Whether it’s the Curse of the Bambino, the Madden Curse or the SI Cover Curse, it is pretty apparent that sports fans think that the supernatural sometimes, if not often, plays a major role in the outcomes of their favorite teams. Well after watching the University of Michigan scratch, claw and overthrow their way to a 16-6 thriller over Miami (OH), I would like to add another curse to the sporting world: The Adidas Football Curse.
Now I really didn’t have any opinion on the matter when Michigan inked an 8-year deal with Adidas and got rid of their swooshes. Michigan’s deal with Nike in the early 90’s was a huge deal at the time, but several schools had switched over to Adidas already so I figured it wasn’t that big of a deal. That’s until I took a look at who was affiliated with Adidas. Here is the list of Adidas clients who would be considered their top endorsers:
Pittsburgh
Michigan
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Louisville
Notre Dame
UCLA
Arkansas
Tennessee
Texas A&M
Kansas
Now some of these schools have had some success in the 3-striped jerseys, but for the most part each of these programs has been in steady decline (besides Kansas). Not only did this group go 80-60 last year, which is pathetic considering the cupcake non-conference schedules that most of these teams played, but you could make the case that each of these schools, with the exception of Kansas, were considerably better football programs 10-15 years ago when they were not with Adidas. In 1997, Michigan and Nebraska split the national championship. The following year Tennessee beat Florida State to capture the first BCS championship. You could easily make the case that in the 1990’s, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas A&M (seven top-15 finishes in the decade) were five of the top 15 programs of the decade. Meanwhile, UCLA (three Pac 10 Championships), Wisconsin (three Big Ten Championships) and even Northwestern (who is now Adidas) were having 2 or 3 magical seasons during this time.
Flash forward to this season, and only Kansas and Wisconsin are predicted to have any kind of BCS bowl game hopes. So far, the only two big wins for Adidas sponsored schools this year are against other Adidas sponsored schools (Bowling Green over then ranked Pittsburgh, UCLA over Tennessee). Michigan, Texas A&M, Louisville, Notre Dame and Nebraska are all in some stage of rebuilding mode.
I’m not sure why Adidas went after these programs, or why these programs accepted their offer, but I would feel a lot better if Michigan was running out with that Nike swoosh next Saturday. I would also feel a lot better if they had a quarterback who could complete more then 51.8 % of their passes. But thankfully the Fighting Irish are double-cursed with Adidas jerseys, a botched stomach stapling coach, and a quarterback who poses in pictures like this:
-Violent J
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