Moving on.....

Sports and relationships....not only is this what I mostly write about, the two actually share a lot in common.

The key difference is, every year in sports you start over. It's basically starting a brand new relationship each year.

In the beginning, when becoming a fan, you always look for a team that'll bring you joy in watching them perform every week. You cheer them on hoping every year is the one. The one to bring you to the promised land. Some seasons start undefeated (no arguments) and the anticipation builds. However, you'll receive commentary from friends, sportswriters, whoever, that'll jinx the season, by mentioning how great everything is going. It's a well known rule during a no-hitter, you don't discuss the no-hitter. The same rule should apply for relationships. When it's going well, don't bring up how great it is.

If you and your team's performance is consistent enough, you qualify for the post-season. You can equate this to whatever you'd like, serious relationship, sex, marriage, whatever floats your boat.

With every season/relationship you know there can only be one winner. Sometimes the elimination comes quickly and painless. Many times you can see it coming when you're faced with a tough match-up. Other times it's a huge upset, when no One saw it coming. Those are often times the most difficult to deal with. You question everything that's happened. You're inconsolable. Every highlight you watch reminds you of the potential things had months ago. Most people will throw on some Metallica, get drunk, or find the easiest team to cheer for, to cope with the heartache.

As everyone has learned, you eventually get through it. You look at yourself and your team, make some trades, spend money during the free agency period, and gear up for that next season and relationship. It's a brutal process, but so rewarding when the perfect season comes along.

However, there are those people/teams that just keep going through heartbreak after heartbreak. These are the teams I like to label as providing "stomach-punches". It's akin to your friend who just goes from one abusive relationship to the next. You're quietly thinking, "damn, how much worse can it get?", but somehow it does. You gotta give credit to them b/c they keep enduring it season after season.

Look out there at the examples, the city of Philadelphia had it the worst for the past 20 years, until the Phillies went back-to-back in the World Series. Now, Cleveland and Washington hold that distinctive title. You wanna sit down with them and tell them it'll be ok, but you secretly knew all along how things would turn out.

They were so excited at having a great team. What they didn't realize is their team/relationship lacked overall depth because they couldn't look past the physical appearance.

It happens all the time. My advice is to not base your fan-dom or relationships on appearance. It'll always end badly. Just because your team scores the most points (great looks), they may lacked defense (personality). If you can take anything away from this column, it's that defense wins championships. Just think about that comparison for a second. It's scary how true it is, but you never want to admit it.

If you see a friend cheering for a hopeless team, maybe introduce them to a new one. They'll thank you later when they've celebrated multiple championships.

Feel free to make whatever comparison to championships you'd like....just keep it PG-rated because kids are reading this.