how badly can you feel

september 7th 2008 ... gillette stadium ... foxborough massachusetts ... sunny and 75 degrees ... a perfect day to start the new england patriots 2008 regular season ... a perfect day for tom brady, randy moss and wes welker to get some practice in against the allegedly not so good kansas city chiefs ... a perfect day for the patriots to extend their record 19 game regular season winning streak ... a perfect day for the 2008 new england patriots to begin their legitimate quest for a 4th super bowl championship of the belichick & brady era

seven minutes and twenty-four seconds ... 7:24 ... count 'em ... 7 minutes and 24 seconds into the 2008 regular season ... that season changed forever for the first 7 minutes and 24 seconds of the 2008 season ... the new england patriots were the pick of many to win a 4th super bowl championship ... in an instant, many will now believe the patriots chances of winning another super bowl this season went down the drain ... as tom brady was assisted down this gillette stadium stairwell

the next day ... after his patriots had escaped with a hard fought 17-10 victory over the kansas city chiefs ... and after he announced that the nfl's reigning most valuable player ... and the leader of his team would lost for the season ... coach belichick said "i feel badly, mostly for tom"
fans across new england felt badly ... mostly for the patriots team whose super bowl chances were seemingly so bright ... and now seem so cloudy
but seriously folks ... how badly can you feel for a guy who ... at the end of the day ... gets to take his gimpy knee home to be cared for by this