If you don’t like American football or live outside the United States, you’re probably not aware (or even care) that the undefeated New England Patriots are squaring off against the San Diego Chargers this Sunday in the battle for the AFC Championship and the right to play in the Super Bowl, that most sacred of American sports events. The top-seeded Pats, 17-0, are considered the odds-on favorites.
Some folks, however, are rooting for the San Diego underdogs. Kristina Haymes, an attorney and mediator who blogs about mediation marketing, and also an avowed Chargers fan, has thrown down the gauntlet. Knowing that my heart belongs to the Patriots, she asks me,
What do you say Diane are the Pats going to trounce the Chargers? Do the underdogs have a chance?
I confess that I’m torn. How to respond? The superstitious sports fan in me never makes public predictions about my team’s likelihood of victory (a superstition borne of a lifetime as a Red Sox supporter). Yet the pulse-pounding excitement of the 2007 football season has gone to my head.
Should I simply say, “Let the best team win?”
Nah. There’s only one answer for Kristina:
Go, Pats!
