As the country gears up for the NFL Division Championships, my blood is starting to boil.
I grew up in Massachusetts, but was raised a NY Giants fan. When my dad was little, the Patriots didn’t exist, so he chose the next closest team, the Giants. He has been a lifelong fan, and we were all raised Giants fans. Some of my earliest childhood memories are watching football on Sundays and hearing my dad cheer, “Heeeeeeey, Ernie!!! Hahaha!!” and clapping as Earnest Gray made some great play or other.
Growing up, it was never really an issue that I wasn’t a Pats fan, as they are not even in the same division as the Giants, and the two teams only played a handful of times as far as I can recall. (There was one season my sister and I tried to convince my Dad to take us to Foxboro for a game, but it was in December and my dad said it would be too cold, but when the game rolled around, it was 50 degrees out that day so we totally could have gone.) There were many kids my age who were in the same boat, so I never cared or felt out of place.
I do remember when I started hating the Patriots, though. One year in elementary school the Pats were headed to the Superbowl. Each week of the playoffs, we had to go to the cafeteria and all the students were forced to make Patriots propaganda posters. Ok, so maybe it wasn’t as horrible sounding as that, but I still remember sitting in the cafeteria making stupid posters with slogans like, “Squish the Fish!” and “Bury the Bears,” and thinking how lame it was since I wasn’t a Pats fan. I have never appreciated being told what to do (I will save my “don’t tell me to wear green even though I am not Irish rant for St. Patrick’s Day…) so I am sure my anger is more at being told to make posters more than actually hating the Pats. Truth is I have just never cared about them. I like two sports teams – the Giants and the Red Sox – and I just can’t get into watching other sports or games in which my teams aren’t playing. They hold no interest to me.
It seems, however, that since the Giants beat the Patriots in the Superbowl in 2008 and ended their perfect 2007 season, Patriots fans have invented a rivalry between the two teams. I just don’t get it, and it really makes me angry! Um, just because a team beats you doesn’t instantly make them a rival. Just because the Yankees and Red Sox are *actual* rivals, doesn’t mean NE and NYG should be too just because it is a NY-MA thing. Those aren’t even the same sport!! Yet when I try to explain to Pats fans that there is no “rivalry,” they don’t want to hear it. And, it seems that my fellow Giants fans are just as perplexed about it.
I could write at length about this topic, but honestly the more I think about it, the more upset I get about its sheer ridiculousness. So, in closing, Go Giants! And, I hope the Ravens win… ;)
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