Pigskin prognostication

[sigma7]

ESPN.com's 2005 NFL predictions. The first four each pick a different team to win the AFC West. But the final tally ends up being Chargers 5, Chiefs 3, Raiders 3, Broncos 1. And nobody picks them to win the AFC -- it's usually Colts, sometimes Patriots, and Theismann picks Steelers. Hrm. Intriguing.

Comments

[kitblonde.livejournal.com]

Go Iggles.
(I have spent most of the Time Since Hockey dating a slavering Eagles fan, and have therefore developed more of an attachment to my hometown team than I've had since I was five and my hometown team was the 49ers. [In the intervening time, I have based my football opinions on the teams and players I was most successful with in Tecmo Super Bowl, hence my attachment to the Warren Moon-led '89 Oilers, and Christian Okoye from the Chiefs.] If the Eagles break the curse and win the Super Bowl, I am convinced that the weather would be much nicer here, and people on the streets would break into spontaneous song two or three times a day, and maybe, just maybe, the way could be paved for a Philly Stanley Cup victory. Is this how football fans always feel?)

[aardy.livejournal.com]

Is this how football fans always feel?

Yes.

Now can we get back to dreaming about a Chicago Stanley Cup victory? (Since that's likely the only way it's ever going to happen.)

[kitblonde.livejournal.com]

I guess Chicago might deserve it more...we won in the seventies, but it's been like 40 years for Chicago, yes? However, y'all have a brace of basketball championships, and a super bowl in the '80s. We've got nothin' since '83. And if you believe most of the men within 30 miles of me right now, we won't win any until we start bulldozing skyscrapers in center city.
But enjoy your dreaming. I'ma go buy a wrecking ball.

[aardy.livejournal.com]

The 'Hawks have proved, over the last 40-odd years, that they can manage to consistently beat 5 other teams enough over the course of a season to occasionally win a championship, but they can't handle a league of 6 or more other teams. So if the NHL comes back after the strike as the 'Hawks and 5 other teams, then they have a chance. Otherwise? I predict more decades of abject mediocrity.

The Bears are simply allergic to the Superbowl--they were dominant in the years just prior to Superbowl #1, but since then, they've pretty much had one fluke of a good season and otherwise have reveled in their mediocrity. (Or worse-- can they possibly find a good quarterback who can also make it to the first game of the season without suffering a season-ending injury? Please?)

The Cubs at least have a curse to fall back on. Is the Black Sox scandal really enough to explain why the White Sox now have the second longest championship drought in major-league baseball, behind the Cubs?

As for Philadelphia's curse, which is worse: Consistently being in the running and falling just short (which was what happened to the Bulls for years before they finally managed to beat Detroit in the playoffs) so that you have your hopes raised and then crushed, or consistently going nowhere, like the Royals? Me, I'd prefer the former; you may think your team is cursed, but at least when you go to see a random game you have a decent chance of seeing your team win, and you may often get the chance to see your guys in postseason play. With the latter, all hope and joy in life is slowly crushed beneath the booted heel of teams that routinely make it to or near the championship.

(Truth be told, I'm just a fair-weather fan who only roots for Chicago teams because that's where I live, that's where my family is from, and to give me something to talk about with sports-fanatics like some of my co-workers and friends like S7 here. Also because I almost always root for the underdog--and the Chicago sports scene has no shortage of those--or at least find a train wreck-like evil pleasure in shaking my head in disbelief at local "major league" teams who are so consistently awful they could all rotate sports and end up with better records...)