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How the 2025 NBA Playoffs May Shape My Son’s Sport’s Fandom
As the Jazz sucked and sucked and sucked over the last few years, I went to therapy in the form of composition, writing part one, part two, and part three to sort through the diagnosed Tortured Fan symptoms. I guess this is now part four. The 2024-2025 NBA Playoffs took off in May, and the … Continue reading How the 2025 NBA Playoffs May Shape My Son’s Sport’s Fandom
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Exploring Memory Lane: Reflections from the Classroom
After 10 years in the classroom at Roy High School, Weber High School, and the first year of West Field High School, I’m taking on extra leadership and moving into administration as an assistant principal. Academically speaking, I achieved many successes and experienced significant growth in student achievement and progress. My students consistently performed at … Continue reading Exploring Memory Lane: Reflections from the Classroom
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When We Were Young Ch. 2: 2024, aka the high
If you missed Chapter 1: Disappointment, the epic sage from my failed festival experience of 2022, click here to read that first. Chapter 2: Redemption But, if there is one thing Batman has taught me, the night is darkest just before dawn. If there were never dumb days, the not-dumb days wouldn’t be as sweet. … Continue reading When We Were Young Ch. 2: 2024, aka the high
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When We Were Young Ch. 1: 2022, aka the low
Chapter 1: Disappointment It was going to be the perfect weekend. We drove from North Ogden to St. George, settling for an overnighter before waking up alongside the morning horizon to drive through canyons and valleys into Las Vegas in time for doors opening at the inaugural When We Were Young festival. Heather had pre-ordered … Continue reading When We Were Young Ch. 1: 2022, aka the low
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Thoughts from a Tortured Fan: In Retrospect (therapy, part three)
If you missed part one, click here. If you missed part two, click here. Chapter Seven: Lauri Markkanen As mentioned, the Jazz also flubbed, intentionally or not, the rebuild by having legitimate veteran talent already. With the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert trades, the team added guys like Lauri Markkanen and Collin Sexton, who also … Continue reading Thoughts from a Tortured Fan: In Retrospect (therapy, part three)
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Thoughts from a Tortured Fan: In Retrospect (therapy, part two)
If you missed part one, click here. Chapter Four: Hindsight and the What If Game Joyless is truly the best word to describe the last ride of the rodeo as players, media, front office, and fans were not having fun following that team that year. The chemistry from the locker room stunk like stinky cheese … Continue reading Thoughts from a Tortured Fan: In Retrospect (therapy, part two)
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Thoughts from a Tortured Fan: In Retrospect (therapy, part one)
Chapter One: Terrance Mann The end of the era wasn't on July 6, 2022, or September 6, 2022. Instead, it was a year earlier on June 19, 2021. The Terrance Mann game. Perhaps you've forgotten my biggest nightmare, my biggest regret, the biggest what-if in my Utah Jazz lifetime. Whether you did or didn't, take … Continue reading Thoughts from a Tortured Fan: In Retrospect (therapy, part one)
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Whoa Oh! and Roses
In 1922 James M. Barries stood before the graduating class at St. Andrew’s University in Canada and delivered an hour-long commencement speech on courage to the generation four years removed from World War I. JM Barrie, famous for the infinite youth ascribed to the timeless character Peter Pan, began by refreshing his audience with a … Continue reading Whoa Oh! and Roses
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Keeping the Tortured Fandom in the Family
Willingly, I went to this game. On a random rainy Wednesday night in March, a school night mind you, I willingly paid for tickets to watch the 28-35 Utah Jazz against the 30-32 Chicago Bulls. Willingly. We Jazz fans are a different breed. Come hell or highwater, come blowout wins or losses, we show up … Continue reading Keeping the Tortured Fandom in the Family
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The Parity Project: Basketball’s Origin Story (Ch.1)
An Introduction: Winter Break Project Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to any and everyone, but especially the NBA faithful and Utah Jazz diehards, at the end of this 2023 calendar year. By now, this extended break coincides with the NBA passing a third of its season. By now, teams are in contender conversations, having legitimate … Continue reading The Parity Project: Basketball’s Origin Story (Ch.1)
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Mental Health and Music: When the Headphones Do the Healing
Awkwardly, I went to this concert alone. As soon as you can, you hop onto Legacy Highway and drive into the sunset, West, and West some more, and then a little more West as the Great Salt Lake comes into view with sunflowers growing atop white sandy beaches that stretch along the horizon and historic … Continue reading Mental Health and Music: When the Headphones Do the Healing
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7th Grade, Burning CDs and Fall Out Boy
Two decades ago, in 2003, I burned a CD at my friend's house that would become a start-to-finish favorite that I will always remember. This is a road trip with that CD, with detours and stops along the way. Buckle up.
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Donovan Mitchell: The Stories
The stories are as endless as the highlights, and that’s why he was just so special. On and off the court, he was the perfect representation of a star, the guy you want to root for and feel grateful he is on your squad.
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Bill Russell: Constellation Among Stars
On July 31, 2022, legend Bill Russell passed away at the age of 88. His NBA resume is full of accolades and accomplishments, but his lasting life legacy is the more impressive list.
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Float
What makes music so magical is how a song can be stitched to a person, place, or event. From then on, that song's melodies and lyrics spark memories and feelings, intertwining you right back in that initial place and phase, like the perfect cross stitch.
Steve Godfrey Writes 