Posted by I think it’s safe to say that most of you know my political views. I’m fairly liberal on social issues, pro-2nd amendment, pro-free trade/capitalism, anti-neoconservative, anti-right-wing-nationalism. But today, I write to tell of you a position that will prove to be controversial in all but the most backward parts of this country. I will be supporting the New England Patriots in the Superbowl.
I do not come to this decision easily. Like other Americans did on November 8, 2016, I hold my nose while making this particular choice. I do not support the Patriots’ core philosophies. They are a morally bankrupt machine, having continually thumbed their nose at authority and been caught cheating multiple times.
Their most partisan fans represent all that is wrong with this country. Their coach is a joyless, evil brigand and their on-field leader is a unmitigated jagoff married to a model. I opposed their anti-establishment advance up until the point where they beat my Pittsburgh Steelers.
Pitt > AnyonebutTommy
Still, my loyalty to two refugees from the hinterlands of Cleveland and Philadelphia demands that I support them in the penultimate game of the NFL season. Dion Lewis and Jabaal Sheard went to Pitt. Some tribes (Pitt) eventually matter more than others (AnyoneButTommy).
Dion Lewis and Jabaal Sheard have not had an easy go of it since leaving the friendly confines of the University of Pittsburgh. Sheard spent his career in Cleveland as a productive but ultimately losing player. Lewis found himself behind fellow former Panther Lesean McCoy in Philadelphia (who himself has sorta kinda moved on to greener pastures in Buffalo) before wandering through the wilderness of Cleveland. He has even battled injuries since arriving in New England all the while displaying his potential in fits and spurts.
For each, New England must feel like a haven after the untold injustices they each suffered in Philly and the Mistake by the Lake. It is perhaps an indictment of the rest of the NFL that two talented and upstanding young men felt forced into such extremist measures to find work. Perhaps it would’ve been better to get on with their life’s work, as Chuck Noll once said? That’s not for me to judge.
So, deprived of my professional hometown team, I wish good luck to Dion Lewis and Jabaal Sheard. Hail to Pitt.
