Wild in the streets

The Miami Heat were eliminated from the Finals in their own building, as were the Vancouver Canucks.

Given those two cities, and their fans, I would have bet a lot of money that if either was going to start fires, turn over cars, loot buildings, and basically run amok, it would have been Miami. I would have lost that bet.

It's brutally hot in Miami this time of year, which never helps attitudes, and given certain other, ahem, factions that are in abundance there, one might think that would have been a tinderbox for mayhem. But not much seemed to happen after Lebron and Co. got kicked to the curb.

Who would have guessed the Vancouverites would run wild in the streets?  Not me.

Then again, the Canucks are all they have in the way of major pro sports. I can't remember if they have a Canadian Football League team, but that wouldn't count anyway. Look at it this way. Imagine if the Pistons never existed. They've won a few titles, and been very competitive in a lot of years even when they fell a little short. Same with the Tigers. They haven't won a championship in a long time, but at least they make it interesting once in a while. Pretend they never existed either. Delete the Red Wings, their Stanley Cups, and the excitement they generate every year from your memory banks as well. Guess what?

If all you had was the Lions to root for over the last 40 years, you might have been fortunate to maintain your sanity, let alone civility.

Throw in rain damn near every day in Vancouver, year after year after year, and it's probably a miracle a few suicide bombers didn't do their thing after that game.

Let's bring the deleted Detroit teams back into existence. When it comes to a big game, the people in that city will turn over cars, loot, set fire to things, and run amok -- even if their team WINS.

It seemed the local newscasters couldn't wait to show what was happening on the streets of Vancouver.

Evidently, they have short memories of what's happened in their own collective back yard in years past, or think we do.

Maybe it's a good thing if the Lions never get to the Super Bowl because, win or lose, if that ever happened, everything from 8 Mile Rd. to the Detroit river might go up in flames.

I wonder what kind of odds the wise-guys in Vegas would put on such a thing happening.

Me? I figure it's about a coin-flip.