He had sunk to the deepest levels of fanhood

He had sunk to the deepest levels of fanhood.Instead of sympathy for the relapse of Terry, I feel a bit of kinship and pride for the man. All the while I was treading dangerous waters trying to sort out those feelings for myself.As everyone else congratulated Terry for sharing as he made his way back to his seat, another fellow takes his place at the podium; we’ll call him Steve. After Steve introduces himself and admits his fanhood, we all welcome him: “Hi, Steve.”Surprisingly, I hear another admission of football watching and Internet commenting. I know Steve and I always thought he came to these meetings only because he actually liked the crappy coffee.I gained a large amount of respect for the man as he stood there and told his story.As I sat there waiting for Steve to finish knowing that I had some demons of my own to purge, I couldn’t help myself from feeling conflicted once again. A plan was forming and I had no way of diverting my thoughts.As the moderator asked if there was anyone else who wanted to share, I jumped to my feet. On my way to the podium, I made a concerted effort to walk by both Terry and Steve to give them a wink and a handshake.I strode to the podium in front of this concerned and caring audience and immediately launched into the opening: “Hi, my name is Glenn Card and I’m a Patriots fan.” The crowd’s automatic zombie response came back at me: “Hi, Glenn.”For emphasis, I repeated myself: “I’m Glenn Card and I’m a Patriots fan.” I pause, then whipped off my cap, exposing the flying Elvis Patriot emblems tattooed to each side of my shaved head, adding “And I’m damn proud of it.” Pandemonium broke loose with shouts of acceptance and condemnation.As I commanded the podium, I announced, “I’m here for your counter-intervention.” This time I heard more cheers than shrieks of horror."We’re all Patriots fans here and we’ve been led to believe that we have a problem. Other fans pitied us and thought we were pathetic for our allegiance to our team."No one took us seriously."Then along came Parcels and Bledsoe then Belichick and Brady.

Something happened as we went from loathing other teams to unabashed admirers of our own team; we became the hated Patriots fans."I’ve seen national polls that show that one third of all NFL fans hate the Patriots especially because of their fans. We should ignore those jabs and cajole the authors of these mean spirited opinions and commentaries."While I’ve been in the program I have only smiled, nodded my head and mumbled platitudes of appreciation for their twisted intuitive observances."I now recognize those Patriots-bashing articles for what they are."They are hate and fear disguised as literature; hate for success not their own and fear of the playoffs. The season is young and having the Patriots possibly make the playoffs is reason enough to fear them."My counter-intervention is self-attained and I’ve made it my mission to free my like-minded friends and kinsmen from their burdens of trying to fit in with the fan population at large."I’m done with these PFA meetings. If you want to meet with me then you can see me down at the local sports pub and I’ll tell you all about my fanhood there."I’m a little hermatile at myself for allowing myself to be falsely humbled. So I say to all those not of the Patriot persuasion, go ahead and deride us for a Patriots loss or two, but fear the future as your nightmare is the Patriots in the playoffs.I am Glenn Card, and I am a Patriots fan.. Profit 31 cents a share Stocks Says challenges to its business are growing Cutting expenses "rigorously" CHICAGO, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Paccar Inc (PCAR.O), the No 2U.S.

maker of heavy trucks, said quarterly earnings tumbled 56percent, hurt by reduced gross margins, lower build rates andcosts associated with temporary plant shutdowns as recessionhit demand for its products. Paccar warned that challenges it faced last year areincreasing and said it was continuing to slash operatingexpenses and capital expenditures. Analysts on average expected the Bellevue, Washington-basedcompany to earn 30 cents a share, according to ReutersEstimates. The company forecast another tough year for truck sales inthe United States and Canada.