Zeus

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"And the anger and the yearning, like fever in my veins, set the fire burning ..." WZ

DefenseRules

I agree with him. I am not a spoiled fan. I appreciate what the Patriots have done in the last decade, and I look forward to the next decade. I rooted for this team during the LOSING YEARS, and I am still rooting for them. I get the feeling that there are some fans who didn't become fans of this team until 2001. I grew up a Patriots and Celtic fan. I watched every game with my dad when I was growing up. Celtics were AWESOME, the Patriots, not so much. But they were still my favorite football team, and they still are. It sucks that they lost, but it doesn't mean that our team is now trash. Did everyone think that they would NEVER LOSE a playoff game in the last decade? We have a team that has a chance to win every season. We should all be very thankful for that while it lasts.

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AndyJohnson

Good post.
I understand the frustration of being so close and falling short. What is annoying is the contingent of fans that act as if they are entitled to a championship, that the decision makers are stupid (rather than very good but not perfect) and that speak of losing an AFCCG like the team just went 0-16.

Ivan

Parcells is right on the money. Many Patriot fans are spoiled rotten and really have no conception how good they have it. The fact of the matter is that winning it all is really really difficult and involves health and luck as well as having a great team that season, and more often than not all of those factors don't align. Belichick has managed to create a program that sustains as high a level of success as has ever been realized in this league but in doing so has also created a dynamic where their losses are almost always huge because they are in the biggest games of that season, and because of their early success in the Belichick/Brady era many believe that if they don't win it all they have failed, when in truth they have had a really good season but simply weren't able to get all of the necessary factors to come completely together. Sometimes it is a matter of overachievment, such as the 2011 season, where they clearly were not a great team but were able to get themselves right to the brink of a Championship, and other times they were great, such as 2007, or really really good, such as this year, but simply fell short or laid an egg in a big game, as they did a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately for all of us however they are in such good shape that great success is in their future as well as their past and they will continue to be right in the thick of it for the next few years provided they don't make any big mistakes in their roster decisions. hopefully they can add another ring or 2 to end the Brady era, but even iof they don't they will still have pout together one of the greatest runs that any team has ever seen, and we should all be grateful for that because that is as rare as it gets in the world of all professional sports, not just football.

SVN

Typical shaughnessy , takes shots on krafts/BB/tom throughout the article. Wish someone else had interviewed him.

363839

Of course BP is right when he speaks of the complacency of this fan base. I have to say though, that BP is doing a great job of endearing himself to this region. Even if he does say we fans are spoiled. He still is quite the quotable interview. I especially loved the quote of being on the other side and some teams are always going to be bad and..."You have a couple in your division." Great stuff.

Patriot Missile

I started watching in 1984 fanatically in 1984. A pup to some like Patsfansince1960 and a geezer to others. At the time all our teams were doing well and I thought this is how it's suppose to be.

Patriots reach the Super Bowl in dramatic fashion to only get crushed by the Bears. I thought they would go back multiple times but I was wrong. Well, not really, just much longer than expected. A couple of seasons later this team became the bottom of the barrel. They would endure some pretty embarrassing seasons that almost wanted to make you wear a bag over your head at the games. Some fans actually did.

There was no hope in sight, 1-15, very Detroit and Tampa Bay like. In comes Parcells and Bledsoe and the new owner. The newness of the situation changed. Hope was on the horizon. Maybe to go 8-8 and maybe the playoffs in a couple of years. These were reasonable expectations that grew as the Pats drafted well. Success happened almost overnight to fall short yet again to the Packers and lose the coach who didn't get on the plane.

In the year of our lord 2001 ad, ultimate success was finally won. The first team to carry home a trophy since 1986. a lackluster season to follow,by no means miserable compared to past seasons. Followed up by two more glorious superbowls. A first rd exit, a stolen AFC championship,a perfect season ending in heartbreak,a 11-5 season ending rarely without a playoff bid. 14-2 first rd exit,14-2 first round exit, another Super Bowl and another AFC championship.

If you were not a fan before 2000 I guess I can understand being spoiled. 3 Lombardi trophies, 5 super bowl appearances, 2 AFC championship losses. Playoff appearances in 10 of 12 seasons. Almost all 12. 10 AfC east titles. Almost 12 in a row. More hardware than probably 15+teams history combined in just a 12 year run.

One day this team may suck. It is almost inevitable. Your confidence will be shaken. You will be going into the season with the mindset "we might have a chance to compete for the division
this year? Or worse, "8-8 would be nice." Or maybe, "if we only had that QB that could win games?

Thinking back on these losing seasons keeps things in perspective after tough losses. The helpless feeling of having a team that you knew had no chance that season or the next and maybe the next after that.

I don't know, I think we are all spoiled one way or another. Some more than others. The nervous jitters before big games a little less for some as opposed to the early years of TFB/BB.
Either way,enjoy it while it lasts. We still may see another Championship or two. Then again,maybe not.

PatsSox363804

It's not just us, although as a fan base and really a region across the major 4 sports we've been spoiled since 2001, but look at the comments from the haters. We must be the only team in the history of sports where making the championship game twice in 6 years and losing by a close margin is somehow a terrible failure.

fair catch fryar

Parcells speaks the truth and I have the utmost respect for him as a "football" guy. He walks the walk with anyone, BUT as far as "endearing" himself to NE fans is a bit of a stretch unless you are a fan post 2000. I'll never forget what he did to the Pats when he colluded with the Jets while he was supposed to be preparing his team to play the Packers in the SB and then bolted the next day only to take Curtis Martin with him. Screw Parcells and in the end we got the best of the Jets and karma came back like a ***** for them.

EwanSellars

I've only been around since the Patriots were a dominant team since I'm 15 but I definitely agree that we as Boston fans are spoiled. I constantly see kids in my school posting on twitter, facebook or any other website wow Boston has really sucked for sports this year, after all 4 major teams made the playoffs. It actually aggravates me a lot. I hope people would be more grateful for the teams we have here in New England because for cities like kansas city they havent seen championships in a long long time