Mama don't let your babies grow up to be Bills (or Mets) fans

Sports shouldn’t matter. In the grand scheme of things the ending of a particular game or how one of my favorite teams performs shouldn’t affect me. I mean, I’m not the one getting paid. My future isn’t riding on this outcome. Hell, the chances that the result of a particular game changes my activities for the day is relatively small.

When I was little, I would rise and fall with every game. Every Mets and Bills game seemed so incredibly important. A win would equal euphoria. A loss would mean heartbreak.

As I’ve gotten older, I have been able to gain perspective. Every game doesn’t matter. Sure, I still get wrapped up in the occasional big game against a certain New England rival or a particularly big series with the team from the City of Brotherly Love, but I’ve been able to grow enough where it doesn’t seem like a matter of life and death. Sports are a form of entertainment. They are there for enjoyment and shouldn’t be taken so seriously that they become the focal point of somebody’s life.

This is a lesson my parents helped me come to realize. I remember being 12 or so and the Mets were on a long losing streak on the West Coast. This losing streak caused me so much stress that it was literally keeping me up at night. My mom and dad sat me down and basically told me I need to grow up. That it’s just a game. That I need to understand that there are way more important things in life. I remember that conversation and I use the lesson I learned that day when thinking about all aspects of my life.

(I wrote that section above mainly so you don’t think I’m a crazy person. Please remember it while reading the rest of this piece.)

This is a lesson that I will hopefully be able to teach my own children someday. This lesson will go hand in hand with another pearl of wisdom that I will pass along; DO NOT EVER BECOME A FAN OF THE NEW YORK METS OR THE BUFFALO BILLS.

See, while all of what I wrote above is true, this stuff still impacts my life. I still want my teams to do well and win. I want to be the envy of all my friends. This is something that I hope my children will one day experience. The joy of rooting for a winner; a feeling their father will seemingly never know.

This summer has been brutal for yours truly. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong when it comes to the Buffalo Bills and New York Metropolitans. And the worst part is that it’s just business as usual for the two New York teams.

Not much was expected of the Mets this season. We were going through another rebuilding year. I swear to god I feel like the Mets could’ve rebuilt every building in New York City considering the amount of years I’ve been told they were rebuilding. 

But there were some bright spots heading into this campaign. David Wright signed a new long-term contract in the off season becoming the true face of the franchise and starting pitcher Matt Harvey was coming off a promising rookie season and would hopefully take another step forward. You will notice that neither player is currently playing the game of baseball.

Wright was in the midst of an MVP-type season until he injured his hamstring earlier this month and has yet to return to the field. Look, losing a star player would affect every team in Major League Baseball but this one hurt the Mets more than most mainly because Wright was THE ONLY COMPETENT HITTER THEY HAD IN THE LINEUP. With Wright out, I’m not even sure you could call what the Mets were throwing out there a Triple-A lineup. I understand the need to rebuild but we couldn’t find professional hitters to round out the lineup?

Harvey on the other hand took more than one step forward this year. He took about five. Harvey became everything Mets fans wanted him to be. He evolved into the most dominant young starting pitcher the Mets have had since Dwight Gooden toed the rubber in Flushing. Must see TV for every Mets fan when he took the mound every fifth day. However this would not last. News broke earlier this week that Harvey has a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament. Harvey will not take the mound the rest of this year and chances are that he will have to undergo Tommy John surgery which will keep him out until 2015. 2015. Looks like the Mets will be rebuilding again next season.

It would be much easier for me to shake off this disastrous Mets season if my favorite NFL team had any hope of being good this season. But since I cheer for the Bills, I can be sure this will not be the case. Things began promisingly enough for the Bills this summer. First round Quarterback E.J. Manuel played very well in his first two preseason games and it seemed like the team would have a real quarterback under center for the first time since Doug Flutie. The defense also looked good and seemed to be improving.

But again, fate would have the last laugh at my expense. Soon after completing his second pre-season game, Manuel would need to have a small procedure done on his knee that leaves him doubtful for the first game of the season. Kevin Kolb, the team’s backup QB, would go on to suffer a concussion in the  third pre-season game and it appears his career is over. Undrafted rookie Jeff Tuel come on down buddy, you are the week one starting quarterback for the Buffalo Bills! If he does indeed start week one Tuel will become the first undrafted rookie to start a week one game in the modern era. Yup, that’s ever folks. The first one ever. God help me.

Not only that, but the defense may have lost its best player. Cornerback Stephon Gilmore had a solid rookie season and was on the verge of becoming a lockdown corner in a league that doesn’t have many. But alas, Gilmore broke his wrist and will now be out the first 6-8 weeks of the year. Add to that the fact that all-pro safety Jairus Byrd doesn’t want to be there and the defense appears to be on rock solid footing. Sarcasm people.

So our starting quarterback week one is a guy no one ever heard of and our best corner is out for the first quarter of the season. The Bills also welcome Tom Brady and the Patriots to the Ralph in the opening week of the season. The Bills will get killed in this game. Seriously, they can’t make this line high enough. Another great start to an NFL season from the boys from Buffalo.

The situations that the Bills and Mets find themselves in would be comical if it wasn’t so expected. Fans of both of these teams have been down these roads too many times to count. In the early 1990’s the Bills were the dominant team in the AFC and made the Super Bowl four consecutive years but lost them all. The Bills haven’t been to the playoffs since 1999, when this happened, and are now the holder of the longest playoff drought currently in the NFL.

Meanwhile the Mets lost game seven of the 2006 NLCS to the Cardinals in one of the most excruciating ways possible. The Mets decided to follow that performance up with back-to-back collapses that made them the punch line of Major League Baseball. They haven’t been back to the playoffs since 2006 and their majority owner has since been embroiled in a Ponzi scheme which has cost the team millions.

Up above I mentioned that sports are meant for enjoyment. Rooting for the Mets and the Bills is not something I would say is enjoyable. Most of the time it’s awful. Actually it’s been so heartbreaking over the years that I’ve become numb. When Harvey went down with his injury I can’t say I was surprised. These things happen to Mets fans. Just like they happen to Bills fans.  Watching the Mets and Bills is like watching the season one finale of The O.C. on loop. Just one stomach punch after the other.

So when my kids begin picking out their favorite teams in baseball and football, I’m going to do all I can to steer them to teams like the St. Louis Cardinals and the Green Bay Packers. I want them to have fun watching sports. Something I know very little about.