Why I Will Not Be Rooting For The Colts In The Superbowl

Every avid sports fan has their own form of sports hate. As ESPN columnist Bill Simmons states, “Sports hate can be triggered by one incident, one slight, one game gone wrong, anything.”

My sports hate involves the Indianapolis Colts, Peyton Manning and his non-funny commercials, Jim Caldwell (whom I have yet to see blink on television), and pretty much everything that involves blue and white horses.

It all started six years ago during a Monday Night Football game on October 3 when my beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a mental lapse and allowed 28 points in the fourth quarter and lost  the game to the Indianapolis Colts. It has since been stated as one of the best comebacks ever. That night I could have beaten Peyton Manning with a golf club. Now I know what Elin Nordegren felt like.

As a sports fan I think it’s a necessity to have that player, or a team, you can’t stand. So when they fail in the clutch you can gain some enjoyment in something other than just your own teams victory. Bad thing is, in this football season my team only won three times and the Colts only lost twice. It was not a fun year in the NFL for me.

With this amount of dedication towards disliking the Colts, you can only imagine how upset I was this weekend when the Colts defeated the New York Jets in a blowout victory. Before the game kicked off, and for the first half, I had on my only green shirt to represent my Jets fanhood (which hadn’t kicked in until they played the Colts).
I had high hopes early in the game. When Braylon Edwards hauled in that 80 yard bomb from Mark Sanchez, you would’ve thought I had been riding in taxi’s all my life. Then when the Colts scored the touchdown before halftime I knew it was over. I felt like a kid who had just lost his dog. The team I despise has made the Superbowl, and there was nothing I could do.

I would rather the Colts not be in the Superbowl right now, but I have to find the silver lining in things. They haven’t won it yet. I don’t have to watch any of the Colts in the Pro Bowl game this Sunday. Plus, if they lose in the Superbowl then it will be the ultimate form of choking in the post-season.

When’s a better time to lose then in the Superbowl when the entire country is watching? Sure it may not be the ideal situation for a Colts hater as myself. I’d rather them go 0-16 every year, but that’s just wishful thinking. I’ve had to become accustom to the Colts making the playoffs every year.

It’s hard to be a Colts hater, especially in Indiana, when they are winning. When they lose though, (which I’ll admit isn’t a lot) it’s very pleasing. If they lose a regular season game, it’s not as much fun to make fun of your friends. When they lose in the Superbowl, it allows the room to say, “Haha, I told you they sucked!” and for it to sting when you say it.

In the end, I like to think of my relationship to the Colts like the relationship between Joker and Batman in The Dark Knight.  At the end of the movie as the Joker is hanging upside down and laughing hysterically, he mentions how Batman won’t kill him and he can’t kill Batman because he’s “just too much fun.” He adds on to say, “I think you and I are destined to do this forever.”

It’s a similar situation because although I will never (ever) cheer for the Colts, I couldn’t imagine my life without them. It’s just too much fun to root against them. I have some sick need in myself to gain enjoyment from their sufferings. I would not, however, call it a love-hate relationship. It’s just a hateful one. Geaux Saints!