Posted by Kevin Jacobs, Sun Staff

Put down your remotes, fold up your football jerseys, and pack away the game-time goodies.

Unfortunately February is here, bringing with it absolutely no worthwhile athletic action. Take a second, sit back, and try to come up with one. Anything?

The Super Bowl, the highlight of February has already come and gone. You may not have even realized it was played in February, but XLIII was the one and only athletic event of significance until March. Sad, but true.

When you're addicted to sports, four weeks of deprivation isn't considered a withdrawal. It will leave you curled up in a gutter somewhere, begging for a fix.

Sure, 27 days may look short on paper, but living through them is another story, filled with frustration, anticipation and regular season basketball. There's nothing on ESPN besides relatively meaningless games and World Series of Poker re-runs.

OK, so there is NBA All-Star Weekend, but since when do All-Star festivities count as actual sporting events? It's fun to have LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Paul and Shaq all on one court, but the game itself is all show, no defense and minimal effort. Unless you're watching from the stands it gets boring.

You can make an argument that it's worth watching the dunk contest in its entirety, but even that has the potential to be disappointing. After all, Brent Barry has won the thing before. Hopefully previous championsHoward and Nate Robinson can provide some sparks, but they can hardly carry an entire month.

They will have help from the Duke Blue Devils when they host bitter rival North Carolina on the 11th. But won't the game in Chapel Hill on March 8 be more important? Not to mention what happens once March Madness begins, just a few weeks later.

In March, hope truly springs eternal. In addition to all the Madness, baseball is back. The boys of summer head down to Florida and Arizona, to begin gearing up for what can always be a successful season. And that's the beauty of the game. The potential for a greatness lies within every team.

Last season's Rays are a perfect example. While the people of Kansas City and Baltimore shouldn't get their hopes up too much, Red Sox fans know that feeling all too well. However, none will say it's anything but beautiful.

Baseball legend and one-time Boston Brave Rogers Hornsby said it best, "People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

There's no question, February is the worst month of the year. It's the black hole of the sports world, bereft of any significance. But don't let it bring you down. Strap in, tighten the flaps, and get out your cold weather gear. There's only one more month left, luckily for us, it's also the shortest of the year.

Do you agree? If not, when do you think the worst sports month of the year takes place?