You may be imagining me cowering with abject shame over the failure of the New England Patriots to vanquish the New York Giants in last night’s Super Bowl. Yes, like many Patriots fans who brayed cocky predictions of victory, I was stunned by the Patriot’s lackluster performance, I was angered by Peyton Manning’s crowing from his luxury box perch, and I was enraged by the humiliating defeat of a team that had come so close to a historic perfect season (“The Patriots lost the Super Bowl. It is an alternate universe. It does not compute”).
But after some quiet reflection, I was okay with the Patriot’s loss. In the parlance of the ancient Greek world with which I equate the battle of modern football, the defeat of Bill Belichick was a textbook example of hubris. As Wikipedia explains, “Hubris… was considered the greatest sin of the ancient Greek world. The category of acts constituting hubris for the ancient Greeks apparently broadened from the original specific reference to molestation of a corpse, or a humiliation of a defeated foe, to molestation, or irreverent, outrageous treatment, in general”.
Since the beginning of the 2007-8 NFL season, when so-called SpyGate resulted in a hefty fine and the loss of a first-round draft pick, Belichick has sought not just to beat his opponents, but annihilate them. No coach in the NFL has ever ran up the score so flagrantly. When the Patriots beat the Redskins 52-7, Belichick committed the football equivalent of tying the Redskins to his chariot by their heels and riding around the stadium.
There is no sin in winning, but Belichick’s lack of joy was disquieting even to New England fans. We knew his pride tempted the other teams to retribution. It egged them on. It’s no coincidence that the Baltimore Ravens, the Philadelphia Eagles, and of course the New York Giants played their best games ever against the Patriots.
Americans instinctively route for the underdog. It’s not because we glorify mediocrity, but because we live in a meritocracy. We see evidence of the underdog’s advantage everywhere we look. So the Patriot’s downfall is not a complete surprise or even disappointment to me, and I am solaced by the Patriot’s otherwise phenomenal season. Bill Belichick remains, I’m sure, joyless.
