Thank you…

…to the refs for giving the Giants 2 free points at the beginning of the game.  Those points didn’t affect the outcome at all.

…to the 12th person on the field when the Giants fumbled the ball away in the red zone early in the game.

…to Tom Brady for making another stupid long-bomb interception, just like the one he made two weeks ago against Baltimore.

…to Wes Welker for dropping a wide open pass that would have nearly iced the game.

…to Bill Belichick for not thinking of letting the Giants score two plays earlier, saving a time out and a good 30+ seconds.  It was a classic Madden move that came a little too late.

And now that I have that off my chest, all sarcasm aside…

Thank you to the New England Patriots, for an incredible season. It’s a game of inches, and we just came up a few short.  If Gronk doesn’t bust up his ankle, if we made a catch here, a play there…   At the same time, if Bill Cundiff kicks the ball six more inches to the right, we might not have even been here.  That’s what makes the game so beautiful, and so maddening at the same time.  Only one team out of 32 ends the season happy.  It wasn’t our turn. 

Here’s hoping we can have a different outcome for XLVII.  Because hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.