Day for a Sorrow Heart

Today is January 12th, 2006 and it has finally hit me. It actually hit me on about the 9th, but this is the first time I could really write about it. As a graduate of USC and a Trojan for life, the loss of tragic national title game has finally caught up to me. Going to school at SC I have met many people from different locales and one question I always had for them was how the feeling of defeat was when your team got all the way to the end. I had personally never felt that, as the Cowboys won all three Super Bowls they were in and SC has won both of their national title games and the Orange Bowl the year before that. My closest encounter was when the Cowboys were going for a three-peat and lost to the 49ers 38-28 in 1995. I remember that game really hurt, but I was never sure if that feeling was because I was still very young at that time. I once asked my roommate, who was a St. Louis native, how the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots felt. Of course I didn’t ask him right after the event or anything like that. He told me that it really sucked because he knew the Rams were the better team. That was interesting response and one I knew I also had when the Cowboys lost that game to the 49ers. The Cowboys were the better team. That was a fact. Had that game been played 10 times, the Cowboys would have won at least 7 of them. Or at least that’s what I think.

But this SC team was different. During this long winning streak, I have never thought that they would lose. Ever. Down 10 to Oregon at Autzen, getting trash talked to by Oregon fans I still had no doubt. Down 18 to ASU at the half. No problem, we’ll be back. Down 4 to Notre Dame, we’ll win this game but Notre Dame really is back. Down late to Fresno, we’ll win this game, our offense can’t be stopped. Never was I anxious, not even on 4th and 9. I knew we were going to win. Last year going into the Oklahoma game I was afraid. I loved hanging around South Beach, but when Oklahoma people started talking about their greatness, I listened. I thought they could beat us. After that shellacking any feeling of possible defeat left my body. This Rose Bowl was going to be no different. SC had the game won before it was ever played. No problem. In the parking lot, all I heard from Texas fans was that their team was being disrespected, but I felt it SC was just getting the praise we deserved. Now don’t get me wrong, I thought the whole “Greatest Teams of All-Time” thing that ESPN was running was ludicrous and I really wish they had never done that. I was also a little puzzled that everyone was talking about what a once-in-a-lifetime experience a 34 game winning streak was when Miami did the same thing earlier in this decade.

So how did I feel after the game? Well, to tell you the truth I didn’t feel anything. Thursday passed and I watched a replay on TV. Came to work on Friday and everything was fine. Saturday and Sunday full of football, no problem. On the other hand, my roommate, who is also an SC grad, refused to watch football that weekend. Then Monday came. And that’s when I started to realize what had occurred. We had lost a chance to make history. A chance we may never get again. We had lost our winning streak. I was really hoping to go at Oklahoma’s mark of 47. We blew the damn game. Now we have to start over at 0. And that hurts. What's worse is that we didn’t just blow it: it was a series of unfortunate events. We needed to do 1 of 14 things to win the game and it didn’t happen. Texas needed to do 14 of 14 things to win the game, and they made them all happen. Crazy game. I wish we would have kicked a field goal in the 1st quarter instead of going for it on 4th and 2, but we have done that before and I can’t blame good ole Pete for making that decision. I wish Reggie would have never tried to lateral the ball, but he has done that before as well and he’s a playmaker. I wish that David Kirtman would have caught the screen pass on SC’s second to last drive (that would have been the game), but the pass wasn’t great. I wish Lendale would have gotten that first down on 4th and 2 in the fourth quarter, but I agreed with the call at the time. I wish there wasn’t a facemask on a 3 and 12 play that gave them a first down. I wish that someone, preferably Darnell Bing, would have spied Vince Young on the last drive, but that’s not what Pete does. You have to go with what gets you there and that’s how the game was played. Any one of those things goes SC’s way and we win the game. Just a series of unfortunate events.

But how do I really feel? If this game was played 10 times, SC wins 9 of them with 3-5 blowouts. But not that night.

Say What!?!?: I moved from the Central Time Zone to the Pacific when I came to school at SC. It was really weird at first. Watching NFL games at 10:00 am was weird. College football starts at 9:00 am and to watch Gameday you have to be up at 7:30 am, which I have never done. But what was even weirder was that the majority of games are over by 8:00 pm and when you go to bed, all games are over. It took some getting used, but 5+ years later, I would say I have gotten used to it, and I’m sure you will as well.

Whew...

A belated happy new year to all and to all, may 2006 bring fulfilled promises, greater resolve and better days.

I've been here in San Jose, CA for a little over a week and I feel like I've been out of the sports world for much, much longer. Let's see what has happened over the last week+:

• Seven NFL head coaches are fired as well as Dennis Green's housecleaning of his assistants in Arizona
• A triple-overtime thriller in New York (against the Phoenix Suns) that culminated in an actual Knicks victory (and they notched up two in a row against Washington last night... amazing)
• Vince Young went OFF! Thankfully, I did get to see that.
• Hey, the Texans lost (won?) the Bush Bowl, attended by yours truly at Candlestick. By the way, it is something to see: Candlestick is surrounded by the 'hood, but the cameras have failed to show that over the years. Heck, you can't hide that when you're looking at Yankee Stadium on TV, but I guess it can be done out here.
• The Bob Weiss Era in Seattle has turned into the Bob Hill Show. Last time I checked, he got fired from Fordham University... damn, I didn't realize that there are still college basketball pressures in NYC.
• Marv Levy is back! So Mike Mularkey may not institute the old K-Gun offense of the Bills' past, but let's see how this plays out next year.
• Marcus Vick is my hero...
• Tony Dungy is a beloved man in sports, but there seems to be a conversation that no one wants to acknowledge exists. When it comes to suicide, it's not easy whether it's personal to you or public such as the Colts head coach.
• Tayshaun Prince (for those who didn't remember his Kentucky days) got game. And folks actually thought that Jared Jeffries was the better F coming out of Indiana? Not saying that Jeffries is a bum (he's not).
• My fantasy NBA team is killing me.

There are plenty more things afoot that I have missed that you may surely remind me of. There will be plenty of time for that. However, I had been itching to write something about this change of venue I've made.

After spending my entire life in New York City and Boston, with experiences in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore and other eastern spots (even going international in London back in summer of 2004), I've been trying to get a handle on this NoCal life. While one must give time for adjustments to a new locale, there are some things that I may never get used to. On my way to this library in downtown San Jose, I ran into a man donning his Boston College hockey jersey and sporting a NY Giants gym bag. Noticing the eastern connection, I figured he was as exicted as notorious jtb about the playoffs. I asked him about the adjustment. He had been here for less than a year, but he still can't get used to waking up at 10AM for a game on TV. I am still in shock that I was watching Rockets/Grizzles at 5PM the other day.

Some of you are experienced or have at least heard about the change in the sports cycle going from one coast to another. Advantage: you're not passing out before midnight to watch Monday Night Football (though with these last few years, I've been passing out after WWE Raw instead of those MNF "thrillers"). Disadvantage: after 4PM on Sunday, you need something to pass the time. Sports viewing is a full-time occupation. When you find yourself working the early shift after a whole life on what the media thinks is "normal", you feel like you need another game, another highlight or even more mindless analysis just to feel as if the entire workday has been used up.

In regards to the Bay Area itself, I find that I have watched more college sports in this week+ than I have in the last six months of 2005. Why? Because anyone who grew up outside of NYC has more roots in collegiate athletics. Though the Bay has its fair share of professional sports (except MLS in a few months with the Earthquakes moving to Houston), California is one of the biggest breeding grounds for NCAA and pro sports. It's mandatory to know who plays at what school. It would be similar to moving to Florida or Texas (or Minnesota, Wisconsin or my previous New England experience for hockey). There's much talk about the Golden State Warriors trading for Ron Artest and the Sharks with the addition of Joe Thorton, but there is a stronger conversation about USC's collapse on Wednesday. Very interesting.

I had a more organized post in mind this morning/afternoon, which is to come. Yet, I believe we all have an experience outside of our hometowns that shows how much contrast there is between cities, regions, even countries. What's yours?

Say What?!?!: There is a book I'd like to recommend that I am currently reading called Sports Inc. For those like myself who wonder how the heck the business came to be, this is a good read in learning about how it has. I have also looked to another book from John Feinstein called Next Man Up. If you've read The Punch, you know what Feinstein has been about.