Burgos: Jealousy shouldn’t stop you from appreciating sports

There’s a reason people love sports. Maybe you’re an adoring fan. Maybe you bet on a game. Or, if you watched Monday Night Football last week, it was for what happened down the stretch — with two minutes left on the clock.

All game long the Bills were steady. Trent Edwards was solid. He spread the ball around as five Bills receivers each had at least two receptions. They were winning without T.O. making much of an impact.

On defense, they were more impressive. Tom Brady couldn’t throw the ball down the field and had to settle for numerous checkdown throws and balls underneath. Randy Moss and Wes Welker got their yards — 141 and 93, respectively — but didn’t hurt the Bills secondary with any big plays.

And so, with two minutes to go (on the road, mind you), the Bills had a seemingly substantial 24-13 lead. But something began to unfold. During the last five minutes, Brady completed 12-of-14 passes. A Bills fumble on a kick return, good Patriots field position and some “my name is Tom Brady, you can call me the Seamstress” touchdown throws later, the Patriots win the game.

No one can say they were surprised, because after all, it’s the Bills. But, the general fallout was predictable. Nearly everyone on Facebook and Twitter commented that they hated the “Pats,” or some other expression of animosity. People nationwide were slumped around their televisions ranting futilely about how the Patriots are evil — not just Bills fans.

Of course, if you aren’t a Patriots fan it’s almost expected that you despise New England. And furthermore, you probably think that Tom Brady is some kind of (fill in the expletive). He must be a bad guy, because he’s the best in the world at what he does.

But, do you hate Tiger Woods? Joe Montana? What about Ben Roethlisberger? Brady only has one more ring than him. I know you hate the Yankees, but why? Is it because they win too much?

It must be jealousy. All Tom Brady has done throughout his career is win football games. He’s shown a generation how greatness manifests itself in sports. That organization as a whole has done that.

If you were a true sports fan, you’d love the guy. You would be thrilled to see him lace two perfect touchdown passes in two minutes. That is the kind of stuff that champions do — and it doesn’t happen every day. Most quarterbacks don’t do something that special in a year, or even a career.

It’s the same reason you should have rooted for the Pats to complete their perfect season a couple years ago. It could have been the only chance you’d have in your lifetime to witness something so unequivocally perfect.

Most people aren’t great at anything they do. In sports, the air is more rarefied. And since most of us aren’t professional athletes, the next best thing we can do is to witness greatness. Right?

It’s like the Yankees. Everyone hates them — but only because they do it right. They want to compete and they want to win, so they do all they can to accomplish those goals. They use the lack of a salary cap in Major League Baseball as a resource. They take advantage of a storied history and parlay it into modern-day success. If you are a Pirates fan and next off-season they spend $60 million on free agents, are you going to throw your arms in the air and say, “Screw the Pirates, they spend money to win!”?

Probably not.

Not all teams have the luxury of playing in a major market, which yields more revenue. Therefore, they do not have the means to spend a bunch of money on players — but why chastise the teams that do? How do we justify hating something based solely on circumstantial happenstance?

And so, what is the basis for abhorring winning teams or players? What do we watch sports for, anyway? To see people fail? Or, rather, to be awed at displays of athleticism, fortitude, resolve under pressure and heroism? Are these not qualities we wish we saw in ourselves?

When you watch a game, match or round, you hunger for something incredible to happen. You crave the flashy play, the gutsy win — only the best.

You don’t have to be a fan of a team, but you should at least be a fan of the sport.