Much of what we post at Niners Nation is an attempt to break down a given matchup or a given piece of news from a slightly more objective perspective. We have our share of homer-ism, but my philosophy of posting has generally been to throw something out there and let you guys go to town with the discussion. We have plenty of extremes on both sides of a given point while I fall in a slightly more middle of the road position.
Once in a while, however, I find something that goes beyond the realm of the logical and feel the need to embrace it. I have found just such a post today. A new blogger over on WordPress put together a post titled Magic Versus Logic: Deconstructing Niners vs. Saints. It manages to address an over the topic subject with a certain level-headedness that I can appreciate. It is far and away the most original take on tomorrow's matchup and I wanted to share it with everybody here.
We can break down the stats related to tomorrow's matchup until we are blue in the face. Once in a while it is nice to just take it completely over the top and have some fun with the insanity. This might apply a bit more to Broncos fans heading into their matchup tomorrow, but who's to say the 49ers can't benefit from something a little more supernatural? This might be a bit over the top, but who cares:
There are rare moments when a team gets marked with the fingerprints of destiny. There are moments that defy logic, throw advanced metrics in the gutter, and allow us to remember why we watch these games in the first place. If transcendence wasn't possible, why would we ever tune in? Why would we care?
Ghosts walk among us, and we see them manifest themselves in our sports.
We retell these unaging stories because we look to them for physical evidence of the inexplicable. Every heart that has ever been broken wants to believe that life is more than the weight of numbers and facts and probability. Sports lore are our Homeric legends. That's why we see the same archetypes pop up time and time again, and see the same themes interwoven into the fabric of every story:
Redemption;
Salvation;
The long suffering hero, long since fallen from grace, finding redemption when none thought it possible;
A fearless boy heaving a stone at impossible odds and the head of a giant ...