As someone who detests Boston's arrogant sports fans, I have to say I'm quite pleased with the Patriots' mind-blowing 17-14 loss to the Giants in Sunday's Super Bowl. At first Sunday night, I was slightly disappointed because a Patriots' victory would have been truly historic -- much like Joe Dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak in baseball for one generation, I don't think I would have ever seen another football team finish an undefeated season 19-0 as the Patriots were about to do. Their dominance this year was the only reason I turned on football games.
But after thinking about it, boy, do Boston fans deserve it. Three NFL championships and two MLB ones in the past six years, and the Celtics are the best team in basketball by far this year. All that, and all you ever hear on the sports talk radio shows and in the sports pages -- most especially the Herald's -- is the constant whining and overanalyzing of every team. Geez, there were people lambasting Francona on the radio in mid-September last year, when the Sawx were a month away from winning the World Series.
That said, it was beautiful to listen to WEEI's "Big Show" Monday afternoon during a long car drive, as all of New England melted from shock. Among the callers' suggestions: the brilliant Coach Bill Belichick should resign; the Patriots shouldn't re-resign Randy Moss, one of the most talented wide receivers of our time; and that the only way the Giants' defensive lineman could have so overpowered the Patriots' offensive lineman after not having much of an impact in the regular-season matchup that the Patriots won a month ago was the anabolic steriods they were taking?! Sports fans, particularly those who call talk radio stations, are largely irrational, hysterical and hyperbolic, but I find Boston ones far exceed the norm.
(Side note: Since moving to Boston a couple years ago, I've long wondered why the host of the "Big Show," Glenn Ordway, is dubbed "the Big O" by the station. Is to suggest "the big orgasm"? That would just beautifully complicate the sexual politics of a show where the constantly professed love of heterosexuality and fears of homosexuality are on such overdrive that the homoeroticism among all the "pundits" is overwhelming. This is all further complicated by the fat caricature of Ordway now at the WEEI home page [linked to above] and his general real-life ugliness. And the Herald proves my point by giving Karen Guregian's story today the headline "Belichick's on hot seat.)
Anyway, the Patriots lost -- according to everything I've read and heard since I was at a wedding Sunday and didn't even watch the game -- because their offensive line performed poorly and the ridiculous catch by Giants wide receiver David Tyree that you can watch below.
Belichick will return, as will Moss and many, though probably not all, the key players and the Patriots will again win the divisional title next year. The conference title isn't a preposterous notion, either. They didn't complete their perfect season because the odds of actually being able to do so are just too slim, no matter how much talent there is. The other reason, circa 2008: If there's one I thing I learned about postmodernism, perfection is just too absolute to be able to exist in it.
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