Maybe It’s Us

Our nephew Jake has played hockey since he could walk on skates. He spends an enormous amount of time at the rink practicing and playing games. This year his team made it to his league’s championship game. The league, made up of teams from the all across northern Illinois down to Central Illinois, played for months to end up in the Chicago Wolves Cup championship games. It was a tough battle, ending when the other team scored in overtime. Jake went home with a second place trophy. Our car was barely out of the rink parking lot when the blond twin said, “Mom, I think it’s us. We’re the reason Jake lost.” She went out to detail all the times we’ve gone to games and the team we cheered for lost. We went to the Illini basketball game and the team lost. We went to Josh’s football game and they lost. We went to several Chicago Wolves games and the team lost. She made a compelling case for her statement. I thought about her theory. I’ve been in the stand to watch the Illini football team play two Rose Bowls and one Sugar Bowl. We lost all three games. I do remember going to Chicago Bulls games when the team won. I remember fireworks at the end of Chicago White Sox games. The team only does that when they win, so we didn’t seem to bring them bad luck. I know the Blackhawks lost the last game we attended, but I don’t remember the scores for earlier games. She might have something though, so maybe we need to rethink our strategy. Instead of cheering for our family member, we’ll sit with the “other” team and cheer for them. If we’re going to bring a team back luck, we should use it wisely.