The Thin Beer

My football curse

Lest it sound like I lead a charmed sports-fan life, I must confess that I am a curse on NFL football teams.  I grew up (and still am) a Detroit Lion's fan.  During my life in Michigan, the Lions had a record of 140-186-4.  That's not surprising, since Detroit is the quintessential 8-8 football team, occasionally dipping far below that record but rarely finishing above it.  I placed the blame for this futility squarely on the shoulders of the Lions, and didn't dream that it might be somehow my fault.

Unfortunately (for the Redskins, Colts, and Vikings), I did a little experiment.  In 1993, I moved to the Washington, DC area.  In three full football seasons, my proximity to the Redskins caused them to go 13-35.  They weren't just bad in those years, they became bad when I moved there.  They had made the playoffs three years in a row, and won the Super Bowl in 1991, before going 4-12 in 1993, 3-13 in 1994, and 6-10 in 1995.

In 1996, I moved near Indianapolis, Indiana (Bloomington, actually, which was close enough to jinx the Colts).  The year before my arrival, the Colts had been to the AFC championship, and literally missed a trip to the Super Bowl on the final play of the game.  They managed to go 9-7 and lose in the wildcard playoff round in the first year of the "curse", before falling to 3-13 in both 1997 and 1998.  Despite a winning season in 1999 (13-3), the colts were 28-36 while I lived in Bloomington.

When I moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 2000, the Vikings had a string of four straight playoff appearances going.  Like the Colts, they initially seemed to avoid the curse, going 11-5 in 2000 and making it to the NFC championship.  Then, the curse took over, and they suffered an embarassing 41-0 loss to the Giants.  The following season, the curse was in full gear, causing the Vikes to go 5-11 and 6-10.  While I was in the Twin Cities area, the Vikings managed to be 39-41, which looks respectable.  However, they got to play two games against the Bears and Lions each of those years (not that they always won).  And they did manage to embarass themselves with the aforementioned playoff loss to the Giants, with draft day snafus two years in a row, and with some truly puzzling play calls by then-coach Mike Tice, not to mention a number of off-field incidents.

So the question is, which NFL team will end up with the curse when we move back to the U.S.?

Final four, wow.

So, George Mason University made it to the NCAA basketball final four, beating Wichita State and Connecticut last weekend.  Amazing.  This is GMU's first ever final four appearance (of course, they hadn't won a tournament game until this year).

I guess I've attended some basketball powerhouses.  One of the schools I've attended has made the final four six of the last eight years (Michigan State in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2005, Indiana in 2002, and GMU in 2006). In my lifetime, they have had 12 final four appearances (MSU five, Indiana six, and GMU one), and five national championships (MSU in 1979 and 2000, Indiana in 1976, 1981, and 1987).  Of course, GMU could still win one this year!

Sweet sixteen!

One of my alma maters made it to the sweet sixteen (octofinals?) of the NCAA basketball tournament.  No, it wasn't Indiana (they lost in the second round to Gonzaga), or Michigan State (they lost in the first round to George Mason), or the University of Aarhus (they didn't make the tournament this year).  Yes, it was George Mason, who beat Michigan State and defending champion North Carolina.  That's right, GMU beat two of last year's final four.

They play Wichita State Friday at the MCI Center in DC, practically a home game.

In my NCAA basketball pool (against former coworkers), I picked 34 of 48 first round games correctly, including the Texas A&M over Syracuse upset.  I'm only a couple of games out of the lead, and 7 of my 8 picks to go to the regional finals are still playing.

Motorcycle dreams

I dreamed last night that the Yamaha M1 MotoGP bike had an inline six cylinder engine for 2006 (it's actually in inline four).  Sort of like a latter day Honda CBX.  That would be cool.

The first MotoGP race is søndag marts 26 (Sunday, March 26), and I can watch it on fjernsynet (the TV).

Hoop dreams

Just like last year, I will be forced to follow the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament via the Internet.  Sigh.

This year, two of my alma maters (nourishing mothers) play each other in the first round: Michigan State, which I attended for four years, and George Mason, which saw fit to give me a bachelor's degree.  For what it's worth, GMU has the higher Sagarin ranking, but MSU is playing closer to home and has more tournament experience.  Plus, GMU's second leading scorer is suspended for the game for punching an opponent in the groin during their conference tournament.

The optimist would say that that I can't lose, the pessimist would say that I can't win.

Mermaid Bowl results

A few weeks ago, the Roskilde Kings beat the Kronberg Knights by a score of 23-6 in Mermaid Bowl XVII.  From the Knights website ("The curce remaind"):

Mermaid Bowl XVII was the game to break the curse that has been around the Knights ever since the club played their first bowl. The Knights has been in the Mermaid Bowl four times, however they have never been able to get a victory and get away with the title. Unfortunately this time was no different. The Knights lost the game to the Kings in a very defesive game. 2900 fans, most of the cheering for the Knights made an amazing frame for the Bowl. The Knights really wants to thanks all of the fans that were at the stadium Saturday - and has followed the Knights the entire season. We look forward seeing you next season.

Kronborg Knights LB#44 got the D-MVP.

Kronborg, who play in Espergærde, near Helsingør (Elsinore, of Hamlet fame), seem to be the Buffalo Bills or Minnesota Vikings of the DAFF (Dansk Amerikansk Fodbold Forbund---Danish American Football Federation).  Number 44 is 19 year old Jens Garfield.

The local team is the Avedøre NFA Monarchs.  They dominated the regular season, losing only one game to Roskilde, 9-0.  Roskilde seemed to have their number though, beating them 12-7 in the playoffs.