By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com
Celebration and sorrow. It’s the way of life for devoted sports fans. And with the NFL Playoffs taking place through Super Bowl LVIII, there is plenty of both for fans of winners and losers.
The biggest winners are fans of the Houston Texans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions. Yes, Detroit. The biggest losers are fans of the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
The Texans and Bucs fans are partying because the “we believe” cheers actually turned into reality. And it wasn’t even close. Houston whipped Cleveland – which seemed to be surging with Joe Flacco at quarterback – 45-14. It was a like a college football powerhouse playing an FCS team.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers throttled the supposed Super Bowl champion, according to some “experts” earlier in the season, Eagles 32-9. That game was over by the first quarter.
The Lions held off the LA Rams 24-23 to win thier first playoff game in 32 years.
Those fans are popping champane bottles. Doing shots along with high-fives in sports bars.
On the other side of the spectrum are the fans of the losing teams. They are also drinking, but to drown their sorrows. It is particularly painful for Cowboys and Eagles fans, both of whom had high expectations for the season only to see thier teams get thumped from start to finish.
For the Cowboys, it’s “same as usual” because having a good regular-season record and then losing in the playoffs has become as much of a tradition as the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Except they are a lot more difficult to watch.
Philadelphia, well, the Eagles collapsed like the ’64 Phillies. After starting the season 10-1 and seeming to be unstoppable with no weaknesses, they lost seven of their last eight games, including to the horrible Phoenix Cardinals and New York Giants to end the regular season. Against Tampa Bay, it’s as if they knew they didn’t stand a chance to win. They had nothing.
So as a fan, what do you do then? Well it’s easy. You live by the PubClub.com cheer, which is “Win Or Lose, We Booze!”