Are you ready for some football? I hope so, because itʼs that season again. Time for us Bay Area fans to yet again get our hopes up, only to see them quickly dashed by our sub-par teams. The San Francisco 49ers are long removed from their glory days of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. The Oakland Raiders already have three losses in their first three games. The college level is not much better. Stanford could not find a way to win against Division 1-AA opponent U.C. Davis, and the Cal Bears have seen their starting quarterback and halfback fall to injury. So what do we Bay Areans have to turn to?

The answer certainly is not baseball. Neither the San Francisco Giants nor the Oakland Aʼs mustered enough wins to make it to the playoffs. Basketball season is not too far away, but nobody is looking forward to the Golden State Warriors season, as they have not made the playoffs for eleven years. The weak support for hockey and the San Jose Sharks was further diminished by the season-stopping strike last year. In the four biggest sports, the Bay Area just is not cutting it.

We are in a sports slump. What happened to 2001, when the Raiders made the A.F.C Championship and Stanford went to the Rose Bowl? What happened to 2002, when the both the Giants and the Aʼs made the playoffs and the Giants went all the way to the World Series? What happened to the 2003-2004 N.H.L. season where the Sharks made the Western Conference championship? The days of winning are gone, but they will certainly return.

The Raiders have shown promise this season, playing tight with every team thus far. The 49ers already have a win this year and have their quarterback of the future in Alex Smith. The NHL is back, and the Sharks will likely return to prominence. Golden State played like an entirely different team last year with the acquisition of Baron Davis, finishing the season with an 18-10 record. One often forgotten Bay Area team has even been good lately. The San Jose Earthquakes of the Major League Soccer (MLS) have compiled a 16-4-9 record and will be the top seed in the Western Conference for the upcoming playoffs.

Unless you are one of the few people that cares about MLS, you will just have to put up with mediocrity for a while. Donʼt get too used to it though—Bay Area sports should be back in full swing soon enough.