Coping With Loss: Super Bowl Edition

Welp…the Patriots lost the Super Bowl. No way around it.

And I’m 100% fine this morning.

This loss is less than 72 hours old, and I’m already over it. What a refreshing change of pace from Super Bowl losses in the past. The 2007 loss took me close to a decade to get over. The 2011 loss had me stewing for weeks. But this one? I’m more or less already over this one and looking forward to the offseason.

But if you’re feeling a little despondent today, I get it – and here are five reasons why you should buck up and enjoy life.

We won it last year. I’m sure you didn’t forget…but the Patriots literally JUST won this thing. They have five rings total. That’s more than plenty. And yes, six is more than five, and it’s always about the next one – but it’s going to be very, very hard for me to get too upset over any Super Bowl loss going forward. Especially because…

It’s all gravy at this point anyway. Seriously, people. We have 5 rings here. 5 RINGS! That’s five more than a lot of teams have, and while six would have of course been nice, it’s really not that big a deal what happens from mere on out. All just a bonus going forward, which is a great place to be. This game mattered way, way, WAY more to the Eagles than it did to the Patriots, and it certainly showed.

Good for Philly. Seriously, good for the Eagles. They gave that Super Bowl everything that they had, called every play in the book, took some massive risks, and came away world champs. It’s really hard not to appreciate that as a fan. Some of those playcalls took a massive amount of guts, and they all worked out. Now they get to enjoy their first ever Super Bowl championship, and nothing will ever take that away from them. We know all too well what this feels like, and it’s cool that another city gets to enjoy it for the first time.

Legitimate loss. What I most appreciate about this game is that there was no nonsense that handed the Pats this loss. There was no helmet catch. No absurd drops. No miracle grabs. Philadelphia just came out and left it all on the field, pulled out all the stops, and walked away with the win. Not much you can really do in that case but tip your cap and move on. I’ll take a legit loss over some crazy bounce any day of the week.

Now we get our weekends back. You know what I’m going to be doing next Sunday? Anything I want! And the Sunday after that? Anything I want again! I say it every year: a part of me always breathes a large sigh of relief whenever the NFL season ends, no matter how it ends. Now it’s time to relax, enjoy the offseason, look forward to Spring, March Madness, baseball, and summer - all great things.