Perfection Is Overrated

Like it or not, the football season for this fan ends today. The Denver Broncos will limp on into the offseason with a losing record, and the Colorado Buffaloes have a chance to win a little respect and a bowl game. Oh sure, they'll keep playing well into the new year, and I will find some reason to stay interested in the NFL playoffs and I will rationalize a rooting interest in the NCAA "national championship" game. But these will be vague associations at best.
Last night I found myself, along with the most of the rest of the football fanciers of the country, watching the New England Patriots throw off the burden of a twelve point third quarter deficit to go on to win a record-setting sixteenth game in a row. Depending on how you choose to score this particular event, they may not have actually set a record, since there have been three previous teams who have completed their NFL seasons without a loss. The Miami Dolphins were the last to do it in 1972, and the Chicago Bears won all their regular season games in both 1934 and 1942, only to lose the championship game after that.
I sat there, apropos of absolutely nothing, cheering for the New York Giants. I could say that I wanted the Giants to win because of my close ties to their organization through the son of my friend who lives in Manhattan, but that would be a lie. I'm still holding a grudge against the Giants for bursting the Broncos' perfect season bubble back in 1998, and the pasting they gave my beloved Broncos way back in Super Bowl XXI (39 to 20). I was simply hoping for the wheels to come off the fun bus that the Patriots were on.
Does this make me a bad sport? It could be that this year's disappointments were the cause of my bad attitude. Even my fantasy team finished under .500. all of these vicarious tragedies made me wish bad things upon Tom Brady, Randy Moss, and the Great Stoneface of New England, Bill Belichick. Now that there has been one team to win all sixteen of their regular season games, the bar has been raised. Congratulations. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a little more than a month and a half until pitchers and catchers have to report to Spring Training.