I keep coming back to an article Bill Simmons wrote for ESPN in 2002 after seeing his hometown Patriots win their first Super Bowl. While the column’s first paragraph eloquently touches on the irrational optimism sports fans cling to in order to keep coming back year after year, the next one speaks for the diehard fans of every downtrodden franchise:
Of course, there’s one catch: You might never get there. Every fan’s worst fear. All that energy over the years just getting displaced, no release, no satisfaction, nothing. Season after season, no championship … and then you die.