The Death of Sports Joy in the DMV
By: Jeff McDonough
It is said that the majority of people die within 50 miles of where they were born. I don’t think I can verify the statistical validity of that claim, but the takeaway is resounding. Where we’re born and where we grow up has a huge determination on the rest of our lives. Even for those of us who actually do leave their birthplace, we carry our hometown with us wherever we end up. A big tie-in with our hometown attachments is often a devotion to the local sports teams — and you’ve come to the Sports Addict, what other angle did you expect?
When the local teams lose, a cloud of despair is cast
citywide. Also, sometimes they riot. When the local teams win, the whole area is abuzz. Just look at Kansas
City. The Royals won their first World Series in 30 years on Sunday and on
Tuesday they held their championship parade. The turnout was an estimated 800,000 people, which is even more astounding when you consider
the city’s population is only 470,000. The pride of fans is never more on
display than after a championship victory. Also, sometimes they riot. Here in the DMV — for those of you that don’t know, that is an
acronym representing the Mid-Atlantic region of DC, Maryland and Virginia —
times have been rough lately. Like really, really rough. We are currently mired in a six-month stretch of misery that
no sporting fanbase should have to endure. It all started back on the dark night of
May 13, but I’ll get to that later. I am going to postulate that every single
major local team is some combination of bad, embarrassing, disappointing and/or
heartbreaking chokers.
I touched on the epic 20-year run of sports pain that Washington, D.C. has had in my column on Capitals misery. I mean, we’re used to that. It’s heartbreak after heartbreak over there. At least we Marylanders have Baltimore. Sure, we like some of the DC teams, but most of us aren’t diehards for all of them. And while the Baltimore teams aren’t always good, at least they’re not as painful as their neighbors to the southwest. I put it this way in said Capitals column:
The Baltimore teams don’t mess around. They’re not always the best, but it lessens the heartache. The Ravens make the playoffs almost every year, win at least one game and then usually bow out as a road underdog — throwing in some thrilling deep runs occasionally. That’s fine. My whole childhood the Orioles never caused any false hope, that’s for sure. When they finally got good, the levels to which we could reach were very apparent. Last season, they won the division by 12 games, swept the Tigers in the ALDS and then got swept by the Royals in the ALCS. They clearly said, “We are exactly this good,” and stuck to it. I appreciate the courtesy.
Well, injuries, for one — but that’s not just a Ravens problem
though. There has been an epidemic of brutal leg injuries to star players
throughout the sport. Star receivers Jordy Nelson and Kelvin Benjamin — along
with All-Pro left tackle Ryan Clady — all went down with season-ending torn
ACLs before the season even began. Unlike the Ravens, those three contenders that
lost stars have a combined record of 20-1. We are less than halfway through the
regular season, and the following stars have already been lost for the year with lower-body injuries: Le’Veon Bell, Jamaal Charles, Arian Foster, Kelvin
Beachum, Cameron Wake, Arthur Jones, Junior Galette, DeAndre Levy, Lance Dunbar
and Reggie Bush. Keenan Allen, Nate Solder and Justin Tuck have also hit IR
with other types of injuries. Stars who have had major injuries of the non-season-ending
variety include Ben Roethlisberger, Tony Romo, Dez Bryant, Matt Forte, Jason
Pierre-Paul, Charles Johnson, Maurkice Pouncey, Bryan Stork, DeSean Jackson and
Devin Hester. It’s apparently not just limited to the NFL. WWE Champion
Seth Rollins, who has held the belt for almost eight months after cashing in at
WrestleMania back in March, suffered a horrific leg injury on Wednesday during a
live show in Dublin. He will miss six to nine months after tearing his ACL, MCL
and medial meniscus and was forced to vacate the championship. Is no one safe?!
Make the madness stop!
For the Ravens, the injuries have been just as impactful.
There has been some turnover the last couple years and we no longer have
veteran defensive leaders Ray Lewis, Ed Reed or Haloti Ngata. Terrell Suggs
was now meant to take over that mantle, but immediately tore his Achilles
tendon in game one. Week 2 marked the first time since 1998 the Ravens played a
game without any of those four future Hall of Famers on the field — who shared
the field on defense from 2006 to 2012 and have a combined 33 Pro Bowls appearances.
So that was a big adjustment immediately. Even though he’s only been here two
years, Steve Smith has assumed the role as the team’s veteran leader. He’s a feisty,
tough-as-nails 36 year-old, who just cracked the Top-10 for all-time receiving
yards last week. He also tore his Achilles tendon and joins Suggs on Injured
Reserve. No one knows if either of those two legends will ever suit up in purple
again. What compounds this loss is that rookie speed receiver Breshad Perriman has yet to
play a snap with “one of the all-time slowest healing sprained PCLs ever.” The Ravens were really
counting on a very young guy and a very old guy to lead their receiving corre and it has backfired big time. They have also lost slot receiver Michael Campanaro
and youngster Darren Waller for the season. So right now, the Ravens are down
to what would’ve been their #4 and #5 options, two practice squad guys and
three unheralded players they’ve added to the team this month. Last year,
injuries forced the Ravens to use their 12th option at cornerback at
one point during the season. I’m starting to get déjà vu this year with the
receiving core.
It’s not just the injuries though. The defense has been atrocious. The rush defense has actually been decent. They rank 11th and allow less than 100 yards on the ground per game. It’s the pass defense that has been their Achilles heel — why did I use that expression? Too soon… — where they rank 30th in pass yards allowed per game. On paper, I thought this bunch would be decent. While they’ve had a couple guys get a little banged up, there have been no major injuries back there. So what gives? Why are they so bad? Is it talent or chemistry or scheme? I don’t know, but it is probably all three. I thought Jimmy Smith would be a true, #1 lock down corner, but he just hasn’t been and has even gotten beat deep a handful of times for crippling touchdowns. Lardarius Webb looks like a corpse. The safeties Will Hill and Keenan Lewis look lost back there in coverage and the #3 and #4 corners of Kyle Arrington and Rashaan Melvin have not delivered — Melvin was cut, in fact.
None of the d-backs can tackle at all it seems, and it has
made for an embarrassing highlight reel. Defensive coordinator Dean Pees has
come under a lot of scrutiny for these struggles. When you have guys that can’t
really cover and definitely can’t tackle, why are you playing ten yards off of
the receiver? They throw a short pass, shake off a feeble attempt at a tackle and
easily scurry for the first down, or worse. When he does actually play some
press, he usually goes too far with it. The Ravens have gotten beat on several
deep plays where Pees sent a safety blitz. You got to find a happy medium. Play
some press with safety help in the back. Part of the problem is that without
Suggs, Elvis Dumervil is constantly double-teamed and unable to get as much pass rush
because Courtney Upshaw has become virtually useless on the other edge. Pees
has been forced to send creative blitzes from inside linebackers, safeties and
corners in order to get consistent pressure. The defense has also not forced a
turnover since Week 3. My Lord. Let’s just say, I do not expect to see Pees
around next year. Due to an easy remaining schedule and the lack of stellar
competition for the two AFC Wild Card spots, it may not be all bad news going
forward. But a comeback to respectability, let alone the playoff picture, is
still a longshot, and so far, it’s been nothing but heartache.
The Baltimore Orioles haven’t done much more in terms of providing joy to their fans. The complete erosion of their starting pitching staff in the second half of the season proved to be the death knell. On August 20, they sat at 62-57 and were right there for a Wild Card spot. They promptly lost 12 of their next 13 games, went from five games over .500 to six games under .500 and now had four teams sitting in between them and a playoff spot. They failed to continue their streak of winning seasons and missed the postseason by five games. Dan Duquette going cheap in the offseason ended up exposing the Orioles' glaring lack of depth, especially in the corner outfield spots. After letting Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis walk in free agency, Duquette saw Alejandro De Aza, Travis Snider, Delmon Young, David Lough, Nolan Reimold and Chris Parmalee as suitable replacements. All of them were awful and got some combination of designated for assignment, released or traded. Steve Pearce was the only one of note in the corner OF rotation to last the season on the team, but he hit .218, missed 70 games with injury and is now a free agent.
That transitions to the gloomy outlook going forward. Chris
Davis, Matt Wieters, Wei-Yen Chen, Darren O’Day, Gerardo Parra and Brian
Matusz, along with Pearce and Reimold, are all impending free agents this
offseason. Davis is set to command a $100 million contract after a stellar
season with a statline of a .262 AVG, 47 HR, 31 2B and 117 RBI. If Davis
leaves, it’ll mark the second straight season the Orioles have let the MLB
leader in home runs walk in free agency. And after such a history of cheaping
out, many are expecting the Orioles not to pay up for their franchise slugger.
In fact of those eight free agents, Pearce is the only one that’s expected to have a likelihood of returning. A
transition is definitely coming. It looks like next year’s team might remind us
more of the teams from the era of 14 consecutive losing seasons than of the
competitive squads they’ve had the last four years. But hey, why would this
team spend money? We’re a small market ballclub, right? No. Don’t believe that
lie. Financial analysts have stated that the O’s are actually in the Top-10 richest
baseball markets, largely because of the ridiculous setup of the MASN TV
network, where the Orioles are pilfering all of the Nationals TV money into
their own pockets. Oh and a judge just ruled in the Orioles’ favor against the
Nationals, so that absurd arrangement looks like it’ll continue for the foreseeable
future. But by all means, Angelos, keep pocketing all of that extra cash and
don’t reinvest any of it into the team. Fuck you, Peter.
So as the Counting Crows once said, it’s raining in Baltimore — metaphorically speaking. But why specifically am I presenting the sports heartbreak as a six-month timeframe? For that answer, we’ll have to head to our nation’s capital and the scene of the crime, back on that aforementioned day of infamy, May 13. It was a simpler time, a happier time. The Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards both made the postseason in the same year for the first time ever — and that is in 41 seasons as arena co-tenants. Not only did they both make the playoffs, but they both won their First Round series and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Things were looking good. It was an all-time high, in fact. The Capitals would take a 3-1 lead on the New York Rangers in their series. They then lost the next two games in the series, however. The Wizards looked doomed after All-Star point guard John Wall suffered five fractures in his hand and wrist, but managed to stay afloat, keeping their series with the Atlanta Hawks tied 2-2. On May 13, both teams were slated to play huge playoff games at almost exactly the same time. The Capitals were at Madison Square Garden in a winner-take-all Game 7, with Alex Ovechkin aiming to make the first Conference Finals of his career. For the Wiz, it was announced just before gametime that Wall was going to make a stunning return and suit up in Game 5 in Atlanta. It was truly setting up to be one of the biggest nights in the history of DC sports. And in its own sort of morbid way, boy, did it end up as one — for better or worse.
Things started off well for both clubs. The Capitals were up
1-0 after the first period thanks to a goal by Ovechkin — who guaranteed
that the Caps would win Game 7. Despite it being only 10 days after suffering his
injury, Wall was playing great — he finished with a statline of 15 pts, 7 ast,
4 reb, 4 stl and 2 blk. They were up 73-64 with less than six minutes
remaining. The Hawks promptly went on a 14-0 run from that point and all of a
sudden the game was coming down to the wire. The Rangers would tie up the
Capitals in period two, and after a scoreless third, the teams headed to
overtime. Two thrilling, nail-biting playoff games with huge implications going
on at once; what more could DC sports fans want, right? While the Caps were on
intermission break heading into OT, Paul Pierce, who had all ready hit a
game-winner in Game 3, buried a clutch three-pointer to give the Wiz a
one-point lead with 8.3 seconds remaining. It was amazing. The Truth did it
again! We were going up 3-2 with Game 6 in DC and a chance to meet the depleted
Cavaliers in the Conference Finals. Until we weren’t. On the last possession of
the game, Dennis Schröder drove to the hoop only to have his shot blocked by
Wall. Al Horford then rumbled in, barreling over both Nenê and Pierce, grabbed
the offensive rebound and put in an uncontested layup at the last second. Anguish.
Overtime was just beginning for the Capitals, and I was
praying to God, saying, “Please just let the Capitals win this one. They need
to. I can’t take both.” After the first OT was little more than halfway over,
Daniel Girardi blasted a shot from the point that was denied, but just like for
the Wizards, Derek Stepan got the rebound and buried a wide-open shot.
Within 12 minutes of one another, both the Wizards and Capitals lost a huge playoff game by one at the buzzer. The Capitals were eliminated and lost a series in which they held a two-game lead for the astounding 10th time in franchise history — with every one of the collapses coming in the last 30 years, no less. The Wizards went down 3-2 in the series and were eliminated two nights later, missing out on the chance to make their first Conference Finals since the ‘70s. Their elimination came in a further heartbreaking loss, as another clutch Paul Pierce shot, a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer, was disallowed after replay showed he had his hand on the ball 0.1 seconds too long.
What should’ve been one of the happiest times in DC Sports history became an unimaginable hell of sports chokage that the world had not yet seen. Super. Both teams just began their season in the last couple weeks and have a lot of promise. But it’s like, who cares if this is how you guys are going to treat me in the end? All the good times are just a setup for an excruciating twist. This was not an isolated incident. It was only the precursor to a half-year from Hades for local sports fans. Look at the other teams in DC. When the baseball season began, the Nationals were the betting favorites to win the World Series and ended up missing the playoffs. This offseason they fired the manager, announced they hired a new one, made him an insulting lowball offer, saw him back out and then scurried to hire a new one. Fun times. And I don’t even know if I fully want to get into the joke that is the Redskins, who have been the laughingstock of the league since Daniel Snyder purchased the team in 1999.
The last eight seasons have all been losers and particularly
bleak, with one lone bright spot, the 2012 Robert Griffin rookie campaign. RG3
made the Pro Bowl, was named Rookie of the Year and the ‘Skins closed the year
on a seven-game winning-streak to claim their first division championship of
this millennium. His final statline of 3,200 yards and 20 touchdowns passing —
with only five interceptions — combined with 815 yards and seven touchdowns
rushing, amounts to likely the best rookie season by a quarterback in the
history of the NFL. He tore his ACL in their playoff game that year and
injuries and regression have made him a shell of the player since. Part of that
can be blamed on coaching and the organization for failing to develop and
protect him. So fast forward to this season, Griffin gets abused and injured
one more time during a preseason game. Head Coach and professional nepotist Jay
Gruden took this as an opportunity to relegate Griffin to the bench permanently.
He has not stepped on the field in 2015.
Gruden instead turned to backup Kirk Cousins and tried to pass
him off as an NFL starting quarterback. That’s cute. In his career, Cousins has
showed such a dreadful lack of awareness when it comes to avoiding turnovers
that he has proven clearly to me — and I hope many others — that he will never
be anything more than a backup. In seven games this year, the Redskins are 3-4
and Cousins has nine touchdowns and 8 interceptions. He has now started 16
games in his career — what amounts to a full season — and has thrown 27 TDs and
27 INTs with a record of 5-11. Haven’t we seen enough already? And even if he was
good, he is a free agent next year and Griffin is under contract. It just organizationally
makes no sense to be wasting your time with a guy you know — or should know —
is not your answer for the future. Meanwhile, the one person most representing
happy times for the Washington Professional Football Team the last eight years,
is riding the pine. All of this awfulness is before we get into the whole owner
is a terrible person stubbornly hanging onto to a racist team name thing. Very
unpleasant.
Even the city’s soccer team DC United manages to keep the
heartbreak theme alive. They were the top seed in the MLS Eastern Conference
last season, but were immediately eliminated after they lost to their hated
rivals the New York Red Bulls on aggregate 2-3 — 0-2 in Game 1 at NY, 2-1 in
Game 2 in DC. I was at Game 2 in RFK Stadium. The United won the game,
but lost on aggregate. I have never been so confused or bummed at my team
winning a game. We were sitting right in front of the Red Bull cheering section
and that was the highlight of the day with their creative sing-songy chants.
They reimagined London Bridge to say that RFK is falling down and burned DC by
calling it a “suburb of Baltimore.” Love that. This season that fate seems to
be repeating itself. They made the playoffs once again only to lose Game 1 of
the Conference Semifinals at the hands of those damn Red Bulls — this time 0-1
in DC. They will attempt to stay alive in Leg 2 in Red Bull Arena on Sunday at
3 p.m. on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.
Based on all I’ve just said, I wonder how that’ll turn out…
It’s not only the pro teams, lest we forget about perennial March
Madness chokers Georgetown. Last season, the Hoyas lost in the NCAA Tournament
Round of 32 in a relative upset to Utah, failing to reach the Sweet Sixteen for
the eighth straight season — something the once proud basketball power has done
11 times. But hey, at least they ended their streak of being upset by a double-digit seed every year…? This season Georgetown — who
has had a 7-Seed on better in the Big Dance for eight of the last ten seasons —
enters the year unranked. If they don’t even make the dance, how can they choke
it away? This is insanity.
Now that we’re spotlighting the collegiate ranks, it’s time
to turn to our Virginian neighbors, so that we do no trivialize their pain, but
instead lump it in with our own. The Virginia Cavaliers have suddenly become an ACC power
in basketball under Head Coach Tony Bennett. They have won the ACC and 30 games both of the
last two seasons and entered the tournament with a #1 and #2 seed respectively.
So where’s the grief? They were upset in the Sweet Sixteen by 4-Seed Michigan
State last year, and earlier this year it got even worse when they were upset in
the Round of 32 by Michigan State AGAIN, who was a lowly 7-Seed this time
around. Does this region really need a new group of chokers to join the ranks?
In the offseason, they lost two starters, Justin Anderson and Darion Atkins, to
the NBA. They look to be competitive again this year, but what will it really
mean come March?
Cavaliers’ football is 3-5 this year and headed to
their fourth straight losing season. The low point was likely a 42-point home
loss to an unranked Boise State team in a nationally televised Friday night
game. Virginia Tech isn’t exactly bringing much elation either. The Hokies’ basketball
team has finished dead last in the ACC three straight seasons. The football team
joined the ACC in 2004, and won the conference four of their first seven years.
The last three seasons has seen them stuck in mediocrity with 5-and-6-loss
teams. This year, the bottom seems to have fallen out. They are 4-5 and and
five days ago, Head Coach Frank Beamer — who has led the Hokies since 1987 —
announced that he will retire at the end of this season. Times in the
commonwealth look rather bleak all around.
This brings us to Maryland Terrapins football, perhaps the
biggest embarrassment out of any team in the area. They currently sit at 2-6
and have fired their coach Randy Edsall. The short-lived Edsall era was quite
rough. I knew it was a bad start when Edsall came in and
started yelling at kids for wearing hats indoors. Never a good sign. Edsall
took over after UMD alum Ralph Friedgen coached the Terps to a 9-4 record, a
31-point victory in a bowl game and was named ACC Coach of the Year. But yeah,
they just decided to kick him to the curb. The heartbroken Friedgen would later say that he burned his diploma. In Edsall’s four years before this one, the Terps never had a
winning conference record, never went better than 7-6 and were beat down in the
two lowly bowl games they made. Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out,
Randy.
Their coaching search has a lot of UMD fans buzzing with hopes of landing a number of big name candidates. I have a feeling whoever is ultimately hired will underwhelm many, just as the Edsall hire did. But hey, it can’t get any worse. I’m a Towson alum, so let's include the Tigers in this bashing of local clubs. The football team made the NCAA Division 1-AA National Championship Game in 2013, but then went 4-8 last season. They’re looking a little better at 5-3 this year, but still will struggle to make the playoffs. After the Towson basketball program had back-to-back second places finishes in the Colonial — a conference that has sent both George Mason and VCU to the Final Four in the last 10 years — they went 12-20 last season and don’t look much better going forward.
Their coaching search has a lot of UMD fans buzzing with hopes of landing a number of big name candidates. I have a feeling whoever is ultimately hired will underwhelm many, just as the Edsall hire did. But hey, it can’t get any worse. I’m a Towson alum, so let's include the Tigers in this bashing of local clubs. The football team made the NCAA Division 1-AA National Championship Game in 2013, but then went 4-8 last season. They’re looking a little better at 5-3 this year, but still will struggle to make the playoffs. After the Towson basketball program had back-to-back second places finishes in the Colonial — a conference that has sent both George Mason and VCU to the Final Four in the last 10 years — they went 12-20 last season and don’t look much better going forward.
Luckily for those of you who haven’t jumped off a cliff yet,
I have saved the best for last. There is one shining beacon of hope, the
Maryland Terrapins basketball team. The Mark Turgeon era had started pretty poorly, with
the team finishing seventh or worst in the ACC each year. Last year saw a
breakthrough though. The Terps won 28 games, finished second in their first year
in the Big Ten and made the tournament for the first time in five years. The
hope does not stem from how that season concluded. They were given a 4-Seed for
the Big Dance and fans complained because they were slated to face unbeaten
Kentucky in a potential Sweet Sixteen matchup. Well, it didn’t matter anyway. The
Terps barely got by 13-Seed Valparaiso in their first game and lost by 10 to
West Virginia in the Round of 32. West Virginia then lost 79-39 to Kentucky, for what it’s worth. So
there’s that.
The optimism comes from the Terps being ranked #3 in the country heading into this basketball season — their highest ranking since their national championship season in 2001-02. They return maybe their two best players from last season, who both passed on the the option to turn pro, and bring in two highly-touted transfers and a five-star freshman recruit. ESPN even has UMD as the #1 team in their power rankings to start the season. When does that season tip-off? November 13 in College Park vs. Mount St. Mary’s — exactly six months to the day from the epic dual collapse of the Wizards and Capitals. So after this half a year of misery for local sports fans — for just about every team imaginable — we will get to start with hopefully a clean slate come the 13th. Terps hoops, we’re counting on. Don’t let us down. Because if you couldn’t tell, we really need something to cheer about.
The optimism comes from the Terps being ranked #3 in the country heading into this basketball season — their highest ranking since their national championship season in 2001-02. They return maybe their two best players from last season, who both passed on the the option to turn pro, and bring in two highly-touted transfers and a five-star freshman recruit. ESPN even has UMD as the #1 team in their power rankings to start the season. When does that season tip-off? November 13 in College Park vs. Mount St. Mary’s — exactly six months to the day from the epic dual collapse of the Wizards and Capitals. So after this half a year of misery for local sports fans — for just about every team imaginable — we will get to start with hopefully a clean slate come the 13th. Terps hoops, we’re counting on. Don’t let us down. Because if you couldn’t tell, we really need something to cheer about.
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