All things cursed

86 years without a Red Sox Championship! It’s the curse of the Bambino. I think that is the dumbest thing in the entire world. And after the Red Sox championship in 2005 I bet you felt really dumb, but nope that was what someone owed you. In fact if I claimed to be cursed and then I won a championship I would feel like a moron!

Professional sports are entertainment, pure and simple. The fact of the matter is as fans we are owed nothing. I have lived and died with my teams just as fans all over the country have. But the simple fact is Peyton Manning does not owe me anything. In fact to think that we suffer with our teams the way the players do is ludicrous and dumb. Yes, those guys make millions of dollars, yes some of them are spoiled brats, yes they make bad choices like the rest of us. But pure and simple they are all competitive. They want to win just as bad you want them to win. I keep thinking about that ball that went between Bill Buckner’s legs. I don’t think that was a curse, I think it was human error.

These professional athletes practice so much and are so good we almost expect them to be robots, in fact on Madden video games the are robots. They are assigned numbers based on how good some nerd in Seattle thinks they are. Then you get to go in there and you can sign any free agent you want to make your team better, and you get to play General Manager and coach. The problem is that these players don’t have numbers in real life. Peyton Manning is not a 99 quarterback every play of every game. When he gets hit on Sunday afternoon he bleeds, when he gets hit on Tuesday afternoon in Madden it doesn’t hurt that bad. And when he is our for the season in Madden you just simulate the season and all is well.

Back to “the dreaded curse,” in case you’ve been stuck under a rock for the past 86 years, the Red Sox went through a drought in which they didn’t win a championship for 86 years! Fans figured that trading the great bambino (Babe Ruth) to the hated Yankees caused the baseball gods to “curse” them for 86 years! Then in 2005 down 3 games to none, they pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in sports history (only to be outdone a year later by a hick boy from Louisiana named Peyton Manning).

Now, most people claim that these 86 years were the worst pain they went through in their entire life. In fact Philadelphia just passed them for most owed sports fans in the entire nation. The thing is that after the Colts lost to the Steelers in the ’05 playoffs I woke up Monday morning and life went on. These athletes do not owe anything to us as fans.

The thing that makes me most angry is that in those 86 years the Boston Celtics won 16 championships! The Boston Bruins won 5 Stanley Cups! And the New England Patriots won 3 Super Bowls! In fact in 6 years the Boston area has won 4 Championships! If there is a town who has no room to complain it is Boston. I am sorry but you got to look on the bright side. I am frustrated with the Pacers as much as anyone, but give me a break. They have won a championship since the early 70’s. That’s near 40 years, and that was an ABA championship.

The way I see it is like this. I think that the Philadelphia area is cursed. They are cursed because they have the most overzealous, arrogant, the world hates us attitude of any human beings alive. I am glad the Colts won the championship the way they did. I would be embarrassed if my town would have booed Santa Clause or Applauded when Michael Irvin was taken off in a stretcher. I understand that the Cowboys are a huge rival, but I was truly wishing Teddy Brushi the best when he had a stroke. I would be embarrassed for my city if we acted like that. In fact I think the Midwest and the south should just secede from the sports union, because that is just horrible. The worst part is this east coast fan attitude isn’t just Philadelphia. It isn’t much different in Baltimore, New York, and Boston. The North East can have their Ivy League, intelligent people, and Democrats. I will take my 1 professional sports championship over Boston’s 25 any day. Especially since our city did it with class and dignity.

I think what makes sports such great entertainment is that it always leaves you wanting more. After the Colts lost all those times in the playoffs I wanted just one more game even if it didn’t count. After they won the Super Bowl I asked myself is this it? You mean we don’t take on the world next Sunday? Sports are not life; I love sports as much as the next guy, but Monday comes just as it did last week after you won. And no matter what there is always next year.

It is ok to have healthy rivalries with teams that you dislike, that is what makes sports fun. But this east coast hatred attitude toward other people needs to stop. It really does no good. What do you accomplish when you flip off Peyton Manning on the way to the stadium? Do you think he hasn’t seen it before? Do you think your getting in his head? Seriously? Ask Asante Samuel what happens when you piss off Marvin Harrison? You get put on ESPN classic every single weekend for the wrong reasons. (That was awesome when Samuel talked trash to Marvin and he straight up torched him the whole drive and then made on of the amazing Marvin catches!)