What bothers me is the realization that being a sports fan in the Internet/social media age has jaded me, and the irony of expressing this on a message board isn't lost on me.
All championships aside, I loved being a sports fan more two decades ago, long before my increased exposure to the Internet. There are many more fanbases, more personalities, that I've grown to resent because the Internet gives them a platform they didn't have in the '90s. Would all these former and current players rake the Patriots over the coals like this if it weren't the fashionable thing to do? Even when the Pats won their first Lombardi, all I heard was whining about the Tuck Rule and conspiracies of galvanizing the Patriots as heroes in the wake of 9/11. I don't remember anyone dumping all over the 11-5 Patriots in their 1996 SB run. Ignorance was bliss.
On the flip side, it's awesome seeing you guys and gals here who support the Pats from all over the world: New England, Olde England, Brazil, Japan, you name it.