How Does a Pats Win or Loss Affect Your Life?

A win is expected. A loss doesn’t bug me as long as the loss was due to what happened on the field. Loss like last years SB really irks me.

Brandon Manning said:

I noticed others mention the SB 42 loss. I was very young. I didn't understand why they lost. I just knew they did. For New Englanders, I wonder what hurt more: 2003 ALCS or SB 42?

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It's not even close. 1986 for the Soxs was the closest thing to SB42. A half dozen solid chances to put it away that all slipped away.

If they win I'm walking on sunshine for a week and can't take in enough media coverage. If they lose I don't turn on TV for a week, avoid all football and sports sites until training camp and although I'm a zombie the next day from lack of sleep where I can't shut off thinking about the what ifs I return to normal by the next day.

SB42 was was as bad as it gets. I think the thing is with all the wins and loses you learn to compartmentalize it knowing you can't have those great victories without the setbacks.

I guess I am much more emotionally effected than others here.

When they win I’m on Cloud nine for weeks and buy everything I can get my hands on. Watch everything I can other than espn. It smoothes the edges.

When they lose a huge game I’m pretty devastated. I don’t yell or miss work but I’m very upset and use distraction and repression to get through.

I wasn’t always like this. I was a fan during 1-15 and I always will be. I just have such high expectations now... in some ways it will be easier when they just stink again.

After SB51 I said “I can’t ask for anything more.” That’s still true... but I still want more. I’d love one more SB win and then a Brady mic-drop.

Lose and I will be publicly shamed by being made to wear a Chiefs sweatshirt all day at work. A bet that I initiated and will have no one to blame but myself.
Total sports radio/tv black out for at least a week. Thank you Netflix.
Later on, a Super Bowl party at my house where I will not be a complete basket case.
There it is.

Personally, I don't subscribe to the 'all gravy' attitude. I know I'm just a fan, but I take on the attitude of the team. As a Patriot I believe in giving them nothing and taking everything. My favorite thing is seeing them ignore the narrative and creating their own destiny. There is no room for sentimentality when you are trying to dominate in the present.

When I was 12 or 22 I would be extatic after wins and crushed after losses, I took every slight against the team very personally and would go out of my way to voice my opinion.

Now at 32, losses don't sting as much and while I very much enjoy wins, it's not nearly the life or death feeling as when I was younger. My sports life is less stressful, I'll always love the Patriots and Boston sports in general, but I think the impact on my life is much less intense now.

I also no longer torture myself with sports radio or talk shows which I think has had a big hand in my current viewpoint.

I am all my heart with the Pats but I can distinguish sport from a real life - I mean my family,children,job etc. Sport is just an entertainment however it is hard sometimes to choke the loss of the Patriots.

I will leave it at a playoff or Super Bowl win or lose affects my life way more than it should. In the regular season, I can usually maintain business as usual.

Nobody died.

Beginning Monday, I'll be a little more buoyant than usual the morning after a win, or a bit more down the morning after a loss. Either way, I'll have sh it to get done that requires my focus, so I'll be over it before lunchtime.

Since I've already started my Excel workbook for the 2019 roster, all I'll need to do until the Combine is pay attention to which guys from the PS get futures contracts, and follow the various pro day results.

Brandon Manning said:

I noticed others mention the SB 42 loss. I was very young. I didn't understand why they lost. I just knew they did. For New Englanders, I wonder what hurt more: 2003 ALCS or SB 42?

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That's an interesting question. I'd say both hurt about the same but the " what ifs " only lasted a year after the 2003 ALCS whereas it was six years of near misses after 42.

But the last eighteen years have been unbelievable. And the last five or six years have been watching it with my kids.

Used to feel sunny or gloomy following a win or loss, but after 49 and 51 it feels like it's all house money now. The win over the Chargers was probably the first time this season I really felt that special type of excited for the team.

Brandon Manning said:

I noticed others mention the SB 42 loss. I was very young. I didn't understand why they lost. I just knew they did. For New Englanders, I wonder what hurt more: 2003 ALCS or SB 42?

Click to expand...

You seem to be obsessed with how it feels when the Pats lose or if they will lose. Is that because the last time they lost was the day before you signed up on December 17 2018? Maybe you're a good luck charm and we never have to worry about losing again.

It depends on one thing for me and it’s the way we lose.

It stings always but im still happy i had something to look forward to. Right now 28 of the other 32 fan bases would kill to be us right now. Win tomorrow and it’s another 2 weeks of excitement/anticipation.

After they got the 5th and pretty much clinched brady and bb as the goats / us as the goat dynasty, its made it easier to get over. Dont get me wrong, i hated the end of last years sb and will replay certain parts of it in my mind here and there, but it didn’t bother me half as much as 42/46/06 afcc

If they win I'm on cloud nine for awhile soaking up all tv and radio talking about it, if they lose I get over it the next day but its media blackout for awhile.

ALP said:

I still enjoy the ice cream Sunday without the cherry though

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Brandon Manning said:

Love the ice cream Sunday analogy. That's how I feel too.

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Ice cream SUNDAE, not "Sunday."

Brandon Manning said:

I noticed others mention the SB 42 loss. I was very young. I didn't understand why they lost. I just knew they did. For New Englanders, I wonder what hurt more: 2003 ALCS or SB 42?

Click to expand...

Depends if you're a fan of a real sport like football, or of some boring anachronism like baseball.

When I was younger? Awful. I never got violent but my first wife knew to leave me alone if they lost cause I'd have a lot of pent-up frustration and I was looking for a place to 'spend' it without realizing it. I only started a few arguments but that's still a few too many.

After we won the SB it stopped mattering quite so acutely but still absolutely mattered specifically games against the Jets and Peyton. **** the Jets, seriously. For all time.

Then we had the ********. Spygate. Deflategate. People were using these to undermine the team's accomplishments. So games took on a larger scope than they would have otherwise.

2006 still hurts. 2007 still *REALLY* hurts. 2011 just seems stupid.

At this point I mostly just grimace or roll my eyes when something comes up about last year's SB and I still don't bother reading articles about games or rewatching games if we lost.

But it's nothing like before and it's a combination of aging dropping my excess testosterone and having won SO FREAKING MUCH that the games just aren't as overwhelmingly important as they were before.