inherently different

Archive for the ‘sports’ Category

I have been a Charger fan for a long time. Longer in fact than I care to admit. It is weekends like this that form the most mind numbingly painful memories in my 43 years. Just once I want to be able to see my home town team win the big one… alas, it will not be this year… yet again.

At some point I am going to have to come to a decision about whether or not I should part ways with my favorite team. For many of you, at least those who have never had a lifelong (or nearly so) love affair with a sports team, the idea of “breaking up” with a team might seem a bit odd or even using the analogy at all might seem odd.

Either way though, like a slutty girlfriend that is both hot and indiscriminate about her dalliances, at some point you just have to say, “You’ve broken my heart for the last time!”

Perhaps you’ll never date another again (in case you’re lost in the analogy, I mean root for another team ever again)… or perhaps you’ll rebound with the first one that comes along (root for the first team that wins consistently… which would mean I could be like any New England Patriot fan). Or perhaps you’ll switch “sides” all together and begin following professional badmitton (do I really need to explain that one?).

All I know is that for roughly 40 years of my life, I’ve been consistently kicked in the crotch by the San Diego Chargers and I’m one torn pair of panties away from ending this relationship for good… or at least until I get a promise that it will never happen again.

Aside from still being in mourning over the loss suffered by my beloved Chargers this past weekend, I am knee deep in trying to get a variety of websites I have been contracted to build into shape. I’m busy, but not so busy that I can’t spend a few hours a day over the next week watching the entire first season of Mad Men, which was just sent to me (thanks Kellie!). It’s been in my netflix queue for some time and I’m really looking forward to catching the hottest show on TV.

On another note, I was checking out my site stats early today and realized that I went from a high of about 200 visits a day back in 2001 to about 25-30 (and 20 of those visits are from the same person) in 2007. I know that the main reason is because I am not that interesting… and add to that my extended periods without a new post, and you’re looking at a sizable decline in readership. Some people would have already given up… or abandoned their site by this time.

“Karma,” a wise man once said, “is a bitch!” Clearly this pundit was a fan of football as this past season has clearly illustrated. In case you were oblivious, this past season saw one team come within a hair’s breadth of finishing the season without a win as well as one team come even closer to running the table with a 19-0 record.

My last post showed how much I love one team… If I had it in me, I would have followed up that post with a long explanation about how the New England Patriots are possibly the worst representation of sports excellence. In that non-existent post, I would have explained how the organization puts such an emphasis on winning, that they have gone to great lengths to insure an advantage… going so far as taping opposing teams practices before games. For those keeping score at home, thats called cheating if you are a fan of any of the other 31 teams in the NFL.

As the Patriots won each game, one had to wonder if they were still cheating… if their desire to achieve football immortality by running the table on an entire football season had somehow blinded them to winning with both class and dignity. As each game unfolded, the entire sports world saw not a team firing on all cylinders, but one that did anything to win and humiliate opponents as completely as possible. Of course, their fans loved it and they began to attack opposing team’s websites with an aggressive flavor of smack talking that just begged for some kind of cosmic retaliation.

When San Diego lost to the New England Patriots, I realized one thing. Sometimes everything works the way it does for very specific reasons. The loss to the Patriots set up possibly one of the most lop sided super bowl lines ever and with that, the god’s of football restored my faith in fate.

With the Giants, 12 point underdogs, beating the Patriots, the cosmos is once again in balance. Equilibrium has been reached at last. To real football fans, it is akin to Darth Vader getting his come-uppance in Return of the Jedi… it is like Rocky beating Apollo Creed in Rocky II… like Billy Jean King beating Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes Tennis match… something that for all intent and purpose shouldn’t happen… but it does.

New England was once that underdog, but through a series of poor judgments by their coaching staff, and by the outright douchery of their fanbase, became one of the most reviled sports franchises in the modern era. The team EVERYONE loves to hate, taking that particular label away from the New York Yankees.

I think the Patriots are a talented team. They probably didn’t need to cheat to win 18 games this season, but the fact that they did lessens their accomplishment in my opinion. The fact that they lost when it mattered most, in the super bowl, lessens their accomplishment even more. But for me, the one thing that completely destroys any sense of value from what they have accomplished is the ass-hattery displayed by the Patriot fans who showed the world how to be classless while enjoying a special season.

The Patriots lost one of the biggest games of the decade… and worst, lost to a team that was discounted as an also ran all season and deemed unworthy to face the mighty Patriots in the big game. The loss is humiliating to the team I am sure, but it is probably even more painful for the Patriot faithful… and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving collection of sports fans.

Thank you New York… we have reached equilibrium.

In my family, there are few things that are universally agreed on. We disagree on politics, religion, philosophy, and economics and those are just the things we disagree on before breakfast. But the one thing we all agree on is that the San Diego Chargers are the most exciting football team to ever grace god’s green Earth.

While my family has followed the Chargers since 1970, it wasn’t until around 1977 that we became fanatical about our belief.

See, in my family, Sunday was a day of worship and Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral and the San Diego Chargers often battled over our souls. When I was younger and forced to attend Church during an away game, I often spent a good portion of the service praying that Fouts, Joiner, Jefferson, and Winslow would find a way to win. For years my prayers went unanswered, but eventually, God himself started to believe in the passing game perfected by Don Coryell.

Of course, the late 70s brought touchdowns galore and a few trips to the playoffs, but the one thing that eluded the super Chargers was a ticket to the big dance.

It wasn’t until the early 90s that whatever forces that control the 300 feet between goal posts decided that enough was enough. Head coach Bobby Ross and pudgy, but crafty veteran quarterback Stan Humphries answered the prayers that had up until then been widely ignored.

Throughout 1994, the Chargers finally found a way to win when they weren’t supposed to. That had been one of the biggest knocks on them as a team. They beat Miami, then Pittsburgh to get an invitation to the Superbowl for the first time in franchise history. Unfortunately, the god of football still didn’t think they were worthy enough to win it all and they were soundly defeated by the San Francisco Forty-Niners in January of 1995.

While the Chargers made a few more trips to the playoffs in the 90s, they went quite some time before they won another playoff game. In fact, it wasn’t until this season that they finally shook whatever bad luck prevented them from putting it all together enough to get back to the playoffs. The 2007 Chargers won a close game against Tennessee, then came back the next week and upset the Indianapolis Colts to get an invitation to the AFC Championship game for the first time since 1994. Almost no one believed they could do it.

They started slow, and most people discounted them when they began the season 1-3. Most experts picked them to lose as many as 10 games. All season long they defied expectations and won while the experts didn’t believe they had what it took to win the tough games. And here they are…

Despite their various shortcomings, they found a way to win games they had no right winning. If there is any real justice in this world, this weekend the Chargers will continue to defy expectations and beat what many people believe is the greatest team ever assembled. The Chargers are 14 point underdogs and most experts believe there is no way in hell that San Diego can cowboy up and beat the New England Patriots on Sunday. Of course, no one thought San Diego would be in a position to be in the AFC championship game, much less win any playoff game so perhaps the experts don’t know everything. I know that San Diego is ready to win the big one… I just hope the god of football finally agrees with me.

April is essentially a time of renewal. It is a promise made waiting for proof of commitment and few people understand this as well as baseball fans.

I’ve watched the promise of spring turn into the disappointment of summer and the failure of fall too many times to count. Now, with my hometown team playing in a new ballpark, a new dedication to winning and the promise of spring still ringing true, I find myself dreaming of the ultimate reward for faith.

Yeah, I know… seems weird reading me write about faith, commitment and dreams but that’s what spring does to a man.