Familiar Feeling

Since moving to Boston in early 2001, I began to understand what it meant to be a sports fan in the city. For RedSox nation, The Curse, represented 86 years of disappointment. The Celtics were long past their prime. And the Patriots had last lost in SuperBowl XXXI in 1997.

But in 2004 all that loss, sadness and grief was buried and almost forgotten, the RedSox vanquished the Yankees after being down 3-0 after three games, and went on to win the World Series, finally beating the curse, and the Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI. It seemed that Boston sports fans didn't quite know what to do. They were so used to being let down time and again, always being just so close and never quite going all the way. Now the city was on top and the feelings were entirely new though not un-welcomed. Eventually the 86 years of anguish finally began to fade away, as incredibly he RedSox won the World Series again in 2007. The Pats won again in Superbowls XXXVIII and XXXIX Boston sports fans were giddy with success.

In 2008, the Pats represented a chance to permanently erase Boston's history of perennial runner-up and establish the team as one of the greatest sports franchises of all time. The Pats stood at the end of the season 16-0, perfection. No other team in NFL history had accomplished such a feat. Entering Superbowl XLII they were 18-0. But then it seemed that the ghosts of the city's past came back to haunt the Pats. In the final 2 minutes of SuperBowl XLII, history was made, but not in the manner Boston fans were expecting. Yet in a way they were quite familiar with.

Yet again the city of Boston was the runner-up, to a team from New York, in a game they should have won handily. Boston fans will surely take the loss in stride and place it in their collective baggage of sports disappointments. Once again, taking comfort in that familiar almost forgotten feeling of coming up short at the end of the season.