Sometimes I think all sports fans are masochists, happy to live on a diet of pain. Think about it. Every major sport in this country climaxes its season with some form of championship playoffs.
Hope springs eternal in the breast of the fan, only to be dashed, year after year.
Teams show promise, only to be eliminated. The better your team is and the further it goes, the more it hurts when your team loses. That they lost four times in the Superbowl. That the Falcons stopped them, one game from the Superbowl. That s how the process of champion-making works.