EY's Rants and Raves

To the Ravens, especially Ray Lewis, I apologize. To the Ravens fans, I apologize. For all those waiting for New England to trip up, I apologize. Last and certainly not least, I apologize to Don Shula and the 1972 Dolphins.

Why all the concern? If you're reading this blog, you probably know that I am a tremendously superstitious sports fan. I wasn't home most of last night, so twice, I checked the score of the game from my phone. Both times, the Ravens were ahead. Not drastically ahead, not blowing the Pats out, but ahead. On the way home, I turned to a local sports station that airs Fox Sports at night. They were essentially doing live play by play. I got greedy and wanted to listen in. In the 2 minutes (real time, not clock time) that I listened, the Pats went from 4th and 1 to 4th and 6 to 1st down and during that run, Baltimore's coaching staff called a timeout, stopping the clock, which could only work in New England's favor (BAL still ahead at this point). I never should have turned to that station. The first down play saw Tom Brady run for 12 yards. Tom Brady has rushed 24 times this year, some for negative yards. He's not a statue in the pocket, but he's not a running threat, either.

So I did turn it, but by this time, the damage was done. New England scored a touchdown a few seconds later. When I got home, I figured the game would be over, so I turned to ESPN to check the score. Another mistake. With seconds left, Kyle Boller launches a nice pass. Mark Clayton catches it. Where on Earth were his TEAMMATES?!??! He was covered up in Patriots, all of whom were in on the tackle to prevent him from making the 2 yards to the end zone.

Yes, Gentle Reader, I do realize that none of this was directly impacted by my watching or not watching, listening or not listening. However, sometimes, it certainly doesn't seem that way.