Happy Days

"I don't think that I'm complaining
Sometimes it keeps on raining
Oh but dont be frightened by thunder and lightning
The sun comes out and the flowers grow
And you find you're already on the road
To be happy"
--To Be Happy, Sara Evans

So this girl I'm hanging out with happens to be A) a Denver Broncos fan (she grew up in Colorado) and B) a Kentucky Wildcats basketball fan (her entire family is from Kentucky; two of her aunts have missed maybe five games in 30 years), two facts which, in and of themselves, would be no big deal, right? But with whom did my Chargers have a huge first-place showdown Sunday evening? And whom did my Bruins battle in the Maui Invitational semifinals last night? So these (not so) casual rooting interests became immediate sources of conflict in this brand-new relationship, but definitely a good kind of conflict (I would categorize violence as among the bad kind). Nice that I got two wins out of the deal, too, because I don't know what I would have done in the role of the sore loser--I'm much better at being the magnanimous winner, so that made it easy.
Anyways, this week got me thinking about how fortunate I am as a fan these days. So many of my friends and co-workers have teams they care deeply for and yet never have anything to be happy about, once their respective seasons are about two weeks old and their teams' playoff hopes have dwindled to zero. I've got a pretty darn good thing going right now: UCLA basketball is coming off a national championship game appearance, looks like they'll be at least as good this year, and could win the Maui Invitational tonight. The football team isn't great, but they won a bowl game last year, and with a respectable display against SC next weekend, should get a chance to duplicate that feat again this December. The Chargers currently sit upon almost every set of NFL power rankings you can find, and they're alone in first place in the tough AFC West (well, three out of four's not bad, right?). I have the pleasure of watching the best player in the NFL (and probably the best running back since Barry Sanders) score four touchdowns a week like it was mandatory, and watch the rise of one of the league's better QB's (though I admit I was VERY sorry to see Drew Brees go--how about him throwing for 510 in a loss the other day?!). Sure, our best defensive player did steroids, but when he comes back (CLEAN), the dude is just plain dominating, and almost more fun to watch than LT. Enough about the Chargers (though the very idea that anyone could ever say enough about the Bolts is an absurd one), how about the Padres? Two division titles in a row for the first time in franchise history? The best closer of all time not named Mariano Rivera? One of the coolest ballparks in America? Not too shabby. The Lakers made the playoffs last year, improbably, and were within one defensive rebound of upsetting the eventual conference finalist Suns. They're back and better this year, winning the battle of L.A. last night and now sitting alone in first place in the Pacific Division (I had to check that in a couple of different places to make sure I wasn't misreading the numbers. Sure enough, 8-3, first place, wow). We've got at least the second-best player in the world (I'd still like to think he's the best, but dang, LeBron is something else), Lamar Odom is becoming a strong number two, and Andrew Bynum might be an All-Star by next season. I was much more into the UCLA game last night (Darren Collison and Lorenzo Mata were both outstanding), but it was nice switching over to the pro guys afterward and seeing Kobe come up big down the stretch.
All of this goes to say that I could very easily be following and rooting for bottom-of-the-barrel squads, and I am aware of plenty of folks in this situation. How much would it suck to be a Packers-Brewers-Bucks fan over the last five years (pretty much since Favre became the interception machine)? Or like a Blazers-U. of Oregon fan? Constant disappointment, right? A friend of mine represents the Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors. Sure, he has the Oakland A's to temper the former two's disappointment somewhat, but how brutal is that? In the NFL and NBA seasons, your teams are out of it before they even start.
Of course, I conveniently didn't mention the Los Angeles Kings (bad for several years now) or the LA Galaxy (missed the playoffs this year after winning the MLS Cup last season), but there's more than enough positivity to outweigh anything else that might be going on, and for that I am quite thankful.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend...