People outside of New England are just eye-rolling your statement of not enjoying the last couple of years. How many teams would kill for just one SB? You are just brushing over the fact that they won one last year, but you don't like how they did it. That sounds ridiculous.
That's just it though. Plenty of fanbases would kill for just one SB. We got six.
Plenty of fanbases would kill for just one playoff season. We got two decades.
I don't feel desperate for the Pats to win another SB, and I don't feel like it's vital they make the playoffs next season.
Does that make me spoiled and entitled as a fan? Sure! Isn't that part of our reward for the last couple of decades of Patriots dominance? We've been given so much winning that we're spoiled and entitled. That will go away with time and we'll be back a normal fan base again soon enough. But for now I'm not sorry about being entitled. It's a sign of how good things have been.
What I do want is a team that I enjoy watching and that has a future. I want something new and exciting not a slightly less good version of what came the year before, which was a slightly less good version of the year before that. I can live with the team being bad for a year or two if that's a necessary part of moving toward a new era.
If I thought the Pats with Brady were going to have a shot at winning another SB, that would be a different story. I don't think that's the case at all. I think if Tom had stayed this next season would have been a repeat of last season, only Tom would look another year older.
I think it's too bad that this didn't end with the SB a year or so ago. Have Brady and Gronk and Edelman all retire at the same time. But as you say, that's rarely how this goes. You have to watch the 1-2 year swan song. Well, that was last season.