Patriots

November 26, 2007

I’m not shouting the word patriots as in the guys and women who fought to establish our country, but I’m placing the word gently at the top of this post to let you know about my moratorium on professional sports discussions.

I love the NFL and I really like (used to also love) Major League Baseball. But over time I’ve developed an annoying habit of becoming moody based on the results of sports competitions in which I had no actual stake. Well, other than emotional.

For example, I died a little inside during the 1986 World Series, I was crushed when Marino and the Dolphins lost their bid for a Super Bowl championship in 1984 and I’ve been bitter and angry at the New England Patriots for the last eight years or more.

Therefore, when the Patriots somehow won the game last night against the Philadelphia Eagles I decided enough was enough. It wasn’t good for my heart or my mind to be yanked around emotionally by a pro sports team.

This is a team of admitted cheaters and drug-enhanced freaks. A team that doesn’t know anything about honor. A team that is arrogant. But they’re also a team that knows how to win in the system that is the NFL.

Their coach treads the line between fair play and blatant disregard for the rules in order to maintain an advantage over other teams. He treats the media (my profession) with disrespect and he doesn’t have any use for anyone or anything that can’t help him win football games.

Look here for a litany of Patriots’ cheating facts.

If I were an owner of an NFL team, there’s no-one I’d rather have at the helm of my team. But because I have loathed the Patriots for as long as I’ve known what a football was, it’s supremely annoying to watch him continually lead the Pats to victory.

Getting back to my point. For my mental health and wellbeing, I am not going to discuss NFL football (except in the context of my current Fantasy Football team) until my favorite team – the Miami Dolphins – wins at least three games in a row OR beats the Patriots…whichever comes first.

Prepare yourself for deaf ears if you’re going to blather on about New England around me.  And if you’re going to yammer about how great ‘your’ team is, please show me your last pay-stub from the organization and outline what you contributed to make them good. And whiner line phone calls itemized on your cell phone bill don’t count.

More to come…