After months and months of being able to go back to the football topics buffet, we're now down to one final game. And yes, it's a big one, but it's still just one.

Now is the time of year when the rubber meets the road for sports talk radio hosts around the country. Because unlike the NFL and college football, we don't get an off-season. No, what we get is what I would like to dub as "Thinking Season."

As we turn the calendar from January to February, our focus starts to shift, all of the sudden things like college basketball, golf, baseball (lockout pending), and NBA hoops become parts of our daily rundown. Of course, we still have NFL free agency, the NFL Draft, and whatever another round of this new-fangled transfer portal will provide, but there's a lot of dead time between these events. Gone will be the days of the topic gluttony that's provided by football season.

But it's all good, we are built for this. We are built for Thinking Season. 

Honestly, I love football as much as every other red-blooded American sports fan in this country. But as a host, this time of year is when we really get to set ourselves apart from everyone else.

During the months of August to January, topics just fall out of the sky like rain, and you probably have the deck stacked with quality guests ready to break down the games that happened over the weekend or the ones that take place the following weekend. Never mind the endless array of Monday night and Thursday night -- standalone games.

It's constant, and it always provides meat where there otherwise might not be any. But it's not like we can pop the mic on in mid-May and say "Sorry folks, not a whole lot today, tune in tomorrow and hope for the best." No, we climb into that host chair, watch the red light turn on, and it's game time -- no matter the season. 

As I was alluding to, this time of year really sets the good ones apart from the OK ones. How can you find ways to keep your audience engaged during the sports calendar offseason? What innovative things can you come up with to push your own boundaries? How much knowledge do you have on the other sports that will take center stage from February through July?

These are questions worth asking yourself as a host and producer because these are the months that really carve out the personality of your show. Waking up in the morning and having to dig to find topics you like builds character, and there's no better feeling for me than when I feel like I've got nothing and then stumble upon a great topic that lands with the audience in the middle of what many perceive to be the "dead season." It's rewarding to know that you can entertain and inform when the fever pitch that Fall provides dies down. 

Plus, after what we experienced in 2020, we should all be experts at this trade by now. I remember back then, right in the thick of the early stages of the pandemic, I told myself I would NEVER complain about having nothing to talk about ever again.

I remember it like it was yesterday, sitting there in June 2020 breaking down the Bulls vs. Suns 1993 NBA Finals series like it happened the night before. We were reduced to covering the Last Dance Bulls documentary like it was a sporting event. Those days carved out so much practice for people in our industry to make something out of literally nothing. 

So before you start looking at the Super Bowl like it's the end of the road for good topics and fan interest, use this as an opportunity. Use this time of year like an on-air lab experiment. Have fun with the people on your show and the people listening on the dial or streaming your show. Expand your topic base and let your audience get to know you better.

Football season is coming to an end my friends, but it's no time to wallow. It's Thinking Season.