I have never been a fan of the Chicago Bulls, and so back in Jordan’s glory days there, I found myself regularly annoyed by this phenomenon: he was always the story. What Michael did, what Michael didn’t do, even Michael sitting on the bench – he was always the focus, he was always the story.
More recently, I see that same phenomenon at work in golf. It’s always about Tiger Woods. When SportsCenter is reporting on some golf tournament, it doesn’t matter whether Tiger is in first place or fifteenth, his score is reported. When he’s playing well, that’s the story. When he’s playing poorly, that’s the story. When he’s not playing at all, still he is prominently mentioned.
The reason I mention it is because I now see the same pattern at work with the Green Bay Packers. They obviously came into this season riding a wave of high expectations – and not just by homers, but by the national sports media, as well. They are beings treated as one of the premier teams in the NFL this year, and so I have observed that they are the story, whether for good or for ill.
In FOX’s postgame coverage, for example, the victorious Redskins still got supporting-cast treatment by the panelists. The central theme was the Packers and why they lost.
And why did they lose? The reasons are legion!
If only it were a single, glaring weakness – say, special teams play – then we could focus in on that problem and address it. But the problems are scattered all over… just like the injuries!
Injuries, penalties, turnovers, special team foul-ups, no running game, play-calling… too many problems, and so the need is much tougher to address.
On the other hand, for all the problems we have shown – especially in the most recent 3 games (Chicago, Detroit, Washington) – we have won and lost by small margins. Small enough that it would be fair to say, “Fix just one of the problems, and those games would have been three wins instead of one!”
And that, of course, is where we part company with Mike and Tiger. They won championships.
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