I long for the "blue collar, lunchpail" Patriots of the early 2000s. In those days Pats fans excoriated Colts fans for their incessant obsession with Peyton's stats vs Brady's Championship wins. But starting with that nightmare 2007 stats focused season, a large segment of the Patriots fan base became obsessed with individual statistics, like MLB fans, totally missing the point.
To be honest most pats fans have not changed . . . you take what you get when you get it (stats, SB or both) and be proud of it . . . the difference between two SBs wins in 2001 and 2003 and two SB looses in 2007 and 2012 is a bad/good bounce in the SB or a game earlier . . . so the "championship" years where wins because lady luck shined on us and the present non win years are because lady luck did not shine on us . . . its not like we went out and got a bunch of players on offense at the expense of the defense, beat up a weak AFC East, went 11-5 without be able to beat any good teams then went one and done in the playoffs for the last 5 years . . .
I personally have always been proud of the accomplishments of the pats outside of the SB wins . . . in particular the following in the 01-04 era
21 games in a row (also, at the time, the record for most consecutive wins in the regular season)
back to back 14-2 seasons;
the best winning percentage against teams with winning records;
streak for never trailing in a game (2004);
most games scoring first;
Brady lowest INT percentage since Bart Starr;
not loosing back to back games till 2006 (outside of 2002);
and so on . . .
so embodied in my pride of the SB years are stats which really have nothing to do with the SB itself, but i am still proud of it . . .
Just as I am proud of the stats of the 2007 to date pats, surely some of the stats are more personal to individual players, but that does not mean the stats are any more or less important than the records we set 01-04 . . .
So I wont shy away from being proud of stats just becuase of a couple of bad bounces recently in the playoffs . . . and think of it this way, most modern day pats fans are spoiled, any pats fan, (myself included) who where a pats fan in 70s, 80s, 90s, or all of them, would give a left man member to have the 2007 to present team to cheer for . . .
I understand your point about the early 2000s colts, but they were never a bounce away from a lombardi like the 2007 or 2012 Pats . . . and like i said the stats that we are obtaining are not at the expense of lombardis, like possible the early 2000s colts . . . in our case there are still stats to be proud of like we got in the "lunchpail" days, just that lady luck has not shine on us in the playoffs . . .
I personaly dont limit my football experience and pride to 60 mins of football in February . . .
Also too, with 3 Lombardis in his pocket and 5 AFCCG wins, personal stats will help TBs overall legacy when he retires and having Unitas old record is just another feather in his cap . . . and even if he does not pass Brees, he has already past Unitas and will likely be at least 2nd in the clubhouse when he retires . . .and also with his 48 game streak he does not have a "we gotta get a TD and any expense game" that Brees had a year or so ago . . .