Look not, ye, into the black pit of despair. Superbowl Sunday is well behind us.

Patriots fans, gather round. Everyone else go here (You aren’t going to enjoy a piece about Patriots fans recovering from Last Sunday Night). New England fans, ever notice how when something goes wrong, or in similar time of issue and or disaster, everything else seems clearer?

Look, there is simply zero point in re-hashing the experience that was Last Sunday Night. As a Patriots fan, I have spent hours pining over the game like a lovelorn teen who just got a particularly brutal ‘Dear John’ letter (or email, or tweet or woof, or whatever the hell medium those crazy kids are dumping each other with these days). At the end of the day, it is what it is. The Patriots failed to make a handful of plays (take your pick from Brady, Welker, Hernandez and Branch) and the Giants simply refused to make a mistake. There is no great mystery. They lost.



Sometimes it is tough being from New England, however sometimes it is actually easier handling disappointment because of your place of birth. The whole stifled, stoic, Calvinist outlook steadies the mind for disaster, disappointment and downfall. If anything, dare we say it, the traditional Calvinistic, introspective New Englander possibly enjoys disappointment more than victory. Don’t shake your head at me, you know there is at the very least at shadow of truth in that seemingly paradoxical statement.

Back to the opening paragraph, and how things seem clearer against a backdrop of dramatic failure. It is said in times of great stress and disappointment that the human mind sees clearest. Because it has to, or some more scientific explanation similar to that. A good beating, loss and or disaster sharpens the senses. A crushing Superbowl loss need not result solely in weeping and gnashing of teeth, instead it can be turned into a cathartic experience like few other. Embrace the icy-water emptied over you, revel in the sensation of newly awoken feelings and emotions!

If all else fails, five pursuits of happiness that might curtail the blow

• Lock yourself in your living room with nothing on but the nature channels. Probably safest option, unless your name is Harold Crick. Little inside, I know.
• Take a trip to Connemara. There is no ESPN in Connemara. Just lots of this.
• Pretend you are a Giants fan. This may require forgetting a whole heap of stuff you have learnt, for example, most of your education, and any dignity you might have, and may end up in you shouting infantile remarks at three time Superbowl ring winning QBs wives, however it may also give you a few fleeting seconds of feeling like a winner.
• Punch a Dolphins fan in the face. This always makes me feel better.
• Break out the box sets. Obviously the staples here would be The Wire, The Sopranos, Eastbound and Down, 30 Rock, The US Office, Band of Brothers, The Pacific and Mad Men. Add in whatever tickles your fancy, and away you go.

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