Caution: Bandwagon-Jumping Ahead

I would have said it first, but technical difficulties allowed John Madden to beat me to it.

Madden noted yesterday during "Sunday NFL Countdown" on ESPN (the only pre-game show I watch, therefore I guess, it's the "official NFL pre-game show of THIS JUST IN!!!") that the vast majority of injuries across the NFL landscape have been caused lately by fans jumping onto and off of bandwagons. It was also entertaining to hear Madden say "torn meniscuses"... is that even grammatically correct? Like I'm one to talk...

Anyway, it's true; from pro to college right down to high schools, September is the month that involves the most bandwagon jumping of any month of the sports year. You have major league baseball fans giving up on their teams chances (unless of course, you're a Mets fan like me, in which case you gave up right about the moment they set the NL record for home futility). You have NFL fans waiting until their teams got to about 0-2 to start calling for the coach's head, and the same would be true of college football fans, especially ones in a certain upstate New York town. You also have people misinterpreting 2-0 starts for the beginning of a Super Bowl/national championship/state playoffs season and then taking big-time abuse when their teams throw that 2-0 start away.

I was sitting at the bar at BJ's in Selinsgrove not too long ago, sharing beers and stories with some alumni and former PR office co-workers from my days at Susquehanna. We had just dropped our opener, 27-7, to McDaniel (the college formerly known as Western Maryland), and I was thrilled... that we had held them to 27 points. After all, this is the same team that hung 63 on us at their place last year; it was 21-0 five minutes into the game. Anyway, we were watching Notre Dame beat Michigan to go to 3-0 for the first time in a few years; later that night, Penn State would crush Nebraska to go to 2-0 and get back in the national spotlight. Mike Ferlazzo, the fountain of Susquehanna sports knowledge, looked down the bar at us and quipped, "Ya know, if the Irish hang on here and Penn State wins tonight, there are gonna be a lot of 'long-time fans' coming out of the woodwork..."

You know what he was talking about, the people who either keep their mouth shut during the bad times and conveniently pack away their team gear, or worse yet, they're the folks who ran Bob Davie out of South Bend and tried to force Joe Paterno into early retirement. Then again, JoePa being 75, it wouldn't exactly be "early" retirement, but I digress... Well, sure enough, Notre Dame is now 4-0 after pulling another win out of their Irish, and Penn State has rolled to a 3-0 start; they're both top 15 teams. Meanwhile, back up north in Syracuse, the bandwagon has been pretty short-staffed for a while. Another 0-2 start has the natives restless, but then again what else would you expect in a town whose three favorite sports are SU football, SU basketball, and trashing the coaches of those two teams. The attendance for the home opener was 39,000 paid, 35,000 actual, and about 10,000 by the time North Carolina kicked off to SU with three minutes remaining. Should I mention at this point that SU was only down 8 and still had a chance to win the game? Naturally, the Orange promptly fumbled away the kickoff, thus proving the locals lack of faith in them was justified. Is there anyplace that could be worse than that?

Well, yes. Try being a follower of the 2000 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens. Check that, the 2000 Super Bowl champion, 2001 AFC semifinalist, and currently 0-2 Baltimore Ravens. And they're a BAD 0-2; they've scored a grand total of 7 points. I have mentioned before that Baltimore Sun columnist Mike Preston was probably wishing for this so he could rev up the "fire Brian Billick now" campaign, and he's not alone with that; such is the case when the coach has the label of "offensive genius". Preston has been noticeably absent from the coach-bashing, but he did note when Bawlamer lost their opener to the freakin' Carolina Panthers that the Ravens now should be one of the two or three worst teams in the NFL. Well, now Carolina is 3-0; I wonder if he still thinks that. Then again, I wonder if Carolina fans are screaming "Super Bowl, baby!" Either perspective may be excessively dumb. I bring this note of optimism to Baltimore fans: they didn't lose yesterday. Of course, it was a bye week...

The Rams are 0-2, and counting last year's Super Bowl and the preseason, they're 0-7. I think their bandwagon may have tipped over from so many fans jumping off at once. And the grumbling extends back to Selinsgrove, where Saturday's 50-3 demolition at the hands of arch-rival Lycoming made Susquehanna another BAD 0-2 team. After last year's 0-4 and 1-5 start, the right question may well be the one we were all asked at BJ's by a distraught Crusader parent following the McDaniel loss: "Are we going to be any good at all this year?" Meanwhile, nobody believed the Patriots would be any good this year; we were told they were a one-year wonder, that Drew Bledsoe was still a better QB than Tom Brady and the records of the Pats and Buffalo Bills would reflect that. Here are their current records: Patrots 3-0, Bills 1-2 (thanks to a nice bank shot field goal off the crossbar at Minnesota, otherwise they're 0-3). But hey, Drew's QB rating is good, that should keep those Bills fans who liked Rob Johnson over Doug Flutie happy.

Do I even need to bring up the Jets? Chad Morton is the only reason they're not 0-3, and my voice is going hoarse from screaming for Herman Edwards to finally wise up and yank Interceptaverde for Chad Pennington. And the list goes on and on, cuz there are plenty of other teams that have either exceeded expectations or fallen far short of them. The obvious needs to be stated here: it's a long season. 16 games for the NFL, 12 (at least) for college, 8-10 for the high schoolers, depending on what state you hail from. There's plenty of time for anyone to turn it around. Take a lesson from those New England Patriots and their oh-so-dreamy QB, Mr. Brady (sorry, that's what a certain YMCA co-worker of mine thinks, I don't swing that way...) They started 0-2 and lost Bledsoe to an injury... season over. Of course, we all know that was not the case, but nobody in Patriot Nation thought the amazing run that resulted would happen. They were probably grabbing ropes to hang Belichick with. Can the Ravens, Crusaders, and Orangemen turn it around and make a great run? Well, no. You may say nothing is impossible, but I'm sorry, for those three teams, it is. Can the Rams and Steelers make a run? Sure, and they probably will. Will Notre Dame, the Saints, and Penn State lose? Yeah, probably. But if you are a fan of these teams or any team for that matter, you need to take the attitude that I take: My team is going to lose. They are going to lose a few times, or more than a few times. My team may never reach the playoffs or the BCS again, but ya know what? I'm cool with that, because it's just sports. My life does not depend on my teams winning titles.

That being said, I should note my favorite football teams are a combined 3-8. I'm very good at adhering to my philosophy...