Losing Hurts (But You Knew That)

Losing hurts but some people have lower thresholds of pain than others it seems.

I tend to lay low following a Patriots’ loss. I’ll distract myself with the 3D Tragedy Printer that is life in the 21^st century, visiting news sites and avoiding sports blogs for at least 24 hours. Occasionally, like today, I will succumb to the siren call of pigskin pundits and bobbleheads. The posts themselves aren’t that bad, it’s the comments that get to me.

The sounds of pitchforks being sharpened against the backdrop of sputtering, flickering torches; the rhythmic belligerent chants of “Belichick! Belichick! Belichick!” interrupted by the occasional “Kill the monster!” As a proud member of Patriots’ Nation I have to ask; what is wrong with us?

The New England Patriots lost a football game Sunday. 

What does it all mean?

Obviously, Bill Belichick has lost it! Tom Brady’s Super Bowl window was slammed shut on his fingers by Belichick’s inability to surround him with the talent necessary to win! New England will be lucky to finish 8-8-0!

Or maybe it was just one game, a game played on the road against a good team that was coming off an embarrassing loss and had something to prove to themselves and their fans.

Maybe Stevan Ridley is a little bit better than he’s given credit for; maybe Danny Amendola had a little rust to knock off. Maybe we should remember how good this defense is playing because as badly as the Patriots played on offense, they still lost by just a single score, 13-6.

New England is 4-1-0. They’re still in first place in the AFC East. They haven’t played their best football, yet. There will be another injury or two that will have even the atheists among us believe in God just long enough to ask, “Why?” And there will probably be another game or two like last Sunday before it’s all said and done.

There is this, though.

Next week, it will be the Patriots playing the role of the good team coming off an embarrassing loss that has something to prove to themselves and their fans. Their bitter, ungrateful, self-righteous, unreasonable, rancorous, miserable fans.