We were great before we started playing teams in our conference.. then in that competition, we were less great.
But our feelings about what is coming (RAH RAH RAH) is whipped up to a fever pitch every season by the Media, and we buy into it!!! Every year. They are to be excused, just slightly, because it's their job to write or talk sports articles, and these days newspaper writers are far more than journalists merely reporting the news without bias one way or the other. Now the teams are lauded when they start the season beating the Little Sisters of the Poor, and we're whipped into a frenzy by these lesser wins... and buy into the predictions, based on these early simple wins (OH, but that team is GOOD, and we beat them so we must be a giant.. yeah.. right).
So when reality sets in, it's not just the disappointment of playing and losing, which is never fun, it's the devastation and agony of the enormous letdown from the elevation where we were led to believe we belonged. And even when it is shown to us that we don't belong up at that elevation, by virtue of a win-loss record that hits us right between the eyes, we STILL don't want to face the reality, admit our vision of what we are, what we were, what we thought we were.. was simply an illusion, and we weren't standing in that white light after all.
I'm tired of buying into it each year. I think I'm going to start approaching it with excitement but a bit more of a show me and THEN I'll believe it. Early season wins.. yeah, fine. But show me where you stand in conference play before trying to get me all whipped into the frenzy of mindless worship. I'm just not going to bite on that Media hook of HYPE next year. Maybe.
