They have arrived: the two weeks between the NFC/AFC Championship week and the Super Bowl when the only football to watch is the Pro Bowl — two weeks of analyzing every possible outcome of the Super Bowl.
So, how should we best fill this long, drawn-out period in which the most anticipated game of the year is still two weeks away?
One way to start would be to prepare ourselves for two weeks dominated by the one professional team hated equally, if not more than, the New York Yankees: the New England Patriots.
It is easy to hate the Patriots because they are great. It is easy to hate the Patriots because NFL fans are bored of watching them win. It is easy to hate the Patriots because of “Deflategate” regardless of your opinion on the matter, as the overblown coverage of the story was reason enough to loathe even the mention of the team.
Contrary to what you may think, this column is not about bashing the Patriots’ franchise in anticipation of yet another Super Bowl featuring Gisele’s husband.
Rather, it is a column to thank the hated organization.
This week in football was just as boring and predictable as the rest of the playoffs — a phenomenon I addressed in last week’s column. So this week, I would like to thank the Patriots for giving football fans something to smile about that is neither a boring recap of the playoff season, nor an overly analytic attempt to pinpoint what formula could propel the Falcons to a Super Bowl victory.
Those who made headlines regarding the Patriots organization — whether members or fans — have given us at least a week’s worth of events to laugh at, as the most interesting stories last week occurred off the field. They happened hours before the AFC championship game early Sunday morning and immediately following the Patriots’ decisive win.
This week will not be remembered as a week of great football. It will be remembered as the week where both fans and members of the Patriots’ organization got notably drunk.
Let’s begin chronologically: Early Sunday morning, 25-year-old Bostonian and self-proclaimed Patriots fan Dennis Harrison pulled a fire alarm at the Pittsburg Steelers’ team hotel, presumably robbing the Steelers of a restful night’s sleep before the big game.
The incident was even floated as a potential contributing factor to the Steelers’ demise during the game, as they seemed incapable of completing passes, converting on third-downs and establishing any sort of momentum.
According to Yahoo Sports, Harrison allegedly admitted, “I’m drunk. I’m stupid. I’m a Pats fan,” to Massachusetts State Police.
No analysis needed; I am just going to leave this here.
Hours later, during the AFC Championship post-game celebration on the field, a visibly intoxicated Patriots owner Robert Kraft stepped to the CBS microphone, bleary-eyed and wobbly, to deliver a simple yet slurred speech, encouraging his team to “go and win one.”
No one is criticizing Kraft for his blatant and perhaps excessive celebration — after all, it only took one quarter to see which team would move on to Houston.
Regardless, the speech was hilarious and social media exploded in a frenzy of tweets, video clips and short articles asking whether anyone else had noticed Kraft’s drunken state, a story that seemed to eclipse all talk of the game’s actual outcome.
So, while the Steelers’ fan base might not be thanking Dennis Harrison for pulling the fire alarm, the rest of the NFL fans should be thanking those related to the Patriots for providing what little amount of notable entertainment took place last Sunday.
After all, if the Patriots gave us something to laugh about, maybe in the next couple weeks leading up to the Super Bowl we can all hate them a little less.
Amanda Christovich is a sophomore in the College. THE ANALYST appears every Friday.
