Why I Care About the Super Bowl

One that truly embodies the spirit of the fan. Good show old bean. Hope to hear (read) from you again.

I am also jobless (never had a job really, and I’m 20 years old. I am going for an interview soon so I’m crossing my fingers). For me though? Writing on this blog, working on a website with a couple other people, volunteering at a TV station, all have provided good hopes for me to hopefully be a video editor, or anything involving the media.

Being active is what’s important. Try volunteering somewhere. Use the Pats inspiration, and never give up. Each season is a new dawn. A new day. I certainly hope the pats can win this one. So much is into it.

And welcome to the blog my man. I hope we can help keep you active. Look out for some offseason pieces when the superbowl is done. Offseason is certainly exciting. :)

There are a lot of parallels between that and the Patriots franchise since SB 42- hope the ending turns out the same in the Super Bowl as in your story with Tom Brady, BB, and Bob Kraft holding up the prestigious Lombardi Trophy

but in the best possible way, lol. Love this post.

One good story deserves another, so here is mine. Growing up in South Jersey, I was raised rooting for the Eagles, mostly because their games were on every week (I grew up loving the sport more so than any particular team). When I watched the ’01 Superbowl, I fell in love with the Patriots- I loved that they came out on the field as a team, their cool as a cucumber young quarterback, an amazing defense, and Vinatieri hitting the field goal to win it- overtime… who needs over time when you can win it all in regulation. Needless to say I fell hard for the Patriots, in a way that I never did the Eagles.

Fast forward to 2007. My clerkship ended in 2007, and for the first time in my life, I did not have the next step planned. I had graduated college Magna Cum Laude, and had good grades in law school, and glowing reccomendations, but the Great Recession had chilled the legal industry. I was living with my parents, but needed an income, as they could not afford another mouth to feed, and I had bills that I had to pay. I applied for jobs as a temp, but even those were scarce. Things were so bad that I went back to working weekends as a prep cook at Cracker Barrel to help make ends meet. I worked one full time week in September, and watched as a 1-2 month gig was pushed back almost a month, and then was largely part time instead of the full time + over time that I had been promised. I lost that job in November, and my father died two days after Thanksgiving. Through this, the Patriots gave me hope as the wins kept pouring in.

I did not get to see much of the game that took the Patriots to 16-0, or the next two games. My weekend job scheduled me during all three games (my boss was a wonderful man- but he was also a Jets fan, and I can’t help but believe that giving me off Saturday instead of Sunday in championship weekend was a little less unintentional than he let on). I was off for the Super Bowl, though- I had returned to temping the week before the AFC championship game, and the office was open almost every day, but they could not get enough employees to come in that day to make it worth it. It would be my last day off until Mid-April. I woke up on Super Bowl Sunday with a pit in my tummy- something did not feel right that day, and no amount of watching the media coverage discussiong how good the Patriots were quite made it go away. I spent the Super Bowl holed up in my Mom’s bedroom alone. My little brother hates the Patriots, and I just wanted to watch the game in peace. I spent the first half on Messenger, joking with my friend Julie (another Pats hater). By the second half, I was sitting on the bed just staring at the TV, wondering where all of the offense had gone. Less than 10 seconds after Brady overthrew Moss to all but end the game, my little brother was in there jumping up and down and celebrating. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach- the pain of losing my father and having my career dreams come up short all seemed to hit at once. I went through the next few days in a fog- I ate, I slept, and I worked.

Things have gotten a little better here, although not to the degree that they have for you. I am still temping, but had achieved greater financial stability (including enough to see Brady return to action in ‘09), but my life is still teetering, and a recent job loss (after a year of really good job luck), has me uncertain again. My mom suffered a health scare this past November, and came home from the hospital the day before Thanksgiving. I gave up an opportunity to see the Pats play in Philly because I couldn’t bear to leave her home while she was still pretty sick.

Over the past four years, my love for the Patriots has never went away, but it has changed. I look back at the time of their Super Bowl wins, and am reminded of a time when I had hopes and dreams. In some ways Super Bowl 42 and the time after it, with the Patriots doing well in the regular season only to flop has only been a reminder of how my own dreams have been dashed away again and again. I too need them to win this game for me- to show me that hard work sometimes pays off, that it is ok to hope, and that dreams do come true.

2007 was unforgettable for me as well, thanks for the share

2007 was the best year of my life. I was 12 years old, and had just moved up to middle-school. It was that time of life where you could flirt with girls who were just starting to develop female figure, convince your parents to buy you M-rated games, and yet still play with Legos and go down the little-kids slide at the pool.

Leading the fun was the Pats, who, for the first time, I was actually following. I’d always liked them, but now it was just impossible to ignore. They seemed to be on every magazine, every channel, and every advertisement. It was as if the world was all working together to preform a random act of kindness, to give me a present surprise.

As 2008 rolled around, it turned into a random act of WTF WORLD WHY YOU PICKING ON ME-ness. The 18-1 couldn’t have gone down worse, and really shook how I focused on stuff, even when it didn’t relate to football. I started looking for perfection, and, at least temporarily, tried to avoid everything which I couldn’t control for fear that it would blow up as my interest in football had.

And most of all, it caused me to feel as though piece was missing. As though, no matter how great 2007 was, it would always have one bad memory staining it.

Fast forward to 2012. Once again it seemed as though the world had dropped the perfect opportunity down for us, and yet, once again, that opportunity was missed. We win and I might have even been happy about the entire situation. I could probably have convinced myself that revenge was greater then perfection, and that it had all been a grand plan that would, in the end, result in a greater win and more enjoyable outcome.

Though I can’t really say I dwell in the past, I could have moved on and looked forward to what was to come. 2007-2012 would hang like a brilliantly complex masterpiece on the wall, the stain only adding to its beauty. Sadly, though, this isn’t what happened.

Worst of all, I now worry that the Patriots, or perhaps even myself, will not have as good a time as we had in 2007.