The Calgary Flames

I have to admit I have a crush on a hockey team. The Calgary Flames. As a whole. Is that weird? This is getting stupid. I wrote my last piece, signed out, then started reading online information about them and digesting any information I could intake. I'm stalking them. This is getting ridiculous - and fun.

Let me first explain the facts at hand. They're fucking awesome. Nothing pleases me like seeing something, anything, struggle like that franchise as a whole did - and then to turn around and come so, so close to the pinnacle. They just missed, and that, as a whole, is the story and the ensuing chip on the shoulder that this team will be defined by. Will they take that ONE extra step? Take some time in the winter and check it out - what the taste of desire and denial can do to a unit - and think of what it would do to you. I am fueled by a similar equation.

That's one part of it. The other part is it's just so mindlessly fun to be a fan. Sports is an absolute. If your team wins - they are better. Unless they lose, that is, in which case the other team still sucks, anyways. Logic is of no consequence in the world of sports-fannery. The Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers suck and nothing can change that fact. You show me 100 Stanley Cups and you still suck. Why? Because I like the Calgary Flames. I'd take a Steve Begin and three Rick Tabaracci's before I'd consider a Wayne Gretzky. Trevor Linden has scabies, Chris Pronger is washed up and all the while Daryl Sutter makes Einstein look like a man who was kicked in the head by mules.

And there'e the way they won. Not on %100 talent (although that'll change this year) but on grit, heart, and wanting it more that anything and anyone else, except Tampa Bay, I guess, who - although they really suck, too - cheated.

All aside, there a great allegory for life. Come close, take the time you need, then zero in, because nobody's gonna stop you if you don't stop yourself. Yep - I love the Calgary Flames, and I oh, so hope they invite me to the dance