The curse of Nate
My older brother Chris calls me about a month ago, and says “Nate who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl?” “Seahawks,” I reply. “Good,” says Chris, “I want the Steelers to win.” There is a running joke in my family that I am a curse to sports’ teams. And now I am beginning to wonder if it’s true. Let’s look at a brief history of the teams I cheer for.
This archived article was written by: Nate Davis
My older brother Chris calls me about a month ago, and says “Nate who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl?” “Seahawks,” I reply. “Good,” says Chris, “I want the Steelers to win.” There is a running joke in my family that I am a curse to sports’ teams. And now I am beginning to wonder if it’s true. Let’s look at a brief history of the teams I cheer for.
My grandfather was a huge Los Angeles Dodgers fan, so naturally I cheered for the Dodgers as well. I was born in 1987, the Dodgers’ last championship, 1988. Since ’88, the Dodgers have been plagued with unlucky injuries and chocking in the big games.
The Boston Celtics was one of the greatest basketball franchises in history, that was of course before I came along. The Celts last title, 1986. In the words of Chris “you broke them!”
Apparently my curse is contagious. Chris was supposed to go to the Boston Celtics versus Utah Jazz game on Tuesday. I received an e-mail from him this morning which said “Over the last five years, I have been slowly losing my faith in humanity. And on the 18th of February 2006 at 1:45 p.m., the last morsel was ripped out of my life like an abba zabba from a kid at a fat camp. That is when my ex-friend Matt Rainer informed me that he only had two tickets to the Celtics game. (You know the one where Paul Pierce went 15 for 15 in the third quarter putting them in position for the victory.) Anyway I was unable to attend the game. I am writing to you today to let you know that ONCE AGAIN YOU CURSED ME. You can deny it all you want, but because you wanted to go, the Sport’s Gods frowned upon me. So in closing thanks Nate, thanks a lot.”
OK, back to the list of teams I have cursed. In football, I am a New York Giants’ fan. When was the Giants last title you ask, simple, 1986. Are you starting to see a pattern?
The only team that I have cheered for that has found success is the Boston Red Sox, who won the 2004 World Series. Some teams are just that good. Not only did the Red Sox overcome the curse of the Bambino, they also overcame the curse of the Nathan.
Duke University, my favorite college basketball team, has won two national titles in my lifetime (1991 and 1992). Clearly my curse had not started yet as I did not start to cheer for Duke for another few years. Since then they had very good teams, and shown a lot of promise, but for some reason, always fail to win the big games.
So there you have it, nearly every team I cheer for, has become cursed since I have been a fan. Why does it happen, I don’t know. But if any of you would like to fix a game, feel free to e-mail me, I’ll cheer for the team you want to lose.
