Who Needs Warmth? We’ve Got the Pats!

By Ryan McGowan

Recently I was driving with my parents up to Waterville, Maine, to watch my brother play basketball for Colby College.  I have never been a huge fan of the Pine Tree State.  Even with my father’s affection for the state he went to college in, the love for Maine is by no means genetic.  I don’t mind a nice Saturday afternoon drive past moose crossings and through toll booths manned by 80-year-old guys who look like they just crawled out of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, ending up in some old factory city which the factory abandoned decades ago.  It’s kind of relaxing.  I just don’t know how anyone could ever live there voluntarily.  In fact, if not for Maine’s network of small but highly reputable colleges, I don’t know why anyone from the Lower 47 states would ever venture there between the months of September and June.Now, this is not meant to be an attack on Maine.  In fact, I woke up Sunday morning looking out the window at 30 inches of snow, astonished why anyone who purports to be a rationally thinking human being would ever voluntarily choose to live in Massachusetts.  I mean, there are plenty of other world-class cities out there with prestigious colleges, extensive history, quality social life, nice scenery, and good-paying jobs that DON’T get smothered by almost three feet of snow in the middle of January.  As I stood in line for an hour to buy eight items at Star Market on Comm Ave, I listened to some whiny BU undergrad complain that “Boston wind sucks” (as if hurricane-force winds in Freehold, New Jersey, or Lake Forest, Illinois, or wherever he was from, are much kinder and gentler).  Resisting my temptation to whack him across the face with a gallon of milk, I thought to myself: why do we do this?  Why do we bother living in the Hub of the Universe, when we could just as easily move to San Diego and basically live in a Girls Gone Wild video for twelve months a year?

As tends to happen with these introspective life dilemmas, the answer came somewhat unexpectedly on Sunday night.  It came in the form of three Pittsburgh turnovers, two Tom Brady touchdown passes, one classic Deion Branch goodbye wave to the fans, and an overall thorough domination of the 16-1 Steelers by your defending world champions, 2005 AFC Champions, Jacksonville-bound New England Patriots.  THEY are the reason why we can tolerate living in Boston in January.

Remember when the U.S. was going through a “crisis of confidence” (to use President Carter’s term) in the late 70’s?  (Well, I don’t really remember it either, but I took history in school and I saw Miracle.)  The U.S. Olympic hockey team was there to shock the world and win the gold at Lake Placid, and restored confidence to a nation in malaise.  It hasn’t been quite the same in Boston– with the Sox finally winning the World Series and all, a “crisis of confidence” might be a little strong.  But there has certainly been a “crisis of meteorology”, with the only benefits being a snow day on Monday and increased TV airtime for Chikage Windler.  Nothing is more annoying than not being able to get your car into your driveway and having to be pushed by four stuck, irate motorists.  But nothing is a better remedy for the winter blues than a good old-fashioned Patriots ass kicking, and just when we needed it most.

People used to wonder if there would be as much interest in the Patriots and the Red Sox after they won a championship.  They wondered if people would care as much about the teams once they shed their “lovable loser” or “cursed” labels, and whether future seasons would ever mean as much or be as satisfying as the first one.  Well, this playoff run by the Patriots has been among the most satisfying experiences of my life as a sports fan.  It might not be the most euphoric (that is a column I am saving for after the Super Bowl), but it certainly is just as special, if not more so, than the Cinderella 2001 team that truly shocked the world when they beat the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.  As a sports fan, you get greedy.  We got one championship with the Pats, so we wanted more.  We got a second, now we want a third.  This must be what being a junkie, or a Yankee fan, is like.  (If there is a difference.)  We’ve felt what it is like to be on top.  We’ve been riding that wave for almost three years now, and we don’t want to give it up.  We are becoming addicted to winning.  It’s like with the Red Sox — once isn’t enough.  We know what it feels like to topple the Yankees now.  We know we can do it.  We want more.  If the Patriots lose to the Eagles on February 6, it will be just as painful as when they lost to the Bears, or the Packers.  Maybe even more so.

This is what drives us not only as sports fans, but as Bostonians trying to get through a long, grueling winter.  We woke up on Sunday morning buried under three feet of snow, wondering how the hell we were ever going to dig our car out, how our driveway was going to be cleared, how we were going to get to work.  We got it done.  It will snow again this winter, and we’ll go through it again.  It sucks, but we get through it.  We don’t make excuses.  We may wish we were in San Diego or Honolulu right now, but almost all of us have made conscious choices to live in Boston.  Some of us (myself included) have left warmer climes where “snowblower” and “plow” are foreign words, to move back to (or move to) this city.  

The Patriots represent what we’re about.  We’re not about glamour.  (We’re not L.A.)  We’re not about trash-talking or arrogant showboating.  (We’re not New York.)  We’re not about doing things the easy way, the quick way, the lax way.  (We’re not New Orleans or Vegas, though we could use a casino in Eastern Mass.)  We’re Boston; we’re just about being the best.  We’re about working hard, playing hard, enjoying what we do, appreciating the people/teammates around us, and seizing the moment.  It would be easy for us to move somewhere else with cheaper real estate and higher average temperatures, just like it would have been easier for Tedy Bruschi or Troy Brown to take more money somewhere else, because (in the words of Lawyer Milloy) “Super Bowl rings don’t feed your family.”  

But they didn’t; they stayed here in New England.  They stayed because they share the same values that we have, that Bill Belichick has, that Bob Kraft has.  We love this team so much because they are a mirror of who we are, and win or lose in Jacksonville, they have already proven themselves to be champions.  By association, that makes us feel like champions.  When you identify so strongly with a team that goes out and takes care of its business as efficiently and as completely as the Patriots do, it really does make you feel a little better about yourself.  It’s quite a remarkable connection.

It’s not just the winning; it’s how they win every week by taking every game one at a time and concentrating solely on the task at hand.  It’s how they play every down like it’s their last, and treat every snap as if it’s the most important event in human history right then and there.  It’s what they stand for: attention to detail, teamwork, commitment to excellence, sticking up for your friends, the willingness to sacrifice yourself for the good of the whole, the contribution of everyone in the organization from the owner to the ball boy to the assistant to the traveling secretary.  They are truly a remarkable team.

And it’s what they stand for as a team that makes it all that much easier to wake up under thirty inches of snow in Boston, smile,  and be thankful that we live in the greatest city on the planet and wouldn’t want to root for any other team, or live anywhere else.  Especially not Maine.