It's less than four hours until the kickoff of the AFC Championship game between the Pats and Ravens. This has been my 47th season following the team, starting in 1966 when I was 12.
Fans have experienced an incredible ride over the last 12 seasons with Coach Belichick and Tom Brady leading the team to 7 AFC Championship games. Fans have been spoiled in that time with five Super Bowl games and hopefully another one after today.
It wasn't always like this. As a fan, I went my first 11 seasons before the team had a playoff game in 1976. It was the infamous Divisional loss against the Oakland Raiders.
It took 20 seasons before I watched my team in a AFC title game in 1985. That was also the year of the Super Bowl loss to the Chicago Bears. I would need to wait 10 seasons for another AFC game and Super Bowl. Ultimately, it would be two AFC games in my first 35 seasons.
Since then, the rest is history. I have a great appreciation for the game today after such a long drought earlier.
I only need to look at Atlanta and see Tony Gonzalez playing in his first NFC Championship game after 16 seasons. You never know if your team will make it back there.
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