Requiem For A Nightmare

I'm 24 years old. As a sports fan, I've seen all four of my favorite pro teams win championships. The Patriots have won three Super Bowls, Red Sox have got two World Series wins, and the Celtics and Bruins have won a championship each. I've seen so many great players and great games, you think I would appreciate the championships so much that bad losses don't bother me but that's not the case. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the championships and the moments. Nothing can top it. But the losses stay with you more than the wins. They stick with you more only because of the "What If" factor of the games. What if we had won? What would the legacy be? As a society we always want more. There's four devastating games that I've seen and I can never see again if they ever come up on the ESPN classic, NBA TV, NFL Network, and MLB Network. My eyes just start spurting blood. Those four games are Red Sox/Yankees Game 7 2003, Pats/Colts 2006 AFC Championship game, Super Bowl XLII, and the Celtics/Lakers Game 7 2010. Out of all those games, the one that hurts the most and haunts my dreams the most: Super Bowl XLII.


I write this now because the Patriots are playing the Giants this Sunday and ESPN is probably going to be showing highlights of it all week and all Sunday. It'll be a miserable week of hype for a game for Patriots fans. It'll come up in conversation wit your friends and its tough to avoid. Lets review 2007 from the great beginning to bitter end.


It started in the off season. The Pats had just come off the AFC Championship game vs the Colts were they blew a 21-6 halftime lead. Belichick was on a mission that off season. He signed Adalius Thomas on the first day of free agency. Stole Welker from the Dolphins and signed Donte Stallworth. Then the big trade happened. We all know what it was. Trading a 4th round draft pick for Randy Moss. That's when all the experts started to talk about how this team could dominate and that an undefeated season was possible. I knew this team would be good but I didn't think they be THAT good. The Pats went out and blew the doors off the Jets and we knew that this year was going to be real fun after Brady and Moss hooked up for their first of many touchdown connections.


Then the bomb of SpyGate dropped on Monday. All over ESPN and nationally, people calling the Patriots cheaters. Calling Belichick a cheater. Saying that Brady was a product of knowing the defensive signals. To this day no story gets me more mad then the SpyGate stuff. Patriot haters finally had something to on the Pats and they were going to use it. ESPN kept throwing out the cheating card 24 hours a day. Patriot fans all over had banded together like never before. This was our team, our championships. How dare you say they are tainted. It totally became "Us vs Them". We felt we had to defend our team. The players were more angry than ever and you could see it. The Pats started to blow out every team they faced. The haters kept getting louder. Pats fans knew they were just crying because they couldn't stop Brady, Belichick, and Moss. And we rubbed in it their faces. After every win, the "Us vs Them" became worse and worse. And I loved every minute of it.


While the Pats were continuing their assault of the record book and SpyGate died down a bit, ESPN and Haters had to come up with another storyline. Then it became that we were running up the score. Steve Young and Meriel Hodge were crying like the Patriots were kidnapping small puppies and throwing them off bridges. Like Moss and Welker were robbing banks likes Ben Affleck in "The Town". It fueled the fire in the players and fans even more. Then the 1972 Dolphins and Mercury Morris wandered out of the retirement home and found every station and media outlet that would have them and talked about how they didn't want the Patriots to go undefeated because they "cheated" and weren't doing it the right way. They were ultimate frauds. That was the last straw for me. Not only did I want to go undefeated even more, I wanted to do it in style. I wanted Brady and Moss to shatter records. I wanted to Pats to go undefeated and then laugh in the opposing teams face in a way that said "How dare you even step on the same field as us". I wanted Mercury Morris to hand us the trophy and bow down after he did. I wanted to mock all the Patriot Haters that had run their mouth all year and make they say that New England Patriots were the unquestioned greatest team of all time. That was the dream.


They broke every offensive record there was. Were undefeated heading into the Super Bowl, about to play the Giants, and go 19-0. Then the offensive line collapsed against the Giants pass rush and couldn't give Tom Brady time get the ball down field. It was a nightmare. The Pats were up 7-3 for most of the game. Eli Manning found David Tyree in the back of end zone to go up 10-7 with about 5 minutes to go. I'll fully admit I was nervous. But I knew that Tom Brady always came through for this team. And he did. He drove the Pats down field and found Moss to go up 14-10 with about 2 minutes left. We did it. All we needed was one stop and the dream was complete. Greatest team ever. 4th ring for Belichick and Brady. Bruschi, Seau, and Harrison go out winners. Eli throw a ball to right sideline and only Asante was there. This was it! But the ball went right threw his hands. Not yet. Then on third down, Seymour and Jarvis Green had Eli sacked and all wrapped up. I yelled at the top my lungs "BLOW THE WHISTLE!!!". The refs didn't and Eli escaped and threw it up for grabs. I thought it would've been picked by Rodney. Rodney was in the area but so was Tyree. He caught the ball on his head. The next thing I know is the Plax caught the ball in the end zone and that was it. The dream was dead. (No words)


No perfect season. One of the biggest upsets ever. I was stunned. Took awhile to get over it and I probably never will. Worst sports loss of my life. All the Patriots Haters got exactly what they wanted. All the trash talk came right back at me. The Pats haven't won a playoff game since. Brady and Bill are still searching for that 4th ring. David Tyree hasn't caught a pass since February 3rd, 2008 and yet he haunts my dreams every night.


Until next time...