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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > August > 13
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Don’t believe in curses, jinxes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just last week, Georgia’s football team became the cover darling of Sports Illustrated. Then, to begin this week, the Bulldogs suffered a huge loss (literally and figuratively) when offensive tackle Trinton Sturdivant departed for the rest of the season with his damaged knee and his nearly 300 pounds worth of Matthew Stafford protection.
Hmmmm.
And maybe you heard: Brett Favre is working for the New York Jets these days instead of the Green Bay Packers. Is that Vince Lombardi flipping over in his grave to scream, “What the (bleep) is going on out there?” Consider, too, that, Favre is the featured player on the front of this year’s John Madden Football video game that recently was released.
Hmmmm.
Given all of that, combined with the supposedly hexed Chicago Cubs in town to face the Braves, let’s talk curses.
Do you believe in such things regarding sports? More specifically, given the Sturdivant injury, is Georgia’s No. 1 ranking in danger courtesy of the so-called Sports Illustrated jinx?
I say no. That’s because there isn’t a Sports Illustrated jinx. If you’re a national magazine, and if you put enough athletes or teams on your cover each week over the course of decades, you’re going to have a lot of them flip, flop or choke. That is, if they don’t have several guys suffer something like a season-ending knee injury during a routine pile-up.
There isn’t a Madden curse, either. Stuff happens, especially when it comes to NFL players. Eddie George. Daunte Culpepper. Marshall Faulk. Michael Vick. Ray Lewis. Donovan McNabb. Shaun Alexander. Vince Young. They’ve all joined Favre since 2000 in having various issues after they appeared as Madden cover folks.
Not impressed. The same goes for the Cubs failing to win it all since 1908 and not even reaching a World Series since 1945. They’ve just had more than a few shaky players, horrendous managers and dysfunctional teams. They’ve also had bad luck, (‘69, Leon Durham, Steve Bartman), but bad luck doesn’t translate into a billygoat curse.
The bottom line is, if Georgia doesn’t win the national championship this season, it will be because of Georgia and its monster schedule. Sports Illustrated, John Madden, billygoats, the bogeyman or their supposedly spooky equivalents won’t have anything to do with it.
Agree or disagree? Oh, and if you disagree, when is the last time you saw Big Foot in your living room?
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