BradyManny
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2006
- Messages
- 11,103
- Reaction score
- 1,520
I'm sometimes amazed by how sports can become so important in people's lives. Some of the most memorable moments of any of our lives have come from watching other grown men play a game. There's been a lot of talk about legacy and what this means for the Pats. But what does last night's title mean to you - on a purely personal level?
I'm having trouble putting it to words. I'll make this as brief as I can. I signed up for this place sometime in the wake of losing to the Colts in the 06. Now that's not the moment that I became obsessed with getting #4, I can't quite pinpoint that moment. Maybe it was spy gate. Maybe it was 18-1. But along the way, I let this team and this game become far too central a focus of my life.
There are plenty of things - good and bad - that happened to me and my family member in the last decade that could've and SHOULD have provided the necessary perspective for me to put football in its place, but they never did. I regret how quickly I urged time to pass in the offseason - each day just being an obstacle to getting to the next thing - the draft, camp, the season. I'll never get that time back, and I appreciate what a mistake that was. I wanted so badly to feel a catharsis and have wrongs written. In some ways, I do wish we would've won SB46 when I was at the peak of that unhealthy obsession. But it taught me a valuable lesson - that I couldn't depend on a bunch of men in tights throwing a pigskin around to grant me the catharsis I wanted. I needed to move on. It was ridiculous how invested I had become.
I felt much better off going into this game. I didn't need us to win. I wanted us to, but I wasn't going to be depressed for months (at least) again were they to lose. Frankly, I thought that without that fear hanging over me, that a win wouldn't be as sweet. That it wouldn't mean as much when I was a full-blown Pats junkie several years ago. I was very wrong. This was the sweetest title yet, somehow managing to top the Rams game which I never, ever thought could've been outdone. I feel very content. And that is a very good feeling.
I'm having trouble putting it to words. I'll make this as brief as I can. I signed up for this place sometime in the wake of losing to the Colts in the 06. Now that's not the moment that I became obsessed with getting #4, I can't quite pinpoint that moment. Maybe it was spy gate. Maybe it was 18-1. But along the way, I let this team and this game become far too central a focus of my life.
There are plenty of things - good and bad - that happened to me and my family member in the last decade that could've and SHOULD have provided the necessary perspective for me to put football in its place, but they never did. I regret how quickly I urged time to pass in the offseason - each day just being an obstacle to getting to the next thing - the draft, camp, the season. I'll never get that time back, and I appreciate what a mistake that was. I wanted so badly to feel a catharsis and have wrongs written. In some ways, I do wish we would've won SB46 when I was at the peak of that unhealthy obsession. But it taught me a valuable lesson - that I couldn't depend on a bunch of men in tights throwing a pigskin around to grant me the catharsis I wanted. I needed to move on. It was ridiculous how invested I had become.
I felt much better off going into this game. I didn't need us to win. I wanted us to, but I wasn't going to be depressed for months (at least) again were they to lose. Frankly, I thought that without that fear hanging over me, that a win wouldn't be as sweet. That it wouldn't mean as much when I was a full-blown Pats junkie several years ago. I was very wrong. This was the sweetest title yet, somehow managing to top the Rams game which I never, ever thought could've been outdone. I feel very content. And that is a very good feeling.
