You're listening to Imaginary Worlds.

I show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief.

I'm Eric Mullensky.

So I'm not really a big sports fan, but I have a tribal loyalty to the Boston sports teams,

especially living in New York. And that's partially because the Red Sox have such a great narrative.

Now you may have heard the story back in 1920, the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

And then for decades and decades after that, the Yankees seem to have this supernatural

power to stop us from ever winning a title. And after the Star Wars trilogy came out,

a Boston Globe sports columnist called the Yankees the Evil Empire,

and suddenly the Star Wars terminology was adopted by countless other sports columnists.

In Boston and New York, I mean it's crazy, the Yankees actually embraced it like damn straight,

and the Empire always strikes back.

And then things got complicated.

At first it was great. I mean we beat the Yankees, finally in one the World Series.

And then the New England Patriots are kind of hapless football team suddenly became a powerhouse

in one a bunch of Super Bowls. I mean they were winning a lot like they were just crushing other

teams. I mean not that we were complaining. But then, in the cheating scandals.

The NFL kicks off a new season tomorrow night facing brand new allegations of cheating by the

New England Patriots. The Patriots were involved in illegal taping of 40 games as opposed to eight.

The issue was whether the New England Patriots cheated in the AFC title game against Indianapolis

by underinflating the footballs they used in theory making them easier to handle.

And very soon football fans around the country started taking our Star Wars metaphor

...