When it came to the Super Bowl I came down hard on the side of the Patriots, for the same reason I do anytime they’re in the playoffs, which is the only time I care enough about the NFL to actually pick a side. The Patriots are, for better or worse, the St. Louis Baseball Cardinals of the NFL—by which I mean, civilian hatred of them approaches Cardinals level, except there’s really no franchise that tops it. The Cardinals will always lag behind the Yankees, but the Patriots really are the most hated team in football, or at least the most hated on my Twitter feed/in Indianapolis. This is what happens when you are so good for so long. 

By all of which I mean: Belichick is the grumpy vizier-like TLR equivalent, Brady is/was a combination of Pujols and Carpenter, and the Patriots’ general personality is easy to root against if you are a non-native. Which kept me defiantly, firmly a Patriots fan for all of Super Bowl week. 

I realized too late that the 2011 Giants were way more the #stlcards equivalent, for obv. reasons—given up on before surging to three straight playoff wins as big underdogs. Being 7-7 was the Cardinals being 10.5 GB-irrelevant in late August. My sinking feeling after the Giants flawlessly recreated four years ago was a better approximation of what Rangers fans felt after flawlessly recreating their first World Series appearance. I am not even a real Patriots fan, and Bill Simmons’ eulogy wasn’t really a lot less important. I said before the game that a rematch was a chance for a wrong to be righted, like if Gore had run again in 2004. It ended up being like Gore running again in 2004 and then losing to Bush by another controversial call. 

This is one of the most fascinating mistakes I’ve ever made in terms of sports loyalty. I’m glad football’s over. 

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