I don’t expect you to understand.
A sports franchise can easily go an entire generation or longer without a championship. Plenty have. Boston franchises have been very successful lately, and with such a large and vocal following, the rest of the county has had to listen to New England fans tout the recent success – and bemoan the previous failings – of their teams for the better part of this decade. And hearing other people blowing their own horn for nearly ten years is really fucking annoying. I get this.
So I know that you don’t understand.
The New England Patriots got caught spying on opponents. They were accused of running up the score on opponents. Their quarterback is a GQ cover boy who dates super models and left another girlfriend pregnant. I get why people dislike this team. I get why people were rooting for the underdog Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
With a little perspective, however, you may look at things differently, if only slightly. For example, did you know that for decades the Patriots were the laughingstock of the AFL and then NFL? That the Jets and the Dolphins used to come into Fenway Park (where they once played) and then later the junk heap that was Schaffer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium and run up the score all over the hapless Patsies? Did you know that for decades, the joke ran that if a crime was committed in eastern Massachusetts, the first place the cops looked for suspects was the Patriots’ locker room? That their two prior Super Bowl appreances ended expectedly with them representing sacrificial lambs at the alters of the Mighty ’86 Bears and ’96 Brett Favre Coronation?
The Patriots were – in short – an embarrassment for many, many years. Then, in Super Bowl XXXVI, after the St. Louis Rams came out individually, shaking their butts and hollering to the crowd as their names were called, the announcer said: “The New England Patriots have requested that they be announced as a team. So, lady’s and gentlemen, the New England Patriots.” And nothing has been the same since.
I don’t expect everyone to suddenly turn around and join New England fans in weeping for history lost. I get why you don’t like the Patriots. But all things considered, this wasn’t so much the slaying of Goliath as the slaying of the Bad News Bears. The Patriots are not so much the Yankees as the Major League version of the Cleveland Indians. It’s just been spread out over a few years rather than one season.
A sports franchise can easily go an entire generation or longer without a championship. Plenty have. Boston franchises have been very successful lately, and with such a large and vocal following, the rest of the county has had to listen to New England fans tout the recent success – and bemoan the previous failings – of their teams for the better part of this decade. And hearing other people blowing their own horn for nearly ten years is really fucking annoying. I get this.
So I know that you don’t understand.
The New England Patriots got caught spying on opponents. They were accused of running up the score on opponents. Their quarterback is a GQ cover boy who dates super models and left another girlfriend pregnant. I get why people dislike this team. I get why people were rooting for the underdog Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
With a little perspective, however, you may look at things differently, if only slightly. For example, did you know that for decades the Patriots were the laughingstock of the AFL and then NFL? That the Jets and the Dolphins used to come into Fenway Park (where they once played) and then later the junk heap that was Schaffer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium and run up the score all over the hapless Patsies? Did you know that for decades, the joke ran that if a crime was committed in eastern Massachusetts, the first place the cops looked for suspects was the Patriots’ locker room? That their two prior Super Bowl appreances ended expectedly with them representing sacrificial lambs at the alters of the Mighty ’86 Bears and ’96 Brett Favre Coronation?
The Patriots were – in short – an embarrassment for many, many years. Then, in Super Bowl XXXVI, after the St. Louis Rams came out individually, shaking their butts and hollering to the crowd as their names were called, the announcer said: “The New England Patriots have requested that they be announced as a team. So, lady’s and gentlemen, the New England Patriots.” And nothing has been the same since.
I don’t expect everyone to suddenly turn around and join New England fans in weeping for history lost. I get why you don’t like the Patriots. But all things considered, this wasn’t so much the slaying of Goliath as the slaying of the Bad News Bears. The Patriots are not so much the Yankees as the Major League version of the Cleveland Indians. It’s just been spread out over a few years rather than one season.
So now this incarnation of the Patriots, which scored more points and broke two kinds of touchdown records, goes down as chokers rather than The Best Team Ever. They had a great year and blew it when it mattered. For the rest of the country, it’s an historic upset and reason to cheer. For Patriots fans, it kind of just feels like old times.
