It often feels like the world of sports was not very kind to us in 2007. The A's slogged their way to a less than .500 record and a lousy 3rd place finish in the AL West. The Sacramento Kings are pathetic (on most nights). (See: When Can I Celebrate Winning Again?)And even when I bought tickets to the World Series and flew out to Colorado, the Boston Red Sox had to go out and louse things up by sweeping the hometown Rockies.
But none of that compares to the frustration I have with the Cal Bears. After a 5-0 start that saw the team ranked #2 nationally, the Bears' season has been a disaster, with week after week of disgusting loss after pathetic loss. With the amount of talent on the squad, plus what should be a near-elite coach in Jeff Tedford, the team dramatically underperformed down the stretch, culminating in tonight's stomach-turning 20-13 catastrophe on the Farm at Stanford, which saw the team give up the hallowed Axe for the first time in six years.
The loss, which I hate to admit I watched in its entirety, saw the Bears fall to 6-6, and likely has them going home without a bowl bid for the first time since Tedford took the helm. And even if they back in to some ridiculous, unimpressive, bowl, they don't deserve it, because they stink. They were barely fun to watch even when they were winning, and once they started losing, it was all I could do to simply stay loyal.
I don't really feel like recapping the game here. There are definitely other sources for that, although Sports Blogs Nation's "The Band Is Out on the Field" gave up on the team early, not even making an open thread for the Big Game. Suffice it to say that everything that had gone wrong up to this point was repeated in a microcosm for a painful sixty minutes of football. Injuries to key players. Dropped passes. Getting stuffed at the line. A gimpy, underpowered quarterback. Interceptions in the 4th quarter. No defense when we needed it. A painful, late, grasp at hope. And yes, yet another loss.
It's got me thinking I just might not re-up for season tickets next year. Yes, it's that bad.