The Harshest Defeat
Originally Posted January 29, 2012 on thewinnerstake.com
As fans, we look to our teams as catalysts to help get us through the tough parts of our day. Post-season success is about more than the 3 hours the players are battling it out on a Sunday. A post-season win means verified hope that this might be the year. A post-season win means another week of excitement and pride for a city and fan base.
In so many ways, it is much more crushing to miss out on the trip to the Super Bowl, than to miss bringing the Lombardi trophy home from the trip there. A Super Bowl loss surely stings, but at least you were there. Win or lose that final game, your team made every possible moment of the season meaningful. For both the Super Bowl winner and loser, Monday morning brings the realization that the ride is over and for neither team’s fans did it stop short of the final destination. However, a loss in the conference championship and it feels as if two weeks of your life have been stolen before they’ve even began; with each day’s sports section providing a constant reminder of how close you came to enjoying the final leg of the season’s journey.
While many fans will be picking “their team” for this year’s ultimate game and rooting heartily for the “correct” outcome, even more will be unable to watch without replaying the moments of the season where their team’s train to the final Sunday got knocked off track. And for those whose teams went furthest before exiting “stage left,” it will be particularly painful; for the fewer moments to replay the more vivid the lost opportunities seem to be. Chargers fans like me will have a movie-like “What If” recap of several scenes to replay this off-season: a fumbled snap in Kansas City, a slight misstep in the Meadowlands, and a phantom breeze that came through San Diego and pushed our hopes “wide right.” But Niner and Raven fans will be forced to replay the same scene again and again: a muffed punt and a mismanaged kick. Mistakes that didn’t just mean missing out on a championship, but also the two weeks of excitement and anticipation that go with reaching the final Sunday of the season.
