Bracket busted

So my brackets are all in shambles. All of them. That's 19 failed attempts at picking the men's tournament, and five on the women's side. I backed Arizona St. and Wake Forest to go far, mainly because they beat BYU earlier in the season. Turns out that wasn't the best strategy.

In reality, though, I'm doing just about as good as I do any year. I've never had a really good bracket, where I picked something like 29 of 32 first round games correctly and nail 14 of the Sweet 16 teams. But, even more disappointing, I've discovered that I'm also a failure at helping others enjoy March Madness.

Last year my friend Jen set up a tournament group for our ward, and we had 32 people fill out brackets, culminating in a FHE activity where we watched the final game. I had helped Jen come up with some awards in various categories for some of the group's participants, and at halftime we had a little ceremony.

Jen has since moved across the country, so I set up the group for this year's tournament. Only 13 people joined this time, and I'm pretty sure I'm at least partially responsible for the drop off in interest.

I learned last week (although it's something I should have realized on my own and not had to "learn") that the recipient of last year's "March Sadness" award (in "honor" of that individual's unsuccessful bracket) didn't enjoy being recognized in that way. Finding this out reminded me that someone else had expressed displeasure at their "award" when they first received it 12 months ago.

I dug through my Hotmail archives and found the ward e-mail that was sent out later that week with a list of all the "winners," and was disappointed to see that five of the 13 categories were negative in nature. Even worse, in all five cases I was mocking someone who doesn't watch basketball and probably saw this as a harmless way to participate in something fun with the ward, not as an avenue for potential embarrassment.

I didn't deliberately hurt anyone's feelings, but that doesn't necessarily excuse me. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've done or said something inappropriate just because it was funny or clever. Being witty shouldn't always be my top priority. "March Sadness" is a humorous play on words, for sure, but the idea it conveys is not funny, and I should have been thoughtful enough to realize nobody would want to receive that distinction.

If I am the cause of anyone abstaining from March Madness, I hope you will reconsider next year. Filling out brackets and following "your" teams makes an exciting event even more entertaining. I apologize to anyone affected by my insensitivity, in this instance or any other. If I do something like this again, I hope someone calls me on it. Like I said, when I make a joke I don't set out to hurt or upset anyone, but I realize the possibility of that outcome exists. And that's not funny.