For the NFL, it’s technically still 2016, a great year for big underdogs but not so great for pundits, pollsters, common wisdom and all sorts of “that can’t really happen” stuff.
First, in what was termed the “biggest upset in sports history”, 5,000-1 longshot Leicester City won the English Premier League (that other boring, penalty-marred football) championship. One month later, Great Britain kicked common wisdom in the shins by “Brexiting” the European Union.
In November, Lourdes-like regenerative powers from a brief Cleveland rain shower quenched the Chicago Cubs’ 108-year-long title quest – but the untimely weather barely raised pressures in Believeland ever since the hometown hero LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers became the first team to overcome a 3-1 NBA Finals deficit (and 40-1 odds) to deliver four generations of Northeast Ohioans from the longest, most-tortured sports curse in history.