Making it to the finals, and losing

Another crazy magical hypothetical for sports fans. You encounter a whimsical genie who offers you a deal. He will use his magic powers to guarantee that in the upcoming season, your favorite sports team will make it to the finals (World Series, Super Bowl, March Madness finals game whatever), but then lose. He will also erase your memory of having made this deal, both to prevent you from cleaning up in Vegas, but also so that you’ll experience the highs and lows of the season afresh.

Do you accept this deal? Why or why not?

I’m particularly curious about what fans of a famously hard-luck team would say. Would Chicago Cubs fans get enough happiness out of making it to the WS for the first time since 1945 to make up for the sadness that would come from losing the WS?
(Technicality: if your team is currently terrible, he will magically make them good enough to legitimately get to the finals, and they will continue to play at that level in the finals, but come up short… so if they are total cellar-dwellers, they won’t somehow just fluke their way to the finals, then return to their actual non-magically-enhanced form and then get utterly clobbered. Assume for purposes of this hypothetical that the Genie is not going to fuck with you by guaranteeing that the loss in the finals is maximally brutal, or anything of that sort, although of course it might turn out that way.)

I’m a Detroit Lion’s Fan. They’ve never made the Super Bowl. They made the NFC championship game once. They haven’t so much as won a playoff game since 1991.

I’d take that deal without hesitation.

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Losing a championship game/series is always better than not getting there.

No. Playoffs are physically and emotionally draining. No one remembers when you’re runner-up, or they remember shit like when the Seahawks lost the SB on the last play or when the Indians lost the World Series in the goddamn 9th inning. The Tribe was in a *wildcard *game a couple years ago and I remember feeling physically ill.

No, I don’t want to *knowingly *set myself up for that sadness.

This year, yes sure. I’ll take the Indians going to the World series in a heartbeat. I’d take the Browns going to the Super Bowl as well.

While I much prefer baseball, I might even take the Browns going to the Super Bowl as first choice, because they’ve never done so, and there’s no way I can see them doing so in the immediate future, while the Indians actually winning the series is just possible. They have an a-#1 rotation if things work out right, and that can do wonders in the playoffs.

Not all of us are Yankees fans who cry and think they’re season is ruined if they don’t win the World Series at least once every three years.

I’m a Cleveland fan too. I’d definitely go with that for the Browns, but not the Indians or Cavs. The Cavs are already in that boat, and the Indians have a legit shot too.

The Browns however, have almost no chance to even make the playoffs. An 8-8 record would be overachieving. So a losing trip to the Superbowl would be awesome.

Ditto for me. There are only 4 teams never to have made it to the Super Bowl, it would make me feel better if the Lions were off that list.

Came into the thread thinking “Oh fuck no. Why would I want to know my team’s fate heading into the season? I wouldn’t even take that deal if I knew they won the championship, let alone anything else.”

Read the OP, and thought “Ah, he’s accounted for that. Okay, I very well might take that deal, then. It’d be nice to watch a winning season again, and a playoff loss wouldn’t be that crushing.”

Finished up by remembering I root for the Chargers, and we’ve had more than enough of early playoff exits in the last decade. I’d basically be guaranteeing that Mike McCoy didn’t get fired while simultaneously setting myself up for Marlon McCree Part 2. (Normally I’d link that sort of reference, but it’s too painful; just Google it.)

So, no thanks, I’ll take my chances. Given that this has to be McCoy’s make-or-break season — I said that last season, but I have to be right this time, don’t I? — I pretty much win either way.

This Vancouver Canucks fan has seen them go 0 for 3 in the finals - a fourth time might send me over the brink lol.

My favorite national soccer team has never come close to qualifying for a FIFA World Cup. I’d be ecstatic to see them make it all the way to a World Cup final, even if they lost.

Although I am a huge sports fan I am not so attached to any teams that I support that I would be dismayed at them losing a final. However in last year’s NRL Grand Final I was, for sentimental reasons, almost desperate for North Queensland to win and the scenario in the OP would have been dreadful.

All time great rugby league coach Jack Gibson once said that he didn’t think it was a fair deal playing a grand final, if you won it was the best week of your life and if you lost you were haunted by “if only” for the rest of your life.

How competitive is the finals? Does a 7 game series go to 7 games or does my team lose in a 4 game sweep? Do we get blown out in the Super Bowl or lose on a last second field goal? If my team at least appears competitive, I’d be willing to take the deal. If they’re just going to get knocked around, not so much.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t take the deal, since even if my team’s chances of winning the championship are small, I don’t want to set it to zero.

On the other hand, I’m a Clevelander. So, yeah, let’s take the Browns to the big dance.

Oh, and what happens to the team next season? Do they remain magically enhanced, just without the guaranteed outcome, or do they revert to whatever they were before?

No guarantee either way. The game/series is as likely to be close, or as likely to be a blowout, as any world series or super bowl is.

They revert back to their previous form.

I’m a Patriots fan. I think I may have already made that deal once. 16-0 season & lose the SuperBowl. That sucked.

Edit: Born in western New York so I rooted for the Bills to win the SuperBowl four years in a row with no pay-off. I repeat, that sucked.

So it isn’t quite the same as the very similar scenario presented in the famous Broadway musical Damn Yankees.

As a spoiled Boston sports fan, no way do I take that deal. I’d much rather not make the playoffs, invest my emotions (and probably money,) in a team, just for them to lose in the end.

I’m a Pittsburgh hockey and football fan.

I don’t have to make any deals.

My two favorite teams are the Detroit Red Wings and a mid-major college cross country team that I ran on (longer ago than I’d care to admit).

Red Wings: no deal needed. It’s been a while, but they’ll be back on their own merits soon enough.

XC team: hell yeah. They were once a national powerhouse but haven’t qualified to the 31-team NCAA Championships meet since the Watergate break-in.

A winning season for the Cleveland Browns would be an exciting novelty, so yeah, why not?

Both teams in the Super Bowl get the rings, don’t they? I know the players get large bonuses.

Regards,
Shodan