The Year of Championships

[Gustav 6,482]

I grew up watching lots of really bad sports. Mainly, my NFL team didn't make the playoffs for my entire life until I was 17--I even got picked on for liking them in middle school even though they were local. The Sabres...are still the Sabres, I guess. We don't talk about that. Even recently, I played on a rec league soccer team that got absolutely destroyed every game because half of us had never played before. 

 

Something that's changed recently is that I have watched a team I follow in real life even make it to a championship for the first time ever. The closest I've ever seen from any team that I like is a semifinal, but all that changed when the very solid college football team I now have the privilege of having a reason to watch won their semifinal game the other day. For the first time ever, I'll be watching a championship of any sort with a real vested interest in what happens in it--go Bucks.

 

Plus, my once-perpetually-below-average NFL team won a playoff game today and they are still in the running. We're still far from the Super Bowl with a really tough matchup coming up, but could you imagine if I somehow ended up with two #1 teams within a few weeks of each other? The Sabres are still the Sabres, but my head would explode.

 

I've seen my teams make it to the finals in the VHL. More specifically, I made it all the way once with both of my first two players. Both times, though, my team got swept, so I can't say that I've ever won a game in the VHL finals. I do have to say that seeing a real team of mine make the finals makes me think a little bit--why can't I see three big wins within a few weeks of each other? A curse of mine has finally been broken in some way already. 

 

As of now, I don't think there's a clear #1 in the league, so Seattle has a chance as one of the decent teams left. We're third in the NA, but only by one game, and we've already made a big in-season move by bringing in Theo Allard from DC. My player is still coming into his own, but I'm over a point per game and on pace for a solid season on either end of the ice. I guess I'm just feeling it a little--I don't tend to wonder "what if I win the Cup this season," but I've just had that sneaking at the back of my head now that I'm seeing similar possibilities approach in real life.

 

It's not at all likely that I'll see all of my teams come away as #1, and it's in fact very possible that I'll just have my heart broken a lot over the next month or so. Whatever happens will happen--but more than ever before, it has the chance to mean quite a bit for me both in and out of the VHL.