'Ship-Wrecked

I waited to write any reaction to Oregon’s BCS loss so that you weren’t inundated with another “This Is How My Day Was Crushed” piece written by an embattled sports fan. Also, I was hoping that by waiting something new would come to light.

Nope.

In fact, the longer I’ve waited, the more it hurts. Sure I’ve been able to “move on,” and it’s no longer the first thing I think of, but I’m also aware that my demeanor hasn’t been the same since. My mood has been changed. This article probably will just end up being a cathartic exercise to see if that change is permanent or (hopefully) temporary.

We often equate real life experiences to our sports emotions: I’ve been cheated on before, heartbroken, rejected, dejected, misinformed and just flat out lied to. I’ve also been lucky enough to have found love. And in the end, that has helped those experiences (though still not worthwhile), fade into the distance because of where I am now – I’ve never felt that with a sports team.

I’m a lifelong Trailblazer, New York Mets and Oregon Duck fan – that’s a trifecta of shit right there. Three teams that always seem good enough but never actually accomplish anything. (And no, I don’t count the Mets World Series win because I was fresh out of the womb when it happened.)

In my life, I’ve experienced two NBA finals (both losses and took place before I was ten-years-old), two Rose Bowls and a National Championship with a litany of reasons why they never panned out: the Bad Boy Pistons; Magic’s “End-of-the-game-rrrrip-city-your-heart-out-of-your-chest-full-court-heave-with-no-time-left; Jordan’s three-point “shrug” barrage; Sean Elliott’s toe trapeze; Kobe’s lob to Shaq; and recently Greg Oden and Brandon Roy becoming the founding members of Portland’s new sports political subgroup, the Knee Party.

And that’s just being a Blazer fan.

The Duck’s list, while shorter, hurts just as much: Ki-Jana Carter’s 83-yard opening drive touchdown; Terrelle Pryor first snubbing the university and then passing around us last year; and now, well, this.

This one doesn’t even have a name yet.

That’s what’s so discouraging – neither team played great. Either team could’ve won, but history and fate decided to again play the role of Lucy to my Charlie Brown and pull the ball away and watch as I come crashing down.

(I realize that using a football example to accentuate a football metaphor isn’t the most clever approach, but what do you want from me? My team just lost. Good grief.)

When I was younger, I tried to make myself like teams that habitually won. The Bulls and the Yankees, for sure. But their victories meant nothing to me specifically. It’s like hearing about how your friend had an awesome threesome. You’re excited for him. You can get the details. But it’s not your story.

My dad was alive when the Trailblazers won their only championship in 1977 and says that it was "glorious" and one of the best days of his life.

After Monday’s loss – after he and I exchanged disheartened curse words in disbelief – he seemed to move on much quicker than me. (Although when we watched a recorded PTI from that day, we each decided to skip the BCS portion because we just couldn’t take the chance that they had picked Oregon.) I’m sure some of his cavalier attitude comes from his advanced age where you try and apply the wisdom not to dwell on what’s wrong and instead focus on what’s good; yet, I know too that he can also simply recall the memory of that fateful summer day in 1977 and replace the bad with the good. The day that he experienced his sports-threesome.

(As far as I know, or care to know, that’s where that analogy ends).

As I silently sat there, baffled and infuriated, I looked up with one simple request: I just want to know what it feels like to win a championship once in my lifetime.

… … …

That’s what hurt most about Monday – (we) were so close… We’re not the SEC. This doesn’t happen every year. Heck, we’re not even USC (who I think has only won one National Title anyway in this current reign of dominance); and while you can argue that we’re on our way, it’s not there yet, and it doesn’t make this one hurt any less.

Please don’t confuse this as me saying that I’m disappointed in my team. I’m not. Besides the ’99 Blazers (who also lost), the Ducks gave me the second best sports season I’ve ever been a part of as a fan.

… Second best.