So...as the Patriots prepare for yet another Super Bowl, and fans of the other 31 NFL teams gird themselves for the potential nightmare of another Brady-Belichick title, I thought I'd invite Pats fans to philosophize about what it feels like to be Yankee fans. Well, let me spin that more positively: if you're 30 or under, you probably don't really remember what it was like for the Patriots to consistently suck, but if you're of a certain age you will remember years of heartbreak before these two decades of awesome which are surely right up there with the best extended period of excellence for any American sports team ever. And I'm curious how this period of excellence has transformed you as a sports fan, and more specifically as a Pats fan.
One consistent trend I've noticed across my time at SoSH is that many if not most Patriots fans don't seem much happier than fans of other teams on a day-to-day basis. Yes, many of you will reflect in the "Celebrating What Is" thread and the weekly Game Ball threads, etc., about this spell of wonderment...but the complaints are still numerous after every loss and whenever anything goes even slightly wrong, and the Game Threads in particular are regularly filled with much anger and angst. And in particular, some people have the ability to get worked into a lather about not just the Pats' natural rivals in the AFC East and the Steelers and other natural targets of hate, but about whichever opponent happens to be in the Pats' crosshairs at any given moment. Some of this will be playful, of course, but some of it isn't...and of that which isn't, some of it is easily justified (e.g., hating the Colts because of everything that went into Deflategate), and some of it rather less so.
The "five-year rule" (for not criticizing your team after winning a title) that Bill Simmons first proposed - I think when the Pats first won their first Super Bowl, IIRC - seems to work best for fans that are unaccustomed to winning. The more you win, the more you want to keep winning. Winning makes you greedy to win more. And this is not necessarily a criticism: as a Falcons fan, I think right now that a single Super Bowl win would be enough to satisfy me as a sports fan for the rest of my days...but if we get our own Brady/Belichick combination in the post-Matt Ryan era, it's entirely possible that I would transform into that same type of Patriots/Yankees fan, wanting to win more and improve my team's relative place in the history books. And even if your team somehow becomes the greatest of all time, you still want it to win and become the greatest by such a margin that its achievements can never be surpassed. It's all greed, when you look at it that way; whether you'd agree with Gordon Gecko that this kind of greed is good is perhaps a matter of perspective.
Anyway, many of you were diehard Pats (and Red Sox, and Celtics) fans at the turn of this century: mostly in the NFL doldrums, perhaps feeling your baseball team was cursed, hoping your basketball team might return to its very former glories. Think back to those times, and think of everything that has happened since: are you happy with the sports fan you've become? Do you ever think about how much you hated pre-2004 Yankees fans and how much like them you might (or might not) have become? Is there a place in sports fandom for feeling generous toward fans of other teams (e.g., Chiefs fans after Sunday's game) and feeling satisfied with your lot in life, not *really* worrying about whether the Pats or Red Sox win, or are you always insatiably greedy for more? And if the latter - which I assume would be true for the vast majority of you - how much do you "hate" (real or pretend) other teams and their fans? Is "hate" central to your sporting experience?
One consistent trend I've noticed across my time at SoSH is that many if not most Patriots fans don't seem much happier than fans of other teams on a day-to-day basis. Yes, many of you will reflect in the "Celebrating What Is" thread and the weekly Game Ball threads, etc., about this spell of wonderment...but the complaints are still numerous after every loss and whenever anything goes even slightly wrong, and the Game Threads in particular are regularly filled with much anger and angst. And in particular, some people have the ability to get worked into a lather about not just the Pats' natural rivals in the AFC East and the Steelers and other natural targets of hate, but about whichever opponent happens to be in the Pats' crosshairs at any given moment. Some of this will be playful, of course, but some of it isn't...and of that which isn't, some of it is easily justified (e.g., hating the Colts because of everything that went into Deflategate), and some of it rather less so.
The "five-year rule" (for not criticizing your team after winning a title) that Bill Simmons first proposed - I think when the Pats first won their first Super Bowl, IIRC - seems to work best for fans that are unaccustomed to winning. The more you win, the more you want to keep winning. Winning makes you greedy to win more. And this is not necessarily a criticism: as a Falcons fan, I think right now that a single Super Bowl win would be enough to satisfy me as a sports fan for the rest of my days...but if we get our own Brady/Belichick combination in the post-Matt Ryan era, it's entirely possible that I would transform into that same type of Patriots/Yankees fan, wanting to win more and improve my team's relative place in the history books. And even if your team somehow becomes the greatest of all time, you still want it to win and become the greatest by such a margin that its achievements can never be surpassed. It's all greed, when you look at it that way; whether you'd agree with Gordon Gecko that this kind of greed is good is perhaps a matter of perspective.
Anyway, many of you were diehard Pats (and Red Sox, and Celtics) fans at the turn of this century: mostly in the NFL doldrums, perhaps feeling your baseball team was cursed, hoping your basketball team might return to its very former glories. Think back to those times, and think of everything that has happened since: are you happy with the sports fan you've become? Do you ever think about how much you hated pre-2004 Yankees fans and how much like them you might (or might not) have become? Is there a place in sports fandom for feeling generous toward fans of other teams (e.g., Chiefs fans after Sunday's game) and feeling satisfied with your lot in life, not *really* worrying about whether the Pats or Red Sox win, or are you always insatiably greedy for more? And if the latter - which I assume would be true for the vast majority of you - how much do you "hate" (real or pretend) other teams and their fans? Is "hate" central to your sporting experience?