Very entertained to have found this thread here. LFC is really the only team that I have ever been genuinely interested in, but I was a half-hearted Giants fan as a kid, mainly because I saw supporting the Patriots being like — what I would later realize is the equivalent of — supporting United.
(To be clear, I hate United significantly more than the Patriots, and most of my family are Pats fans, so I don’t have as much flexibility in the matter. That said, both are similarly obnoxious, and it’s been hilarious to watch Pats fans make sense of being way out of contention after a long spell of dominance, much like United.)
Having lived in Patriots country my entire life, I remember the first super bowl they won (XXXVI vs. Rams, I was 10) and a lot of my fourth-grade class decided to become Pats fans the day after. Some of them had worn hats before, fair enough, but the majority seemed to suddenly come out of the woodwork as Patriots fans. (I know, they’re kids, but I was still annoyed.) Just to make a point, I decided that I wouldn’t like the Patriots and would support another team. I hated the color green, so the Jets were out, and the Giants were the next-closest team, and they were blue and red, so I went with them. (Kid logic.)
They were shit for many years while the Patriots won more and more, but then 2008 ** came along and, against all odds, the Giants were in the Super Bowl against the (then) undefeated Patriots. I heard over and over about how the Patriots were going to win, it was going to be a blowout, etc., ignoring the fact that the Giants had played the Pats in the last regular-season game and only lost by 3 points. “Objectively, the Patriots will probably win,” I said, “but the Giants are peaking at the right time.” I was summarily dismissed, only for the Giants to pull off the upset, and I was the biggest asshole in the world the next day, wearing my Giants jersey to school and screaming in people’s faces. I wouldn’t do it that way again, but they couldn’t say it wasn’t coming.
Four years later, in college: same pairing, same result. Not as much dickheaded-ness on my part but I was still happy to rub it in. You reap what you sow!
** Rant: I strongly dislike that the NFL refers to Super Bowls by the season they’re played in instead of the actual year in which the Super Bowl takes place. For example, the Giants win (played February 3, 2008) is sometimes referred to as the “2007 Super Bowl”. No! It’s either the 2008 or the 2007-08 SB, but not the 2007 SB. End rant.
(… and just to make everyone happy at times the Pats were worst as well)