It's a Football Game, Stop Making It Political

When I lived in New York, I always said I didn't have a football team.  I mean,
the Jets and Giants both played in New Jersey, not in New York.  The only real New York team was up in Buffalo, which was pretty far from Long Island.  When I moved to New Hampshire 12 years ago, it was an easy thing for me to start cheering for the Patriots.  You won't get me to change my allegiance from my Mets in baseball, but football was a different story.

I've enjoyed watching the Patriots play for all these years.  Tom Brady is a sight to behold.  Most of the time he makes it look so damn easy.  It was easy to regard the hate directed at them with "they hate us cause they ain't us".  The Patriots have been to 8 Superbowls over the last 16 years.  That's an amazing record.

This year they lost in the Superbowl.  That doesn't take anything away from what a fantastic team they are.  I mean, Tom Brady has a record of 5 wins and 3 losses in the Superbowl.  It's amazing that he got to that many, and last year was a jaw-dropping miracle.  It seemed that most of the country was rooting against them.  "They hate us cause they ain't us."

 What's annoying the hell out of me and a number of other Patriots fans I knw is the assignment of a political angle to the loss.  I have seen posts and memes treating this as a "defeat" of Trump; calling the Patriots "Trump's team."

 See that map up there?  That's the map from the 2016 election.  All of New England is blue.  Blue is not Trumps color.  See Pennsylvania?  That's red.  Red is Trump color.  Add up the Electoral college number for New England versus Pennsylvania.  Go ahead, I'll wait.... I would suggest that there are many, many more people who are Patriots fans who voted for Hillary Clinton than there are Eagles fans who did.

And you just managed to tick off all of them with your stupid memes.

 Did Tom Brady vote for Trump?  Probably.  Do you know who every player on every team voted for?  I'll wager you don't.  I never knew the political leanings of my favorite baseball players.  I have no idea if Tom Seaver voted for Nixon.  Did Gary Carter vote for Reagan?  Or Mike Piazza for Bush Jr.?  It doesn't matter to me - they are great players and short of beating their wives, dealing drugs, or murdering someone, I can admire the playing ability of someone no matter who they voted for.


What's worse is that as someone who is pretty far left of center, it makes us look desperate and pathetic.  It makes us look like we're so desperate for a victory that we are grasping for anything to point to as a "win" over Trump.

The Patriots are not Trump's team.  There are some players on the team that likely voted for him.  Likewise, the Eagles aren't Trump's team.  There are probably some players on that team who voted for him as well.  Just as there are players on both teams who didn't.  Their fans are a mixture as well.  It makes us look like pathetic losers all this talk of "Trump's team lost".

Because look at all that blue in New England.  You need those Patriot fans and all of your political bullshit trying to create political drama where it doesn't exist and doesn't matter taints everything you say when it does really matter.



Comments

  1. Alex Diaz-GranadosFebruary 5, 2018 at 9:47 AM

    Thankfully, I've not come across any idiotic comments along the lines of "Trump's Team lost the Super Bowl." Such idiocy is the kind of comments I'd expect from a bratty child, but not from adult.

    As for whether Tom Brady supports Trump, why, yes. He does. But his wife Giselle doesn't. And seriously, it's Brady's Constitutional right to support a candidate of his choice; he's 40, not four, right? But labeling the entire Patriots organization as "Trump's Team" is certainly unfair and definitely not cool.

    Great post, my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PattiNHFebruary 5, 2018 at 12:51 PM

    Thank you Alex.

    People are allowed to think differently than us. We all have our forms of escapism in the world. If we're going to start deciding who is on our side based on what sports teams they root for or what TV shows they watch or movies they go to, the world is in worse shape than I thought.

    ReplyDelete

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