I'm honestly feeling a lot less anxious this time around than I was about 42 or 46..
With 42, there was the pressure associated with going 19-0, as well as all the concerns over Brady's ankle...Although I picked the Pats to win, I had a sinking feeling that something would go horribly wrong.
With 46, the Giants became this sort of Boogie Man that I felt like the Pats HAD to beat, or else it would besmirch their reputation forever. Compounding that anxiety was the status of Gronk's ankle and the endless media hype. The memory of 42 was vivid in my mind and I honestly felt more anxiety going into it than I did going into our previous SB, though I will say that 46 was relatively less painful than 42.
With this upcoming SB, I'm not buying into the media hype. Sure, it's the biggest game of the season, but the last 2 SB losses have taught me how to temper my anxiety. A blowout nowithstanding, there's gonna be no shame on my end if we lose (The prospect of losing to Russell Wilson pains me a lot less than the prospect of losing to the lesser Manning). I'll be tremendously disappointed certainly, but the narrative as well as the mindet I have with this game strike me as different than the narrative/mindset that precluded the previous two SBs.