DFW, the City of Other Peoples Champion

Sunday, May 29, 2011

For the nation's 5th largest media market, nothing is worse than seeing other teams win world championships in your own backyard and watching the home team always walk into their locker room a loser.
 
The good folks in Dallas-Ft. Worth have never celebrated a title on home turf. 
 
The Dallas Cowboys have won five Super Bowls.  The Cowboys hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans (twice), Pasadena (CA), Atlanta, and Phoenix.
 
In 1999, the NHL Dallas Stars captured the Stanley Cup in Buffalo, New York.
 
The nightmares started in the boiling hot summer of 2000 as I watched the New Jersey Devils skate around with the Stanley Cup at Reunion Arena in Dallas as they beat the Stars in six games.
 
The summer of 2006, North Texans witnessed in horror as the Miami Heat overcame a 0-2 hole to defeat the Dallas Mavericks.  NBA Commissioner David Stern handed the MVP trophy to a 24-year old Dwyane Wade at a podium set up at center court of the American Airlines Center in Dallas as a dejected Dirk Nowitzki was kicking the air as he left the confetti filled floor in Game 6 knowing his team choked away the title.
 
Four long years passed as the Metroplex's big four pro sports wandered in the desert searching for a ring.
 
The Texas Rangers moved to Arlington in 1972 and in the fall of October 2010 they finally won the American League championship and were the odds on favorites to win the World Series over the light hitting, but power pitching San Francisco Giants.  The Texas bats went silent too long and the Giants won the fall classic in five games as closer Brian Wilson was dog-piled at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
 
FC Dallas is not one of the big four pro sports, but three weeks after the Rangers lost the World Series, a desperate North Texas fan base jumped on the soccer bandwagon only to see FC Dallas lose the MLS Cup in overtime on the road in Toronto to the Colorado Rapids.  In 2005 and 2006 Frisco's Pizza Hut Park hosted the MLS Cup championship and the locals got to witness Los Angeles and Houston raise the trophy in the Lone Star State.
 
DFW is a football town.  The Cowboys are the top dog, arriving in 1960 as the first of the big four pro sports teams in the market.
 
No two NFL clubs have taken more championships away from America's Team than the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers.
 
Of course those two teams would play in Super Bowl XL at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, February 6, 2011.  Green Bay would win the game behind quarterback Aaron Rodgers MVP performance which was every bit as good as the 45-7 whipping his Packers delivered the Cowboys during the regular season which led Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to fire his head coach Wade Phillips the next day.
 
So four months later, the Mavericks now find themselves back in the 2011 NBA Finals.  Guess who they get to play?  Miami.
 
The rematch five years later now includes LeBron James and former Dallas Lincoln star Chris Bosh teaming up with Wade to form "Three Kings".  This time the Mavericks are not favored by the oddsmakers to win.
 
The possible series clinching games four and five will be in Dallas at the AAC.  The fans just can't take another team partying on Texas soil in championship hats and t-shirts again.  Especially the Heat.
 
Game one is Tuesday night in Miami, Florida.
 

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