Those of us lucky enough to have been New England sports fans over the last 2 decades have gotten to experience sports like no other region of the country. Since the year 2000 local sports teams have raised 12 championship banners across all 4 major sports. The creme of the crop has been the New England Patriots, winning 6 Super Bowls in that time.
In an era of salary caps and free agency, this is a feat us sports fans probably won’t see again in our lifetime. The combination of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady has aligned to provide Patriots fans with an unparalleled experience.
However…
Pre-2000s Boston sports was a different beast. The Red Sox were suffering through the Curse of the Bambino, having not won a World Series since trading away Babe Ruth to the rival Yankees in 1919. The Celtics were a long way from their dominance of the 80s, and the “Big Bad Bruins” hadn’t lifted Lord Stanley’s Cup since the early 70s.
This dearth of success created a cottage industry in Boston sports media of playing the pessimist. It was always just a matter of time before your favorite local team figured out a way to screw things up. If you took the negative view when writing or talking about Boston sports, you would eventually be proven correct more often than not.
And this continued even after the fortunes of the local teams turned for the better. We’ve come to a point where the “big names” in Boston sports media have spent the last 2 decades railing against your local teams, calling optimistic fans “homers” and accusing them of wearing “footie pajamas.” This was a ploy that worked in the past, but the culture of Boston sports has changed for the better while the sports media has kept their negative bent.
The Correction…
So that’s why we’re here: to be a balance to the negativity. If the Patriots win, we’ll celebrate it instead of questioning the integrity of the coach for not pandering to the media. If the Patriots lose, we’ll still take a positive (yet hopefully balanced) look at what went wrong, and what can be fixed.
Welcome to the bright side. We’ve missed you, and we hope you’re well.