“We are not the cowboys anymore — we are just the idiots this year”
Johnny Damon (1973) American professional baseball outfielder
Statement about the Boston Red Sox being just "idiots" out to rewrite history. This was before the playoff games in which they overcame a 0-3 game deficit against the New York Yankees, to win a record 8 straight post-season games, ending with a shut-out of the St. Louis Cardinals, and winning their first World Series since 1918; as quoted in "Damon Says Red Sox are 'Idiots' at MSNBC (6 October 2004) http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/6193582/ <br class="br">Context: We are not the cowboys anymore — we are just the idiots this year … So we are going to go out and try to swing the bats, find the holes, and, hopefully, good things happen. … We were just a bunch of cowboys out there last year, just enjoying every minute … Now, we know we have something to prove. We don’t want to be remembered as a team that, OK, we keep making it to the playoffs, but we keep having tough losses. … I mean, we want to be known as a team that rewrites the history books. … This is definitely the best ballclub I’ve been on. I mean, that Oakland ballclub in 2001 was pretty awesome. We were a bunch of frat boys there. This team is a little older, but we have that same attitude. We feel like we can win every game, we feel like we like to have fun, and I think that’s why this team is liked by so many people out there. … You know, the kids watching us out there — we’ve got the long hair, we’ve got the cornrows, we got just guys acting like idiots. And I think the fans out there like it.