If you hail from Minnesota or Cincinnati, or root for the football teams in those areas, I want to offer my condolences. I don’t know how you got out of bed on Monday.
Over the weekend, the Vikings and Bengals suffered absolutely brutal losses in the NFL Wild Card round, and while any defeat in the playoffs is painful, the way these teams lost—and the continued futility of the franchises in question—ensures that the unpleasant memories of this weekend will stick with these fan bases for a while.
I mean, these losses were painful. On Saturday, the Bengals had Pittsburgh dead-to-rights. Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was sidelined with a shoulder injury, and the Bengals had the ball—and the lead—with 1:30 left to play. But then, as they say, the Bengals bengaled. A Jeremy Hill fumble gave the Steelers one last shot, Big Ben came back into the game, and the Cincy defense lost its cool, leading to 30 yards of knuckle-headed penalties from Vontaze Burfict and Pacman Jones to set up a game-winning Pittsburgh field goal. As good as Marvin Lewis’ Bengals have been in the regular season over the last 13 years, the head coach is now a dismal 0-7 in the postseason.
The Vikings, who have been similarly unlucky in the playoffs—neither they nor Cincinnati have a Super Bowl win to their names—also wrote another chapter in their tortured history the next day. With time running out at home against the Seahawks, Minnesota’s kicker Blair Walsh—who had previously accounted for all nine of the Vikes’ points on the day—lined up for a 27-yard game-winning field goal, which should have been a chip shot for Walsh, but, this being the Vikings, he shanked it wide left to lose the game.
Two devastating losses, sure, but coming from a Red Sox fan, these are losses the fans should have seen coming.
When you root for a team that consistently rips your heart out in the postseason, it begins to wear on you. I can remember Aaron Boone’s home run to end the 2003 ALCS like it was yesterday. It wasn’t a shock to me then, it wasn’t surprising at all. After all, the Red Sox were perennial losers; it wasn’t a question of if they were going to lose to the Yankees, it was a question of how.
Keep in mind, I was too young to remember the Buckner game in 1986 or the Bucky Dent homer in 1978, but those losses become part of the collective memory of a fan base, feeding into a sort of perpetual negativity.
Now, the Sox shed their “cursed” title the following year, and since 2004, I’ve witnessed two more Red Sox championships. Because of that, I can watch even the tightest playoff game with at least a glimmer of optimism.
For the Vikings and Bengals fans, however, that optimism still needs to be earned. But hang in there, this drought can’t possibly last 86 years. You’ll get there eventually.
