Super Bowl photos:
http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh78/wolfsbro/A couple of halftime videos on my youtube channel (not that good):
http://youtube.com/user/wolfsbro2Perspective from a week later: (Note: I\'m not reading responses, just doing some writing after some inspired personal exchanges with Klout and ChrisPitch and others outside of .info. I originally PMed this to Klout.)
It\'s funny. I was on the phone with Pitchie for about 30 minutes trying to explain this the other day. He, too, was incredulous as to my apparent lack of anger over the result of this game.
Now, let\'s start by putting it in its proper perspective. It IS incredibly bad. I\'m still having nightmares about it. It\'s the second-worst loss of my life. The worst was, far and away, Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS because the Red Sox mean more than the Pats to any honest Boston sports fan. However, 2004 wiped out all pain of 2003. So although 2003 ALCS game 7 was the worst loss in the immediate aftermath of the given game, Super Bowl XLII is now the worst loss on my sports psyche going forward.
But here\'s the other side of it. Like I said in the post, I am so grateful for my position in sports fandom right now that it\'s hard to get that mad at one loss. The Patriots are still 3-1 in Super Bowls in the last 7 years. That\'s a great record, but holy shit, how about making it four times?!?!? The Red Sox are fresh off yet another championship and the Celtics are awesome. I\'m trying to force myself to get more upset and I just can\'t. The big-picture perspective may certainly be a natural defense mechanism that my brain is working on itself so I don\'t totally freak out over this game. The cynic would call it sugar-coating, but at its core it is not malicious sugar-coating; it\'s just how I really feel.
Attending the Super Bowl redefines your perspective as a sports fan and is a true life moment. I took a few moments before the game to stop and just look at the place and think to myself, "I must be doing something right" and "Life really is good..." you know, that sort of stuff. Especially having been diagnosed with a chronic illness in November and not being sure if I was going to make it out to Phoenix at all, I was very grateful to be there. The enormity of the game and everything that comes with it create an experience that can be as much spiritual as it is carnal. When you think about it, half the people who ever go to the Super Bowl watch their team lose. But do they all have a ruined trip? Do they all regret going? Of course not, it\'s still a great time and you reached the pinnacle of the sports ladder. The possibility of a loss is the risk you take because you\'re a fan of the team.
Many people are actually disappointed with my apparent lack of rage. Some want me to be more upset for their own pleasure because the suffering of a Patriots fan gives them happiness. They have quickly come to realize that although rooting against the Patriots made the 4 hours of the game more fun, it doesn\'t provide any lasting satisfaction because whatever team they root for is still irrelevant. So they turn to my rage to satisfy themselves, only it\'s not there at the potency they desire and so they get mad all over again. Others think about how upset they would be if their team lost the Super Bowl and are confused by my reaction and are thus uncomfortable. But most people would go into the game assuming it was a once-in-a-lifetime-chance. I don\'t have to hang that much on it given recent events. It\'s hard to explain my place in sports fandom and how it\'s too good to be that bad. I don\'t say to people, "Look, you\'ll never live through the 7 years I\'ve lived through as a sports fan and you\'ve never personally attended a Super Bowl, so I can\'t explain it to you." Although that statement is true, it would be pretty obnoxious to say. Instead I go with something like "Look, if you went to the casino and won money all over the place and went up $100,000 and on the way out someone robbed you of $20,000, how would you feel leaving the casino?... If you ask me, I\'m up $80,000 and I\'m pretty psyched. Call me optomistic, but that\'s how I have to look at it."
So that\'s where I\'m at. It is the worst loss I have to live with and I still think about it. But I can\'t get devastated nearly enough to satisfy the bloodthirsty agony-seekers out there. And if the Patriots win it next year, we can go right back to talking about Brady and Belichick as the greatest of all time and I will have the thick insulation of another title shielding me from this loss sturdily enough to render its pain vanquished. Just like the Red Sox in 2004.
