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This I never got. By now, most, if not all of us, are familiar with the Pottsville Curse. For those unfamiliar, in 1925, the then Chicago Cardinals were awarded the NFL championship despite the fact that the Pottsville Maroons not only beat the Cards that year but finished with a better record(10-2 as opposed to a 9-2-1 record). Reason being is that the Maroons played an unauthorized game against Notre Dame All Stars in Philadelphia and the league claimed it violated the territorial right of the Frankford Yellow Jackets(who are now the Eagles). The league suspended the team essentially handing the Cards the title(there were no playoffs then). Pottsville protested but to no avail and to this day the Cards are still recognized as champs even though, allegedly, they pulled some dirty tactics like hiring high school players to play for the opposition. Also, the original Cards owner didn't himself recognize the championship but when the Bidwill family took over, they did. They've been urged to turn the title over to the city of Pottsville but to this day the Bidwill family refuses. The league, too, have reviewed the case on several occasions, the last being in 2003 but decided to let sleeping dogs lie. Now, this is where the term curse gets murky.
When you say curse, it usually means an unbroken period of futility for an extended amount of time. 2 of the more famous "curses" have been the Curse of the Bambino pertaining to the Boston Red Sox and the Curse of the Billy Goat pertaining to the Chicago Cubs. Both curses have since been broken in 2004 and 2016 respectively(the Red Sox have gone on to win 2 more titles since). And closer to home for me is the Curse of Billy Penn meaning that no Philadelphia team would win a championship after the city broke it's rule that no building shall be built higher than the statue of William Penn on top of city hall. That curse ran from 1983, the last championship to 2008 when it was finally broken by the Phillies. However, although you can count on 1 finger the number of championships the Cards have won since 1925, they still won one 22 years after 1925 and nearly repeated it the next season so I ask, how is this considered a curse?
Also, in order to give credence to a sports curse, something unforeseen or some strange happenstance or something that's a real headscratcher needs to happen in order to give the curse some juice and while we can point to strange happenings when talking about the Red Sox and Cubs, the Cards futility is more due to mismanagement and a skinflint owner than bad luck. I mean, the Sox can point to the meltdown at Shea in 1986 or the Boston Massacre followed by the Bucky "I hit 1 homer a decade" Dent hitting a home run in the 1 game playoff in 1978 or the Cubs with the black cat or the Bartman incident but what do the Cards have to point to to claim we're cursed?
When you say curse, it usually means an unbroken period of futility for an extended amount of time. 2 of the more famous "curses" have been the Curse of the Bambino pertaining to the Boston Red Sox and the Curse of the Billy Goat pertaining to the Chicago Cubs. Both curses have since been broken in 2004 and 2016 respectively(the Red Sox have gone on to win 2 more titles since). And closer to home for me is the Curse of Billy Penn meaning that no Philadelphia team would win a championship after the city broke it's rule that no building shall be built higher than the statue of William Penn on top of city hall. That curse ran from 1983, the last championship to 2008 when it was finally broken by the Phillies. However, although you can count on 1 finger the number of championships the Cards have won since 1925, they still won one 22 years after 1925 and nearly repeated it the next season so I ask, how is this considered a curse?
Also, in order to give credence to a sports curse, something unforeseen or some strange happenstance or something that's a real headscratcher needs to happen in order to give the curse some juice and while we can point to strange happenings when talking about the Red Sox and Cubs, the Cards futility is more due to mismanagement and a skinflint owner than bad luck. I mean, the Sox can point to the meltdown at Shea in 1986 or the Boston Massacre followed by the Bucky "I hit 1 homer a decade" Dent hitting a home run in the 1 game playoff in 1978 or the Cubs with the black cat or the Bartman incident but what do the Cards have to point to to claim we're cursed?
