Everything’s Coming Up Scarlet and Grey
January 12, 2015Nike’s Ohio State Poster Says It All
January 13, 2015Happy Tuesday WFNY!
So normally I try to write the bulk of WWW on Monday nights so they are mostly ready to go on Tuesday mornings. However, I was a little busy on this Monday night. As a lifelong fan of and an alum of The Ohio State University, I was busy watching one of the most unlikely sports stories of my lifetime reaching its unthinkable apex.
Thus, as a result, this is being written on Tuesday morning with my body running on fumes. I don’t know if it’s the lack of sleep or the lack of preparation, but there’s really only one sports story I want to talk about today. I know this is not an Ohio State site. I know not everyone here is an Ohio State fan and I accept and embrace that fact. But whether anyone is a Buckeye fan or not, I hope everyone can at least recognize what a remarkable sports story this Championship was.
We put up with an awful lot to be sports fans. Especially Cleveland sports fans. There is a seemingly endless string of chaos, dysfunction, heartbreak, and misery. And if I’m being totally honest with you, it’s really been wearing on me a lot lately. This website’s slogan is “…a tradition of hope, passion, and misery”. It has always been about that balance between hope and misery without ever losing the passion.
Lately, though, it has felt like there was a whole lot more misery than hope as a Cleveland sports fan. As a result, I have found myself questioning a little bit why I do this to myself. What’s the point of being a sports fan if all it does is make me hurt and feel frustrated and angry?
Monday night was the reminder I needed as to why I do this. It was the epiphany I needed that sure, in sports the teams you root for are almost always going to fail to win a Championship. Only one team in each sport can win the Championship every year. That means the other thirty-something teams are ending the season as losers and the fans of those teams are left with varying degrees of heartache.
But it’s all worth it because the payoff is so glorious. Those few rare times the team you root for wins a Championship, it immediately wipes away all of the stains of defeat and misery. When Ohio State won the Championship in 2002, it immediately forgave the debt of all of those heartbreaking and stunning losses to Michigan in the 90s. The frustration of losing all those bowl games under John Cooper? It was all forgotten. The relief and uncontainable joy of glory is a very real and very powerful thing.
As far as Cleveland sports fans go, I’m very fortunate. I grew up in Northwest Ohio fairly close to the Michigan border. My dad raised me as Cleveland sports fan and as an Ohio State fan. But there was one sport my dad didn’t follow much and in which Cleveland didn’t have a team: hockey. Yet I fell in love with the sport and in Northwest Ohio, the team that was always on TV was the Detroit Red Wings. And so I also grew up a Red Wings fan. In my life I have now seen the Red Wings hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup four times and I’ve seen my beloved Buckeyes win the National Championship in football twice.
Each of those six Championships are meaningful and memorable to me, but they are also all unique and different. The 1997 Red Wings Stanley Cup win was my first taste of glory and it will always be special for that reasons. The 2002 Stanley Cup Champions were probably the most talented team of any. Seeing the Buckeyes win in person in 2002 is a memory I will take with me to my grave.
Yet this Ohio State team has carved out a very special place in my heart. This has been one of my favorite sports stories of my life. When Braxton Miller was lost for the season before a single game was even played, I was despondent. I truly thought that this entire season was lost. When the team lost to Virginia Tech at home, I thought they still would have a chance to maybe compete for a Big Ten title, but any thoughts of winning a National Championship were laughable.
But this team didn’t share my pessimism. They didn’t allow the season to get away from them. They dusted themselves off and they got back up to keep fighting. And every week they got better and better and better. JT Barrett blossomed into a budding star. As a freshman, he played himself into an outside Heisman contender. Then just when things were clicking, Kosta Karageorge went missing. Then JT Barrett got hurt against Michigan and was also lost for the season. Then we got the heartbreaking news that Karageorge had been found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.
It was a tough time. Ohio State now had to play in the Big Ten Championship game with their third string QB making his first ever start. I wrote at the time that there was no way the playoff selection committee would let Ohio State in with their third string QB. But just as they did all year, they refused to listen to doubters like myself. They took care of business and stunned Wisconsin 59-0. The selection committee took notice and Ohio State was in.
From there, the rest was history. Ohio State knocked off the #1 team in the country in Alabama. Then they followed that up by beating Oregon. In three consecutive games, Ohio State beat teams with one of the three Heisman finalists. All with an inexperienced third string QB making his first, second, and third career starts. This stuff just doesn’t happen. This is a ride that has been unforgettable, unthinkable, and unimaginable.
So today, there’s almost nothing that can dampen my spirits. Sure, I’m exhausted after getting only a couple hours of sleep. But my spirit has been renewed and my frustration with sports has been given reprieve. It’s a great feeling.
Yet this is a Cleveland sports site. We have a lot of Ohio State fans on staff here, though. And I know a decent number of our readers are also fans. But as a Cleveland sports site, I hate that this isn’t something all of us can share in together. I can’t wait for the day when a Cleveland team gives us a moment like this that all of us can share in and rejoice in together. I hope that day comes soon.
60 Comments
This game, this QB story, this underdog champion… is just what I needed.
man, I’ll have to remember that about the raw feed! sounds great! It’s like listening to good ol’ Tom Hamilton after too much TV broadcast babbling. (if you can sync the radio and TV which is tricky)
BUT THEY TEXTED US DURING THE GAME, HARV
At this point Musberger sounds like a guy imitating Musberger.
insipid. good word. great word.
1. Browns
2. Browns
3. Browns
4. Tribe
4. OSU Football
6. Cavs
7. OSU Basketball
Yes, because more than half of those 14-15 should never be lost.
and, if you are a top seed (1 or 2), then it’s really just 4 in a row because those first 2 games should never be lost if you are worthy of that seed.
I’d buy it. We briefly checked out the other channels and just saw a split screen with guys talking over the game. No to that. I wish I’d noticed the raw feed. I watch a lot of sports with the sound muted anyway.
As an aside: I’d love a parallel Indians broadcast as an every day option. Raw feed, with sabr info added via graphics or maybe w/an occasional voice.
Those seeds are earned, though. The football games are basically set up to give a team practice.