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November 06, 2006
Where's Ditka when you need him
As I not-so-boldly predicted here a few weeks ago, the Chicago Bears are no longer undefeated. They suffered their first loss after the Miami Dolphins proved once and for all that water mammals are better than land mammals.
I'll have to admit, I hope the Bears do well, but I sure am glad they lost to the Dolphins, even though they are the archrival of the Bills. Speaking of which, Bears fans: Buffalo did you a favor by knocking off Brett Fav-ruh and the Packers yesterday.
But why am I glad the Dolphins beat the Bears? I'll tell you: it teaches you to never tempt fate. I referenced the Superfans last time I talked about the Bears, and they once referred to a playoff game between the Bears and the NY Giants as a "foregone conclusion," because the Bears (or Ditka) were so great, that they don't even need to bother with the actual game. Well, the Giants felled the Bears in spectacular fashion. (Yeah. I looked it up.)
So the people on TV started to tempt fate last week, when a sportscaster on Channel 5 led off a story about Bears kicker Robbie Gould with something like this: "If the Bears need to kick a last minute field goal against the Dolphins this weekend, which they probably aren't going to have to do..." All I could do was shake my head, and I said to myself, "well this guy blew it for the Bears." In the newspaper it sounded like everybody was dismissing the 1-5 Dolphins and looking forward to the next game. Nice going people!
There is no surefire way to bust up your good momentum by treating your opponent as a sweet, sweet candy bar just waiting to be gobbled up. Now I would hope the actual Bears players did not take Miami as lightly as everyone else in Chicago did, but one has to wonder. I always take the attitude that whoever I am playing against is capable of beating me. I think that if it's a soccer game or even a drunken game of flip cup. You just never know what that other person is going to do.
Furthermore, do I actually believe that this excessive hubris by the media and fans is what actually caused the Bears to lose? Perhaps, a little bit, I do. There is difference between confidence and arrogance, and it looks to me like the throngs of Bears fans were getting a little too much on the arrogant side. I mean, this shirt seemed a little arrogant, as did this bit of Super Bowl prognasticating by the Sun-Times. Nevermind that thinking your team is an unstoppable force can only lead to disappointment. As a Buffalo Bills and Sabres fan, I know this all too well. This defeat ought to knock the Bears back to reality, and judging by the sky-is-falling mentality I saw in the sports page today, it certainly did.
Posted by oz115 at November 6, 2006 01:52 PM