I have a friend, Chuck Culpepper, lately of The Washington Post and soon of ESPN, who has long held a fascination with New York City in general and its relationship to its sports teams specifically.
“Don’t you find it odd,” I asked him once, “that New York is this big, tough, sophisticated town of kingmakers and tastemakers and shot-takers and yet, when it comes right down to it, its sports teams reduce so many of the citizens to quaking, quivering messes?”
Chuck said no.
“New York,” he said, “is just Tuscaloosa with a skyline.”