Spoiled Pats Fans Are Worse Than They've Ever Been
Imagine if your favorite sports team tallied these accomplishments (and blemishes) over 20 years, you’d take it, right?
6 championships (9 championship appearances)
Arguably the greatest player-coach combo in any sport
Three MVP awards
17 division wins in 19 years
Endless come from behind victories
2 “cheating” scandals
Of course you’d take it!
This has been the experience of New England Patriots fans, and as a Patriots fan, it was glorious. I grew up in the Patriots fandom sweet spot, old enough to remember the 1-15 teams, Hugh Millen, Drew Bledsoe, and Bill Parcels. The 1998 Super Bowl loss to the Green Bay Packers sucked and the Rams victory during my senior year in high school is still seared in my memory, watching in my buddy’s basement and being greeted by his dad at the top of the stairs after Vinatieri’s kick soared through the uprights.
These wonderful years made a lot of Pats fans spoiled. The ho-hum playoff bye-weeks and AFC Championship appearances became things I (and we) would pencil into our calendar. Any plans for weekends at the end of January and beginning of February were always tenuous because, well, there was probably going to be a Patriots game.
Patriot fans became whiney and entitled; it’s what happens when other fans constantly attack you and leave you fearing a loss more than craving a win (I think many people watching election results rolling in might understand this sensation). Heavy is the head that wears the crown and all that.
On Monday night, the Patriots will roll down to New Jersey for a match-up against the crap-tastic New York Jets. The teams have a combined 2 wins, both belonging to the reeling Patriots (the Jets have been reeling for 50 years. Except for the Bart Scott era, which is what I choose to call it.) The Pats have lost four straight games for the first time since Bill Clinton was President (that’s a made up fact that might be true…).
The only thing worse than whiney, spoiled sports fans of winning teams is whiney, spoiled sports teams of dynasties on the decline. I fear we’ve reached that point with Patriots fans. I always understood that we were annoying, and I know I’d fall into that category myself at times. But listening to people on the radio and internet complaining about the roster and the lack of a plan post-Tom Brady is fingernails-on-the-chalkboard annoying.
I, however, am kind of enjoying this fall from grace the Pats are experiencing. I don’t care if they win or lose and the Cam Newton experience has been as whacky as I thought. I see the fans of the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, and Pittsburgh Steelers planning out a path to the Super Bowl. I can relate to it, and I’m glad it’s not my reality this season.
That’s what’s been most enjoyable - the loses aren’t surprising, the target isn’t on the Patriots back anymore. I don’t feel like the entire world is rooting against me, and I’m not pacing the living room wishing for my team not to lose instead of win while losing 2-3 years off my life with every fourth quarter drive.
I’m just in my own little bubble, watching games and moving on with my life. No email exchanges with Eagles and Giants fans that would root for Stalin over Brady if given the choice (okay, probably not…. but they might, seriously…).
There is certainly a fear down the road that the Pats dip into endless mediocrity and end up like the Chicago Bulls or Toronto Maple Leafs or Dallas Cowboys. But for now, I’m enjoying the low-stakes football and seeing how they try to turn it all around, either this season or in the next few.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go prep for the Ohio State game…