THREAD. Watching the Superbowl last night felt downright bizarre. Mostly because I have the weirdest damn relationship to Boston sports now. And I actually think it's worth talking about.
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That would be the curse of the great bambino, which stated that ever since the red sox traded Babe Ruth, they were destined never to win a championship again. And so it went for 80 years.
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To be a Red Sox fan meant frustration, heartbreak, and often snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Watching the Yankees dominate so much, it built this irrevocable chip on the shoulders of so many. And quite frankly, a venomous attitude for everyone outside of it.
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Everything in Boston sports felt despondent, and yet, your value was still measured by your devotion to the despondency. You proved how much you cared by expressing your anger when things didn't go right (sounds totally not toxic, right?)
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I also came into it all at a weird time. In the 80's the Celtics were absolute gods, but then I watched the dissolution of the once great team, what with Bird's ailing back, and saw them go into an utter collapse into the fruitless M.L. Carr era.
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Seriously, the C's sucked for nearly 20 years. Plus the Bruins hadn't won since '72, but at least they always felt feisty with Cam Neely and Ray Borque. But most of all, I remember when The Patriots were a joke.
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Even with the lovely bright spot of Irving Fryar, it was just really hard to get excited about Tony Eason. Even their one trip to the superbowl resulted in humiliating loss to Ditka's legendary Bears.
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Everything about the Patriots felt sad. The owners were awful and there were constant rumors they'd move to St. Louis. But all that finally changed in 1993, with a sudden change in both luck and temperament.
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1. Kraft began buying the team (he had tried back in the 80s) and 2. Bill Parcells started coaching a young Drew Bledsoe. Suddenly, they were competitive as hell, playing spoiler against angry Dan Marino. They even got cool new uniforms.
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Best of all, I got to watch Ben Coates, one of my favorite players ever, who scared the bejesus out of everyone as he ran them over like a tank. I still have his jersey in my closet. One of the few I can't bare to get rid of.
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The teams were so much fun to watch, but could never put it all together. There was the disheartening loss to favre's packers in superbowl 31. Then there were the sad, uneven Pete Carroll years (he was far from the coach he is now).
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Enter Bill Belichick. New Englanders conveniently like to forget how they felt about him at first: a prickly square who basically ducked out of the Jets organization to take the pay day here. His first season they went 5-11.
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The media treated him mercilessly, but it turns out it would be his only losing season. Everything was about to change, but for a lot of reasons people forget.
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Cause people forget that Tom Brady was an accident. Drew Bledsoe was our tried and true superstar with his rocket arm. Brady was just some kid who was a safe back-up. But when Bledsoe got hurt, Brady came in and despite low numbers, he just kept winning.
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People also forget that in the AFC championship, Brady actually got hurt and Bledsoe had come back in to finish and win the game, leading to much talked about "quarterback controversy" going into the big game.
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Of course, there really wasn't one. You go with the guy who got you there, but that didn't stop the media from having a field day and Bono from lending his two cents and saying they should start Bledsoe (really).
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And everyone definitely forgets that everyone LOVED that patriots team. Yup! The plucky young upstarts against The Rams, who had won the year prior and people were getting sick of the "Greatest Show On Turf" attitude. No one remembers this shit.
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And they especially don't remember how the patriotic angle of it all was played up in the months after 9/11 (which is literally why kraft said his famous line, "we are all patriots tonight.")
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But it was also my first "real championship." I was pretty young for the Celts 80's ones and so I just have little images in my brain. But now I was in college in Boston and holy shit I could take it all in surrounded by friends going nuts.
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It sure helps that the game was incredible. With a thrilling last second win, I just remember running into the streets in pure elation. I'm not sure how many of you have that sheer unadulterated joy before, but it's a high that's almost indescribable.
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It was also the turning point of everything. The patriots would win again two years later. And more importantly for our "cursed" city, the sox would have their famous 2004 wins against the Yankees and Cardinals to win it all.
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I actually moved out of Boston right after that at the end of 2004, heading east to LA. I knew I was definitely going to take my fandom with me, but there was still something cathartic about me being there to experience all of that before I said goodbye.
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But when I moved here it was an odd feeling. Boston is small and insular and now suddenly you're in this city where everyone is from everywhere and liking everything and nothing in equal measure.
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You're not going to be believe it, folks but after years of conditioning from Boston to be judgmental of other teams? I was *judgmental* about all this. Saying it's not real sports city, etc. etc. And I tried to wear my boston on my sleeve.
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I would drive for hours down to Anaheim for sox games and miss work. I would pay insane money to see the c's in town (man I miss when clippers tix were cheap). I would try so freaking hard those first few years to hold onto this thing that was built into me.
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At the same time, the gluttony of Boston sports hit a fever pitch. With the famous 2007 almost-undefeated season, they went from a team that people were bored of to the most hated on the planet
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They were exposed as blatant cheaters, the new evil empire, the ones who suck joy from all other teams. And fun fact: I went to that 2007 super bowl and barfed after! I didn't even drink!
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Then in the next few years the Celtics would form their out of nowhere super-team and then the Bruins would win the stanley cup. The red sox won again. Suddenly Boston was now "title town." And I felt my relationship to all of it change.
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But it wasn't sudden or marked by singular events. It was a slow act of erosion.
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First with the absurd Fenway cost increases. I remember talking to my dad about how much he hated the red sox now and their lurid prices and he said: "baseball isn't baseball unless a working class family of four an afford to go to a game."
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Moreover, I watched the city of Boston, myopic to begin with, become irradiated. Because it's not like the chip on the shoulder magically disappears, it goes to "we earned this, we're the best" and it's like all greed, it just keeps going.
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