God, curses, and our teams

This column was going to be an open letter to God, asking him why he has continued to afflict my favorite sports teams with various ailments as of late.

I was going to plead to let up on all the punishment, from Greg Oden's season-ending knee surgery, to the mysterious return of Brandon Roy's misaligned talus bone, to the Chicago Cubs' strange fascination with swinging at pitches in the dirt during this NLDS.

Then, as I attempting to check the word count on it, the text suddenly vanished, nowhere to be found. Try as I might, I couldn't track down a single line of my letter blaming God for everything wrong with my teams.

Apparently, God doesn't take too kindly to defamation.

It made me realize something, and that's that God doesn't care who wins or loses. If he did, the Saint would be Super Bowl champs, the Devils would be in the cellar of the NHL, and Michael Jordan would never have suited up for the Wizards.

Not everyone has the luxury of being able to root for a winning team. When it comes right down to it, it seems that some people have predisposition from birth to root for teams that are downright unlucky.

It takes a true fan to stand by these teams. Look at the Portland Trail Blazers; it seems that ever since the championship of 1977, everything has gone wrong. The injury-plague that derailed the title defense; Sam Bowie, the Jail Blazers, Greg Oden's knee. Even the years with Clyde Drexler and the gang were filled with the frustration of being unable to come away with a title for three straight years.

I'm not even going to mention the perils of Cubs fans, but lets just say that even with the nearly century-long title drought, every opportunity to erase that has been thwarted by poor pitching and lack of offense.

But there are no curses.

None.

Curses are what we desperate fans make up. We put so much love into our teams, that years of futility or missed opportunities are blamed on a higher power. It's always easier to blame something bigger than the team, like God, goats, or gimpy knees, rather than admit that the team you devote your heart and soul into simply isn't up to snuff.

But as the years go by, sometimes it seems that no matter what your team does, no matter what changes are made or what circumstances surround that season, the end result is always the same: Loss. Pain. Doubt. It's hard not to think that someone upstairs has something out for your team and finds new and more excruciating ways to torment their supporters.

It is the belief and buying into these curses that ultimately dooms the teams and its fans. When a curse becomes part of the identity of the team, then every moment thereafter is shrouded in doubt. Fans are trapped in a constant state of anomie; forever feeling helpless and eventually jaded toward the team.

God does not hate our teams. This realization is the only consolation to a haunted fanbase, and while year after year may bring still more suffering, fans need to hold on to that realization.

Faith in our teams is all we have. While the light of success at the end of the tunnel may still not be visible, you need to hold on to the faith that someday you'll see it. Because once you buy into the belief that the fate of your teams will only be that of failure, you will lose that faith.

And once that is gone, and a curse surrounds your perception of your team, you may never see your team the same again.