Simmons on Boston Red Sox/Manchester City

I didn’t realize Bill Simmons was an English Premier League fan (that’s become extremely fashionable lately among American sports watchers; one of my American friends in Egypt even dropped the NFL and baseball in the past couple of years and only watches English football).

In any case, Simmons comforts his Manchester City fan friend with a rather moving life lesson, applicable well beyond sports:

“I tried to explain to [my friend] that these things can turn only in the most dramatic of ways. It will never be a typical win. It will be a life experience. It will break you down in sections. It will take you to the abyss and back. You will have to be stripped of any and all hope, and then — and only then — will you see a light. That’s the way these things work. When the Red Sox won those eight straight games in October ’04, the beautiful thing was that streak went against everything I ever believed in. It was so improbable, and so ridiculous, that it somehow made sense.”

Of course, the only thing worse than being a Boston Red Sox fan is being what I am– a Chicago Cubs fan.