Stupid Boston

After our visit to Boston a couple of weeks ago, I developed a bit of an affinity for the Red Sox. It was endearing to see a city so enchanted by a sports franchise, and I even ended up watching at least a portion of each game of the World Series as part of my new found fandom.

But all that changed last night, and now I'm back to my stance that all teams from Boston, well, suck.

Yep, our beloved Colts were unable to hold off a 4th quarter surge from the Patriots and ended up losing their first game of the season. There are any number of things that are irritating about this.

First off, there's Tom Brady. Brady has become a surprisingly effective NFL quarterback, but he's still a bum. Sure, Peyton Manning does tons of commercials (actually, I think one could say he's in "most commercials"), but they all have that goofy, "Yeah, I'm a great athlete and I make enough money to build lawn sculptures out of hundred dollar bills, but I'm still just a goofy, down home guy." Brady's ads are always kind of smug and somehow remind the viewer that he's better looking than you and will be heading home with a supermodel at the end of the day.

Secondly, there's the whole deal with the Patriots video taping defensive signals during their games. I've read all the stuff these past couple of weeks about how teams try to steal each other's signals, but actually video taping? It's cheating. The Patriots cheat. Period.

And finally, New England? Did they really need to rename themselves from the Boston Patriots to the New England Patriots? How did that happen? Does the 30 miles from Foxborough to Boston really matter? Does anyone in Vermont or New Hampshire really give a crap about football?

Despite the final outcome, the game was fun to watch. We had Erin's parents over for chili. I love my wife, and she is an amazing hostess, but she does have a few lessons to learn about sports food etiquette. Before the game, she laid out a spread of carrots and dip and some little toasted bread slices with not-American cheese and some of those little dried up tomatoes on top. I told her that corn chips and a large vat of cheese-in-a-can would do the trick, but she insisted on her version of "sports food."

In the end, she rescued the whole event by providing beer and chili during the game. I used this food combination later that night to make her pay for the misguided pre-game foods. I'll say no more.