The Sports Suckers

We are such chumps. For a shining Sunday moment we believed the Browns really had a shot.

We should know better.

The latest from MSNBC and WFAN, New York's sports talk station, with reports Titans backup QB Kerry Collins says Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher and Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy must have been talking because it was clear Indy wasn't going to contest losing Sunday's game. The Titans win knocked the Browns out of the NFL playoffs since Cleveland needed an Indy win to slip in.

Now the fact the Browns had to depend on another team to beat the roadblock standing between postseason and playing golf in January should be enough to throw some cold water on those playoff dreams for Cleveland fans; anytime you depend on the "other guys" to do your work for you it's a sure signal you put yourself in a crappy position. Having said that, however, doesn't get the Titans and Colts coaches off the hook for what looks, sounds and smells like collusion, especially given Dungy's postgame comments that three division teams made the playoffs.

So what's worse: the crooks on the sidelines or us suckers sidelined?

Keep telling yourself it's a game, just a game.

It isn't your kid making the honor roll at school -- that actually has a payoff later when they get accepted on a full scholarship to some pricey university and embark on a career that leaves you in retirement in Boca Raton.

It isn't whether your employer has a heart and vision as well as a constant eye on the bottom line -- that has more to do with your personal happiness and ability to pay your bills than whether a gang of millionaires owned by a group of billionaires claw their way up the ladder to play in-between :30 second ads as Big Sports hooks up with Big Media for the Big Game.

It sure as hell isn't as important as the time you spend helping your parents fix stuff around the house you grew up in or your neighbors dig out from the latest snowfall -- those are the "pay it forward" things most of us do without a second thought because it makes us feel better and besides they're the right things to do.

Is it possible the NFL had the fix in ahead of the Indy-Tennessee game? Is there a remote chance the Colts understood winning the game that meant nothing to them was a favor to a team they didn't really care about? Could the pitch we hear from professional sports on how "winning is the only thing" really be convenient sales babble anyone with a lick of intelligence would dismiss out of hand in a heartbeat?

Count me among the reformed sports suckers: believe the worst, watch for entertainment, but don't give 'em your heart. Leave the love for folks who deserve it.

Politically Incorrect Football

Some observations on Saturday's University of Akron-Kent State University football game at the Rubber Bowl:

• It truly was wonderful to see such an outpouring of humanity for the game; it helps prep the taste buds for what crowds could be like once there's a stadium facility the entire region can be proud of;


• Unfortunately those watching at home got a real taste of what kind of disrespect the MAC and even the #2 and #3 schools in northeast Ohio suffer at the hands of the media. Poor WEWS-TV likely had little choice but to toss game coverage at 3:30 to the #1 northeast Ohio football program -- Columbus-based Ohio State University -- with more than a minute left in the Golden Flashes-Zips game;


• Poor Sue Ann on Channel 5 was left with the task of playing "Heidi" (that's a reference to the stain left by broadcast switching away from a great comeback for a movie profiling the Pixie of the Alps before the NFL figured out how to buy the networks) and telling us since Akron had it in the bag they were switching to the OSU-Northwestern game. KSU could have mounted a last-minute drive if there had been a turnover -- which is the point of the Heidi reference;


• Maybe it is just me but would it be possible for the Zips to abandon the shooting of the cannon with every score against Kent State? I know it's been 37 years but hey -- give us a little love on this one, will ya? I think having the ROTC do push ups for each point might be reconsidered as well...

There is some great news coming out of the MAC and Zips programs; Zippy busted Virginia Tech's "Hokie Bird" in the battle of the mascots. Zippy is undefeated...hope for our future.

By the way, for those of you who say I show poor editing skills: you won't believe the restraint I showed in choosing Shirley Temple for Heidi rather than supermodel Heidi Klum. Sometimes the choices journalists must make in the pursuit of truth...