New Englanders are lucky to have been blessed with a rich sports tradition.
On the national, collegiate, and even the high school level, this region is packed with competitive teams, gifted athletes, and passionate fans—passionate to the point of being somewhat divorced from reality. Because, for reasons that escape me, sports fans in our neck of the woods seem to have a decidedly "glass is half-empty" attitude, especially when it comes to our professional teams.
I'm not sure why this is. It may be residual stress from coming so close to winning championships and coming up short ('86 Red Sox, anyone?). Or it could be a slight inferiority complex that comes from long-standing rivalries, like, say, with a certain Evil Empire from the Bronx. Hell, it could be nothing more than just geographic stubbornness. All I know is if you stop a New England sports fan and strike up a conversation about the Red Sox, you are just as likely to hear a rant about the sub-par performance of J.D. Drew and Coco Crisp as you are about the post-season heroics of Josh Beckett and Manny Ramirez.
On Boston sports talk radio, you'll hear fan after fan calling in with complaints about everything from the Bruins' lack of defense to how ridiculous it is that Boston College football is only third instead of first in the BCS rankings.
Sports fans in this region are pessimistic by nature—which creates an interesting situation regarding the 2007 New England Patriots.
When you think of great professional sports teams in this region's history, the 1986 Boston Celtics, the 1972 Bruins and the 1967 and 1975 Red Sox might come to mind. I'd even go along with throwing the 1985 Patriots Super Bowl team in that mix. But in terms of pure dominance of a given professional sport, none of those teams comes close to what we're seeing from this year's Patriots squad.
I write this having just watched the Pats eviscerate the Miami Dolphins to go to 7-0. They put up 48 points against the Fish, not exactly a surprise when you consider the off-season New England had. Bob Kraft and the boys went shopping for some new toys for future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady, and the addition of wideouts Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth and others have turned the Patriots from a pretty good team into an almost unstoppable force.
Not only are they averaging 38-plus points a game and a lock to win the AFC East, but Brady is on pace to break Peyton Manning's single-season touchdown pass record. And, given how their schedule is shaping up, the Pats have a real shot at becoming the first NFL team since the 1972 Dolphins to go undefeated during the regular season.
It's an organization that appears to be perfect in every aspect of the game, from the players to the coaching staff and all the way up to the front office, the "video-gate" controversy notwithstanding. It's a franchise poised for the kind of dominant run that will make the previous three Super Bowl years look meager in comparison.
And I'm really not sure if the sports fans of New England are ready for it, or, at the very least, ready to appreciate it.
Given the attitudes we seem to have, are we really going to be able to wrap our minds around the idea of having a near-perfect team on a potentially historic run in our own backyard? I'm not sure. After all, we are the ones who are always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Even in a year when the Red Sox are headed for the World Series, the Celtics look poised for another era of dominance with the addition of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and even the Bruins look good, we still can't seem to relax and enjoy ourselves. We always find things to complain about, even when we are winning.
I hope that, as the season progresses, New England sports fans can set aside their dread and angst and appreciate what's going on in Foxboro. We may see history made right in our own back yard, and the only ones who need to be worried are the poor bastards in the shoulder pads who have to line up across from our guys every Sunday.
