Dynasties in sports are a lot like women. you can’t live with ‘em, and you sure as hell don’t want to go through life without ‘em.

No other aspect of sports creates the conflicting feelings of having a team win championship after championship. When this occurs, we all rally behind every underdog with the hope that they’ll finally knock the immortal kings off the throne. When they’re not around, we complain about the ensuing parity and how it makes the league evenly matched and less interesting.

A lot of these feelings can be chalked up to human nature. It is innate to root for the underdog in a game that doesn’t involve one of your favorite teams. Additionally, everybody simply gets tired of seeing the same teams there year after year.

But, when there are no dynasties, things become unpredictable. and we get frustrated.

Frustrated that we won’t have a clue about who will be playing in the big game. Frustrated that every young or upstart team that wins their unexpected championship seems somewhat illegitimate. not the true champion that is supposed to emerge as the undisputed strongest team.

One of the greatest things about sports is how the past is always glorified. Babe Ruth, Bill Russell, Johnny Unitas. each of these guys approached god-like status simply because of their sports achievements. Likewise, we look back on the dominant teams with similar awe: the Yankees of the 50′s, Russell’s Celtics, Montana and the 49ers, Jordan’s Bulls. without dynasties, a lot of what makes sports so amazing would seem utterly uninteresting.

Today, no league embraces and showcases parity as much as the NFL. A “surprise” team has won the last three Super Bowls, and the forecast for this year is just as murky. Yet, this sport has emerged as the most-watched, most talked-about league of them all. it is now our national pastime.

Can the NFL continue to survive as it gets ever more likely that someday every team will finish 8-8? Right now, the Colts and Titans are deadlocked in a 4-4 record for first place in their division. The Rams are only now recovering from an 0-5 start, when many were expecting at the most three losses for the entire year. If my dismal record in the NFL picks says anything, it is that each team has the ability to win any given matchup each week.

Despite these occurrences, there is too much glitz, glamour, and intrigue that football creates to ever have it tarnished by the lack of a dominant team year-in, year-out. The NFL was fine when the Cowboys and Steelers were in the Super Bowl every year, and it’s fine now when a Baltimore Ravens or New England Patriots are able to put it together for one year only.

The other major sports, however, are not likely to survive without the dynasty any time soon.

Baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis and golf have all been dominated by a select few over the past decade. How many of us became fans of the Anaheim Angels when they had the immortal Yankees on the ropes in this year’s playoffs? How many of us became one with the Rally Monkey? With the end of the Yankee dynasty (it is over, by the way), MLB suddenly has everything it wanted. and everything it feared.

In a sport where teams can spend limitless amounts, any time a mid-market team which is strapped for extra cash wins a title, the baseball brass can only hope that teams who spend unconsciously will wise up and see that it isn’t totally necessary.

Then there’s the fact that this year’s World Series was the lowest rated ever. The last couple of teams that won unexpected titles (Twins and Marlins) went on to become laughing stocks in the following years. In the end, baseball needs a dominant force that everybody loves to hate, yet still always comes out on top. While the Yankees will need to improve to get back to that plateau, they’re still the best candidate out there.

In basketball, you have the Lakers who are favorites to win their fourth straight title. Before that, you had the Bulls winning six out of eight, interrupted by the Rockets back-to-back. Before that, the Pistons. Before them, the Lakers. Can you see a pattern here? In fact, there’s only been one time since 1986 where the defending champion did not re-peat (the ’99 Spurs), as this is the sport where seemingly a new dynasty is born with each new champion.

Once again, how many of us became Sacramento Kings fans in last year’s playoffs faster then you can say Hedo Turkoglu? How many of us lamented that when they choked away game seven, we were in for another boring Lakers title? We were sick of Kobe’s arrogance, Shaq’s hugeness, and Rick Fox’s thuggery. Well, the truth is as soon as the Kings do finally break through (followed by our sheer jubilation), there is a good chance they will go on to dominate the league continuously. and we will then find ourselves complaining about Bibby’s cockiness or Webber’s ego.

Tennis has Sampras, Agassi and the Williams sisters. Golf has Tiger winning everything. As long as sports exist, there will always be the chance that one or two entities will have a better than likely shot of winning everything, and we will always be intrigued by the prospect of their failure…

That is, of course, until they’re gone, and we begin to cherish what we once had.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 5th, 2002 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.