Here's the story...

It's Superbowl 41, one and a half minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The New England Patriots have led the Atlanta Falcons all game, and are clinging on to a 7-point lead. They have the ball at the Falcons' forty yard line, third and three with Atlanta out of time-outs. If the Pats get a first down, it's all over.

"Stupid press,” Pats-Fan Gary says as he and his best friend raise a shot glass in celebration.

"Always making nothing into something.”

Tom Brady takes the snap from center and fakes the hand-off to Corey Dillon. The desperate Falcons bite on the fake, leaving tight-end Daniel Graham wide-open, one yard past the first down marker………………

At a party in Los Angeles, columnist Jack Pack, who all year had been prophesizing the beginning of the end of the Patriot's championship years, sits there in awe.

"Guess I was wrong……”

The ball tightly spirals down the field and right into the hands of the sure-handed Graham. But this time his sure hands unexplainably turn into butter, as he drops the ball.

The two Patriot fans gasp with amazement.

"Could it be?”

Back at the party, all Jack Pack can do is sit and smile, as everybody there begins to look at him like he is the next Nostradamus.

The Patriots, in no-man's land, decide to punt it away; as punter Josh Miller had been key in placing the ball inside the ten yard line all year and Atlanta's offense was having problems all day moving the ball consistently.

Miller promptly takes the perfect snap and proceeds to shank the ball ten yards down the field and out of bounds….a kick of six net yards.

"It CAN'T be!”

One-minute-eighteen seconds later, it is. Atlanta scores on a last-second thirty-yard "Hail Mary” on fourth and ten, sending the contest into overtime.

Atlanta then wins the coin toss, forcing the resilient Patriots to kick it off.

Paul Edinger, who the Patriots acquired to take the place of Folk Hero Adam Vinitieri, sends away the perfect kick. Seven yards back in the end zone, Allen Rossum decides to run it out.

Rossum jets down the middle of the field and quickly runs to the right. He breaks two tackles inside his own twenty and is off to the races, galloping through the huge seam in the kick coverage and down the field for the winning touchdown.

How long could a Patriot drought last? Maybe 86 years? And finally, what would be the cause of years and years of futility?

Cue the music and ready the deep-voiced guy please……

"THE CURSE OF THE KICKER!”

The ghosts in Fenway have not left town, they've just been traded. The pesky poltergeists had just been waiting for the next team to hound; and thanks to the wealthy Pats letting the most-clutch sports figure since Michael Jordan go for a measly couple-million dollars, they got their wish.

Let's just hope Bob Kraft isn't going to use the money he saved to fund some way-off Broadway play called Beavis and Butthead do Manhattan.

I just don't get it. Yes the Pats' Brass was unsure of what the pending collective bargaining agreement was going to leave their salary cap figure at, but they must have known that they could have afforded three million dollars; especially for the guy who finished off two and a half Superbowls.

But is that enough for a curse?

Yes, yes, yes! Not only is it a bad football move, it's also a bad karma move. When the Red Sox sold Ruth, they of course hurt their team in the short-run; but when Babe retired, what held the Red Sox from winning the World Series?

Karma.

But what about teams like the Chicago White Sox, who before last year hadn't won a World Series since 1917? No one ever associated any sort of curse with their ineffectiveness?

That's because they were never cursed, they were just never really "that good.”

The White Sox never had a ball go through their first baseman's legs in extra-innings of the sixth game of a World Series; nor did they ever have the misfortune of a fan reaching over the fence to take a sure out away during the late innings of another.

It's not the drought that makes the curse. It's when a team "gets there” and strange and unexpected things happen that ruins there championship chances.

The Red Sox had the Bambino, the Cubs have the Billy Goat (hey, Goats have feelings too!) and now the Patriots may get the Kicker.

So next time the Patriots are close to again being a Superbowl champion, look closely. See what weird happenings stop them from winning.

I just hope for the Patriot's (and their fan's) sake that the Ghosts decide to go to a warm-weather team or that Donald Trump buys the franchise and "fires” them.

Tell Your Friend