Bob Lobel: Patriots Fans are Spoiled
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Whether you recognize it or not, these are the good old days. In fact, since February 2002 when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, the good old days have been showing up quite often around here.
Fast forward to last Sunday when the Patriots were so fortunate to have the Jets on their schedule: Did we detect actual booing of the Patriots offense at one point? Were things going so badly that a Tom Brady-led unit would be booed? Wow! Can’t believe that!
Because in four or five years, maybe even one more NFL game, the next guy in here as quarterback will be doomed to failure since there there will be no way to even come close to what our Tom has accomplished. I’m saying that if we can’t be the team we want with him at QB, then the team we want can't be.
Fans have already lashed out at him. It really did happen right here in the good old days. The bottom line, of course, is the well-documented theme song of this era, “We don’t appreciate what we have." Of course, we never will until it's gone. There must be a country song about that somewhere. What is it about us that we can't really ever be happy with the way things are?
There is something about fans that is unique. We never seem to be satisfied. Maybe it's because the ticket prices are so high, our expectations are out of control. Our expectations are the root of all evil. I guess it's why we boo the Patriots, one of the best franchises in the NFL. It's their fault for being the standard of excellence for over a decade around here. Yes, they could have won a couple more Superbowls, but they didn’t. They may not win any more for a long, long time either. Boo them then--but not now, not in the good old days.
This should not be a news flash to anyone that has either played in or viewed a game at Gillette. It has to be one of the worst home fields in the NFL for the 12th man. You can blame the Club Seats for that. With complete access to a bar and food and TV inside for club seat patrons, it's hard to hear the cheering going on inside when you're outside. Imagine what a player like Brady thinks when you play in Seattle one week with the manic crowd behaving in manic fashion for a mediocre, at best, team. Then, come all the way home to play your hated rivals, and find yourselves, by comparison, in a concert hall. And then be booed at that.
The expectations for success against the Jets were way over the top compared to what the patrons got in return. Here is another real reason to appreciate what you have. Brady is still a very good quarterback. There are times during games, and maybe even a full game, when he is great. It happens often enough that the perception of great is still tagged on him.
Yet, logic tells us, and the visuals show us, that he is now very good. Not great anymore, but very good. We should appreciate what we have now, and we all know it. We have set the bar so high that being very good isn’t enough to satisfy us.
This is a flawed team, and unless they fix some things that may not be fixable they will have to buy a ticket to get into the Super Bowl. What we can fix is our vision of what is and is not acceptable. We are never satisfied, and we don’t appreciate what we have until it's gone, and who among us doesn’t know that it will be gone soon enough.
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