Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

I'm sure many of you are still mourning the fact that the Patriots will be watching this game on television just like us, after coming so close only to be eliminated in the penultimate round. Perhaps some of you are planning to root for the Ravens, because they play in the AFC with the Patriots - or maybe you can't stand to see the Ravens win again, so you're going to cheer on the 49ers?

Maybe you don't care who wins anymore, and you're just looking forward to a game that you can watch and be totally relaxed, unconcerned for the outcome. And then there are those of you who couldn't care less about football if you tried, are just biding your time until pitchers and catchers, and might turn on the Puppy Bowl later if you get bored and/or starved for cuteness.

I decided a while back that the playoffs are always more fun if you have a team to root for, even if your first choice has been eliminated. This year during the MLB playoffs, I arbitrarily chose to root for the Orioles and Giants for the duration, and lo and behold, the Giants went and won the whole damn thing.

And since I bought some Giants merchandise to celebrate, MLB.com doesn't know what to sell me anymore.

I've decided to stick with my winning city for this Super Bowl, and root for the 49ers, though I know even less about them than I did about the Giants (to be fair, I know at least a few players on every baseball team, but next to nothing about most football teams outside the Patriots and their perennial rivals).  So I hope no diehard 49ers fans will be upset that I'm jumping on their bandwagon so late - I seemed to be good luck for the Giants!

This must be how it feels to be a Yankees fan...

Last night, the Patriots lost to the Ravens. Everyone on my Twitter and Facebook feeds who lives outside of New England was jubilant, while I was morose. I know that it's kind of ridiculous to mourn a Patriots loss in the penultimate round of the playoffs, especially when they so regularly play in the postseason, and have certainly won their share of Super Bowls in my lifetime, but that doesn't lessen the immediate feeling of disappointment.

I'm perfectly aware of the vitriol that most of the country feels towards the Patriots, and I like to think that it's similar to how I (along with millions of others) feel about the New York Yankees [though the comparison falls apart when you remember that the Yankees spend tens of millions of dollars more than anyone else, while the Pats operate with the same salary cap as every other NFL team].

The Patriots are elite year after year. The quarterback married a supermodel, and even does some modeling of his own. The coach is surly and aloof, and the franchise was unlucky enough to be caught filming the opposition's signs (though you're deluding yourself if you think the Pats were the only team doing that).

I fully understand why people don't like the Patriots. If I was from another region of the country, I probably wouldn't like them very much myself. But it does make it hard to deal with a big loss when you know that virtually everyone in the country is celebrating. This experience doesn't make me any less eager to savor the schadenfreude when the Yankees lose, but I do at least feel an inkling of what their fans must feel.