A Fond Look Back

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2009 13:57 Written by Ben Pogany

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I listen to a lot of sports radio.  Probably a little too much for my own good.  Listening to the daily Patriots-related bitching and moaning this morning, it occurred to me that this has got to be the only team in football (with the possible exception of the Colts) that could head into the postseason with an assured first round home game and still incur daily abuse from its fanbase.  Every day, there is endless complaining, that the coach has lost his magic, the star receiver is dogging it,  the running game is garbage, the defense is too young, and the team as a whole is essentially a big fat disappointment and the signaling of the end of a dynasty.  And it was then it occurred to me how truly far this city has come.  With all the decade-in-retrospect articles flowing out of every publication on the planet, I thought it would be nice to put this little situation in perspective.  Lets take a look back to where Boston’s three major sports teams were on the eve of December 31, 1999.

The year 2000.  I was a typical tortured Boston sports fan in my first year of high school, which I guess made me a typical tortured high school freshman to boot.  The Red Sox were neck deep in their (then) eighty-two year World Series drought.  The Celtics were positively attrocious and the Patriots were still without a single ring to show for themselves.  Looking back, it feels like another lifetime.  Probably because in the past decade, every Boston sports fan has enjoyed literally a lifetime of golden sports memories, and that’s a good lifetime at that.

So it was the dawn of the 21st century, and the Celtics had won their last championship fourteen years earlier when I was less than a year old.  Then Len Bias died (on my first birthday), and then Reggie Lewis died seven years later.  Then the Garden closed up shop, and then Rick “all the negativity that's in this town sucks” Pitino took over the reigns.  From the 93-94 season until we landed Allen and Garnett in ‘07, the Celts posted a dismal 472-645 record.  And then it all changed.  The Green Men (well, black men if you wanna split hairs) won 66 regular season games in 07-08 en route to their first title of my conscious lifetime, and from there, anything less than another championship was a disappointment.  Literally.  With this squad, its #18 or bust.  

Then there’s the Red Sox.  In 2003, when Aaron bleepin Boone’s towering home run landed in the upper deck of Yankee Stadium to send the piteous Sox home in the 12th inning of game seven of the ALCS, I was sure I’d never watch another game of baseball again.  Cowboy up, my ass.  In 2004, it looked like it was all happening again, as the Sox lost game three of the ALCS to the Yankees 19-8, falling to 0-3 in the series.  And then Mr. Dave Roberts stole 2nd base, and the rest is history.  I still get goosebumps just typing that sentence.  The curse had been broken, and three years later the Sox would once again sweep the series en route to title #8.  Today, like the Celtics, its World Series or bust.

And finally there’s the Patriots.  The year I was born, the Pats would go to their first Super Bowl, in which they would get destoyed 46-10 by da Bears.  A little over a decade later, they would again fall in the Super Bowl, this time to Brett Favre (cringe) and the Green Bay Packers.  From 1998-2000 the Pats would finish 4th, 4th, and 5th in the AFC east.   And then Mo Lewis clobbered Drew Bledsoe  into the sideline, and a little-known 6th round pick named Tom Brady took the field.  3 Super Bowls, 6 division championships, and 1 perfect regular season later (sadly, they canceled the Super Bowl that year), the Patriots are the cream of the NFL crop. 

Well, almost.  The Patriots are a team in transition, a team that is undeniably a shadow of their middle-of-the-decade selves.  Ten years ago, just making the playoffs alone would have been cause for celebration.  But times have changed.  Boston sports fans have gotten accustomed to success of the highest order, and they’ve grown to become quite fond of it.  For the big three in Boston, anything but the top of the mountain is simply, for better or worse, unacceptable.