KARMA is a Bitch

For a lot of sports fans, the New England Patriots’ loss to the NY Giants in the Super Bowl was about as satisfying as if their own home team had won. That’s because Bill Belichick, coach of the Patriots, was the LOSER of a close, heartbreaking Super Bowl once again. Yes, I will savor the words as I say it again.  In his last two Super Bowl attempts, Bill Belichick has been a loser.

The reason people are pleased, of course, is that Bill Belichick is getting paid back by the great and mighty KARMA of the universe, for, among other things, piling on points at the ends of games where his team had already decisively vanquished their foes. His team would be winning, like 42 – 7 in the final minutes of a game, and he’d have Tom Brady, still in the game, throwing on the other team to try to tack on just one more score, when football convention would be to have the quarterback take a knee and run out the clock.  Some people call off the dogs when the contest is over.  Some people sic their dogs on defenseless victims to try to intimidate them.   And kick ’em when they’re down.   Belichick seemed to relish his role as the bully who tried to squash his opponents when they were going through tough times.  In a former life, I think he was a prison guard at Shawshank prison.  Or the warden.

Oh, he also thought it would be fair to have his own spies videotaping other teams’ practices before Super Bowls in order to gain an unfair advantage for those big games. The NFL offices thought so poorly of this that they fined him $500,000. Sports fans had bigger and better things that they hoped would happen, though.  I’m sure, those that seek to see all of these sporting games being played out fairly, were hoping for just that which has happened.  New England to LOSE,  Bill Belichick to feel pain,  New England to have their hearts broken, so that justice could prevail, and so that poor sportsmen and cheaters would basically get what was coming to them.

So, to see Belichick LOSE two Super Bowls in painfully close games, well, that is about as good as it gets. It is KARMA, that silent, hard to describe divine justice of the universe, getting back at those that would do the wrong thing when they had every opportunity to do the right thing. It is Christmas getting back at the Grinch for trying to steal it. It is the class bully getting his ass kicked by the little kid who grew up and decided to fight back.  It is the Wicked Witch of the West getting turned into a puddle while Dorothy goes off into the sunset with Toto.

Sorry Patriots fans. You are mostly good people. Your teams were good teams, made up of good people. But your coach tempted the fates. When someone else was down, he kicked them in their teeth.  He wasn’t compassionate, he was a bully. He tried to cheat the concept of fair play to gain an advantage. He tempted KARMA.

When the Patriots needed the big break in the game, they didn’t get it.  It went to the Giants, just like it did in the 2008 Super Bowl when an unknown wide receiver caught a ball with his helmet to make the game’s pivotal play to beat the Patriots.  Things like that happen AGAINST teams that have bad KARMA.  I’m relatively certain that if the Patriots were playing somebody else, the break would have probably gone that team’s way too.

Bill Belichick thought, in several moments of sheer arrogance, that the short term gains of piling on scores and kicking teams when they were down would be done without any consequences.  He thought his position of power would make him invincible.  But, just like the warden and prison guard in Shawshank, he was wrong.  In fact, I have this theory that that excellent movie is the ultimate battle between GOOD KARMA and BAD KARMA, and that the reason it is so popular is that each is rewarded properly.

And so it has happened again to the New England Patriots.  Doing the wrong thing often enough can come back and get you when you least expect it.  KARMA can be a real bitch sometimes.