Being too hard on the Patriots – ESPN

Rick Reilly, fairly likely voice of reason. This is one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had since Sunday. I’ve long since given up trying to convince all fans to be positive and seek out the the silver lining that the Patriots are actually still a good team. Even when they occasionally lose.

Everyone uses sports for their own means and I’d much rather have someone taking out all their anger and negativity on professional athletes/teams than say, their family or friends. I get it. Sports are a release for a lot of people and I learned a long time ago to just let the ignoramuses spout off about whatever they want without trying to interfere.

But at some point you just wish those who are most upset would just get off the bandwagon. Because you know they’ll all be back next year, bitching and moaning about every little thing despite fielding one of the best teams in the NFL.

A little decaf, folks: The Patriots lost the Super Bowl on the last play of the game when a tipped ball failed to stay in the air another quarter second longer so a one-legged Rob Gronkowski could possibly catch it. If it had, all three of these writers would be hailing Brady, Belichick and Welker as just slightly greater than Lincoln. How fickle are you people? “There is no fall as far as when you lose the Super Bowl,” says John Elway, who lost three of them. “The second you lose, you drop all the way back to the bottom, down there with every other team that played that season. It’s like you did nothing. The minute it’s over, they literally start bumping you out of the way to set up the ropes and the award stand. It’s like, ‘Uh, can you move, please? We’ve got some people to celebrate here.’” Elway is lucky he didn’t play in Boston. People would’ve pelted him to death with Starburst and never seen him win his last two.