Following the New England Patriots loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship game, I couldn’t even find it in me to go on Twitter or any social media platform. No, I’m not talking about because of all the Patriots haters rubbing salt in the wound, but because of all the unappreciative Patriots fans. Fans have a right to hold their teams to a high standard and get upset when they don’t succeed. But Patriots fans just come off as ungrateful after every single loss and it gives off the look of being spoiled little brats. In the past decade and a half, the Patriots have dominated the NFL and have missed the post season twice. They have reached the AFC Championship game 10 times in that span and have been to six Super Bowls. Six of them!
Not to sound like the old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn but believe it or not there was a year where the Patriots went 1-15 one season. Can you imagine going through an entire season of watching the Patriots and have them only win one game? It seems preposterous now, but it once happened. Last season, when the Patriots got blown out 41-14 by the Kansas Chiefs, everyone acted like it was the end of the world’s existence after one blowout. Welcome to life as a Browns fan every week. All Brown’s fans want is to get to .500 and we explode after losing a playoff game when they just won the Super Bowl the year before. It is crazy how near sighted some fans can be.
As a Boston sports fan we have been so incredibly spoiled the past 15 or so years. Fans my age think they know what it is like to lose, but they don’t really know what it is like to lose. One bad season is a catastrophe when every single one of our four teams in the area has won their respective league’s championship in the past decade. As a fan base we could not ask for or be any luckier than we already are. Look at the Cleveland fan base. Imagine how miserable they must be. Every single season knowing your team just won’t get it done. They had a glimmer or hope for a single season for the Cavaliers and that window already looks to be rapidly closing on them. And then poof, just like that it is almost gone. Every single year at least one Boston team is in the hunt for a championship.
Here is a reminder of all the accolades the Boston teams have accumulated in the past 15 years are as follows: three World Series in three appearances, four Super Bowls in six appearances, one NBA championship in two appearances, and one Stanley Cup in 2 appearances, and the four teams have combined to miss the playoffs only 15 times in that span. That means for about every seven playoff appearances, we as Boston sport fans can expect a championship. That doesn’t exactly seem like a bad deal to me.
Now I’m not saying that you’re not allowed to get upset as a fan when the team loses; that is perfectly fine. However, what I am saying is don’t act like they have been in a drought for 30+ years, it gives the fan base a bad reputation as spoiled and ungrateful. It is important to just take a deep breath, and just remember how lucky we are to be Boston sport fans, the best sports city in the world.
