There is a generation of NFL fans that grew up under the yoke of the San Francisco 49ers. It’s mine. They spent many sleepless nights waiting for a Montana defeat that never came. They always won the Super Bowl. Passion for sport means that sometimes you line up with the underdog. That’s why I didn’t like the 49ers. I was never going to sleep happy. It also happened to me with Alain Prost or Pete Sampras. Age things.
But let’s go back to Montana (not forgetting Jerry Rice). Led San Francisco to four Super Bowls and won all four. I got older thinking that I was the best quarterback in history and that I would always have the consolation that I had been able to enjoy his successes, no matter how much it cost my sanity. As almost always, I was wrong. The worst part was that the slap came from my (sportingly) hated Boston. The Lakers, the Kings and, in football, the Raiders were mine. Los Angeles to power.
Super Bowl nights
With the turn of the century, Brady took over from Joe Montana when it came to making me bitter in the early hours of the first Sunday in February
At the turn of the century, Tom Brady took over from Joe Montana when it came to making me bitter in the early hours of the first Sunday in February. The Patriots Super Bowls fell like flagstones. One, two, three … up to six! San Francisco was already only a vague memory of youth. All of New England’s rivals were my new enemies (again, sporting). Eli Manning and his Giants gave me some joy but they were small battles. The war was lost. Going against the Patriots and against Brady was like driving a Ferrari in sixth gear up Toses Hill. The cake was insured.
Tom Brady, eternal
But this summer something changed. Brady and Gisele left Boston – thank you! – and landed in a much kinder land (for the last time, sportingly speaking), sunny Florida. The Buccaneers hadn’t even made the playoffs, but Brady, 43, bet on them. Away from Boston, he could already be one of us. And it has not failed us. Your 10th Super Bowl awaits you. 35 years later it seems that God has returned to Earth. But this time he hasn’t dressed up as a basketball player. Now he plays football and his name is Tom Brady.
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