NFL Power Rankings: Why Are Football Fans Uniting and Loving It?

Mostly everyone loves to see the demise of a great team.

People enjoyed seeing the bickering of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens and their fall from grace and friendship.

People loved it when the Dallas Cowboys lost Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin and started their downward spiral toward a quarterback carousel and mediocrity that ultimately ended with Tony Romo as their savior.

They loved it when Steve Young was knocked out, Jeff Garcia was let go, and Owens made a mockery of the 49ers before being traded, starting the Niners' downward spiral toward NFL embarrassment.

All across the NFL there are teams that fall and teams that rise and there are teams (and fans), that love seeing certain teams fail.

However, right now it seems football fans from everywhere (except in New England) are excited and anxious to see a team that has been great for so long finally collapse.

Here you have the New England Patriots.

The demise of the Patriots is coming together as though it has already been written in the NFL history books.

After the Pats won three Super Bowls in four years, the Pittsburgh Steelers surprised everyone by winning it all as a Wild Card playoff team in 2006.

Then one of the Patriots’ biggest rivals in recent years, the Indianapolis Colts, broke the routine of second (and third) fiddle and finally won the Super Bowl in 2007.

Then in the 2007-2008 season, the Patriots' rose back to NFL superiority and went undefeated, winning all 16 regular season games. They got through the playoffs and advanced to the Super Bowl in 2008, looking like immortals ready to claim the top spot in NFL greatness.

However, in the Patriots' way were the New York Giants, who eventually stuck it to one of the greatest offenses in NFL history and beat the Pats in the closing seconds, 17-14, creating a collapse of mammoth proportions that appeared to have been already written.

Then the division that the Pats have dominated for so long got better.

During the offseason the Dolphins hired one of the greatest coaches in NFL history to be their general manager and they also received an upgrade at quarterback; not to mention two good running backs who appear to be 100 percent back and ready to resume their NFL careers. 

The Jets acquired a future Hall of Fame quarterback to lead their team to the promised land, a move that definitely made the team better.

Finally, the Bills appeared to have everything working at the same time, from their QB to their RB to their defense and special teams. They all seem to be on the same page and will be in the playoff hunt.

Then to open the ’08 season, the Patriots lost their starting quarterback and franchise player in the first quarter of the first game, against one of worst teams in the NFL.

The Pats relied on an unproven quarterback who has not started a game since his senior year in high school, thus showing the ignorance and failure of the coaching staff not to hire a proven backup QB.  

The Pats’ defense (that many thought were declining prior to the ’07 season) show their age against worst team of ‘07 (the Miami Dolphins) and get blown out 38-13 at home, in the third week of the ’08 season.

This came after the Pats skimmed by two of the NFL’s worst from a year ago in the New York Jets (19-10) and the Kansas City Chiefs (14-10).

Even with the NFL’s scheduling the Pats’ first four games against the league's four worst teams from a year ago (Chiefs, Jets, Dolphins, and 49ers), it’s still not going to help New England. It is only postponing the fall.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?