Pats Fan's Illness

If you happen to come across any Patriots fan who watched “the game” on Sunday from start to finish, ask them how they felt coming into the fourth quarter. If they look you in the eyes and tell you they felt confident, and that their trust never wavered, slap them in the face. They are lying to you. As a lifelong Patriots fan, I can tell you what it felt like. Imagine the begining stages of one of those god-awful colds you get every year, leaving you in bed for three days, surrounded by used tissues and empty orange juice containers, your ears clogged and your nose running nonstop, the only thoughts running through your head being, “That’s it…I’ve done it…I’ve managed to contract the life-long cold…my life is over”. Yeah…it’s kind of like that. Let me explain.

We (as Pats fans) have been so unbelievably spoiled all year by blowout wins and the near perfect play, that we had forgoetten how awful it feels to be behind. The only example in recent weeks of our stomach churning in agony was when the Redskins finally scored against us, making it a 45-point game, but stealing the shutout from us. Those bastards. Who do they think they are?

Seeing Brady toss up his second pick of the game on Sunday (tying his total for the season coming into the game) brought thousands of fans stomachs up into their throats and hot sweats down their brows as they began to feel something they hadn't felt in...well...months: being outplayed and an a possible 1 in the Loss column.

It's like the feeling of that cold coming back to get you. All spring, summer, and fall you live in perfect health (god-willing), enjoying a clear nose and a soar-less throat, completely forgetting about how terrible those winter colds feel. Then, December rolls around, and you inhale that first gargling sniff, immediately thinking, "Oh no - I remember this - it sucks".

Suddenly, images of last year's AFC Championship come rushing back, and the thought of Brady not bringing us on his back down the field for the winning touchdown and instead tossing an interception down the middle of the field became all to plausible.

Patriot fans know all to well the how it feels to lose, and right when we finally started to block all memories of even being behind in a game, it all came back to bite us. Thankfully this time, Brady brought his antibiotics.