Raiders ruin week

By Josh Griffin

I hate the Oakland Raiders. There is no sense denying this. So when they destroyed my favorite team - the Denver Broncos - Monday night, I could not have been more enraged.

By the conclusion of the game, my mind was filled with the questions that women have been asking their respective significant others since the inception of the sport. Why must I be so violently upset? Why am I so inclined to throw small to medium sized objects? Why has my week been ruined?

While these questions may appear to come from the mind of the emotionally damaged, I do believe I have found the answer to some of these questions:

- Watching your team lose is like a bad day at work, only magnified tenfold. This is strong enough to ruin the coming week. It is often made worse by the following.

- In all likelihood, the confident sports fan has been talking trash for a minimum of one week leading up to the game. Facing those who took the brunt of your talk after your team loses is hands down one of the 10 worst experiences in the world.

- If the fan feels they know what their team is doing wrong, and it becomes increasingly obvious to said fan throughout the game, circumstances only get worse.

- Throwing objects, while not clinically recommended, is a perfectly acceptable means of coping with defeat.

- Failure is the result more often than success in sports, and often at all the wrong times. Just within the last week, Cubs managerial candidate Dusty Baker was accused of tax evasion, Notre Dame narrowly escaped defeat against Navy, the Bears squandered a 21-point third quarter lead and the Broncos were destroyed.

I can envision only one scenario, however, that could make matters worse: to stop following sports all together.