Saturday, February 27, 2016

The Sausage Factory's firewall

I have seen something lately that I have never seen before: a discussion by Fayetteville fans as to who would win games between them and our Trojans. There are differing opinions, even to both extremes of the possibilities. Even to be having the discussion is pretty remarkable, if you will think about it. Most years the answer would be obvious. Because of the gross disparity in resources, it takes a very bad year for the Ham and a very good year for us to make the question worth talking about.

But think how easy that question is for them to ask. They will never have to answer it. It would be very simple to find the answer: just play the Trojans. They will never do it. Thus they can say, "We would beat them three times out of ten, or ten times out of ten," and that is a totally safe opinion. Sort of like saying that Babe Ruth was a better baseball player than Mickey Mantle. Who could ever prove you wrong?

You can't lose to teams you won't play. Most years that is irrelevant, but this particular season that strategy looks suspiciously like running from a fight you are afraid you might lose.

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