What a difference a day can make. Or, with the beginning of football season, I should say, what a difference a week can make.
Just look at me and that collarbone injury I refuse to stop harping on, in that column I refuse to stop writing, if you want proof. One day I’m claiming that my doctor specifically told me “absolutely no lifting of any kind” when asked to help carry a bunch of boxes to the Coastal Point booth at the Boardwalk Arts Festival, and the next day I’m telling one of my buddies that “Well, the doc said to start ‘weaning out’ of my sling, so I think what he really means is ‘of course you can go surfing, as long as you try to only use one arm to paddle.’”
While I’m certainly paying for my terrible decision to heed made-up advice by way of an excruciating soreness in shoulder muscles that haven’t been used in over two months, and karma caught up to me when an undetected summer rainstorm and freak tornados washed out our booth during my shift at the Arts Festival, football fans can certainly learn something from those repercussions by not making a terrible decision of their own: panicking after Week 1.
You see it every year. All of the expectations. All of the speculation. That No. 1 draft pick that’s supposed to single-handedly turn the team around. That overpaid free-agent signing that’s sure to solve all those problems on defense. That new “offensive mastermind” coach, with all of his new “offensive mastermind” plays.
But then, after a quick Week 1 loss, after that No. 1 draft pick threw three interceptions, that overpaid free agent didn’t seem to be trying quite as hard after signing that $80 million check, and that offensive mastermind’s plays looked an awful like the one Adam Sandler drew up in the final scene of the movie “The Waterboy,” the sky begins to fall.
They all do it. Ravens fans. Steelers fans. And especially Redskins fans — 0-1 becomes “Oh, my god, our season is over.”
And this season is no different, with all those NFL teams, and even some of our local teams, including Indian River, taking an “L” in the season-opener. But that doesn’t mean that it’s time to hit the panic button just yet — just like a sore shoulder doesn’t mean that I should schedule an appointment with Dr. Spinuzza for another $2,500 MRI just yet, either.
Because in the sports world — but maybe not so much in the orthopedic-surgery world — a lot can change in just one week. And a whole lot can change during the course of a season.
A quote from one of the greatest linebackers the NFL has ever seen/one of the absolute worst commentators the NFL has ever seen comes to mind when considering the subject. In an inspirational speech in which he continually imposed his own religious beliefs on an unsuspecting group of listeners one too many times, Ray Lewis said in his most intense theatrical Ray Lewis voice: “Every day is a new day. Every moment is a new moment. I’m a different creature now than I was five minutes ago.”
While Joe Flacco has admitted to not knowing what the heck Ray was talking about “90 percent of the time,” in speeches like that one, I can appreciate what he was saying up until about his fifth reference to his personal lord and savior — and I hope that fans worried about an 0-1 start to the season can, too.
To paraphrase, what the Rev. Lewis was most likely insinuating is that, in football, every week is a new beginning, a new chance to face a new team on a new day. And, like every new day, any number of new things can happen.
Just because last week Titans rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota started his NFL career with four touchdowns and a win, and Bucs’ rookie quarterback Jameis Winston started his NFL career with a pick-six and a loss, doesn’t mean that the tables won’t turn the next time they face each other.
Just because the Indians lost their first game 49-6 doesn’t mean they won’t win their next game 49-6.
And just because Ray Lewis sounds like a nonsensical religion-obsessed idiot on an ESPN pre-game show one week doesn’t mean that he won’t sound perfectly sane and analytical the next week… Although, that last example has yet to happen.
So when it comes to Week 1, whether your team won, lost, tied or accepted Jesus Christ as their own personal lord and savior, just remember: Anything can happen when we get to Week 2.