Why Am I Even A Sports Fan?

Move aside Steve Bartman, Rex Grossman, Lovie Smith and Alphonso Soriano ... you've got company coming your way. In the great question of why I even follow sports, due to the inexplicable frustration my teams pass along to me, we have another great "really!?!?!?!?" moment. Today, up 12 points with barely over a minute left, Tom Thibodeau inexplicably left Derrick Rose on the court. He came down untouched, and crumpled to the ground. Torn ACL. Of course it is. Why the hell wouldn't it be? The Bulls seemed poised for a title run, coming together at just the right time with the Heat waning at just the right time. Instead, we have to try to make a run without our super star. It never ceases to amaze me that things like this never happen to LeBron... only to my guys. Thibodeau is already explaining away is rationale, but the only thing he should say is "I just accidentally screwed our entire season over. I thought it was good to keep Rose in until the end of the game. I screwed up." Anything less than that shows a strong  desire to cover his own ass, and demonstrates a lack of fortitude. So, if you're counting, since MJ hit his shot in Utah, my teams have experienced:

- Bartman
- Alex f'in Gonzalez
- Dusty f'in Baker
- Kerry Wood's arm
- Mark Prior's arm
- The Red Sox breaking the curse... twice
- The White Sox winning the world series
- The Cardinals winning the world series ... twice
- The disintegration of Carlos Zambrano
- Swept by the D'Backs (2007)
- Swept by the Dodgers (2008 - best record in baseball)
- The Soriano contract albatross.
- Jerry Krause running MJ, Pippen and Phil Jackson out of town
- Jerry Krause inexplicably being allowed to continue to run the team
- Eddy Curry
- The Pistons winning the NBA title
- Miami beating the Bulls
- Derrick Rose's torn ACL
- Bobby Knight getting fired
- Blowing the National Title game against an inferior Maryland team
- Living through Mike Davis
- Blowing a national title caliber season in 2008 (only my senior year in Bloomington) due to...
- Living through Kelvin Sampson
- Living through the penalties assessed on IU for Kelvin Sampson...
- the severity of which enabled Purdue to briefly become the best Indiana basketball team ...
- ... for the first time since basketball was invented...
- John Calapari and John Calhoun winning national titles
- Wandstadt ... Jauron... and Lovie... the three stooges of NFL coaches
- Lovie refusing to double team Steve Smith ... and subsequently blowing a playoff game (2006)
- Lovie refusing to run the ball, putting the game in Grossman's prepubescent hands...
- leading to the Bears losing the Super Bowl ...
- to the F'IN COLTS!!!
- Having to live in a world where Peyton Manning accidentally became a "winner"...
- ... thanks to Lovie
- The Giants, with Eli, winning the Super Bowl ... twice
- Urlacher's broken wrist
- Cutler getting knocked out of the NFC title game we should have won...
- The Packers winning the Super Bowl...
-... and Aaron Rodgers "discount double check"
- The Bears being on pace to challenge for another NFC title...
-... but Lovie didn't fix the o-line after watching him get knocked out the year before
-... and he got knocked out again
- ... so we missed the playoffs entirely...
- ... wasting one of the last great Urlacher seasons


I feel like I could go on forever and ever ... But just know that Rose continues to remind me how insanely lucky I was to grow up watching Michael win every NBA title ... just because he could. I can't believe we're already to the point of resigning ourselves to Miami making the NBA finals, but here we are. I wasn't even able to make my playoff picks before this happened. I would have picked the Bulls and the Spurs (boring, I know)... but now it has to be Miami and the Spurs. I hope someone manages to drop the Heat. Adding them to the list above may be more than I can take.