They had it won. Brady marched down the field and threw a TD with a couple minutes left. Defense shows up and it’s over. Multiple times on that drive I jumped out of my seat thinking the Pats had pulled it off. Almost INT. 4th down. Then someone possessed Eli Manning, turned him into a quarterback he’s not, stuck Velcro on Tyree’s helmet and ripped the heart out of every Pats fan with less than 2 minutes to go in the game. Such is life. I am very superstitious and believe that the whole karma of the game was thrown off when Belichick walked on the field in that awful red sweatshirt. That was the baseball equivalent of the Red Sox wearing the once-a-year Sunday Green shirts in Game 7 of the World Series. Would that ever happen? Of course not. If it’s at home it’s white. If it’s on the road, it’s that traditional grey. Grey. Keep the cut off arms and the embroidered ‘BB’. Sure it looks ridiculous, but you don’t mess with the formula. I was uncomfortable from the start of the game, I didn’t know if I should keep on my Grogan jersey or leave it in the closet. Should I put our 3rd and youngest son to bed during halftime, wearing his Brady jersey like I did his older brothers in victorious years past? (the oldest actually wore a Bledsoe jersey to sleep as an 8-month old baby – who had Brady jerseys then?). You’re not supposed to think, you just follow the formula.
It was still an entertaining season, and I’m humble enough to be grateful there are only two weeks between the Superbowl and pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training.
(By the way, for colleagues in Cleveland (like the one who decided to open up a can of worms off my first blog post), can Cleveland ever catch a break at all? It’s been more than a year of "almost winning" a lot. I’ve been good – I didn’t talk any trash during the ALCS, and sat in the bleachers at the Jake in Game 3 suffering relentless txt message abuse from all of you. Even with the Patriots losing, everyone will remember they lost in the greatest Superbowl ever. Years from now no one will remember that Cleveland lost the NBA finals, collapsed in the ALCS and didn’t make it to the NFL playoffs. Oh, right, except me. And I’ll remind you, often if necessary. Looking forward to the NBA playoffs this year…)
