In between watching Parker while Anya finished her Masters report and getting our Christmas ornaments from the storage unit, I had my iPhone opened to the Cowboy game so that I could periodically check the Cowboys-Steelers score. It was an important game for both teams, especially the Cowboys who were hoping to stay in the hunt for a Wild Card playoffs spot. The fact that I was using my iPhone to passively check the score instead of listening to the game on the radio kind of just says it all and may make more sense when this post is finished.

As tends to happen a lot these days, the Cowboys blew the game in the final two-minutes. And like I am after all Cowboys losses, it basically ruined the rest of my day.

So it was in that mindset that I made the mental declaration that its time to break my sports addiction. Because I grew up in a household in which I was made aware of the wonderful work that AA does, I'm going to do my own 12-step program for sports. You can call it the "Big 12 Program."

1. We admit we are powerless over our addiction to sports - that watching games has become unmanageable.

Somewhere between checking the score as OU ran up the score on Missouri and between the Cowboys-Steelers devastation the next day, it all came to a head. I couldn't be in a restaurant in which a game was on the television and not watch it. I couldn't be in the car without having sports talk radio on. If there was an important game on, I had to be checking the score every 5 minutes. Thank god the election is over, because that was the same thing. Only instead of espn.com, I was checking huffingtonpost.com or dailykos.com.

2. Come to believe that a power greater than sports could restore us to sanity.

Instead of having sports radio on, I have *gasp* NPR on (no comment on the political addiction). Or I choose to listen to whatever eclectic music KUT radio is playing at the time. And would you believe that doing so has made me a better driver and more attentive to those in the back seat. ;-)

When I spoke with my Uncle Ted last night, he quoted a local sports caster who said that if the final ten minutes of the evening news are more important to you than the 20 minutes that preceded it, you need to sort through your priorities.

3. Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God.

Yeah, maybe instead of watching a Sunday afternoon football game, I'll go here.

4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of our closets.

Luckily, I don't have a lot of sports gear to get rid of, but maybe its time to whittle my Astros shirt collection to one. And maybe its time to get rid of that Cubs hat that I never wear anymore.

5. Admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

Well, I've admitted it to myself. God's too busy watching and rooting for his team to listen to me at the moment. I spoke to my sponsor Uncle Ted last night about this very thing.

6. Am entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Hmm. Can I just do it myself?

7. Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.

I don't have any shortcomings. How dare you say that I do. Next...

8. Make a list of all persons we have harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all.

The list of people I've wronged is relatively short. The list of teams that caused me to lose my cool is considerably longer.

1992 Houston Oilers
1993 Houston Oilers
1994 Houston Oilers
Quincy Carter era Cowboys
Vinny Testaverde era Cowboys
Drew Bledsoe era Cowboys
2004 San Antonio Spurs
2005 Houston Astros
2006 San Antonio Spurs
2008 UT BSC Snub

... Oh, it's just too painful to go on...

9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

To Anya, Parker, people in my family, and friends: I apologize for any time I screamed at the television, threw a remote control onto the couch, stormed out for a walk, or clouded an entire afternoon because I was pissed off at a team loss.

10. Continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admit it.

Jumped in the car the other day and almost instinctively turned it to sports radio. Gotta go cold turkey.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

Hmmm. AA isn't considered a religion?

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Yeah. Knowing how intense sports fans are in this city and state, I'll leave this one be. But if anyone needs any tips, I'll be here.

- Matthew