A very sobering thought occurred to me on the day following the dismantling of the modern day steel curtain in Pittsburgh. I was trash-talking my friend Nate, a Philadelphia native, who was telling me all of the different reasons that the Eagles will have a chance to dethrone the Pats in Jacksonville in Super Bowl XXXIX. I sat there, patiently listening to his arguments, and then responded to him, “Yeah, but the Patriots will still win.”
At this very moment, a harsh reality hit me: I had become a Yankee fan.
Now, of course I, a lifetime Bostonian, would rather prance around outside in my skivvies during our most recent snowstorm for 24 hours than ever root for the Evil Empire. In my opinion, they represent everything that is wrong with sports and have almost no players or personnel that anyone actually wants to root for save for maybe Joe Torre and Derek Jeter (Do A-Rod, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, Randy Johnson or George Steinbrenner make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Me neither).
But think back to 1999, the year the Red Sox played the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. Do you remember telling all your New Yorker friends exactly why the Old Towne Team had a shot at taking down the Bombers? First we told them that Nomar was the best right-handed hitter in baseball, an accurate description at the time. Next we pointed out that as long as Pedro Martinez was around, the Sox would be able to win a game or two just because the Dominican right-hander was starting. In addition, Jason Varitek was starting to come into his own, Ramon Martinez was beginning to show his old form and John Valentin and Troy O’Leary proved in the series before against Cleveland that they should not be overlooked.
And what did our Yankee-loving friends answer? They said that sure, the Sox team was formidable and had some talent on it, but when it’s all over, the Yanks will come out on top.
New Yorkers everywhere said this between 1998 and 2000 to anyone who believed they could challenge the champs and, every time, they were right on the money. To anyone on the other side of these arguments it was incredibly frustrating. What was the point of using logic when the other party could simply turn around and say “No. You won’t win”? What made it even more maddening was that it didn’t matter if you were fans of the Sox, A’s Rangers, Mariners, Indians, Padres, Braves or Mets. No matter who you were, those smug Yankee fans always beat you down with their irrepressible confidence in their team.
Now fast-forward to January 18th, 2005, the day after the Pats embarrassed the top offense in the NFL and the two-time reigning MVP in the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning by holding them to a measly three points. Until then, few truly expected the Pats to repeat as champions in 2005. Injuries to the Patriots’ secondary and Manning’s overwhelming dominance convinced almost everyone outside of New England that the Colts were the new “It” team. As soon as the Patriots were finished shooting down that myth, everyone in the Boston area changed for the foreseeable future.
Suddenly, fans that had always been taught to expect the worst when it came to their teams (thanks of course to our beloved and, until three moths ago, hapless Sox) started to believe that they would emerge triumphant. Before the game with the Steelers, fans and media alike were already speculating about whom the Pats would face in the Super Bowl. The game in Pittsburgh, a rematch with the team that snapped the champions’ 21-game winning streak back on Halloween, was written off by the locals as if it was already in the books.
And, in a sense, it was already a foregone conclusion. Anyone who has consistently watched this team over the last four years knows that this year’s club is better and deeper than any of the others they have fielded and has no doubt that beating the Colts, Steelers or Eagles on the field is just a formality. When the games are all over, everyone realizes that the Patriots will be the only ones left standing.
Of course the parallels with the Yankees are not absolute. For one, even though Pats fans believe in their team, much of the national media and the country still do not understand what makes this team tick. Even after throttling the Colts last week and the Steelers’ narrow escape against the Jets the night before, numerous “experts” claimed that those picking the Patriots to advance to the Super Bowl had overreacted based on what happened the week before. During the Yankee Dynasty, everyone believed that the New Yorkers would win it all.
You cannot compare the management styles of the two teams, either. While the Patriots are the model franchise for every team in the NFL, if not all of sports, the Yankees are known for their ability to spend more than anyone else. Although their scouting is to be admired, most teams in baseball are trying to replicate small market teams like the Minnesota Twins or the Oakland Athletics, teams that have been able to compete even with a payroll a fraction of the size of the Yankees’. The Patriots, on the other hand, have made headlines the last couple years for cutting some of their higher profile players (i.e. Lawyer Milloy and Antowain Smith) and will probably do so again before next season (Ty Law) because of salary constraints.
But that’s not what we’re talking about here. On Sundays, be it February 6th or any other Sunday during the Football season, New England fans know that while the other team could conceivably win, they won’t, because the Patriots will win. It’s as simple as that.
So if you’re not from around here, watch out for those Pats fans. You know what to look for: that pompous, knowing smile. An accent that makes their speech at best annoying and at worst unintelligible. Arrogant logic that makes you want to punch them in the mouth and scream out loud. And always, that painful, painful feeling in the pit of your stomach that says, regardless of everything you want to believe, they’re right.
Sounds a lot like our neighbors 200 miles to the south, eh Boston?