Whatever your thoughts on regrets, I admit to having a few. Having them means I'm human. And admitting them probably means I'm less-fearful of appearing vulnerable than you are.
Sure, I wish I had bought Amazon stock in 1996. And seen the Jam and XTC while they were extant. But mostly, I'm bummed that I failed to act on a powerful hunch and not bet on the New York Giants to defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
It was through YouTube that I was finally able to watch the game last night. (I only saw the last few minutes back in the day.)
Like any football fan in 2007, I was fascinated by those Patriots. With an already formidable offense bolstered by the addition of wide receiver-slash-savant Randy Moss, I was curious how high they could go.
As it turns out, the answer was 'very'. They stormed through the sixteen-game schedule without a loss, shredding their opponents by an average of 19.6 points a game. But if you were as observant as you were interested, you noticed that month by month the league was catching up with them.
The Pats won in September by an average of 26.3 points a game. In October by 25. In November that dropped to 17.6. And in December to 11.6.
Now, there isn't a coach in organized football who would refuse a team beating its opponents by 11.6 points per, but in light of those September and October margins being cut in half by December, something was very definitely up.
And if the rest of the league even needed it, those same Giants provided a prime time tutorial on Sunday night, December 29, 2007. Behind 28 – 16 with just minutes left in the third quarter, the Patriots were forced to engineer three unanswered scoring drives, not icing the game until just four minutes were left.
And while New England played well-enough in their two post-season games, it was obvious the epic slaughters of autumn were history. And when it became clear they would again face the Giants in the Super Bowl, wheels began to turn. No. Spin.
I wanted to bet big—a thousand dollars. That is how convinced I was. Being the less-impulsive half of a couple, my wife put the kibosh on that. I cajoled and begged and insisted, half-scaring myself with the insistence of my entreaties.
But all was for naught.
My partner's logic was impeccable. The the Great Recession had already hit in New Mexico (my former employer had laid me off and would soon lay-off another hundred). Full-time-with-benefits job listings had all but disappeared. And as she happened to work for the same company, her position was anything but secure.
As it turned out, my wife lost her job, too. This hastened our decision to leave New Mexico—just as the Great Recession hit nationwide.
What's that about timing being everything?
Given the Giants were 8:1 long-shots to win the Super Bowl (which they incidentally did in an exciting and highly-competitive game), I'll always reflect on how that handsome, tax-free pay-out could've sustained us in the bleak days that lay ahead.
But so it is with regret. It remains an unanswered question, sometimes echoing life-long like an unrequited love. While the purchase of Amazon stock would have had a far-larger impact on my life, there isn't (thankfully) a YouTube video to remind me of that squandered opportunity.
So. Now you know. And if you're wondering, I haven't had a similar, sure fire hunch since.
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