I love you Tom, no matter what

Tom Brady is not a traitor; if I was Neil Diamond I would smack you in the mouth for even thinking that. I won’t listen to that horse shit anymore I’ve seriously had quite enough. Are we really branding our golden boy as a traitor because he wore a Yankees hat? Granted I don’t like that he was wearing one and had he been wearing a Red Sox hat it would have been cooler and he would just be further cementing his legacy as New England’s golden boy. But come on lets not go overboard here.

Is the fact that he wore a Yankees hat going to change the way anyone looks at him? No. Is he still one of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game? Yes. Am I still going to vote for him when he eventually runs for President? Yes. Would you want anyone else in the NFL to be lining up under center for the New England Patriots? Um NO FUCKING WAY!!!!

Brady and Belichick are the best thing to ever happen to the Flying Elvi, Yankees hat or not. I only got to see the tail end of Bird and even at that I was so young that I wasn’t able to fully appreciate Larry Legend. The way that people revere Larry Bird is the way I look at Tom Brady (and in a lot of ways Big Papi & Manny). I just can’t imagine people would even entertain the thought that he’s a traitor for wearing a Yankees hat.

Brady was born in San Mateo, California not Brockton, so it’s completely understandable that he didn’t grow up as a Red Sox fan. Now I don’t think he was a Yankees fan living in the Bay Area but to most people the Yankees hat is a style thing not a where do your loyalties lie rivalry. And Brady dates Giselle now I’m thinking style is a big part of that relationship. He’s an absolute pretty boy off the field too, guy has a gleaming smile and he’s always dressed to impress.

In my opinion he was just wearing the hat as a fashion accessory. As much as we love to refer to Boston as the Hub and claim it’s the Hub of the universe New York is a one of the most major cities on the planet. To us, as Red Sox fans, the intertwined NY means something completely different than it does to other people. Other people see it as New York they don’t see the Aaron Boones, the Bucky Dents and all the other history they simply see it as a symbol of the real life Gotham City and that symbol doesn’t mean to them what it means to us.

I would love to see Brady rocking a Sox hat but it makes no difference to me if he wears a Sox hat, a Yankees hat, a Devil Rays hat, a Giants hat or an Expos hat (he got drafted by the Expos out of high school as a catcher). As long as he keeps throwing touchdowns and leading my favorite football team to Super Bowls and winning games.

In all honestly we should be more worried about the man purse looking thing he’s got under his arm in the picture.

In the end you can’t even say he’s a traitor. He’s not Roger Clemens, he’s not Johnny Damon and he’s not Benedict Arnold. Seriously think about the fact that they are truly traitors…now think about people calling Brady a traitor…it’s just silly isn’t it?

We love you Tom, Yankees hat or not, I promise.

Hope & Faith

Slowly and I do mean slowly I am starting to come out of the groggy, cloudy, comatose like state that the Patriots-Colts game left me in Sunday night. 24 and Prison Break got me through Monday and I’ve been able to stay away from ESPN and NESN to avoid seeing any more highlights (I might throw up if I see that Brady pick again).

The Baseball season is coming up but it’s still over a month away so the news has been slow. There is only so much you can say about what you hope Julio Lugo (JD Drew if he ever signs) and Dice-K will be able to do.

The fact that baseball is still pretty far out and I will probably be watching the Super Bowl for the commercials this year I have found it even harder to shake this sports funk I’m in right now.

I tried to give the Celtics another shot last night but blowing an 18 point lead against the Hawks didn’t exactly help to alleviate the constant nausea that currently plagues me. I know I said I am on the “root against the Celtics so they can get Durant/Oden” bus but it would be nice to see them win a winnable game here and there.

Side note: I actually wanted to watch the NHL All Star game but then I realized that it was on versus...that’s a network? Is there a death pool for tv stations cause if so I’m taking 2008 as the year versus goes down.

I want them to get the number one or two pick (two would almost be better because at number one there is so much pressure to take Oden) but 18 points to the Hawks, doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in the Kids.

Side note: 23 days until pitchers and catchers report

As I sat sullen and downtrodden at the bar at Dailey’s watching highlights of the Celtics getting worked in the forth quarter I turned to look at another TV and it was the Spurs-Rockets game…nice, I can’t even escape subtle hits from the Celtics, now I have to watch Tim Duncan, who could have been a Celtic.

Needless to say I spend the rest of the evening taking my rage out on my own body with Chinese chicken wings and nachos while playing the the buzz trivia game, by myself, hey I never said I was cool.

After heading home from Ski Night, I won a Corona bottle opener (YESSS), I spotted my copy of Bill Simmons’ book Now I Can Die in Peace and decided to thumb through it for a bit. What harm could it do I’ve already read through it twice and probably had been picking through it a third time, maybe it would bring back some good memories.

I opened the book and found I had a book mark at page 163, a story from 2001 titled ‘That Game’ which refers to game six of the 1986 World Series a.k.a. the worst level of losing. Not really a good sign for getting out of the jaded state I’m in. I wasn’t really feeling reading anything about the Red Sox heartbreaking loss in ’86. Granted I was only two years old then so thinking about the whole Buckner thing makes me cringe but for me and my generation of Sox fan game seven of the 2003 ALCS is our ‘That Game’.

Either way I wasn’t feeling that story. I thought about jumping ahead to the end of the book for the 2004 stuff and I thought about just closing the book and going to bed. In my indecision I started flipping pages and I came to the next story; ‘Silence of the Rams’ ok that settles that I’m going to read this and call it a night.

Surprisingly it actually helped. Reading what Simmons had to say about the Patriots first Super Bowl win helped me get some closure on their loss to the Colts this year. I’m still a little foggy and I still think the Patriots should be playing next weekend but rehashing those old memories reminded me how great it can feel to be a fan.

“I mean isn’t that what this is all about? Isn’t that the nagging fear? That all those moral victories over the years won’t pay off in the end-that one moment when everything comes together, when your team keeps winning, when you keep getting the breaks and you just can’t lose?” (Bill Simmons Now I Can Die in Peace)

At first I read that article because part of me wanted to live in the past, I wanted to remember what it was like to win it all. Sure, that might sound stupid after all I’ve never suited up for any football team, never mind the Patriots but when you pour your soul into a team and follow their every up and down it does feel great when they win.

The more I read I remembered all kinds of little trivial stuff from that night. Like the fact that when we all put a dollar in a cup with our predictions of the game outcome everyone but my buddy Joey’s mom had the Patriots winning (even though we knew they were 14-point underdogs and would more than likely get smoked). Or that things started to go downhill when certain people showed up.

We even went as far as not letting anyone move from their seats, a tradition we still hold strong to this day. Not to mention the fact that when I went to school the next day I couldn’t hold my pencil because my knuckles were swollen from literally knocking on wood…yeah I might have had a problem. Although I hold tv networks responsible for the knock on wood thing I mean is it necessary to show ever jinxing/damning stat/montage at crucial points in games (FOX I’m talking to you).

Side note: For the 2004 Red Sox I ate a dominos cheese pizza every time Pedro pitched and a bacon pizza every time Schilling pitched and ritualistically did the Manny 28-part high five with Bridgewater every time the Sox scored a run.

I remembered skipping school the day of the parade, riding crowed orange line trains into Haymarket then pouring out into the streets around Government Center. “Lets go Patriots” chants filled the air and everyone was sharing high fives and smiling. The Duck Boats rolled up with the Lombardi Trophy and everyone cheered. The players climbed down onto the streets and shook hands with fans. Troy Brown, Tom Brady, Ty Law they were all there and you felt like you were one of them.

It was an incredible feeling and after I finished reading the article I stopped to think about it all. I didn’t want to live in the past, no one should. We should all remember and appreciate the past but look to the future. Thinking about the 2001 Super Bowl, the Silence of the Rams, put the loss to the Colts in perspective for me, I still think it sucks, but it makes me appreciate the three Super Bowl wins. Seeing your team win is the ultimate for any sports fan, and we’ve been lucky enough to see the Patriots win three times and Sox win once in the last few years.

That sounds a little like living in the past, I’m not I swear. We as Patriots fans have seen something that doesn’t happen very often in sports. Our team was the underdog, they had no chance and they won. They’ve stayed on top and kept winning and they will be in the mix for years to come.

You always want your team to win the next one. That’s what a lot of players will say. “What’s your favorite Super Bowl win?” or “which one means the most to you?” and they’ll say “the next one”. But can anything really replace the feeling of that first one? I don’t think so, it feels great anytime you win but there is something special about that first time.

The Patriots losing to the Colts sucked. It was depressing and it made everything around you seem dreary like a gray, rainy day. Losing a game like that puts you in a funk. You forget why you watch sports, why you follow these teams, why you hold them so close to your heart. Then you remember the past, you don’t live there, you just visit. That’s when you remember how great it feels when it all pays off and you remember that being a fan is about two words.

Hope and Faith…that’s what it boils down to. The Patriots lost to the Colts and it was tough to swallow but as a fan I have faith in them and I hope that I’ll be able to crowd the streets of Boston in celebration again. Not just for the Patriots but for the Red Sox and for the Celtics and even the Bruins. Call it selfish, call it whatever you want to call it.

Hope and Faith…that’s what being a sports fan is all about.