Everybody loves it when the “old school” teams make it all the way to the finals of any given sport. Even fans who hate those teams like it.
When it’s the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers battling in the Super Bowl as they are this year, hey that is old school teams, so fans respond big time. Even if they aren’t a Cheesehead or a supporter of The Iron Curtain, fans generally like to see more traditional teams in the big dance.
So I expect once I get to Dallas for the Super Bowl on the weekend, the fans of those great traditional teams will be out in force. And while the Super Bowl is always a great event, having teams like that make it that much better for most fans.
With all due respect to the Carolina Panthers, they don’t have the history or the tradition that teams like the Packers and Steelers have. It’s just the way it is – and most fans would have to agree with that.
So Toronto sports fans, don’t get too worked up when you hear the same thing said from other NBA fans about the Toronto Raptors, or other Major League Baseball fans about the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Raptors are not the Los Angeles Lakers or the Boston Celtics in the same way the Panthers aren’t the Packers or Steelers. The Blue Jays aren’t the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers in the same way as well.
When you put it like that to some Raptors or Blue Jay fans, they get really annoyed. They don’t think their teams are respected, they think the treatment is unfair on the TV sports highlight shows, they see themselves as being treated as second class compared to the “old school” teams.
But really, it’s just the same situation as the Carolina Panthers face in the NFL. The Super Bowl is always great, but Steelers/Packers beats the hell out of Panthers/Buccaneers. The NBA Finals are always great, but the Celtics/Lakers is always more of an event than the Orlando Magic/New Orleans Hornets would be. The World Series is a lot more enticing when it’s the Yankees/Dodgers than the Florida Marlins against the Tampa Bay Rays match-up would be, admit it (outside of Florida of course; but come to think of it even their fans seem to like the Yankees and Dodgers better judging by their attendance!)
It is what it is. And life for the Blue Jays and Raptors will always be to play second fiddle to the old school teams…and I’ll be seeing two great old school teams in Dallas on Sunday. No doubt most casual fans feel the same way about the game I do – it just seems better that way.
I’ll send along my thoughts from Dallas throughout the weekend here to latenightvampuire.com. Thanks for supporting my great friend Norm Rumack’s website and I’ll be contributing on a more regular basis in the coming months.
Starting this weekend from an “old school” Super Bowl – and really, there is no school quite like the old school, is there?