I spent the weekend enjoying the 'other' football. My usual sport of choice is called football by everyone on the globe who DOESN'T live here, but I have had a weak spot for the American flavor, too, ever since I was a little kid. Growing up in southern Oregon, you don't really get a "home team." The 'Niners and Raiders are kinda close. I always felt more of an affinity for the Seahawks. And then I went to college. In Connecticut. In 1986. And lo and behold, there was a team VERY nearby...three, in fact if you include the pair in New Jersey...The Pats had been a Superbowl team, just a year earlier - such hopes we had... They won the division again, but ran into Elway and the Broncos (who I already disliked as a Seahawk fan) and lost by 5 in the Divisional Playoff. The other "locals" were pleased that year, since the Giants won the Superbowl. And I rooted for them, as an Anti-Broncos gesture.
The next year was much of the same - rooting for the 'Skins against Denver in the Superbowl. My newly adopted Pats were giving me a quick taste of the pain Boston sports fans endure, finishing 1 game above .500 in the strike-shortened 1987 season.
The '88 season was another 9-7 dance of mediocrity, and my senior year was a dismal 5-11. I moved back to Oregon, getting safe distance from my heartbreaking Patriots, though the local options (distant Seattle, SF, and a Raider team who we all KNEW was Oakland, despite their time in LA) weren't giving me much better to look at. Yes the 'Niners were winning a lot. Rice and Montana and Young were great, but they didn't have my loyalty. I was loving the hurt the NFC was putting on Denver in Superbowls, though.
When Bill Parcells (who I recalled from his tenure at the NY Giants, while I was in CT) was named the Pats coach, I got excited - here was the guy who could get us there (there being "back to winning" and "us" being Pats' Fans). Right off, we're back in the playoffs (as a wildcard, due to head to head results against the identical 10-6 Miami). Talent is clearly willing to play for "the Tuna." And then 5-11 in 1995? What!? So frustrating!
But wait... in 1996, we win the AFC East, reversing to 11-5! And as I drove home on I-5 from Washington listening to the Superbowl on AM radio, I actually thought we had a chance against the Packers. We JUST SCORED! It was 21-27 late in the 3rd quarter and we were kicking off to Desmond Howard... and DAMN if he didn't run it back 99 yards.
Gah. I stopped watching football during the regular season. I was too busy with Pirate Soccer anyway. I watched Superbowls. I was actually pulling FOR the Broncos the next year - they were going to have a shot at the Packers (who I was feeling a tad miffed at) and Elway really had done the "Amazing Career, wouldn't it be great to win it all just once" thing...
The Superbowl, which had a tradition of being lopsided, delivered a nailbiter in 2000, and I started paying attention to the NFL again. I was aware of the Ravens throughout the 2000 season, I saw their January of '01 demolition of NY coming.
But then came the year where football didn't matter. Because someone else demolished New York. I paid little attention to much of ANYTHING, least of all football - I tried to teach history and government and geography in my classroom while a war built and exploded in retribution. I focused on a soccer team loaded with potential and brought down by factionalism. I wrestled with my own little world of dogs and a girlfriend.
And somehow, at the end of that 2001 season, there were my Patriots again. Heavy underdogs against St. Louis' Greatest Show on Turf. There they were, being introduced, not as individual players from either the offense or the defense, but as ONE TEAM.
And winning.
And now, we are looking at a 3rd Championship appearance in 4 seasons. And again football, which isn't REALLY important, holds my attention on weekends every winter.
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