I meant to add this post during the Bills game (and actually before last Friday's Sabres' opener) and now after yesterday's performance feel the need to post it even more:
Despite the now 0-2 start, I am excited about the upcoming Sabres season.
This season looks to be something of a relief in the face of all the heavy pressure and expectations to win it all last season. And even with the departure of the two captains and their immediate impacts in their first games for their respective teams, there still remains a lot of promise and talent, not to mention a lot more youth than the two captains took with them.
Maybe it is a standard denial experienced by any hometown fan (Buffalonians--and I one of them--seem especially competent at it), or perhaps the Sabres teams of the past two seasons really did transform me into an actual optimist exactly as I claimed to be last season when it was far easier to be one (remember, this talk of optimism from a Buffalo team was written before last night's Bills game -ed.), but the Sabres didn't win in either of the last two seasons while having both of the now departed captains. Now getting older, how much could those chances have increased over the last two seasons? Not to mention by the time their new contracts would have run out?
It still hurts to have lost their services, especially New York's acquisition in that he, perhaps better than any other previous Buffalo athlete, embodied what Buffalo fans want from a player.
Still, I look at the new season, at its best anyways, to be somewhat like two seasons ago when the success was a surprise and enjoyed in the light of its unexpectedness.
And if all else fails, it can't be any worse than the Bills season. Bring on that good ol' hockey game and Harry Neale.
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Last Thoughts On Last Night's Bills Game
Really, this is it. I'm ready to move on now.
Seinfeld once suggested that, with the way players change teams so much, we are really rooting for laundry. And for the most part I can't argue with that point.
But I think it's more a matter of simple arithmetic.
See, last night's loss was especially harsh because of the almost impossible chances the Cowboys overcame just to win the game.
Normally, I love watching the nearly mathematically impossible. It just might be the very thing had keeps my interest in sports alive. Except when it victimizes my team.
As fans, we'd like to think that winning vs. losing is a 50% likelihood. Thus, when one thinks of the chances of losing four straight Super Bowls, it would look like the chances are 1 out of 16 (1/2 ^4) and we were victims of mathematical absurdities.
But deep down we also know the other factors influencing those odds--talent or coaching disparity, injuries, home crowds, etc--and that it's rarely an even 50% chance of winning.
But likewise, it's never a 0% chance either. And when you get to watch a team overcome what were said to be long shot odds to win, it makes the win all that much sweeter.
The Bills were :02 away from doing just that. And up to that point they put all the odds on their side but still lost.
And that's what makes this such dirty laundry to have to air out today.
Seinfeld once suggested that, with the way players change teams so much, we are really rooting for laundry. And for the most part I can't argue with that point.
But I think it's more a matter of simple arithmetic.
See, last night's loss was especially harsh because of the almost impossible chances the Cowboys overcame just to win the game.
Normally, I love watching the nearly mathematically impossible. It just might be the very thing had keeps my interest in sports alive. Except when it victimizes my team.
As fans, we'd like to think that winning vs. losing is a 50% likelihood. Thus, when one thinks of the chances of losing four straight Super Bowls, it would look like the chances are 1 out of 16 (1/2 ^4) and we were victims of mathematical absurdities.
But deep down we also know the other factors influencing those odds--talent or coaching disparity, injuries, home crowds, etc--and that it's rarely an even 50% chance of winning.
But likewise, it's never a 0% chance either. And when you get to watch a team overcome what were said to be long shot odds to win, it makes the win all that much sweeter.
The Bills were :02 away from doing just that. And up to that point they put all the odds on their side but still lost.
And that's what makes this such dirty laundry to have to air out today.
Monday, October 8, 2007
A Short Open Letter: To the Buffalo Bills
Seriously?
Seriously?
There is no way you just lost that game.
Super Bowl XXV.
Six turnovers. Two defensive touchdowns. One kickoff return for a touchdown.
Seriously?
And still you let them nearly tie the score in the last minute.
Music City Nightmare.
But redeemed yourself by stopping the two-point conversion.
Only to let them grab the on-side kick.
The season opener against the Jets.
And even when the officials upstairs sided with you and said T.O. didn't catch that pass, you decided not to cover the little dump-off pass that had killed you all night.
Not once, but twice.
Jacksonville season opener.
And then you had the audacity to call a timeout and force us, your fans, to watch the game winning kick twice.
How many ways can you lose in one fucking game?
The blown 24-3 4th quarter lead against Miami two years ago.
Over the years I've slowly distanced myself from getting so emotionally involved in games that I have no direct influence upon. And yet watching that home crowd going absolutely berserk for a 1-3 team, seeing our depleted defense play like a Super Bowl contender, and having confidence in a quarterback for the first time since--who, Flutie?--how could I not get wrapped up and think we deserved to win?
Even the Denver season opener just four weeks ago.
How many teams have made their fans say that it would have been better to let the opponent score the tying two-point conversion with twenty seconds left and go to overtime?
Worse, how many teams have made their fans say, with :20 left, after just stopping the opposition's two-point conversion attempt, "this game still isn't over. I remember that Titans game."
Yes I remember it. But tonight, I didn't think I would have to remember it.
As I will now also have to remember this game, not as one of those sweet shining moments that gives us reason to hope and to hang in there and root for a team hoping to rebuild, but as a part of that ever increasing list of utter disappointments we saw coming but failed to believe would actually happen.
I feel like I've got to keep my friends on suicide watch. I can't even imagine what it's like at the stadium now.
That's enough for now.
No, that's enough for good.
-nait
Seriously?
There is no way you just lost that game.
Super Bowl XXV.
Six turnovers. Two defensive touchdowns. One kickoff return for a touchdown.
Seriously?
And still you let them nearly tie the score in the last minute.
Music City Nightmare.
But redeemed yourself by stopping the two-point conversion.
Only to let them grab the on-side kick.
The season opener against the Jets.
And even when the officials upstairs sided with you and said T.O. didn't catch that pass, you decided not to cover the little dump-off pass that had killed you all night.
Not once, but twice.
Jacksonville season opener.
And then you had the audacity to call a timeout and force us, your fans, to watch the game winning kick twice.
How many ways can you lose in one fucking game?
The blown 24-3 4th quarter lead against Miami two years ago.
Over the years I've slowly distanced myself from getting so emotionally involved in games that I have no direct influence upon. And yet watching that home crowd going absolutely berserk for a 1-3 team, seeing our depleted defense play like a Super Bowl contender, and having confidence in a quarterback for the first time since--who, Flutie?--how could I not get wrapped up and think we deserved to win?
Even the Denver season opener just four weeks ago.
How many teams have made their fans say that it would have been better to let the opponent score the tying two-point conversion with twenty seconds left and go to overtime?
Worse, how many teams have made their fans say, with :20 left, after just stopping the opposition's two-point conversion attempt, "this game still isn't over. I remember that Titans game."
Yes I remember it. But tonight, I didn't think I would have to remember it.
As I will now also have to remember this game, not as one of those sweet shining moments that gives us reason to hope and to hang in there and root for a team hoping to rebuild, but as a part of that ever increasing list of utter disappointments we saw coming but failed to believe would actually happen.
I feel like I've got to keep my friends on suicide watch. I can't even imagine what it's like at the stadium now.
That's enough for now.
No, that's enough for good.
-nait
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Bills due...
Watching football is about as collective as this country gets in doing nothing together. (Or anything for that matter.) Rather than play our own pick up games or participate in any event that we can directly influence and are more than just a spectator in, we stand unified in saying that we would simply rather sit around and drink beer and watch others have the fun.
And while I would rather play my own pick up games, I do like the sound of hanging out and drinking beers with the possibility to crack each other up for at least three hours just as much. If not more.
And so, even though this Bills team is godfuckingawful (and I get shit for saying that) and I vowed to stop scheduling my entire Sunday around their games, I was nevertheless baited once again this past Sunday into watching them "play" all because of my addiction to said hanging out (our house is the central locale for Bills' road game get togethers).
It almost makes me long again for a town like Portland where if I did watch a Bills loss it would be over by 1pm and I had the entire day to reclaim those three wasted (pun intended) hours because I wasn't surrounded by an entire disappointed fan base.
Portland or Buffalo. Pluses and minuses. You win some and you lose some.
Except in Bills games. Then everyone loses.
Goddamnit.
And while I would rather play my own pick up games, I do like the sound of hanging out and drinking beers with the possibility to crack each other up for at least three hours just as much. If not more.
And so, even though this Bills team is godfuckingawful (and I get shit for saying that) and I vowed to stop scheduling my entire Sunday around their games, I was nevertheless baited once again this past Sunday into watching them "play" all because of my addiction to said hanging out (our house is the central locale for Bills' road game get togethers).
It almost makes me long again for a town like Portland where if I did watch a Bills loss it would be over by 1pm and I had the entire day to reclaim those three wasted (pun intended) hours because I wasn't surrounded by an entire disappointed fan base.
Portland or Buffalo. Pluses and minuses. You win some and you lose some.
Except in Bills games. Then everyone loses.
Goddamnit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)