Curse Works

It doesn’t happen often, but every decade or two I get it right.
This weekend was one of those rare occurrences.
Upon the conclusion of the NFL regular season, I espoused a curse on all of the lazy, dishonorable football teams who chose to lay down in their last game of the season because they had already clinched their playoff berths.
I specifically cited the Patriots, my favorite team up until then, for resting their starters in a season-ending game against the Dolphins, a game the Pats ended up giving away through their sloth.
But I reserved my greatest vitriol for the Indianapolis Chokes.
This is the team that collapsed under the pressure of the “perfect season,” going belly up against a San Diego team that didn’t even make it to the playoffs.
Then they took the next two weeks off, leaving their starters on the bench for a loss against Seattle and a four-point victory against the Arizona Cardinals, a woeful semi-pro team that couldn’t beat most high school squads.
The result is a Colts team that didn’t show up for four weeks, including their coveted “bye” week earned by coasting to the end of the season after winning 13 straight.
The death of head coach Tony Dungy’s son was tragic, but it’s an insult to his death and the NFL to point to that as the reason the team didn’t bother to show up for the last two games.
It turns out that there’s more to my curse and prediction that neither team would make it to the Super Bowl than just fan frustration.
Anyone who saw the Colts lose to the Steelers on Sunday watched an inept Indy team that was enormously out of sync, even noticeably rusty in the first half.
It was vindication for my statement that an NFL team should never lay down, not even with the playoffs in the bag.
The chemistry was shredded, the momentum was gone, and the Colts looked like they were playing their first game of the year after an extended pre-season.
There are so many intangibles that go into the making of a champion.
It’s not just about X’s and O’s, or the front line’s combined body mass.
It’s involves pride, ego, momentum, confidence, rhythm, habit, routine, luck, and even a little bit of kharma.
The Colts, and to a lesser degree the Patriots, squandered all of those things by taking it easy as the regular season wound down.
Meanwhile, Denver, the other AFC bye team that actually started their stars in the season finale, won handily over an uncharacteristically slothful New England team.
And the Steelers, the team that dismantled the Colts in the division playoffs, were another team which played their starters in week 17, in spite of the fact that their big-name heroes were dinged up and injured.
The management of this weekend’s two losers defended their actions by claiming they didn’t want to risk injury to their star players.
Well they are to be congratulated.
They are now the healthiest two NFL teams to be sitting at home during the conference championship.