BC Interruption’s Best Off-the-Field Moment of the Year Is the Hiring of Jeff Hafley

Following the past season or two of Boston College football felt a bit like slogging through the second half of an over-long novel that I never managed to buy into. There were impassioned moments in the first half that suggested cagily insisted everything will come together, and it will be beautiful! So I stuck with it, loyal completionist that I am.

Alas, it never did get there, and certain Saturdays felt like wasted hours. They weren’t entirely wasted, mind you. Well loved characters and settings provided flashes of why I picked up the book in the first place, but they were never quite developed in a cohesive manner, and the plot was all too predictable. It became maddening, and I’m not proud to admit that there was something unsavory about the way I consumed the final few chapters, almost delighting in its flaws.

These awards are meant to be a positive reflection on the past year, so while closing that book and hurling it in the direction of Colorado was perhaps the most cathartic off-the-field moment of the year, cracking open this shiny new edition was the best. If you’ll allow me to drag this bleeding metaphor on just a little bit further, this will be Jeff Hafley’s debut novel. Yes, there’s plenty of uncertainty, but so far I’ve enjoyed his prologue, and the blurbs from former players and colleagues are promising.

Assuming there is a 2020 football season, this will be the most excited I’ve been in many years, and I would imagine much of the fan base feels the same. In just a few months on the Heights, Hafley has made an effort to connect with students, embrace transparency with the media, and emphasize that the entire BC community will have to #GetIn for this program to flourish. Well, I’m in, and it feels pretty good.

Others receiving votes:

• Andre Williams returns to Alumni Stadium
• BC Athletics responds to COVID-19
• Justin Bieber shouts out Logan Hutsko
• The BC community honors the life and legacy of Pete Frates