thePULSEHome is Where the Heart is Breaking
By Kimberly Dunbar
The streets of Boston haven’t been this somber since the Red Sox lost Game 7 of the ALCS in 2003. While there have been a few tough losses in between two World Series championships and two Super Bowl titles, heartbreak like the kind brought on by Sunday’s loss hasn’t taken up residency in this city for a while.
For a town that was plagued by bad sports luck for so many years, it is amazing how quickly we can get spoiled and forget that we really can’t win them all. We forget how the hot tears of disappointment can burn, how miserable the Monday morning hangover of a loss can be. We also have taken for granted how wonderful winning can feel. Remember when the underdog Patriots won their first Super Bowl by taking down the favored Rams with a last second field goal? That victory tasted so sweet we became greedy for more. And we got more. We got so much from our Patriots — two more Super Bowls and a near perfect season. We forgot what it was like to be on the losing end of the sports game.
This Patriots Super Bowl loss is a particularly tough one to swallow because of the historical potential it had and because everyone — with the exception of comedian Frank Caliendo — predicted the Patriots would win. The Boston Globe was already taking orders for the upcoming book 19-0 and there were T-shirts being made with the same inscription across the front. We even started analyzing the effects the victory parade would have on the Massachusetts primary. And people accused Bill Bellichick of being cocky.
When Eli Manning hit Plaxico Burress for the winning touchdown, the silence that followed was like a heavy blanket suffocating every New England fan watching from his or her living room. We assumed we had won and expected 19-0 to come without a fight. If perfection came that easily, the 1972 Dolphins wouldn’t be the only team in NFL history to have achieved it. We angered the sports gods and were punished for our sloth.
Instead of feeling bad for ourselves, we should feel good for the number of other football fans who now get a chance to drink from the victory cup (even if they are from New York and tend to be sore winners). Go back to how you felt in the moment when you first got a taste. Sports are about camaraderie and although our opponent took perfection away from us –and it really hurts to have our team’s amazing accomplishments forgotten because of three lousy points — know that the enjoyment of winning won’t be lost on their fans. Realizing this is what has helped me ease the pain of defeat.
And now, take this opportunity to reflect upon three key lessons we should have learned from Super Choke XLII: after our next championship — and there will be another — we will enjoy and appreciate winning even more, red is definitely not Bellichick’s color, and as my dad said after the game, I guess we were worried about the wrong Manning brother all along
