I wrote this and first posted it in Jan 2019 on the eve of the Super Bowl vs LA... I updated a few things for this. Living outside of NE for the last 35 years after growing up on the South Shore, I have a different appreciation for things....
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“ Do you know how lucky you are?”
“Again?”
“ I wish we had a team like that”
You have to live outside New England as I do to truly appreciate what the Patriots have accomplished in the last twenty years. As of twelve days from now, there will have been 53 Super Bowls with 106 participants or roughly 3.2 trips per team (give or take, ignoring expansion). Some unlucky souls like fans of Detroit or Cleveland have never sniffed the Super Bowl, fumbling away opportunities. More typical are fans of the Vikings or Bills who have made four trips to the Super Bowl, losing every time. Such was the fate of Patriot fans BB (Before Belichick/Brady) In the first 33 years of the Super Bowl era, the Patriots were robbed of one potential trip to the Super Bowl ( Thanks Ben Dreith) and went twice, playing sacrificial lamb to the Chicago Bears 46 defense that may have been the best or the second best defense of all time in 1986 and falling to the Packers and Desmond Howard a decade later…..
Fast forward to today and the Patriots are no longer the Patsies, nomads who once played a home game in Birmingham, Alabama and in baseball stadiums around Boston. They have added nine more trips to the Super Bowl in 18 seasons. Think of that, eleven trips in 54 years with 5 ( written before the game) championships ( hopefully more)… ……..For Bills fans who routinely tormented us in the 90’s, a championship is when you actually win a Super Bowl…. And for Jets fans whose team last played in the Super Bowl when Lyndon Johnson was President and men hadn’t landed on the moon, it’s when you’re still playing in February….For Dolphin fans, well they’re playing Springsteen’s Glory Days again and again because that’s how long it’s been since they were even in a Super Bowl. For Colts fans, it’s the real reason to hang a banner.
Think about that, when some teams dream of a trip to the playoffs, the Patriots’ ownership, players and fans have their eyes on the ultimate prize, the Lombardi trophy. Look at the way Coach Belichick handled the Lamar Hunt trophy for winning the AFC, as if it was a lovely door stop.. And the players by and large, for the ones who had done it before, it was a “ been there, done that” mentality knowing that the only truly successful season ends with the team hoisting the Lombardi trophy. While some teams dream of 8-8, or maybe if they are lucky making the playoffs, we know that we are fans of a team is always in contention to win it all and has not played a meaningless game ( i.e. out of the playoffs) in over 15 years…..and 11-5 is considered a down year.
When the game was over on Sunday and the Patriots were still alive to fight another day, my wife asked me why I wasn’t jumping up and down. I replied, “it’s not the Super Bowl” and we’ve been in this position many times before. I almost sounded jaded and guiltily wondered how fans in Jacksonville, Houston or Minnesota or Miami , the first two never having been there and the last two having to go back thirty plus years would like to know that feeling.……….
No pink hat here, I sat in the cold rain and snow on the old metal benches at Schaffer, I mean Sullivan, I mean Foxboro stadium or whatever they called it watching what passed for football. I watched as a coach was nearly electrocuted by a microphone at his initial press conference.. I watched another bug out for a return to college on the eve of a playoff game and suffered through 1-15 and 2-14 seasons…. And another leave on the eve of a Super Bowl. And still I watched and rooted for them… I wore Pats jerseys and dared venture into the belly of the beast at away Jets games and in Buffalo (I’m not crazy enough to do it at the Black Hole). From a distance I watched as Robert Kraft , a season ticket holder bought the team and promised better results. Three coaches later, a #199 draft pick and steady ownership resulting in the model sports franchise.
Like Russell and Auerbach’s Celtic teams of yore., this is a once in a generation run that we should enjoy and savor…. For we know not when it will end.
As Patriots fans, we are lucky, fortunate and blessed to be fans of such a franchise…. When the UPS delivery man comes in the office , just shakes his head and says, “ Again” referring to the Patriots making plans for Houston or New Orleans or this time Atlanta, and knowing that I am a Boston native transplanted, or when people rolling their eyes when they see my Patriots sweatshirt, it is humbling to know how lucky we are as fans……
Here’s hoping that I can scream in jubilation at the TV in twelve days when the Commissioner presents the Lombardi trophy and hopefully it is presented to one of the Patriots MKK 1/22/19
