The last time I was supremely confident that any team I root for would have an easy time winning, it was 2008. That’s when I spent my own money to go to Arizona and witness history, only to see the Patriots lose to David “Helmet Head” Tyree and the New York Football Giants.
It was Super Bowl whatever-it-was and the Giants’ win kept the Patriots from finishing with a perfect record. I vowed that never again would I be so filled with misdirected pride about a sports team. Never again would I be one of those people who ridiculed the opposition. And never again would I engage in gratuitous woofing before the game. Only after. Unless the game involved the Jets, Cowboys or the Harbaughs.
That’s why I was convinced the Chargers had more than a puncher’s chance last Sunday, Jim Harbaugh notwithstanding. And why I see that Houston defense coming to Foxborough Sunday and visualize the Fearsome Foursome, Legion of Boom, Purple People Eaters, Doomsday Defense, and Steel Curtain all wrapped up into one.
It would have been just as bad had the Steelers won. I’d be having nightmares about the detestable Aaron Rodgers and/or Terry Bradshaw in their primes, Mean Joe Greene and Jack Lambert. Oh, and of course, Franco Harris.
I think we’re conditioned to think this way. Except for the Celtics, who were counterintuitive compared to other Boston teams. (They did the torturing more often than they got tortured.) We’ve had plenty of sorry examples over the years. Lonborg and Champagne (HEY); Ken Dryden; Too Many Men on the Ice; Bill Lee and Tony Perez; Tony Eason; Bill Buckner; Wesley misses the open net; Petr Klima; Bucky “Bleeping” Dent; Aaron “Bleeping” Boone; Yvonne Lambert; and, of course, the aforementioned David Tyree.
It’s partially a defensive mechanism. You imagine the worst possible outcomes to fortify yourself from being crushed when disaster finally happens. How many times can you be led to the doorstep only to have the door slam on your fingers? How many times can you line up to kick a field goal only to have Lucy pull the football away?
There are times when I’ve almost wanted the Red Sox to lose just so I wouldn’t have to go through the anguish of another game or, worse, another series. That happened in 2011 when the Red Sox blew game 162 in Baltimore and managed to eliminate themselves from the playoffs.
I was once watching a Red Sox-Yankees playoff game in 2004 when a colleague I was with put her jacket over her eyes when things got dicey. Switching the channel, or, even worse, channel surfing is more my style. But whatever floats your boat. I can relate.
During the dynasty, I’d go on Facebook and post to a group to which I belonged the minute the other team did something noteworthy. Oops, I’d say. Looks like the other team’s going to win. My friends would scold me. Some of them grew awfully tired of my negativity amid so much success.
The Patriots would win, and I’d be the classic “had ’em all the way” guy. I suppose some might say I could be obnoxious.
So, of course. I think Sunday’s game will be a nightmare. The Texans will come in here and pulverize the Patriots. We’ll all be writing post-mortems come Monday morning. I’m really nervous, because I haven’t watched one Bruins or Celtics game yet from start to finish. I hear names I don’t recognize. Neither team, to be honest, is very good. I may have to actually work to come up with things to write about.
Then again, I could be wrong. Most of the time I am. When I’m sure the Patriots will win, they’ll lose. When I’m sure they’re going to lose, they win. It’s uncanny.
So I have to be this way. It’s like a college team touching one of its sacred symbols before going onto the field. If you don’t do it, things just feel discombobulated.
So take it to the bank. The Texans will be going to either Denver or Buffalo next week. And things will revert back to form and either the Bills or Broncos will have an easy path to the Super Bowl.
Only I hope I’m wrong.
Steve Krause is the Item’s writer-at-large. He joined paper in 1979 as a copy editor and later created a music column, called Midnight Ramblings, which ran through 1985. After leaving the paper for a year, he returned in 1988 as a reporter and editor in sports. He became sports editor in 1998; and was named writer-at-large in 2018.
Krause won awards for writing in 1985 from United Press International; in 2001 from the Associated Press; and again in 2020 from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. He is a member of the Harry Agganis Foundation Hall of Fame, a past winner of the Moynihan Lumber Scholar-Athlete Community Service Award, and was the 2012 recipient of the Jack Grinold Media Award for MasterSports, an organization that conducts high school and college coaches’ clinics. He lives in Lynn, is active on Facebook, and can be found on Twitter @itemkrause.