By Justin Muszynski
Spontaneity is why the world of sports will never grow tiresome. It simply cannot be duplicated.
When one watches sports they do it with the pretense that they’re going to see something they have never seen before and that they could very well be witnessing history in the making. Should you turn your head for a moment you could fail to see an incredible hole-in-one or a field goal miss wide-right that changes the course of the game.
The unscripted nature of sports is what makes what the Indianapolis Colts are doing so extraordinary. No matter how great a film is it can never escape the fact that it is fiction. Even if it is based on real-life events, chances are it has been sensationalized to the point that it’s barely the truth anymore.
Before the season began the Colts chose not to re-sign arguably the greatest quarterback of all time in Peyton Manning to pursue the development of their fresh faced rookie Andrew Luck. This sort of move is nothing new. It happened to greats such as Joe Montana and Brett Favre and will continue to do so as long as the NFL is a profitable business.
But what’s different about the Colts’ situation is that they unloaded several key players in addition to Manning to clear cap-space for the hopes of being able to sign stars in the future. Despite this, they have gotten off to a great start of the season going 6-3. At the beginning of the season, many predicted that the Colts would do no better than 6-10. While this is still a possibility, it’s highly unlikely given the level that they have been playing at.
The most amazing feat to this story, however, is what is motivating the Colts. Earlier in the season, Chuck Pagano, the head coach, was diagnosed with leukemia. Multiple players have attributed the team’s success to their inspiration from his battle with cancer. To show their support for Pagano, numerous players shaved their heads. The team has seemed to find extra incentive week after week through Pagano’s story.
As it stands right now, the Colts are in wildcard playoff position, which is pretty good for a team that wasn’t supposed to even go 500. Imagine what a deep playoff run would do; that kind of a story would take “win just one for the Gipper” to a whole new level.
In this day and age of reality shows entertainment is so far from the truth, which is ironic. But sports bring some truth to a world that is mostly made up of phony forms of amusement. You simply can’t root against a team like the Colts given that they are playing for a coach battling cancer. You also can’t script stuff like this. If you do, it becomes much less effective than the real thing.
We watch sports for the unexpected events that will soon transpire and the Colts’ 2012 season thus far has been a perfect illustration of this.
You don’t get that genuineness in Hollywood.