Thank You, Patriots!

Before the Manning love fest starts, a Manning love fest that is absolutely and wholeheartedly deserved, I wanted to take a quick minute to give an absolutely massive THANK YOU to the 2013 Patriots. You did more with less than probably any other team in NFL history, and while this team will be forgotten by most as the years go by, I certainly won't. This season has been an absolute blast to watch and I couldn't be prouder to be a Patriots fan than I am right now. We got beat pretty bad today by the best offense in NFL history. We got beat by a better team that wanted it more with more weapons and a strong home field advantage. We are a team that banded together, forced things to go right even when everything went wrong, and went significantly farther than anyone expected us to or anyone thought we should have. The Patriots ran head first into a buzzsaw today, and that's just the way it is. Even with this loss, I'll still take the 2013 Patriots over the 2013 Denver Broncos any day of the week.

Maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet, but I'm not nearly as miserable as I thought I would be in this situation. Maybe it's because a New England at Denver AFC Championship Game has been set in stone for so long now and I have been subconsciously preparing for this exact moment ever since Welker walked. Whatever it is, the emotion I'm feeling the most of right now is gratitude, and I thought I would take a minute to offer some positive words in what is sure to be an ocean of negative. So again, thank you, Patriots. That was one hell of a season. And congrats to Denver, the best team in the AFC, for rightfully earning your spot in the Super Bowl. Not really much else I can say at this point.