HISTORY MADE... ALMOST!!!

The Patriots slipped at the last lap... After playing (nearly) flawless football for the whole year, they faltered at the last hurdle... They had a chance to create history -- to be the first team to go undefeated in the entire year... The Giants played party pooper and ended victorious via back door entry...

Its just a game - one team has to win and the other has to lose... To be fair to the Giants, they were the better team on the night... They deserved to win the game...

But this blog is not abt the worthy-winners Giants or the unlucky-losers Pats... This is about the perception of Pats in the average Fan...

But I was kind of disappointed by what I heard from a few friends / colleagues abt the game... Few said "I want the Pats to lose... I am tired of seeing them win..." Others said "Its too boring to see the Pats run over the other teams... They should lose now..." Some even went to the extent of "I hate the Pats... Their domination is bad for the game... They should lose..."

A few of these detractors changed their view -- they said "When they were losing the game, i felt bad for them... They should have won..." But others were still adamant and were happy that the Pats lost... This mindset disappointed me... Not because I am a Patriots fan... But because of the sadistic mentality...

It is fine if you support some other team... For eg -- the last time any team went undefeated for the whole year was the Miami Dolphins in 1972... This time, the Miami fans wanted the Pats to lose so that the Miami record remains unbroken... This is still acceptable...

But, if one starts hating a team / player only because the team / player is just too good compared to the peers, then the hatred should be unwarranted... Its just not fair... Don't pull down a good entity just because others are just not good enough... Raise your bar to the level set by good ones, dont pull the bar down to your level... Thats not what sports are all about...

The Greek empire invented the Olympics to decide the best race amongst all using the meter of sports... They understood, rightly so, that wars are not the correct way of finding the better race... Sports were a non-violent way to find the stronger, powerful and superior race amongst the different kingdoms and empires...

But, they never wanted that the better race - the better people - to lower their performance just to make the Olympics interesting or competitive... But, today's fans exactly want this to happen...

The Pats are not the only ones subject to this hatred... All the winners might be subjected to such mindsets... Roger Federer, Michael Schumacher, the Australian cricket team -- are on the receiving end of such feelings due to the virtue of their immortality...

Tennis is boring because of Fed-Ex's swiss charming tennis... Formula One was so boring until Schumi retired... So many ppl were happy when 5 of the Aussie invincibles retired in one year...

Why are fans and ppl so sadistic? Is the prospect of a game of 2 equals better than the chance of a fabulous sportsperson performing at his best? Is being too good so bad? Is immortality a sin?