Sore???

Are your ankles hurting?? Mine aren't.

I have a knack for backing perennial losing teams. The only difference, is I still back them, through thick and thin.

My favorite team in the N.H.L. is the Vancouver Canucks, who have never won a Stanley Cup, and only been to the Cup final twice since their inception in 1970.

My favorite M.L.B. team is the Chicago Cubs who haven't won a championship in over 100 years, and haven't been to the World Series since the "Curse of the Billy Goat" back in 1945. And let us not forget about that douchebag Steve Bartman.

But the main reason I'm writing this, has to do with my favorite N.F.L. team, the Cincinnati Bengals. They've only been to 2 Superbowls since their inception in 1968, and still don't have the ring.

This year however, all be it early in the season, the Bengals are creating a different atmosphere in Paul Brown Stadium. Gone is the laughing stock team of the NFL, where cast-away's go to finish their career, and individual lockers in the dressing room might as well have prison bars around them.

This years team is 3-1, and would be 4-0 if not for a miraculous last second fluke play by the Denver Broncos, but those are the breaks. They've knocked off the Green Bay Packers, Cleveland Browns and the defending Superbowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. For a team that many predicted to be fighting with Cleveland to stay out of the AFC North basement, the "Bungles" may be the biggest surprise in the league along with the Broncos.

NFL.com senior writer Steve Wyche, has written a great article on this years team.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8133ab1b&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

With one of the better quarterbacks in the league in Carson Palmer, a faster, looser-jawed re-focused Chad Ochocinco (The Ocho) and a renewed commitment to defence, the Bengals are a resilient bunch that are proving they should not be taken lightly.


Who knows, maybe this is the year one of my teams breaks through for a championship....or maybe it isn't.

Either way, I can proudly say, at the end of the season, my ankles will be as strong as ever.