Say ‘thank you’

With Thanksgiving coming up in a few days, it’s time to take a look around the sports universe to see who has the most to be thankful for this week.

Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress

The man who had been better known for in-game blunders and questionable facial hair was given a three-year contract extension, which will pay him between $4 million and $5 million a season, a raise of more than double his current salary.

Childress has many reasons to be thankful. The biggest is that six teams decided to pass on Adrian Peterson in the 2007 NFL Draft, allowing the best player to fall into his lap. Peterson has delivered a Rookie of the Year award, a first-team All-Pro nod in his second season and is averaging over 100 yards rushing per game in his young career.

You’re welcome, Brad.

Coach Childress also needs to be thankful that Brett Favre has a bit of vindictiveness in his otherwise jovial personality. Had Favre not felt wronged and disgraced by the Packers, he would never have ended up playing in Minnesota.

Brad, we saw you coach when Tarvaris Jackson was your quarterback. Now you have Brett Favre.

Again, you’re welcome.

Milwaukee Bucks fans

If only I could be certain any of these individuals actually existed. Bucks fans may very well just be a myth, like the Yeti, or his North American cousin, the sasquatch.

However, I’m going to assume there are people who do consider themselves to be Bucks fans. They may have hit the lottery with rookie point guard Brandon Jennings, who they got with the 10th pick in this year’s supposedly terrible NBA Draft.

All Jennings has done so far is average 25.5 points, 5.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds through his first 11 games in the league, including a 55-point explosion in a Nov. 14 win over the Warriors.

Now, it’s still ridiculously early to make any grandiose judgments about Jennings, but the fact that many expected the Bucks to be the worst team in the league and they are off to an 8-3 start, makes this the beginning of what could be a beautifully improbable season.

Boxing fans

With the rise of mixed martial arts and, more specifically, UFC, the sport of boxing has taken a back seat this decade without any superstars to hang its hat on. There has been no excitement in the heavyweight division and former superstars like Roy Jones Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya got old quickly, so boxing seemed to lose its identity.

Until now, and the explosion in popularity for Manny Pacquiao. The Phillipino superstar, who is clearly the biggest draw in the sport, has just gotten better and better over the past three years, first dismantling De La Hoya, the former Golden Boy, who desperately needed a polish after the fight. He then knocked out Ricky Hatton, the little man from the UK with fists of iron and a heart of a lion, in just two rounds.

He finished his trifecta with last weekend’s TKO of Miguel Cotto, another contender for pound-for-pound king, who later admitted that Pacquiao was just too good and he didn’t know how he could have won the fight.

So boxing fans now have a lightning-fast, hard-punching, charismatic fighter who wants to mix it up, at his absolute peak and seemingly getting better. If he can somehow convince Floyd Mayweather to lace up the gloves for one more payday, it could be the biggest money-making fight of all time.

Me

For all the complaining I might do about the teams I cheer for and love, the fact that the majority of my job is following sports isn’t lost on me. I really appreciate what I am allowed to do.

Some quick-hitters who should definitely count their blessings this week: Bill Belichik (for having won three Super Bowls, so people actually defend his awful decision last week), Florida Gators fans (for having more titles than a single school deserves in one decade), New York Yankees (for regaining their rightful place as the most despised franchise in sports; it must feel good to be home), Phoenix Suns (for getting rid of Shaquille O’Neal, who seems to have become NBA kryptonite), Warriors coach Don Nelson (for disproving that whole “you need to be successful and competent to keep your job” theory) and the Utah Jazz (for Isiah Thomas trading them the Knicks’ 2010 first-round pick, as well as the Knicks not pursuing Allen Iverson, which ensures they will remain abysmal).

Have a very happy Thanksgiving.