Thursday, January 11, 2007
Minnesota Sports....echhh...
I was excited to move to a new city and get a fresh set of sports teams. Although I will always loyally cheer for the Twinkies, Vikes, T-wolves, gophers and the Wild, I have to say that Minnesota teams have a nack for choking and letting people down. The twins this year were actually a fabulous suprise, and although they got trounced in the playoffs, I maintain that they did better than they should have. The Vikings have become one of the most depressing teams in football. We had that incredible season where we went 15-1 and that song "welcome to Miami" was written practically just for us, and then Gary Anderson( who had never missed one) missed that field goal in OT ....why?? The Timberwolves have the NBA's best player in KG yet we can never find him any kind of support or another go-to that can work with him. Ever since Stephon Marbury left us we have been jinxed, and Kevin is just not Allen-Iverson-enough to do it on his own. My question is--what is it that makes teams choke? How much of sports actually is physical and how much has to do with our "minnesota-nice" teams not being able to toughen up and get the win? I know this sounds bitter but I am more just genuinely curious....how can one state be so good at choking?
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I'm glad to see that "choking" is an international term. You're right, it's a completely fascinating phenomenon. I suppose, if you had to define it, it's the opposite of the amazing victory from a behind position - what I've seen described as "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory".
I've seen "chokes" that are also what are described as "blinks": where there is extremely high pressure focused on a very small space of action and it's about "who blinks first". But I've also seen "chokes" that are maybe more like what you describe, where there's an inability to "close" from a winning position due to what almost seems like an inability to identify with success. The English recently had a horrible loss to Australia in a cricket series and it definitely almost seemed that abject pain and humiliation was simply a more comfortable position for them to be in...
Why is it called choking I wonder?
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