Have you ever noticed in sports that sometimes a single city or state can catch fire?
It’s almost like there is something in the water, where every professional sports franchise and college program is competing for a championship. They may not always win and become title town, but it doesn’t diminish how special it is to cheer for those teams during that time.
Let’s look at this years big 4 sports. Tampa Bay has a Stanley Cup Champion, a World Series appearance, and an early Super Bowl favorite. Imagine being a Tampa sports fan right now. You wake up in the morning and piss excellence. Your hockey team has been the best team in the league for two years, your baseball team is young and exciting and you have a literal super star roster on the field every Sunday.
If you look west the same thing is happening in Los Angeles. LeBron has made good on his promise to bring the Lakers a title. Your beloved Dodgers have finally captured the title that evaded them for nearly a decade. USC is ranked and looking to be on pace for a PAC 12 Championship and maybe more! Plus the Rams and Chargers don’t suck. They may not add another piece of hardware to the city’s trophy cabinet this year but as a sports fan you would take two ships and some playoff teams, that is definitely a good year.
This phenomenon is awesome and to have two cities having similar runs at the same time is really cool. It makes me think back to the battle between Boston and Pittsburgh through the mid 2000’s and 2010’s.
Over that time Boston collected 3 World Series, 5 Super Bowls, an NBA Championship, a Stanley Cup and two other appearances.
Pittsburgh on the other hand had 3 Stanley Cups with an extra appearance, The Steelers won two Super Bowls and appeared in another. The Pirates had one hell of a wild card game.
But the pinnacle was 2009. The Steelers were dominant that year. They were 12-4, Big Ben was at the height of his powers, Troy Polamalu was rounding out his hall of fame career and Tomlin was a young and exciting new coach.
That Super Bowl lives on in the minds of Yinzers everywhere. I can still see Santonio Holmes fully extended with two toes in bounds at the back of the end zone.
On the flip side, the Penguins were becoming Pittsburgh’s Team. Disco Dan and the cardiac kids had just went to a cup final the year before and lost in heart breaking fashion on home ice. Marian Hossa had just abandoned ship for Detroit and it would only be fitting to meet the greatest hockey franchise of the last two decades again in the final to usher in the new top dog. I think some people think of Max Talbots two goals, but I know everyone thinks of the save from a man we are still attempting to fill the shoes of today.
The strip district that summer was littered with shirts and sweat shirts that read on ice or grass we’ll kick your ass. It was a great time to be a Yinzer.
I’m sure someone who cheers for that disgusting town of Bastan has some great memories but the one that stand is out to me is this.
I know this is a meme now but honestly this was nuts. The Celtics had a stacked lineup of KG, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, a young Rajon Rondo. And even though they were stacked there was still this stigma that this team couldn’t win the championship.
This also came on the tail of the Red Sox snapping the curse of the great bambino, Boston just had a vibe about it at that time where every fair weather sports fan has a Red Sox hat and a KG Celtics Jersey.
Sports are cool like that. They have the ability to unite an entire city. And right now we are seeing it in LA and Tampa. Fingers crossed this mojo carries over to my USF Bulls.
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