GoPats.com - Out In The Loop

Editor’s note - we feature for the first time at GoPats.com Matt Carrier, our first PhD, as a guest writer. Matt’s brother JC of Artistic Revelation has created many of the great illustrations we have featured here over the years.

I am certain that we are all well aware of the injury Tom Brady suffered in the Patriots’ first game and that now his season is over. The Patriots will try to soldier on with Matt Cassel at quarterback, and most everyone who follows the NFL now feels solidly that New England’s season is done. So… why is it that I now feel MORE interested in this Patriots’ season? Witnessing last season’s march toward perfection began as a fun-filled exciting ride. But, I’ll be honest, it was nothing but a gut-wrenching, panic-attack inducing, vomit roll-a-coaster by the season’s end. And don’t even get me started about the Super Bowl (in my revisionist history, the Patriots won that game and went 19-0...do NOT disturb this fragile reality). My point? Simply that watching the Patriot’s play the past season (or two?) has gone from being fun to being painful in a lot of respects.

The Patriots are ALWAYS supposed to win, the expectations are always high; the notion that anything less than a Super Bowl victory would be a disappointment was claimed by pundits and fans alike. How is that kind of atmosphere conducive to enjoying what is essentially a meaningless past-time?

After last season’s last minute debacle, I found myself actually rather TIRED of Patriots’ football. I had given them all I had last year until the very grueling end--an end that saw me nearly in tears. I think I would’ve rather seen them go 5-11 and miss the playoffs entirely than witness what we all witnessed last year.

So, why am I more interested now that Brady is done for the year? Simple: the expectations are gone; the pressure has been lifted; the Patriots are the UNDERDOGS again! So what if they lose ten games and miss the playoffs this season? Without Brady, they weren’t SUPPOSED to be good anyway. But, if they win 11 or 12 games and go deep into the playoffs? Well, with every win they take, they’d still be playing with HOUSE MONEY! Maybe Matt Cassel is really good, maybe he’s really bad---we’ll find out soon! Maybe the Patriots have been winning all these years because of Belichick, or maybe it was really Brady--we’ll find out soon! The Patriots’ march to the playoffs has become dramatic again---but without the heartburn inducing ulcers that we’ve all come to know and love!!!

Do you remember the 2001 season? You know, when Mo Lewis said to Drew Bledsoe, “Mama said knock you out”, and the unknown Tom Brady took over? All of us, everyone of us, was sure that the season was finished. But, with each game, the Patriots won a little here, got close over there, and turned the season into a fun, exciting ride! When they got close to clinching a playoff spot, we were EXCITED, not ANXIOUS; when they nearly got beaten by the Raiders in the playoffs, we were sad to be sure---but not CATATONIC! And when they beat the Rams in the Super Bowl, we were elated---not just satisfied.

Do you see what I mean? We, all of us, had become accustomed to winning. We began to feel it was our right! But it’s not, it’s just sports, and I for one, forgot to love it for what it was. Now, I’m not saying that we are going to have a repeat of the 2001 season, for all I know the Pats will go 3-13 and miss the playoffs. But, I do know that Brady’s injury and what it means for the Patriots may have inadvertently returned me to a place where I can be excited and happy to see a victory on Sunday without being petrified about the next game.

The spirit of 2001 is back, our team isn’t supposed to win, but they very well might win a lot. The expectations are gone, but I expect to have fun again. The anxiety is gone, and with it the pain of failure after so much hype. I’m going to enjoy football again, because this situation has reminded me of one thing: it’s only football.