I have had to take a few breaks from sports. The pain of being a fan of the U of Georgia and Atlanta teams has taken its toll on me. I have become irritable, I have scared my children and I let the anger mess with all facets of my life. Ultimately, I cannot help it, why must our teams do this to us.
To live the nightmare of the Georgia Alabama game where we got the breaks, went up 11 points, only to completely tire out on defense and not stop a single runner. When all looked lost, we drove down to within the 10 with an opportunity. Simply spike the ball and realistically we had 3 opportunities to get it in the endzone. Instead we do not spike the ball, we let about 6 valuable seconds run off and then have a pass deflected and caught inbounds by our own player only to have the clock run off. Painful, excrutiating, I did not watch a bowl game after that and honestly have no idea who Georgia played and if they won.
Then I picked up sports again for the NFL playoffs. The first round was excrutiating enough and just when I thought maybe lady luck was on our side for once, round 2 came about. We again got all the breaks, a 17 point lead early and our defense was stopping the run. Slowly it started to slip away in the 2nd quarter but we scored again to stem the tide. Turnover at the goal line and a missed field goal and it looked like our time had come. But like our bulldogs, we could not stop anyone from running and our offense stalled. When all looked lost we finally mounted a last second drive with first down with no time constraints and only about 10 yards to go. We had an open receiver on the side and it gets blocked down (like the UGA game). Surely we can scrap up a few yards for a 1st and goal. Lo and behold our last gasp effort goes incomplete on what looks like a hold but we do not get the call. The game is essentially over.
I held hopes for the patriots to win it all but a few hours later, I had two teams in the final that I did not want to see.
I did not watch sports until after the Superbowl but found myself sneaking peaks at the highlights on www.espn.com later. I was happy to see a non holding call that went against SF. Maybe Hardbaugh will go back to the college ranks and coach at Michigan now and I can be happy again.
How does this nightmare repeat itself exactly over and over. A couple plays and this could have been an amazing year. I think Georgia would have destroyed Notre Dame. And I think the Falcons would have won (but not destroyed) the Ravens. The Hawks will do nothing but at least maybe we have a chance at Howard in the offseason now. My misery continues.