Good Teams Gone Bad

    Have you ever been a fan of a team that historically has been dominant but now sucks so much it hurts to watch? Lately, this has been my life. It’s like a virus that keeps spreading to each one of my favorite sports teams. If you think I’m crazy keep reading, I swear this is real. 

    As I am sitting here writing this, behind my computer are a bunch of red and blue blobs moving quickly around the screen. Chelsea F.C. versus Liverpool F.C.; a game for the ages. Well, at least it used to be. Historically Chelsea Football Club, a Premier League soccer team, has dominated the soccer world. Eight FA Cup titles, five League Cup titles, two Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League titles, a FIFA Club World Cup title and countless others. In the 2009-10 season, they won their first and only “double:” a Premier League title and the Football Association Cup title. They became the fourth club in history to win a “Erupean Trebel” which consists of winning three major league titles in one season. I know to everyone who isn’t a soccer fan all of this means nothing. But to someone who has spent their entire life dedicated to this game and a good part of their life to this team, it means everything. In the last two years, you would've thought players and managers were being paid to mess up this badly it’s almost unbelievable. Even with some of the world's top players, they still cannot find a way to win or even crack into the top 10 in the league. $1.15 billion later and I continue to sit and wonder why and how. How has a team that dominated for so long found itself in such a shitty position in the table? The club hasn’t been this far down in the ranks since it joined the league back in 1993. I don’t know what but something needs to be done because no “big six” team should be this hard to watch.  

Next is the black and yellow men of steel and no I’m not talking about the Columbus Crew. The Pittsburgh Steelers have a reputation for playing “brutal” football with historic defensive lines adopting names such as “The Steel Curtain” back in the 70s and “Blitzburgh” in the 80s. Yet now, despite T.J. Watt, the only reputation the defense has is not doing their job. Please someone tell me how a six-time Super Bowl winning team has barely made it out of conference play the last 14 seasons. The Steelers haven’t been to a Super Bowl since losing it in 2010. For reference, 2010 was the year the first iPad was released. Some blame the downfall on the quarterback or lack thereof. Others blame the coaching as head coach Mike Tomlin has been with the team for going on 17 years. Personally, I blame Tom Brady. I know you’re probably thinking “What does Tom Brady have to do with the Pittsburgh Steelers?” Nothing, I know. I just don’t like him. In all seriousness, however, I think the Steelers’ biggest issue is just the fact that they’ve been known as this unstoppable force in the past so that automatically means that’s who they are now. No one is actually working for it anymore and no one is being held responsible. I don’t know as much about football as I do soccer but I do know one thing: the Steelers better figure this shit out because I’m tired of watching them lose and T.J. Watt and the city of Pittsburgh deserve better.  

    My last team is going to be kind of controversial. I have bled scarlet and gray since the day I was born. Some of my earliest memories are with my dad watching the Buckeyes play. However, the once-dominant Ohio State Buckeyes need to take a long hard look in the mirror. Gone are the days of beating up on Michigan and not even giving Penn State a single thought. The Bosa Era is over. Braxton Miller left. Even Urban Meyer is long gone. At the beginning of every season, I think “This is it. Fresh start. Our year.” But by the end, I can’t even bring myself to watch the games. Every year I’m left disappointed yet every year I keep coming back. And it’s not just me either. This program has the Football Bowl Subdivision wrapped around its fingers too. FBS commentators rank the team in the top five every August just for them to finish in the bottom half of the rankings in November. I’m not saying Ryan Day is a bad coach or that our players are terrible because they’re not, in fact, they’re some of the top players in the country. All I’m saying is that it’s weird how such a strong, unbeatable force like the Ohio State University all of a sudden hits a wall. What happened to the legendary 2014 squad that defied all odds to beat big bad Alabama and win the national title? Or the program that held Michigan to almost a decade-long losing streak? I’ll never abandon my Columbus roots, never not hate Michigan, never not say “O-H-I-O” but hopefully someday soon I’ll be able to do all of that with a convincing winning record and another national title. 

I started writing this post at the beginning of the Chelsea-Liverpool game. Now 90+ minutes and a lot of screaming later I am again left disappointed and embarrassed. The final score: Liverpool 4, Chelsea 1. Ouch. But unfortunately, that's the life I live nowadays. Do you believe me now? This is all real, every legendary team has now become a complete joke. I flinch with every ESPN update that comes through my phone. I can’t even look at my BeReal comments section as it is just filled with banter from other Premier League followers. I hope that someday I’ll be able to live in a world where Chelsea is a top-of-the-table team once again and the Steelers don’t need to rely on other teams losses in order to secure a wild card spot. Maybe someday I’ll even be able to watch OSU games again without stressing the entire time. I don’t know when that might be but for now, all I know is that at the end of the day, I can always count on the Columbus Blue Jackets to lose!