Well. do you believe NOW?
It took 42 long years for the Boston/New England Patriots to win a Super Bowl, but last Sunday night it finally happened. Redemption finally took place for a city that has waited 16 years to parade down Beacon Street with a title trophy.
These fans saw Len Bias die in 1986, saw the ball roll through Buckner’s legs against the Mets, watched as the bash brothers in Oakland swept the Ole Town Team out of the playoffs in the early 90s, and saw Bird and McHale retire with injuries.
These same fans saw Neely leave the game he loved, watched as Reggie Lewis passed away, and saw dreams of Parcells and Bledsoe finally leading a team to the promised land, only to come up short once again. This town watched as Pedro and Nomar took on the Yanks, only to lose to the team from New York. Oh these 16 years haven’t been boring, but Beantown has always come up just a little short.
When the football season began as the summer of 2001 dwindled down, we still believed the Sox could “reverse the curse.” Football was far from our minds. Oh we love our team, but would the Patriots be any better than our 5-11 squad from a year ago? Many had hoped for a .500 season and another year to rebuild. The Pats played in the toughest division in football and hadn’t made any real upgrades during the offseason.
As the year began with two consecutive losses, people wondered if the head coach would even be around to finish off the season. But in that second loss, franchise quarterback Drew Bledsoe was injured by a crushing hit from Mo Lewis. Little-known backup Tom Brady comes onto the scene, winning a couple of his first few games, moving the Patriots into playoff contention at 5-5 after a tough loss to the St. Louis Rams.
It was after that game that we became believers. As the rest of the country laughed and joked, we knew something was different; something was not right. The next few games, bounces went our way.
The Patriots were in Buffalo against a subpar Bills team. Things looked bleak after a fumble in overtime put the Bills in sure field goal range. But while the ball was lost, it had hit one of our players in the leg while his head rest on the ground, out of bounds. A technicality in the rulebook stated that if a player was out of bounds when the ball was touching him, it was a dead ball. The Pats kept possession, and won the game. Now why was he out of bounds you ask? He was unconscious. Yep, that’s right. The hit had knocked out David Patten, but the ball found its way to his legs. Something eerie going on? Ummm, you bet. It gets better.
After realizing this team was going to make the playoffs, Patriot Nation began trying to figure out the best-case scenario. If about ten different scenarios happened, New England somehow could end up with a bye-week in the playoffs. Yet the Jets lost to Buffalo and then beat Oakland on a 53-yard field goal in the waning seconds, each and all scenarios fell under the Beantown spell. We had the bye-week.
Then Oakland comes in, and you all know what happens in the snow. Right call or wrong call, the scary people from Oakland couldn’t do what many thought they would. Then on to Pittsburgh, where we stopped the Bus and rolled over the Steelers.
Proceed on to New Orleans. Jambalaya baby! But the Pats can’t win, us fans should just be happy to get there, right? Maybe that held true for some, but you can’t believe without maintaining hope.
Everyone watched the game on Sunday, and I don’t want to hear anymore of this lucky business. We beat the best, and now we are the best. But I’ve got a few more things to add before I go: For all who watched that game on Sunday night, the New England Patriots had to give you a little bit of inspiration. Obviously I’m biased, I’ll admit that, but I couldn’t help get the jitters when the team was introduced as ONE TEAM.
In this darkening day and age of sports, where players complain about this and that, bicker about players and coaches, and whine about not being paid enough, this team actually won as a team. They didn’t have the best lineup in the league. Hell, they probably weren’t in the top ten for most talented two-deep depth chart in the league. But they played together. They won together.
In all my life of watching sports, I’ve never seen anything like the ride that the Pats had this season. From the amazing and mature acts of Drew Bledsoe to the chemistry that we could see from all the players and coaches, the Patriots showed that winning is more than about talent and dollar bills. It’s about heart and desire. I think we all can take something from that. I’m happy to say that the New England Patriots are World Champions. My team is on top, for now. And their ride to the top was something that I’ll never forget.

Contact Jeremy at [email protected]

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