tombonneau
In the Starting Line-Up
- Joined
- May 27, 2005
- Messages
- 3,541
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It's okay to be emotionally invested in the team, but to be too invested is dangerous.
I think last year, after going through the whole offseason reliving the AFC CG collapse in my head, going into the 2007 season with a bunker mentality, dealing with the Spygate scrutiny from the league, fans and media, the addition of unlikable characters such as Mercury Morris and Arlen Spector, with the building pressure of a perfect season on the horizon, and then having it all come crashing down in an instant... it was an emotionally exhausting 12-month period.
After SB XLII, I was a zombie for a week, and then stepped back and decided I needed to chill. Sure, it meant discontinuing visiting other message boards (because I got tired of not being able to get into rational discussions with hoards of anti-Pats people), but I did what I had to do to distance myself from what put me in a furor.
After the Dolphins won this past Sunday, I went back to my room to be alone for a moment while I vent. I angrily threw my Patriots hat to the ground, took a deep breath... and then picked my Patriots hat back up, adjusted it, and exhaled. **** happens and there's nothing you can do about it but deal with it.
It was a frustrating season, watching all the bad breaks from Week 1-Week 17, but it's over and in a way, I'm glad. I wanted the Patriots to get into the playoffs, more than anything, so they could have a shot at the Super Bowl. They didn't get that opportunity and that is disappointing, but nothing can be done to change that. I'm proud of what the team did given the circumstances. It took an extraordinary, fluky set of circumstances for them to miss the playoffs, and we have to be curious how a beaten-up Pats team would have fared against other, healthier, stronger teams in the second season. It would have been nice to see, but we can't.
Long story short, I'm more at peace with how this season concluded than how the previous few have. It's a positive step for myself personally, and I think in the long run the Patriots as a franchise will benefit.
I think what you articulated here is one of the big reasons I wasn't totally devastated when the Pats failed to qualify for the playoffs at 11-5.
You could argue that between the end of the SB and Brady going down in Week 1, no team or its fans have undergone a more excruciating 10 minutes of football than the Patriots. It just took a lot out of me, esp. the Super Bowl.
After enduring that, not making the playoffs is a cake walk.