Steele Watch ‘08 Continues: A Week to Go?

Believe it or not, the word “obsessive” has been thrown around by family and friends in regards to my yearly fixation over the release of Phil Steele’s massive 328-page college football preview magazine. Aside from the usual mentions of having a man-crush on the dude, I’ve also been accused of secretly working for Mr. Steele in an effort to further disseminate his work throughout the blogosphere. Psh, I wish.

Still, there is a reason for this fixation, as nothing says “save me from exorbitant gas prices and the NBA playoffs” quite like Phil Steele’s preview. I mean, for goodness sakes, it’s almost June. We’re right smack dab in the no-man’s land between the end of spring practices and the start of fall camp. We’re stuck amidst a hazy sports landscape which gives us college baseball and lacrosse to watch on a Saturday afternoon. Throw in nightcaps of your hometown baseball team’s inevitably slide into mediocrity and a sport which, despite whatever ESPN may claim, nobody cares about, and you have a veritable cornucopia of Saturday boredom. It’s not that I need the 2008 college football season right this second, but at the very least I could use something telling me that it’s coming.

Fortunately, we may not be far off. If my memory serves correctly (itself a 50/50 proposition) I bought my Phil Steele 2007 magazine at the end of the first week in June last year. If memory further serves me correctly (ok, so this may really be stretching it) I actually bought my Athlon Regional preview on one of the last day’s of May last year. Considering Athlon was ranked the number two preview magazine by an independent service last year, it may not be a bad idea to invest in it, even if you are an unabashed Phil Steele zealot like myself.

Whatever the case may be, I think it’s fair to say that within the next two weeks we’ll be seeing something in stores, whether it be Athlon or Steele. Of course, guided by my pseudo-obsessive need to fill my head with almost meaningless statistics and plenty of acronyms, I’ll be the first to report in when I do find these magazines in stores.

Speaking of Phil Steele, have you ever noticed how there is only one actual picture of the guy online? Oh don’t act like you haven’t done a google image search before, we all know you have. Fortunately I recently caught up with Phil at a Naval Academy practice, confirming that not only is he actually real, but that he is a big fan of Navy do-it-all athlete Jarod Bryant.

Note: The authenticity of this photo cannot be confirmed.