Category: Nationals

This is not going to be a positive post. I will not look for any silver linings or say it was a good run. Washington D.C. sports has broken my spirit yet again. TWO game 7 losses in less than a week. If you ever doubted we are cursed as a city or that this blog/podcast was a joke, I assure it’s not. The better teams did not win their respective series. The Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards lost and I have no words of encouragement for anyone.

The Washington Wizards, who literally just lost game 7 in Boston, apparently did know that a bench presence or defense was going to be needed. Letting a 7ft pony tail wearing Kelly Olynyk take over the 4th quarter makes no sense. How Morris or Gortat couldn’t figure out their rotations or what to do boggles the mind. Isiah Thomas is trash. It was proven tonight. The lack of defense that allows consecutive three pointers from KELLY EFFING OLYNYK is not proof of the curse, it’s the definition of it.   John Wall going cold in a game 7 in the second half is the definition of the curse. The bench being outscored by again…KELLY EFFING OLYNYK is the definition of the curse. This team started the season with a trash defense and ended their season the same way.

Then you have the Caps. God I hate the Capitals. Easily the most disappointing franchise in Washington DC. Yes, that includes the Redskins. To have the best regular season record two years in a row and to lose to a lower seed team has become the norm. I don’t want to hear about how Ovechkin is the best scorer in all of hockey. He forgets it come important playoff games. When the season is on the line. Guess what, the Capitals forget how to play defense too. The window of opportunity is closing for this team. Maybe next year, if we suck during the regular season just enough, we can excel in the playoffs. (That was Sarcasm…it’ll never happen)

So where does that leave us? Where does that leave our City? Exactly where all of us subconsciously knew we’d be. Depressed. Thankfully we have the Nationals…with the second best record in the MLB. Sound familiar? It should. All that means is we’ll find a way to end the year with the best record and get disappointed in October. That disappointment will probably happen the same week that the Redskins find a way to lose a divisional matchup to a subpar team. It’s the DC way.

Like I said, this post isn’t going to find silver lining. I’ve thrown in the towel. Maybe the Redskins can restore a little faith in our city by locking up Kirk Cousins to a long term deal before the deadline in July. (Again, that was sarcasm.). Good night DC fans. We’ll open up a support group in October and December when the other two teams let us down.

Until then, screw the D.C. curse….and Kelly effing Olynyk.

Defeating the Curse. It’s the name of this humble little site. It’s also a hope and dream to us here. Constant texts and discussions about the moves made, the games played, and the money spent regarding all four of Washington D.C’s major sports teams. To anyone that may stumble across our site, the title either makes perfect sense, or they’ll question what the hell we mean. Before we can DEFEAT the curse, we must first DEFINE it. Seems simple enough doesn’t it? Sure…until you take a look at the past few seasons. Doesn’t matter the sport, the curse applies to every team.

Listen to any sports radio show after any loss here in DC and you’ll hear the same underlining theme: “We’re cursed. We’ll never be a successful franchise. We need to fire the coaching staff and start all over! What the hell were they thinking!?”This happens literally after every. single. loss. Why can’t the fans here in DC handle a loss? Well it’s kind of complicated. The past few seasons helped open everyone’s eyes to the curse.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about Washington D.C. The city where 2 of the 4 major sports teams, the Capitals and Nationals, are CONSTANTLY at the top of the win column each and every season for the past 3-5 years. Two “successful” franchises that have no problems winning. Getting into the playoffs is never the concern. Hell, getting past the first round is barely a concern. The Nationals are one of the best teams in the MLB for the past 3 seasons. The Capitals are usually ranked in the top 10 for the past decade. As of last season and this season, we’re ranked number 1.

The curse part? Well let’s start with the Caps. In the last 9 seasons, we’ve missed the playoffs once. Worse than that? We’ve lost in the second round 5 times. Including last year, when we were also ranked number 1 for the regular season. The Nationals last year won the N.L East only to choke and lose the NLDS. Sounds like 2014…oh and 2012. Cursed. The horrific part, are these are two of the more successful teams! The ones that generate national headlines and actually fill the seats with loyal and passionate fans week in and week out! Which isn’t that easy considering the play approximately 948 million games a season.

Next let’s take a look at the Washington Wizards. A team that nobody knows how’ll they do until its already happening. Including the players. This season started off horribly. Games were unwatchable. As loyal as we are at this site, it was getting harder and harder to sit through some of those games. Then, somehow, we decided to not suck. The bench began to help out and our defense became pretty damn legit. It was probably a Christmas miracle. Especially when you consider that since December 1st we’ve been one of the best teams in the NBA. Better than the defending champs might I add. We’re stringing along home wins and now road wins. Want to know how the curse plays into all of this? As I’m typing this article, I’m worried and convinced that I am simultaneously jinxing our team. Going back to the 2013-2014 season, the Wizards won the first round of playoffs only to lose conference semifinals. It’s only natural for me to feel like all the success is too good to be true.

Finally comes the Washington Redskins. The definition of cursed. From 1999 when Snyder bought the team, we’ve went through coaches and staff and players like a kids at a candy store. Spending money and bringing in the ones that looked the most appetizing. The Gibbs 2.0 era worked for a little bit. Until he retired to go race cars or something (Cursed.) Replaced with Jim Zorn. Curse. Then we bring in a nice, appetizing, “successful” coach; Mr. Crab himself, Mike Shanahan. From there the curse would have a field day. Albert Haynesworth, Donovan McNabb, RG3, the list goes on.

Then you take a look at the competition. The Giants somehow go from having a trash defense last year, to a great one this year. The Eagles go from the Chip Kelly debacle, only to turn it around in less than 2 years with a franchise QB and competent head coach. Our only saving grace was that the Cowboys were going to keep Tony Romo behind center and give us all a fighting chance. Until the curse decided to injure him, and have an out of nowhere QB come in and not suck (thanks to a rookie NFL leading rushing RB). All this and I haven’t even gone into our current roster, its issues and how the curse made Aaron Rodgers realize he was good at being a QB until the second quarter of our playoff game last year.

So what is the curse? It’s simply that Washington DC, in all 4 of the major sports, has the ability to be great, but finds a way to choke when it’s all on the line. We are on the cusp of having no championships to easily attaining 4. Each time is able to turn that page and become truly great. Dynasty mode. It may just be because I’m a homer and think our teams are the best. If you were to realistically take a look at where each of the franchises are, you’ll see that they are all trending up. Right now we’re riding the Caps and Wizards to hopefully break the curse and bring home a trophy.

#DCRising