As a fan of a football team that went to four Superbowls and lost each of those four games, one of them to the Giants (SB 25) I was torn between the Pats and the Gi-yants. I despise the arrogance of the New York fans who think the sun rises and sets on the five burroughs and anything north of Peekskill is the ass-end of the world. So it's hard to get giddy because the Giants won. It was however, one of the best SB games I ever watched and listened to on the radio.
Doubt that any talk of this kind will come up on Boston sports talk radio today.
Years ago, I bought into the Pats discipline and youth when they won their first Bowl. The bloom was of the rose when Belichick's arrogance and megolomania surpassed the national debt. Still, I could appreciate the "team" concept of success and winning. Then came Spygate and allegations of less than sportsmanlike behavior. Yeah, I know, nobody in pro sports is pure as Caser's wife. Still, enough was enough.
I was happy to see the lovable goof Eli Manning prove the NY press jackals and sports pundits wrong... that a guy didn't have to be flashy, date three supermodels and knock one of 'em up to be a manly man and good athlete. And I enjoyed the Pats getting a dose of their last minute comeback medicine. Belichick's 90 second post game press conference was classless, as was his stroll off the field with one second on the clock.
But as sports fans, we all buy into our teams and become disciples. What dopes we are. If only we spent as much time studying what the hell's going on in banking, politics, history, math and science.
This said, I can empathize with what Pats fans are going through. Nearly perfect, clearly imperfect. Maybe they really are America's team in that regard. Hey, the sun still rises and life goes on. And we're still searching for a cure for cancer.
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