I grew up in San Diego. We mocked hockey, had a baseball team that was mostly known for its Chicken mascot, and chased away a sports team, the San Diego Clippers, to a market, Los Angeles, that already had a basketball team. San Diego has it nude beaches, its dog parks, and its mountains and it doesn’t need your judgment, man.

Christ, I loved football when I was I kid, though. Oh. Oh. Yes. I did.

I collected the football cards and memorized the stats. (The only stat that has stuck is that Ahmad Rashad and my brother were born on the same day, March 16th.) I would watch the telecasts in my living in a three-point stance, moving in sequence with the Chargers’ offensive line as soon as I heard “hut.”

I believed in Air Coryell.

Then, you know, life happens. You move out of your home town and mingle with people that maybe have lived in cities where actual championships have actually been won. (San Diego, I think, is in that rarified air of being one of the most populous cities that has never actually won a national title in any sport–but, hey, dude! The America’s Cup in yachting was won there so, you know. Shut up.)

I didn’t love the Patriots when I first moved to Boston.

They were just another loser team, struggling with coaching and management. I was disgusted by the Pete Carroll coaching, and wasn’t thrilled by the personnel. Then, apparently, some drama occurred when Bill Belichick became the head coach. WHAT. EVER. I wasn’t really that focused. I was thinking about the San Diego Chargers.

I couldn’t stand Drew Bledsoe. I don’t hate pocket passers as a general rule but, Jesus, that man was slow. His slowness caused so many sacks. (Snore. If you’re not into football, you don’t even care what I’m saying.)

What I DO know, however, is that, as soon as Tom Brady took the field, there was a spark. I saw it. He pounded on the shoulders of his lineman. He pumped people up. He was involved in every play. He noticed what the defense did.

Drew Bledsoe kinda sorta realized that that was what Tom was doing, so when Tom went down with an ankle injury during a crucial playoff game, he was able to step up. Thank God.

I didn’t know who Tom Brady was when I fell in love with him. But I sensed that he was a winner. He wasn’t a winner like Cam Newton is a “winner.” He wasn’t a winner because he thought he was all that and a bag of chips. He was a winner because he believed in his team, he worked hard, and he was a leader.

I fell in love with the Patriots around the same time that the towers fell during 9/11. I didn’t do it intentionally–that was simply the time that Tom Brady stepped in, pounded his linemans’ shoulder pads, and made a difference.

Thanks to the tuck rule, the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl that year. Man. That was a long time ago.

That call could have gone either way. Wow. It’s like thinking about parallel lives. Who is going to be victorious, the Raiders or the Patriots?

And, yes. All of it seemed blessed. Too much fortune. You wouldn’t be here but for…

I had all that worry. I sat in my little room in Newton, Massachusetts, biting my nails, consumed by the certainty that the St. Louis Rams were going to DESTROY Tom Brady and the Patriots.

And then.

You know how sporting events are. You get that…rumble in the jungle! moment…and every individual athlete gets his due. Ray Lewis gets his dance. Michael Irvin. Troy Palomalu. Teams call their players out. They come out of the tunnel to individual accolades and power. And I’m pretty sure that St. Louis did that with the reigning Super Bowl Champs. They had their individual moments.

But My Patriots came out as a team.

The moment they came out in unison from that tunnel, for that first Super Bowl, in 2001, after the towers collapsed on 9/11, I knew that they would win.

They’ve won 3 Super Bowls since I’ve seen them in that tunnel, but things aren’t as predictable.

I don’t have the confidence that I did when they emerged from the tunnel as a single unit back in 2001. Thank Christ they don’t rely on my confidence to keep going. They keep coaching, and keep scheming, and keep winning, despite me. Good for them.

But I love them. They’ve epitomized success as a group. Tom Brady has been the superstar of the team…but he is such a humble, human superstar that you almost find it hard to believe that he is married to a super model. And yet you do believe it. Because he is that blend of modesty and power, that combination that we yearn for and yet never find. He is the All-American Quarterback that lives in the American dream.

What will happen when Bill & Tom leave New England? I don’t know…I’lll probably drift to another team. I’m shallow like that.

But I love these Patriots because they are so disciplined. I want my football team to react as a team and not as individuals.. And that is what the Patriots do. I am turned off by the individual star. That cockiness revolts me. In many ways, the New England Patriots are like the modern day New York Yankees. Only better.

People call the Patriots cheaters. They refer to Spygate. Do you even know what the Spygate Scandal is supposed to be about? Well, from what I understand, an assistant coach of the Patriots would video tape the opponents’ practices (with sound) that would give the Patriots such an advantage that they would dominate. That sounds terrible.

Only, the year after that practice was exposed, they went undefeated.

I would think that, if a person had only succeeded through cheating that, when they were caught cheating, their numbers would fall off. Kinda like Jason Giambi and David Ortiz, the baseball players who have been caught injecting performing enhancing drugs. The year after David Ortiz was exposed, he hit, like, .143.

I knew, when those men ran out of the tunnel in 2001 as a unit, that they would win, as a unit.

I love the Patriots because they are not about egos. They have one of the greatest quarterbacks in the league that has ever lived, married to one of the hottest fashion models that has ever existed…and yet you don’t see him selling us Sony TVs and PapaJohns Pizzas.

It is hard to see my Patriots fail to win the ultimate prize. They try so hard.

But, all things considered, they are the most consistent of teams. They are relatively crime-free. They are populated by smart men, honorable men, who give to their community.

I love the Patriots, not because they win, but because of their ethic.

It’s just nice to see their ethic prevail.

(Many people might see this post and say “Spygate!”—to which I say, you know, that lack of blood flow to your head is dangerous–Also…giving that Spygate was so real, and so important…once the scandal was exposed, why did the Patriots then go 16-0 the next season? The Saints were exposed for BountyGate and couldn’t make the playoffs. I would like to submit that, since we have no idea what goes on when preparing for games, we probably shouldn’t speak.)

I don’t have faith that the Patriots will always win. But I do have faith that they will always win well. And that is all that matters.