USC Football and Basketball
USC Football ended the 2009 season with a record of 9-4, including an emerald bowl victory over Boston College. While the season was disappointing in that USC didn't make it to a BCS bowl game for the first time in 7 years, a 9 win season really isn't all that bad. However, what made this year especially hard to cope with was the way USC lost its 4 games. The Trojans got blown out at home by Stanford and in Eugene against Oregon, as well as loosing close games at Washington and at home against Arizona. The loss at Washington I can live with because it was a game in which no one on the Trojans could hang on to the ball, and like it or not those types of games happen every once in while. However, against Oregon and Stanford USC had no answer on defense, and when they realized they had no answer defensively everyone on the team just shut it down. Seeing a team completely give up is disheartening to say the least, and it is why this season was so tough on Trojan football fans.
USC Basketball, on the other hand, had most of its turmoil off the court. After winning the Pac-10 tournament title and making the NCAA tourney for the third consecutive year this past spring, all hell broke loose for the Trojans. Taj Gibson, DeMar DeRozan, and Daniel Hacket all decided to leave school early to turn pro, head coach Tim Floyd resigned amid allegations that he gave money to former trojan O.J. Mayo, and as a result the players making up one of the nation's best recruiting classes were released from their commitment to play for the school and fled elsewhere, and returning forward Leonard Washington was ruled academically ineligible to play for the fall 2009 semester. All this being said, things are actually starting to look up for the team as it heads in to the start of Pac-10 play in 2010. USC has started the season with an 8-4 record and is coming off a christmas tournament victory at the Diamond Head classic in Hawaii, so maybe I do have a little reason to believe that the new year may bring success for at least one of the teams I root for.
Nationals and Red Sox
The Nationals misfortune in 2009 was well documented as not only were they the butt of many jokes because of their play on the field, but also because they couldn't seem to get their name spelled correctly on the front of their jersey. There was also the embarrassing off-the-field scandal involving former GM Jim Bowden that eventually cost him his job. However, since Mike Rizzo has taken over as GM the team has started to slowly move in the right direction, signing first overall pick Stephen Strasburg to as $15 million deal and acquiring free-agent all-star pitcher Jason Marquis. Rizzo also raided the front offices of several other teams this off-season in order to have more qualified baseball minds around him, which is why I believe the Nationals, despite their 59-103 record in 2009, are the DC team showing the most promise in 2010 besides the Capitals.
Compared to all the other teams that let me down this year, the Red Sox really don't even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. The only reason I feel the need to bring them up in this post is because the Yankees won the World Series, and having the Yankees win yet another World Series is about as bad as if the Red Sox did finish with an equal record to the Nationals.
Redskins
The team with likely the most disappointing season in 2009 of the teams I root for, at times I actually got physically ill when watching them play this season. Even with the benefit of an easy early-season schedule and the addition of high-priced free agent Albert Haynesworth, the Skins could only manage to win 4 games in 2009 and went 0-6 in the NFC East. As if their record itself isn't bad enough, the Cowboys finally decided to start winning some games in December and have already secured themselves a playoff birth. Indeed times are bleak now if you're a Redskins fan, but there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel with the recent resignation of Vinny Cerrato and the hiring of new GM Bruce Allen. The skins will have a lot of work to do trying to right the ship in 2010, but at least they have a head start with the hiring of a proven football mind in Bruce Allen. That's more than can be said for the next team on this list...
Wizards
While the Redskins may have won the award for the most disappointing of the DC teams in 2009, the Wizards win the award for the team whose future looks the most bleak. After finishing the 08-09 season with a record of 19-63, there was actually a lot of optimism surrounding the team in the summer because Gilbert Arenas was finally healthy again, meaning the big 3 of Arenas, Caron Butler, and Antawn Jamison would all be on the floor together again for an extended period of time for the first time since 2006. But, as the first 30 games of the 09-10 season has proven, having those three players healthy doesn't necessarily mean the team will start winning again. The Wizards currently sit at 10-20 and are last in the southeast division, 12 games back of Orlando. It appears as though they will eclipse their dismal win total of last season, but need to go 32-20 the rest of the way to have any sort of shot at the playoffs. One could argue that the team just needs more time to adjust to playing in new head coach Flip Saunders' system, but even he admitted that defensively this team can't stop anyone. With the defensively deficient Gilbert Arenas locked up for a lot more money for a lot more years, it seems the Wizards are stuck with the players currently on the court, and it could be a while until the Wizards again reach respectability.
Capitals
Finally I get to the lone bright spot of my sports fan experience in 2009. The Capitals advanced to the 2nd round of the NHL playoffs in the spring, and took Pittsburgh to a game 7 before finally succumbing to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions. Armed with arguably the best player in the NHL and some impressive young netminders, the Caps seem poised to be a force for years to come. But, seeing as their success has come at a time when all the other teams I root for are down in the dumps, I have found myself wondering whether it is better to root for one great team and a lot of sub-par teams or a bunch of mediocre squads. While I'm sure there is not one answer for all sports fans, I have concluded that prolonged greatness is a rarity in sports these days, so when one team you root for has the chance to be great you take that along with the bad. Would I prefer a Redskins Superbowl to a Capitals Stanley Cup? Certainly, but as a sports fan you can't pick and choose, so all you can do is continue to cheer the teams you love and hope that the new year brings new prosperity!
