2002: The Year We Win It All

The Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl. I know it sounds crazy, but I just know. Everything’s coming together.

Remember the last time things came together in New England sports? It started with the Patriots squishing the fish and going to the Super Bowl. It ended with Bill Buckner. 1986. It was a magic year. The lowly Patriots were crushed by da Bears, but the Celtics made things right by winning their sixteenth championship. Meanwhile a phenom named Clemens was winning 14 in a row. This was the year the curse would end. The taste of ’78 and Bucky bleeping Dent still lingered in the back of the region’s collective throat. And there, in Anaheim, an amazing thing happened. The other guys choked. The Angels looked victory in the face and blinked. The sox stormed into the World Series. You know how it ended. I still blame the Steamer more than I blame Buckner.

That was the end of the run. The ugliness of coming so close formed a festering wound. The infection spread to the Celtics the next season, the only real winner we’ve ever had here. Bird stole the ball to stop the Pistons, but the Lakers had the last laugh, and that’s the closest the Celtics have been to a championship since. Is there another large city in America that has gone 16 years between championships?

But the tide is turning. I believe that it started in game 7 of the World Series. All of America came together in the wake of September 11th to jinx Mariano Rivera and send the hated Yankees to defeat. Then things started to fall into place. The cursed Yawkeys finally washed their hands of the Red Sox. The Celtics started to look like a real team for the first time since Reggie Lewis died. The Bruins got big and bad again, and appear poised to make a run for the Stanley Cup. And the lowly Patriots are the second seed in the AFC after Miami and Oakland collapsed.

Who will beat them? Pittsburgh? Not with Kordell Stewart. The Ravens? Grbac’s worse than Kordell. The only team with a chance to derail the Pats is the St. Louis Rams. And the Rams aren’t going to the Super Bowl. Here’s how it will break down: The Pats will beat the Raiders next week to get revenge Sugar Bear Hamilton, for the Snake’s sneak, and for Daryl Stingley. Then the Dolphins come to Foxboro for the final game in Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro stadium history. It will be Snowplow II as the fish get sqished again. Finally it’s on to New Orleans, the site of the Patriots greatest humiliation, Super Bowl XX. The Bears are going to lose big thanks to the arm of surprise starter Drew Bledsoe. Write it down. It’s destiny.

And that won’t be the end. The Celtics will knock off the Wizards and MJ in the eastern conference finals on their way to a sweep of the hated Lakers. The Bruins will re-sign Ray Borque for the playoffs and win a cup for us by beating the Avalanche. And the Boston Red Sox, with the speed of Johnny Damon, the power of Manny Ramirez, and top to bottom pitching dominance will win it all by breaking the Yankees hearts in game 7 on a cheap home run into the net by Lou Merloni. Then they’ll beat the Mets in the ninth inning of games four, five, and six and win game 7 by hitting a ball through Mo Vaughn’s legs. Finally. 2002 is the year we win it all. The year we bury our dead.