Read this before you watch the Super Bowl

What sports fans should expect from their favorite teams…

Back in 2015 I watched the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Mets to win the World Series on a Sunday night and early the next morning I was walking through La Guardia Airport on my way back to KC when I saw a New York newspaper headline that declared the Mets an: “AMAZIN’ DISGRACE”

Which was somebody’s idea of a clever headline because the 1969 World Series Champions were known as the “Amazin’ Mets.” 

Just in case you forgot or never knew:

The 2015 New York Mets won 90 games in the regular season, beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in the Divisional Series, beat the Chicago Cubs 4-0 in the League Championship, but because they lost the World Series 4-1, were now being called a “disgrace” which (let me phrase this as delicately as possible) is fucking moronic.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that if you won 98 games and the National League Championship, you did not have a bad season and are not a disgrace, no matter what a newspaper headline says.

And now a word about newspaper headlines

Reporters don’t write the headlines that appear above their stories and some editors who are never in a locker room and don’t have to deal with pissed-off athletes don’t mind writing the most controversial headline they can think of – “New York Mets: Devil Worshippers?” – because a controversial headline gets more readers to look at the story, which is all some editors care about.

But reporters who do have to go into locker rooms and deal with pissed-off athletes need to establish a decent relationship if they want those athletes to talk to them. Reporters have to convince athletes that they’re going to be fair and aren’t self-serving assholes looking to stir up controversy by putting the worst possible spin on anything the athletes say or do.

After a headline like “AMAZIN’ DISGRACE” the beat reporter has to talk with the athletes and explain that he or she didn’t write the headline and hope the editor didn’t do too much damage to his or her credibility.

The Observer Effect

The 2015 World Series comes to mind because the Kansas City Chiefs just won the AFC Championship and are now in the Super Bowl, which tends to be a really weird football game because Corporate America has decided to screw it up with too many commercials, halftime shows that last too long and sometimes do damage to the field, way too many reporters and forcing players to spend two weeks jumping through media hoops in an effort to hype a game that doesn’t really need it.

According to the internet, the “observer effect” occurs when we alter what we see by behaving in ways that have influence on what happens.

Over 6,000 credentials have been issued media members from 24 countries for this year’s game and all those media members need to justify the expense of being sent to the Super Bowl, so they need to interview someone and ask penetrating questions like, “How does it feel to win the Super Bowl?” or “What does it say about your team that you won the Super Bowl?” and apparently you can’t get that kind of inside information if you only send 5,999 reporters to ask the same questions.

Postgame interviews that seem to indicate the reporter did not actually watch the game — “Take me through that last play because I was busy putting cheese on my nachos when it happened” — drive me crazy or, at the very least, crazier than I already am.

Throw in all the distractions that affect practices, preparation and the game itself and it’s not surprising when a favorite loses or an underdog wins.

So now seems like an excellent time to remind people that whatever happens tonight, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles have already won Conference Championships and had great seasons. Winning or losing the Super Bowl won’t change that.

Feel free to disagree.

But if you believe the only NFL team that had a good season is the Super Bowl Champion, that means 31 teams had a bad season (no matter how many games they won) and if you’re a fan of one of those 31 teams you’re going to be unhappy, not because your team failed to win the Super Bowl; you’re going to be unhappy because you had an unreasonably high set of expectations.

So what should reasonable sports fans (and I’m well aware that might be an oxymoron) expect from their favorite teams?

1. Be competitive

I played amateur baseball for two decades and on numerous occasions heard someone say they didn’t care if they won or lost, they just wanted to play baseball and have fun which always turned out to be bullshit because guess what?

Losing all the time isn’t that much fun.

You also tend to play lousy baseball on lousy teams because you also lose focus. You quit paying attention to the count or how many outs there are or who’s on base because none of that matters when you already know you’re going to lose. The same goes for any sport: if you’re constantly losing the games become less interesting for players and the fans.

“Being competitive” means at least having a chance to win, so if your team was within striking distance late in the game, they definitely qualify even if they eventually come up short on the scoreboard.

2. Try to win

That sounds obvious and stupid, but some team owners seem satisfied to run mediocre teams because even a mediocre team makes that owner “somebody.” Think of all the rich guys you never would have heard of if they hadn’t bought a pro sports team.

“Trying to win” means spending enough money to be competitive, but to be fair (don’t worry, I won’t make habit of it) teams need to know when to spend money or make a trade for a key player and I was once told the Royals could have made deals similar to the one that brought James Shields and Wade Davis to Kansas City, but the core of the team wasn’t ready yet.

Why spend a lot of money on pitching when the position players aren’t ready?

That’s a reasonable position for teams to take and teams can ask fans to be patient, unless the team is never ready to spend money and fans are told year-after-year that winning is just around the corner.

And now a word about “tanking.”

Some genius came up with the idea of being shitty on purpose to get higher draft picks, which sounds great unless you take a look at how many high draft picks never work out.

I’ve also heard coaches criticize tanking and ask when and how you flip the switch and say now we want to win, so forget all those bad habits and attitudes you developed while we played shitty on purpose. Winning consistently requires a systematic approach and you need to develop the right habits and attitudes and that doesn’t happen when you’re tanking.  

3. Don’t beat yourself

Professional athletes are highly competitive and never want to lose so they’re never OK with it, but a loss is easier to take if the other team was just better that day and you didn’t do something dumb that handed the game to your opponent.

Like hitting a quarterback when he’s already out of bounds.

If you watched the AFC Championship game you already know a late hit by Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai on Patrick Mahomes advanced the ball 15 yards and made the Chief’s game-winning field goal possible.

That’s beating yourself.

If Patrick Mahomes runs around in circles for 10 minutes, then completes a no-look pass by throwing the ball behind his back or between his legs , tip your cap – he beat you.

Teams that lose because they constantly make mental mistakes or stupid decisions are frustrating and hard to watch.

Nevertheless...

Mistakes are going to happen and both teams are going to make some, so the important thing is how you react to your mistake and trying to make up for a mistake by doing something spectacular is usually a really bad idea because spectacular plays are considered spectacular because most of the time they don’t work. Now one mistake becomes two and two can become three, which is why you hear all those coaches pleading with their players to “stick to the game plan.”

Fans tend to think that if their team wins it’s because their team played well and if their team loses it’s because their team played poorly, which makes it sound like the other team really doesn’t matter, but trust me, sometimes you lose because you played well, but the other team played better and sometimes you win because you were mediocre, but the other team was even worse and there’s nothing wrong with admitting that.

And finally…

4. “The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day.”

That’s one of my all-time favorite quotes from some baseball coach whose name I’ve forgotten, but the point he made stuck with me: when you’re in the sweet spot – winning, being competitive – enjoy the hell out of it because it usually doesn’t last that long.

According to the internet; four teams have never been to the Super Bowl – the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans – and 12 teams have never won the Super Bowl.

Chiefs fans are now enjoying the sweet spot with another trip to the Super Bowl and we’re getting to watch a highly competitive team with a great coach and an MVP quarterback and whatever happens tonight won’t change any of that.

So enjoy the Super Bowl — no matter who wins.

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/editorial-cartoons-a-z/