Why I hate dominant sports teams.

Today I stared lasers, poison-tipped lasers, into the faces of two New England Patriots fans who strolled nonchalantly into my coffee shop sporting their Patriots jerseys. I would have left the situation alone with a few muttered "fucking Patriots fans" under my breath, but then I noticed the names on the back of the jerseys that the cute young couple were wearing. The woman sported the jersey of Wes Welker, and the man had a Donte Stallworth jersey on. For those of you non-football fans, these are two marginal players acquired at the beginning of this season and whose performance relies COMPLETELY upon the brilliance of the Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth aren't worth shit on their own. If Tom Brady breaks his arm in tonight's game, Wes Welker is going to go back to fetching Gatorade when he is quickly dealt off to another team in hopes of possibly tricking another coach into believing the guy has any value outside of the Tom Brady circle of influence. Wearing Wes Welker or Donte Stallworth jerseys is the equivalent, in my mind, of saying your favorite superhero is not Batman, but fucking Robin.
I can see the need these fans feel to differentiate themselves. When a team becomes dominant, like the Patriots, the number of "loyal" fans surges. This idiotic couple obviously wanted to buck the trend and avoid buying Tom Brady or Randy Moss jerseys. This is stupid. Those are the only two players on the team (with notable exception of perhaps Rodney Harrison, but that guy is a dick) who will make the hall of fame. A Brady or Moss jersey might have some nostalgic value when the team's strength wanes. People can still say "man, remember how good those guys were?" Nobody will say shit about Welker or Stallworth. They will be bowled over in the awesome tide that is sports history.
It's not the first time something like this has happened. Remember all the Chicago Bulls fans that roamed around in the 90's when Jordan was making basketball look like his own private playground? Where are all those Starter jackets now? I don't see any throwback fucking Scottie Pippen jerseys on MTV.
So, Patriots fans, I hope you enjoyed flushing your $80 down the toilet on your Wes Welker jersey. You can hang it in the closet next to Horace Grant's.