Deja' vu

The air hangs a little heavy at my house this morning, there's a general malaise that's nearly palpable. And it doesn't have anything to do with those godawful Super Bowl commercials.

About 10 pm last night my 11-year old son was on the edge of his seat hoping against all common sense that, somehow, his beloved New England Patriots could pull a last-second victory out of the jaws of crummy defeat. I tried talking his expectations down during the game, offer him a little adult perspective..."No one's going to catch the ball, pal, there's no chance" or "Brady's played a decent but not great game, son, and the Giants have just been a little better today, it happens, someone has to lose." He wasn't having any of it.

Brady heaves the ball and there's a jump in the end-zone and a chance - a fluttering, spiralling chance - but no, the ball hits the turf, game over.

So I try again with the practical, realistic approach, "hey, there's always next year" and "it's OK, they were the 2nd best team." All very reasonable, of course. But he's unsuccessfully holding off tears and the redness in his face shows he's nowhere near as calm and collected as he wants to appear to be. He's upset because he doesn't want to go to school on Monday and get teased, he doesn't want to face the mocking chatter that is sure to be heaped upon him, he doesn't want to hear that he backed the losing side.

What to do? How could I help him? There's nothing, I'm as impotent as can be. There's no condolence I could possibly offer him, or pragmatic advice, and nothing I say - regardless of how correct I might be - is going to help ease his pain.

But, this is the "fun" part of sports, even in defeat. If you're a longtime Patriot fan, you're accustomed to a red, white, and blue history of being pretty horrible. Oh, we have those 3 rings (that look more and more suspect with every passing Playoff defeat, eh?) and that was fun, but one's fandom is defined more by the losses than by the championships. I think this is because we feel the losses more distinctly than the vague sense of satisfaction that derives from watching your favorite team win it all. Or- for me- it's because the Patriots have always been my 2nd favorite team so that perhaps I'm simply not as invested (I'm not mentioning my favorite team on this blog again until....August) in their success.

As for the game, eh, it was pretty good. Both teams played well, the Patriots had a chance to close it down in the 4th quarter and didn't. Wes Welker is being a man and taking the blame but if you ask me Brady threw a tough pass to catch - and despite that he almost caught it. After that, the Giants managed to eke out a win, congrats. They won the game.

Are you like me? Have any of you wondered where our CHAMPIONS went? Over the past 12 to 13 seasons, the Super Bowl has been a tight game. That's a good thing, right? Or is it? In '99 the Rams clung to a win. In 2000 the Baltimore Ravens obliterated the Giants. In 2001, 2004, and 20o5 the Patriots squeaked out wins. In 2002 the Buccaneers demolished Oakland. The last big exclamation point victory was Indianapolis in 2007, when they paddled the Bears in the swampy Super Bowl in Miami. The trend is good in terms of making for an exciting game, but the teams that win haven't always seemed like Colossus bestride the Nile. Where are the Dallas Cowboys of 1992-93 and 1995? The 49ers of 1990 and 1994?

In short, where's the excellence?

My kid cares nothing for such navel-gazing, he simply wanted to see his team win. When it didn't happen it crushed him. I know how it feels, I suspect anyone reading this knows, too. The sane parental response is simply to let things pass, knowing that it'll all be forgotten in a few days. He's 11, that's how it works.

So, I give it the best I've got after breakfast:

"Oh, and why don't you just not wear your Brady jersey to school today."