why i can't hate the pats (hi amy)

there seems to be a lot of "i hope NE loses cause i'm tired of them winning" going around. i don't even really want to touch upon the asinine "i hope they lose so boston fans can be miserable/ you're not a yankee fan if you root for a new england team" garbage. i don't understand it. my grandpa's hate, the ire of a lifelong, heartbroken steelers fan ("it was good against evil and EVIL WON."), that i can grasp, but not identify with. instead, i admire. see, they remind me so much of this buncha guys i used to know:

...It will be difficult to recount the starting lineup. After looking it up, you'll have to report that their World Series MVP was Scott Brosius, a guy who looks like he should be fixing your computer. None of the players were the best in their position in the American League. Tino Martinez wasn't even the best Martinez (Pedro, Boston). Or the second best (that would be Edgar, Seattle). No, Timmy, that wasn't the year Reggie Jackson was on the team. And Mark McGwire played for somebody else. As did Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey, Barry Bonds, Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens. Your best bet is to try to distract Timmy with candy. In the future, candy will be even better.

If pressed, go with the morality lecture. Though we talk about teamwork and selflessness, we don't find that stuff exciting. We prefer individual stars. The truth is, we're a Rambo culture that talks a Saving Private Ryan game. We're a republic that turns out only for presidential elections. We lured Ginger out of the Spice Girls.

We are so unaccustomed to actual team spirit that manager Joe Torre, after the Yankees won their championship on Wednesday night, awkwardly called them "a great team team." They were. Every single player contributed, big time... Batters patiently waited for hittable balls and forced pitchers deep into the count. Coaches stressed on-base percentage over home runs. Everyone played crisp, robotic defense and opportunistic offense, waiting for the other team to make a mistake. [joel stein]

uh huh, and neveryoumind the brady/jeter doppelganger weirdness.

harvey araton and brian cashman see it too:

Watching the Patriots dismantle the Steelers on Sunday night, Brian Cashman was struck by déjà vu, by the notion that he had seen this all before. And he had, except the core names were Brosius, not Bruschi; Martinez, not McGinest; O'Neill, not Andruzzi.

"Absolutely," said Cashman, the Yankees' general manager, when asked yesterday if Bill Belichick's Patriots reminded him of Joe Torre's Yankees, circa 1996-2001. "I was thinking exactly that watching the game last night, how much the Patriots remind me of us. They obviously have a lot of talent, but most of their players would not be considered the best at their positions. They're an efficient machine, and they win with a tremendous amount of preparation and discipline that comes from the top."

Those Yankees had the composed button pressing of Torre. These Patriots have the calculating brainpower of Belichick. Continuing on this theme, we played a brief game of word association. I said, "Tom Brady." Cashman, without hesitation, said, "Derek Jeter."