Streams of Consciousness: The Curse

When people talk about curses in sports, I have a tendency to believe that they're crazy. Let's be honest: curses, like aliens and Jamie Carragher's pace, are not real. The Boston Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees had a lot less to do with the team's extended World Series drought than, for example, racist owners buying lower-quality players because they were white (David Eckstein would have been an absolute legend.) What I'm saying is, it's not terribly difficult to find a tangible explanation for these things. At least something more reasonable than a lunatic fan getting pissed off when his team refused to allow his pet goat in the stadium.

However, there is one curse that I have yet to figure out. Aaron and Kirsten have both alluded to it before, when it seems that you only get one win per weekend to spread among your favourite teams. Not all of your teams can win at the same time, especially if it's on the same day. For me, the best example of that is fairly recent. February 28th may not ring any bells with you. On the same day, Aston Villa faced Manchester United in the Carling Cup final and a few hours later, Canada took on the United States in the Olympic men's hockey gold medal game. I remember laying dazed in my bed that morning, checking the Villa score on my phone (sleeping in and catching European football is not particularly easy in Pacific Standard Time.) I saw that we were about to lose, and I thought to myself "we better win that medal." Okay, I censored it. You get the idea. Anyways, Canada won, Villa lost, and the curse was alive.

Now, as you may already know, Aaron and Kirsten's curse has been broken this past weekend. The Seattle Sounders and Aston Villa were both victorious at the weekend, thus putting the lie to this particular curse. However, I was not so lucky. On that very Sunday, the 49ers (my NFL team) were humiliated by the supremely mediocre Chiefs. To add insult to injury, my beloved Canucks were royally humped by what must be one of the most pathetic NHL teams in recent memory: the E******n O****s. But, then again, Barcelona managed to beat Athletic Bilbao without Leo Messi. So maybe the lesson here is this: follow as many teams as you possibly can without ruining your conscience and/or your free time. At least that way, you'll end up with a better chance at .500.