TOP 10 FAN BASES THAT ARE DELIGHTING IN NEW ENGLAND FAN'S MISERY

by DMtShooter, Five Tool Tool

Besides the Giants, of course.

10. The Carolina Panthers. Assuming they have fans (have you ever met one in person?), the Patriots ended their Cinderella story, and their only trip to the Super Bowl, thus continuing to doom the Carolina area to NASCAR fandom. That's got to be hard to take.

9. The Oakland Athletics. Fans of this team got to see Derek Lowe crotch-grab his way to a Game 5 ALDS save while over 10,000 Boston road fans cheered and mocked the hometown fans. As a bonus, they then got to see Boston win a World Series with huge contributions from ex-A's Johnny Damon and Keith Foulke; the latter on the mound for the final out. (Note: this is also how this writer came to his Masshate. But it is mitigated to some small degree by Jeremy Freaking Giambi not sliding, and Eric Byrnes and Miguel Tejada failing to touch home plate. I need to now take a few minutes to visit my tool shed and hurt myself very badly.)

The Patriots losing isn't quite as good as the Red Sox going down to the Green and Gold, but since the A's no longer play in MLB, we take what we can.

8. The St. Louis Rams. What was once a feel-good franchise with a rags-to-riches QB story got to be the fall guys in the first Patriots championship. The Rams haven't been the same since -- and Spygate also makes fans of that franchise wonder if they lost on more than the field.

7. The Oakland Raiders. The most talented team of the Gruden Era wasn't the SB team that lost to the Buccaneers, it was the group that had the game in Charles Woodson's hands in the snow. Old Patriots fans claim this is all retribution for the '70s playoff screw job, but for fans who aren't 35 years old and up, that doesn't cut much ice. Randy Moss dogging it for years, then getting traded for squat, was just the turd icing on a turd cake. They're all Giants fans now, for a little while at least.

6. The Philadelphia Eagles. Two chances at the Super Bowl in 42 years leaves a lot of bitterness, and Spygate tore open the wound afresh. There's always the possibility, of course, that a Super Bowl ring might have kept Terrell Owens in his shoes, too. Finally, there is decades of hate in this area from Sixer fans with the Celtics, so hating a Boston team seems only natural. The only thing that keeps this fan base from being higher on the list is that they had to root for the Giants, and now they have to hear from Giants fans how Eli is better than McNabb, because he's got a ring. (And, of course, an utterly dominant defensive line. But that won't stop meatheads on talk radio.)

5. The Miami Dolphins. Snarl all you want at Mercury Morris and his douchebag ways, but the franchise is justifiably proud of being alone in the record books as unblemished. In a year when their team became the first, and one would seriously hope last, team to finish 15 games behind in their division, the Patriots taking it in the end was the one light of hope.

4. The San Diego Chargers. Back to back season-ending playoff defeats will take a lot out of a team, especially when you do their dance and stomp on their helmet and rape their cheerleaders. (What, that story hasn't made the newspapers yet? Randy Moss has been a busy, and very naughty, boy.)

3. The state of Minnesota. From David Ortiz carrying the Red Sox after the Twins let him walk away, to Doug Mientkiewicz holding the ball to the final out of the 2004 World Series, to the final and most glaring moment of seeing one-time franchise savior Randy Moss playing to his full capabilities (at least until the playoffs started), and the Kevin Garnett rape trade... this is a fan base that has acted as the de facto farm system for Boston fans for most of the decade. This doesn't make up for Johan Santana getting traded for spit and bubble gum, but it does keep the gun in the locker.

2. The New York Jets. From last year's playoff loss to the internecine Mangenius war, with a ton of history behind it, this is the team that the Patriots love to hate, and vice versa. Seeing them go down to the Giants, who have never really had the crosstown rivalry that you see with, say, the Mets and Yankees, was a complete plus.

1. The New York Yankees. So what if they aren't in the same sport? Yankee Fan has just been given the gift of the century -- a new chant to replace 1918, and one that really never, ever, has to go away. It's like 2004 never happened!