Growing up a Cincinnati Bengals fan, I have always been one to cling to hope. It is a necessity for anyone foolish enough to cheer for a team that is winless in its last seven trips to the playoffs and holds the longest active playoff win drought in the NFL – I see you Detroit Lions fans, one year behind us, and I feel your pain. Because of this foolish hope, I often look to history to see that our season is not yet, in fact, over. I look to the 1992 Chargers who began the season 0-4 yet still managed to make it to the playoffs as a glimmer of hope that a slow start to the season does not always end in misery. Knowing this about my NFL fandom, it was only natural that when my Tijuana Luchadores lost week one, my first reaction was to look at the history of our league to encourage myself that the season is not yet, in fact, over.
So I went into a bit of a deep dive, cataloging the DSFL Ultimini winners and losers as well as the NSFL Ultimini winners and losers to see how their respective seasons began. For each team, I logged their initial winning or losing streak. For example, if a team won week one but lost week two, their initial streak was (1-0); if a team lost weeks one through three but won week four, their initial streak was (0-3). If a tie occurred, I did not count it as the end of a streak – though that only occurred once in this sample. I began with the DSFL, as this is the league in which I am currently playing (seasons one and two do not exist as the DSFL began in season three).
S3 – The Marshalls (2-0) beat the Seawolves (1-0). Final score: 19-3
S4 – The Pythons (2-0) beat the Marshalls (2-0). Final score: 27-14
S5 – The Solar Bears (0-4-1) beat the Pythons (0-2). Final score: 17-13
S6 – The Marshals (3-0) beat the Coyotes (1-0). Final score: 23-13
S7 – The Pythons (5-0) beat the Luchadores (2-0). Final score: 24-17
S8 – The Luchadores (2-0) beat the Coyotes (0-1). Final score: 21-20
S9 – The Luchadores (5-0) beat the Pythons (0-1). Final score: 30-24
S10 – The Luchadores (0-2) beat the Pythons (3-0). Final score: 37-7
S11 – The Pythons (5-0) beat the Luchadores (0-3). Final score: 13-6
S12 – The Coyotes (0-1) beat the Marshals (1-0). Final score: 37-7
S13 – The Luchadores (0-1) beat the Coyotes (0-1). Final score: 30-27
S14 – The Pythons (1-0) beat the Luchadores (0-1). Final score: 34-20
S15 – The Solar Bears (1-0) beat the Pythons (2-0). Final score: 17-13
S16 – The Luchadores (5-0) beat the Pythons (4-0). Final score: 28-14
S17 – The Luchadores (1-0) beat the Pythons (4-0). Final score: 17-16
S18 – The Pythons (0-1) beat the Marshals (0-1). Final score: 23-10
S19 – The Grey Ducks (2-0) beat the Luchadores (4-0). Final score: 16-13
S20 – The Grey Ducks (2-0) beat the Buccaneers (3-0). Final score: 28-13
S21 – The Buccaneers (2-0) beat the Coyotes (0-1). Final score: 27-10
S22 – The Luchadores (0-2) beat the Royals (3-0). Final score: 10-6
Ultimini winners – 14-6 week one (70%)
Ultimini losers – 12-8 week one (60%)
Ultimini participants – 26-14 week one (65%)
At a glance, there are a couple of things that immediately stood out to me. First, no DSFL team that participated in the Ultimini has ever started a season better than 5-0. The competition in this league is too raw and is also very evenly spread out most years, as the best players are constantly taken away from their teams in the NSFL draft and the majority of players are in their first or second season, unable to rise above the 250 TPE cap and break away from the pack significantly. Therefore the odds of a team running away with a season are significantly lower and long winning streaks are very uncommon in the DSFL. Second, shoutout to the Season 5 Solar Bears who started the season 0-4-1 and went on to WIN the Ultimini. This, my friends, is our 1992 Chargers, the team we can look to when the season begins poorly and say to ourselves that the season is not yet, in fact, over.
But let’s get to why we’re here. The historical winning percentage on week one for Ultimini winners is 70% with only 6 of the winners having lost on week one. However, that’s still a 30% historical chance that a team that starts 0-1 or worse will win it all each season. Quite honestly, those are not bad odds at all! The chance of winning your conference after losing week one is even higher, as 60% of teams historically representing the losing conference in the Ultimini lost week one. Overall, the historical odds of winning your conference, despite losing week one, is still a solid 35% in the DSFL.
If your week one did not go as planned, there is no need to look any further than the defending DSFL champion Tijuana Luchadores, who started the season 0-2 yet went on to beat the Royals (and their much hotter 3-0 start to the season) in the Ultimini. So Luchadores, Pythons, Royals, and Grey Ducks, there is no reason to panic just yet! 0-1 is most certainly not a death sentence in the DSFL – see the champions above of Seasons 5, 10, 12, 13, 18, and 22 – you can still do it! In fact, even if next week does not go as planned, the 0-2 Luchadores of seasons 10 and 22 can give you some advice. And, heaven forbid the season starts really badly – try and find someone from the season 5 dream team of the Solar Bears who defied all logic and turned an 0-4-1 start into an Ultimini Championship. In this admittedly limited sample, there is much hope for teams of the DSFL that although a hot start would certainly be preferred, a slow one is not damning. But I still certainly wish we had won week 1!
Looking into these trends for the DSFL made me wonder how they play out in the NSFL, so I decided to explore these trends as well. I similarly took the Ultimus participants and found out the initial streak to their season to see how this correlation played out in the “big league.”
S1 – The Outlaws (1-0) beat the Yeti (3-0) 29-6
S2 – The Outlaws (3-0) beat the Hawks (0-1) 33-6
S3 – The Outlaws (11-0) beat the Hawks (6-0) 49-12
S4 – The Otters (0-2) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 30-23
S5 – The Otters (0-1) beat the Wraiths (3-0) 26-15
S6 – The Otters (6-0) beat the Liberty (1-0) 23-17
S7 – The Liberty (5-0) beat the Otters (0-1) 28-19
S8 – The Wraiths (6-0) beat the Second Line (0-1) 24-13
S9 – The Second Line (6-0) beat the Hawks (3-0) 37-24
S10 – The Hawks (6-0) beat the Second Line (1-0) 29-23
S11 – The Second Line (2-0) beat the Hawks (5-0) 42-36
S12 – The Otters (3-0) beat the Hawks (2-0) 48-24
S13 – The Otters (1-0) beat the Yeti (0-1) 24-21
S14 – The SaberCats (3-0) beat the Liberty (5-0) 36-24
S15 – The Hawks (1-0) beat the SaberCats (4-0) 49-0
EXPANSION
S16 – The Outlaws (0-1) beat the Liberty (1-0) 34-30
S17 – The Otters (0-1) beat the Hawks (0-1) 28-17
S18 – The Otters (2-0) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 16-10
S19 – The Otters (7-0) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 30-27
S20 – The Copperheads (1-0) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 37-20
S21 – The Second Line (9-0) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 33-13
EXPANSION
S22 – The Yeti (5-0) beat the Otters (3-0) 25-24
Ultimus Winners – 18-4 (82%)
Ultimus Losers – 12-10 (55%)
Ultimus Participants – 30-14 (68%)
The NSFL, as I expected, is much less forgiving to early season woes. In the NSFL, the elite are truly elite, with star players topping 1000 TPE and flying all over the field, making it very clear when the opposition is not up to the challenge. In this league with no TPE caps and much larger teams that are able to be developed over time – there is no draft snatching away the crème de la crop, they simply get better and better. For this reason, we see several dynasties in the NSFL – The season 1-3 Outlaws, season 4-6 Otters, season 9-12 Hawks, season 17-19 Otters and even the season 18-present Wraiths, who have won a remarkable number of conference championships, though they haven’t been able to win it all in that stretch. These teams show the highest of highs available in the NSFL that peak for multiple seasons rather than the development that must occur throughout each season in the DSFL to be competitive at the end of the year.
This elite potential is also seen in some of the crazy streaks that have been accomplished in the NSFL to begin seasons: Season 3 saw the Otters start 11-0, overshadowing the impressive 6-0 start for the Hawks; season 6 began a streak of 5 straight years where the Ultimus champion began the season either 5-0 or 6-0; the last two champions also had impressive streaks – season 21 champion Second Line started the year 9-0 and the reigning champion Yeti had a 5-0 start. However, these last two serve largely as outliers in a post expansion league.
Starting in season 16, after adding two additional teams to the NSFL, the league’s champions have had markedly slower starts to the year, as well as less dominant overall records. 8 of the 10 teams following this expansion who played in the Ultimus started the season 1-1, a direct contrast to the elite dominance of dynasties in the pre-expansion NSFL. Introducing two new teams gave an opportunity for greater competition and more entertaining seasons, most recently giving us first time champions in two of the last three seasons in the Copperheads and the Yeti. While the Butchers, Sailfish, and Hahalua work for their own opportunities to join the list of Ultimus champions, the league they find themselves in now is much more conducive to their being able to bring home the banner for their cities.
The other remarkable statistic I found in pulling the NSFL’s history is how quickly a team can go underwater. Since the conception of the league, only one team has EVER made the Ultimus after going 0-2, and that was all the way back in season 4 when the Otters became the only 0-2 team to go on to participate in the Ultimus, which of course they also won. So while you may be able to rally and make the playoffs after an 0-2 start, in the NSFL it is all but a death sentence to your Ultimus chances, as your odds of competing for the championship is already a bleak 2.3%. 0-3? History says you might as well hang up your cleats.
While the historical likelihood of making or winning the Ultimus after losing week one has gotten better as of late, the overall odds are still much more staggering in the NSFL. Only four teams have ever one the Ultimus after losing week one – a mere 18%. It seems that the early season favorites almost always remain the late season favorites in the NSFL. However, plenty of teams have made the Ultimus after losing week one, as 45% of Ultimus losers have been teams that lost week one, but so many of these teams have run into a buzz saw in the Ultimus – typically one of the aforementioned dynasties that have marked the NSFL. It is certainly encouraging to see competition spread out more evenly in the NSFL, but it still remains a week one loss still remains a staggering obstacle to an Ultimus championship.
In writing this piece, my focus has been on the historical likelihood of certain events taking place, and the deep dive into the history of our leagues and champions has been extremely informative for me. Yet even as I typed the above analysis of the bleak prospects for teams, particularly in the NSFL, who have a slow start, the Cincinnati Bengals fan in me once more began to emerge. When you read this article, your team may be sitting at 0-3 – heck, mine could be as well! – yet I can assure you that if my team is 0-3, I will find a statistic or story or historical example that proves that the season is not yet, in fact, over. That, my friends, is the beauty of sports.
In my 24 years, I have seen the 10-6 New York Giants who barely even made the playoffs take down the 18-0 behemoth New England Patriots in the super bowl with a helmet catch to top it off and knock off the assumed champs. I’ve seen the UConn women’s basketball team win 111 – ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN basketball games in a row, during which they only won 3 games by less than 10 points. I have seen the Boston Red Sox end an 86 year World Series curse and the Chicago Cubs break their 108 year World Series drought in a wild seven game series. I’ve seen Kobe Bryant win his final game by dropping 60 points against the Utah Jazz in a remarkable comeback victory to send off a legend. I’ve seen Tiger Woods end an 11 year victory drought to win the 2019 Masters after dozens of surgeries and completely changing his game.
These are just a handful of moments that I can pick out from my lifetime where the impossible happened. History was made. A season, or player, or franchise that was labeled as done proved that they weren’t even close to done yet. An event that was previously deemed impossible was proved to be possible by the right player or team. It’s not every day that an event like this takes place. It’s not every player who is capable of being a part of history being made. And, let’s be honest, it takes a splash of luck here and there to win the Masters by a single stroke over three other competitors or for any of the above accomplishments to be pulled off. These are the same traits it requires to dig out of that 0-1, 0-2, heck, even 0-4-1 start in today’s NSFL or DSFL. Grit. Determination. Focus. Luck. And a whole lot of ignoring what other people tell you is or is not possible.
I titled this piece “Does Week One Really Matter?” and when looking at the statistics above, from a historical point of view week one matters quite a bit – particularly in the NSFL where late season comebacks have been few and far between. If you choose to focus on this aspect of the game alone, you will be tempted to stop watching your team play, to stop strategizing for how to take down the next opponent, and simply tank for a better spot in next year’s draft. Yet to do this is to take away from what makes sports so incredible. To do this is to stop watching the Yeti when they were down 21-3 in the Ultimus just this last season only to be informed that the second half was absolutely unbelievable. To do this is to turn off the super bowl when Tom Brady’s Patriots trailed the Falcons by a margin never before overcome in the super bowl only to wake up the next morning to headlines of Brady’s next and best super bowl championship. To do this is to stop watching the NBA finals when Lebron’s Cavs were down 3-1 to the best regular season team in history, only to miss some of the greatest finals performances ever seen as Lebron and the Cavs ended another decades long championship drought for the city of Cleveland.
If you want to give up on your season after a few weeks, you’re welcome to. It will leave room for the teams that want to make history. If you want to make history; buckle up. Historical achievements are not handed out to anybody who wants them. They are taken by those who work like crazy, dig in their heels, and have a couple of breaks fall their way. They are taken by teams and players who analyze every last detail of what is happening for what reason and who find the key to a breakthrough. They are taken by those who have the “it” factor and who will never be forgotten. So does week one really matter? Sure it does. But what matters more is how you react to it. See you in week two.
So I went into a bit of a deep dive, cataloging the DSFL Ultimini winners and losers as well as the NSFL Ultimini winners and losers to see how their respective seasons began. For each team, I logged their initial winning or losing streak. For example, if a team won week one but lost week two, their initial streak was (1-0); if a team lost weeks one through three but won week four, their initial streak was (0-3). If a tie occurred, I did not count it as the end of a streak – though that only occurred once in this sample. I began with the DSFL, as this is the league in which I am currently playing (seasons one and two do not exist as the DSFL began in season three).
S3 – The Marshalls (2-0) beat the Seawolves (1-0). Final score: 19-3
S4 – The Pythons (2-0) beat the Marshalls (2-0). Final score: 27-14
S5 – The Solar Bears (0-4-1) beat the Pythons (0-2). Final score: 17-13
S6 – The Marshals (3-0) beat the Coyotes (1-0). Final score: 23-13
S7 – The Pythons (5-0) beat the Luchadores (2-0). Final score: 24-17
S8 – The Luchadores (2-0) beat the Coyotes (0-1). Final score: 21-20
S9 – The Luchadores (5-0) beat the Pythons (0-1). Final score: 30-24
S10 – The Luchadores (0-2) beat the Pythons (3-0). Final score: 37-7
S11 – The Pythons (5-0) beat the Luchadores (0-3). Final score: 13-6
S12 – The Coyotes (0-1) beat the Marshals (1-0). Final score: 37-7
S13 – The Luchadores (0-1) beat the Coyotes (0-1). Final score: 30-27
S14 – The Pythons (1-0) beat the Luchadores (0-1). Final score: 34-20
S15 – The Solar Bears (1-0) beat the Pythons (2-0). Final score: 17-13
S16 – The Luchadores (5-0) beat the Pythons (4-0). Final score: 28-14
S17 – The Luchadores (1-0) beat the Pythons (4-0). Final score: 17-16
S18 – The Pythons (0-1) beat the Marshals (0-1). Final score: 23-10
S19 – The Grey Ducks (2-0) beat the Luchadores (4-0). Final score: 16-13
S20 – The Grey Ducks (2-0) beat the Buccaneers (3-0). Final score: 28-13
S21 – The Buccaneers (2-0) beat the Coyotes (0-1). Final score: 27-10
S22 – The Luchadores (0-2) beat the Royals (3-0). Final score: 10-6
Ultimini winners – 14-6 week one (70%)
Ultimini losers – 12-8 week one (60%)
Ultimini participants – 26-14 week one (65%)
At a glance, there are a couple of things that immediately stood out to me. First, no DSFL team that participated in the Ultimini has ever started a season better than 5-0. The competition in this league is too raw and is also very evenly spread out most years, as the best players are constantly taken away from their teams in the NSFL draft and the majority of players are in their first or second season, unable to rise above the 250 TPE cap and break away from the pack significantly. Therefore the odds of a team running away with a season are significantly lower and long winning streaks are very uncommon in the DSFL. Second, shoutout to the Season 5 Solar Bears who started the season 0-4-1 and went on to WIN the Ultimini. This, my friends, is our 1992 Chargers, the team we can look to when the season begins poorly and say to ourselves that the season is not yet, in fact, over.
But let’s get to why we’re here. The historical winning percentage on week one for Ultimini winners is 70% with only 6 of the winners having lost on week one. However, that’s still a 30% historical chance that a team that starts 0-1 or worse will win it all each season. Quite honestly, those are not bad odds at all! The chance of winning your conference after losing week one is even higher, as 60% of teams historically representing the losing conference in the Ultimini lost week one. Overall, the historical odds of winning your conference, despite losing week one, is still a solid 35% in the DSFL.
If your week one did not go as planned, there is no need to look any further than the defending DSFL champion Tijuana Luchadores, who started the season 0-2 yet went on to beat the Royals (and their much hotter 3-0 start to the season) in the Ultimini. So Luchadores, Pythons, Royals, and Grey Ducks, there is no reason to panic just yet! 0-1 is most certainly not a death sentence in the DSFL – see the champions above of Seasons 5, 10, 12, 13, 18, and 22 – you can still do it! In fact, even if next week does not go as planned, the 0-2 Luchadores of seasons 10 and 22 can give you some advice. And, heaven forbid the season starts really badly – try and find someone from the season 5 dream team of the Solar Bears who defied all logic and turned an 0-4-1 start into an Ultimini Championship. In this admittedly limited sample, there is much hope for teams of the DSFL that although a hot start would certainly be preferred, a slow one is not damning. But I still certainly wish we had won week 1!
Looking into these trends for the DSFL made me wonder how they play out in the NSFL, so I decided to explore these trends as well. I similarly took the Ultimus participants and found out the initial streak to their season to see how this correlation played out in the “big league.”
S1 – The Outlaws (1-0) beat the Yeti (3-0) 29-6
S2 – The Outlaws (3-0) beat the Hawks (0-1) 33-6
S3 – The Outlaws (11-0) beat the Hawks (6-0) 49-12
S4 – The Otters (0-2) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 30-23
S5 – The Otters (0-1) beat the Wraiths (3-0) 26-15
S6 – The Otters (6-0) beat the Liberty (1-0) 23-17
S7 – The Liberty (5-0) beat the Otters (0-1) 28-19
S8 – The Wraiths (6-0) beat the Second Line (0-1) 24-13
S9 – The Second Line (6-0) beat the Hawks (3-0) 37-24
S10 – The Hawks (6-0) beat the Second Line (1-0) 29-23
S11 – The Second Line (2-0) beat the Hawks (5-0) 42-36
S12 – The Otters (3-0) beat the Hawks (2-0) 48-24
S13 – The Otters (1-0) beat the Yeti (0-1) 24-21
S14 – The SaberCats (3-0) beat the Liberty (5-0) 36-24
S15 – The Hawks (1-0) beat the SaberCats (4-0) 49-0
EXPANSION
S16 – The Outlaws (0-1) beat the Liberty (1-0) 34-30
S17 – The Otters (0-1) beat the Hawks (0-1) 28-17
S18 – The Otters (2-0) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 16-10
S19 – The Otters (7-0) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 30-27
S20 – The Copperheads (1-0) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 37-20
S21 – The Second Line (9-0) beat the Wraiths (0-1) 33-13
EXPANSION
S22 – The Yeti (5-0) beat the Otters (3-0) 25-24
Ultimus Winners – 18-4 (82%)
Ultimus Losers – 12-10 (55%)
Ultimus Participants – 30-14 (68%)
The NSFL, as I expected, is much less forgiving to early season woes. In the NSFL, the elite are truly elite, with star players topping 1000 TPE and flying all over the field, making it very clear when the opposition is not up to the challenge. In this league with no TPE caps and much larger teams that are able to be developed over time – there is no draft snatching away the crème de la crop, they simply get better and better. For this reason, we see several dynasties in the NSFL – The season 1-3 Outlaws, season 4-6 Otters, season 9-12 Hawks, season 17-19 Otters and even the season 18-present Wraiths, who have won a remarkable number of conference championships, though they haven’t been able to win it all in that stretch. These teams show the highest of highs available in the NSFL that peak for multiple seasons rather than the development that must occur throughout each season in the DSFL to be competitive at the end of the year.
This elite potential is also seen in some of the crazy streaks that have been accomplished in the NSFL to begin seasons: Season 3 saw the Otters start 11-0, overshadowing the impressive 6-0 start for the Hawks; season 6 began a streak of 5 straight years where the Ultimus champion began the season either 5-0 or 6-0; the last two champions also had impressive streaks – season 21 champion Second Line started the year 9-0 and the reigning champion Yeti had a 5-0 start. However, these last two serve largely as outliers in a post expansion league.
Starting in season 16, after adding two additional teams to the NSFL, the league’s champions have had markedly slower starts to the year, as well as less dominant overall records. 8 of the 10 teams following this expansion who played in the Ultimus started the season 1-1, a direct contrast to the elite dominance of dynasties in the pre-expansion NSFL. Introducing two new teams gave an opportunity for greater competition and more entertaining seasons, most recently giving us first time champions in two of the last three seasons in the Copperheads and the Yeti. While the Butchers, Sailfish, and Hahalua work for their own opportunities to join the list of Ultimus champions, the league they find themselves in now is much more conducive to their being able to bring home the banner for their cities.
The other remarkable statistic I found in pulling the NSFL’s history is how quickly a team can go underwater. Since the conception of the league, only one team has EVER made the Ultimus after going 0-2, and that was all the way back in season 4 when the Otters became the only 0-2 team to go on to participate in the Ultimus, which of course they also won. So while you may be able to rally and make the playoffs after an 0-2 start, in the NSFL it is all but a death sentence to your Ultimus chances, as your odds of competing for the championship is already a bleak 2.3%. 0-3? History says you might as well hang up your cleats.
While the historical likelihood of making or winning the Ultimus after losing week one has gotten better as of late, the overall odds are still much more staggering in the NSFL. Only four teams have ever one the Ultimus after losing week one – a mere 18%. It seems that the early season favorites almost always remain the late season favorites in the NSFL. However, plenty of teams have made the Ultimus after losing week one, as 45% of Ultimus losers have been teams that lost week one, but so many of these teams have run into a buzz saw in the Ultimus – typically one of the aforementioned dynasties that have marked the NSFL. It is certainly encouraging to see competition spread out more evenly in the NSFL, but it still remains a week one loss still remains a staggering obstacle to an Ultimus championship.
In writing this piece, my focus has been on the historical likelihood of certain events taking place, and the deep dive into the history of our leagues and champions has been extremely informative for me. Yet even as I typed the above analysis of the bleak prospects for teams, particularly in the NSFL, who have a slow start, the Cincinnati Bengals fan in me once more began to emerge. When you read this article, your team may be sitting at 0-3 – heck, mine could be as well! – yet I can assure you that if my team is 0-3, I will find a statistic or story or historical example that proves that the season is not yet, in fact, over. That, my friends, is the beauty of sports.
In my 24 years, I have seen the 10-6 New York Giants who barely even made the playoffs take down the 18-0 behemoth New England Patriots in the super bowl with a helmet catch to top it off and knock off the assumed champs. I’ve seen the UConn women’s basketball team win 111 – ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN basketball games in a row, during which they only won 3 games by less than 10 points. I have seen the Boston Red Sox end an 86 year World Series curse and the Chicago Cubs break their 108 year World Series drought in a wild seven game series. I’ve seen Kobe Bryant win his final game by dropping 60 points against the Utah Jazz in a remarkable comeback victory to send off a legend. I’ve seen Tiger Woods end an 11 year victory drought to win the 2019 Masters after dozens of surgeries and completely changing his game.
These are just a handful of moments that I can pick out from my lifetime where the impossible happened. History was made. A season, or player, or franchise that was labeled as done proved that they weren’t even close to done yet. An event that was previously deemed impossible was proved to be possible by the right player or team. It’s not every day that an event like this takes place. It’s not every player who is capable of being a part of history being made. And, let’s be honest, it takes a splash of luck here and there to win the Masters by a single stroke over three other competitors or for any of the above accomplishments to be pulled off. These are the same traits it requires to dig out of that 0-1, 0-2, heck, even 0-4-1 start in today’s NSFL or DSFL. Grit. Determination. Focus. Luck. And a whole lot of ignoring what other people tell you is or is not possible.
I titled this piece “Does Week One Really Matter?” and when looking at the statistics above, from a historical point of view week one matters quite a bit – particularly in the NSFL where late season comebacks have been few and far between. If you choose to focus on this aspect of the game alone, you will be tempted to stop watching your team play, to stop strategizing for how to take down the next opponent, and simply tank for a better spot in next year’s draft. Yet to do this is to take away from what makes sports so incredible. To do this is to stop watching the Yeti when they were down 21-3 in the Ultimus just this last season only to be informed that the second half was absolutely unbelievable. To do this is to turn off the super bowl when Tom Brady’s Patriots trailed the Falcons by a margin never before overcome in the super bowl only to wake up the next morning to headlines of Brady’s next and best super bowl championship. To do this is to stop watching the NBA finals when Lebron’s Cavs were down 3-1 to the best regular season team in history, only to miss some of the greatest finals performances ever seen as Lebron and the Cavs ended another decades long championship drought for the city of Cleveland.
If you want to give up on your season after a few weeks, you’re welcome to. It will leave room for the teams that want to make history. If you want to make history; buckle up. Historical achievements are not handed out to anybody who wants them. They are taken by those who work like crazy, dig in their heels, and have a couple of breaks fall their way. They are taken by teams and players who analyze every last detail of what is happening for what reason and who find the key to a breakthrough. They are taken by those who have the “it” factor and who will never be forgotten. So does week one really matter? Sure it does. But what matters more is how you react to it. See you in week two.
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