFL training camp. Different horses for different courses, etc., but I find training camp - whether covering it or observing from afar - to be boring as ****. NFL interest doesn't begin with me until Week 1.

Summer isn't bad for me. Baseball, of course, but auto racing too. Soccer begins in August.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I always thought the back half of the baseball all-star break marked the doldrums. You look at how much season is left and unless you cover a true contender it looks like 500 miles of two-lane desert road. You get halfway excited for NFL preseason until you watch a quarter of a game and it feels like fries that spent all day under a heat lamp.

My sense is fantasy football has made even the doldrums of preseason football quasi-interesting...like, not nearly interesting enough to watch if you're not getting paid to do so, but interesting enough to read about for drafting purposes. And with so many mocks and best ball leagues, actual drafts are happening all the time.

 

[Cosmo]

After spending 20 years covering college/high school/NFL football, I am actually physically repulsed by the idea of reading any story coming out of any training camp. Too many years trying to parse the depth chart to see who was going to survive the first cut in an NFL training camp. Or writing the positive spin THIS IS THE YEAR prep football preview.

If you don't have a baseball team worth following, July truly is a dead month, especially after Wimbledon ends. There's the Open Championship and ... what? Even soccer is dead in July, unless you care about MLS. I'm fine with that. A month away from voraciously following sports is good for the soul and mental state. I ramp back up in mid-August when the PL/Championship get going and I'm pretty deep into something from that point until mid June.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Other than the U.S. Open and Open Championship, the Women's World Cup starts in late July. By the time it ends, just about everything else will get stirred back up.

 

[poindexter]

It wouldn't say it ends with NFL training camp. Different horses for different courses, etc., but I find training camp - whether covering it or observing from afar - to be boring as ****. NFL interest doesn't begin with me until Week 1.

Summer isn't bad for me. Baseball, of course, but auto racing too. Soccer begins in August.

Yeah, to me, it's the end of NFL/NHL, until the first NFL game. But pre covid, almost every summer had an Olympics/World Cup/Women's World Cup/Euros/Track and Field WC. Covid ****ed up the Japan Olympics, and the Bonesaw Group - soccer division ****ed up the summer World Cup last year.

The mini lull is the Super Bowl until the conference basketball tournaments start.

 

[Cosmo]

The WWC will be tough due to the time change. The first two U.S. games at least are at 9 p.m. EDT, which is doable, especially since soccer is a two-hour endeavor. They only get the 3 a.m. spot for the final group stage game.

 

[ChrisLong]

I remember the prep editor dancing as he came into the office. "Last team lost, prep summer begins just as soon as I finish writing this story."

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Post-Super Bowl to March Madness is the lull. In July, it's nice enough to go outside and you know, play a sport for fun. In New England February, you don't want to go outside, so the sports lull really hurts. It used to be worse because February vacation week was when Disney on Ice hit the Garden, and both the Bruins and Celtics would make West Coast road trips.

 

[dixiehack]

Post-Super Bowl to March Madness is the lull.

Said no one ever on a preps beat or at a smaller paper.