Monday Musings - Why does extended excellence bore us?

I was fascinated with the response leading up to and during the Super Bowl last night.  It was amazing to me the number of people who wrote comments along the lines of "I couldn't care less about the Super Bowl this year", often followed by a rationale about why they hate and/or are bored by the Patriots and/or (less so) the Giants.

In the end, it was a fantastic game of football, though I am obviously gutted about the result...  Sorry to those who missed out because they were taking a stance on not wanting to watch teams they don't like... it will absolutely go down as one of the great Super Bowls - that catch by Manningham was incredible.  

However, my fascination about those comments stems more from why it is that we get so bored by teams and people who live out extended excellence.  Let me list a few names... what's your response?

Patriots.
Lakers.
Yankees.
Federer.

Now before you get all steamed up and say "I can't stand the Patriots because they're cheats"; "the Yankees just buy World Series victories"; "Bryant is a jerk"; "Federer is boring"... I want to challenge how many others do the same thing or have similar traits, but we don't care anywhere near as much - we only focus on these teams/people because they excel.  A lot.  Take a deep breath and really think about whether there is someone you can point to that has been highly successful for a long time and you are happy for them.  If so, I'd be interested to know why that's different.

The angst against the Patriots comes from 2 sources - Belichick is a cheat (because of the whole spygate thing) and because Brady is too arrogant/a pretty boy/cheat/his hair is too nice/...  As I've mentioned before, I am a Patriots fan, so I'll admit I have some bias.  However, the Brady stuff to me is crazy - love him or hate him, he's a guy who was picked 199th, is only as good as he is because he has worked so hard - by his own admission, he's really not that athletic - and it's not like he's had superstars around him every year.  In terms of the taping scandal, I can't believe the Pats were the only ones who did it, but even if they were, they were severely punished and now look at what Belichick has done with this year's team of cast-offs and undrafted players.  Unpack it with most people and eventually, they'll admit he is actually a pretty good coach.

The reality is that we just get bored when the same team/person is successful all the time and I'm interested in why that is.  Sure, most of us want to cheer for the underdog - we love a good story and that's understandable.  But there's something in us that starts to believe that people's success is undeserved once they've been at the top for a while.  Never mind that they need to keep working just as hard as others to maintain that success (or harder - they suddenly have a target on their back) - we're bored with them winning and look for ways to pull them down.  Using Brady as an example again, he was absolutely an underdog when he entered the league, but now he's resented because he's been at the top (or near it...) for so long.

Being perfectly honest, I know this plays out in my own life, too.  Rather than cheering on those around me, I can look at ways of tearing them down (even if it's only in my own mind) or getting resentful about why they have all the luck, why they get all the breaks and success while I continue to work away with my head down...  As I do that, I miss the incredible blessings that are present in my own life and fail to recognize the sacrifices, discipline and dedication that others have probably put in to get to where they are.  To be honest, a lot of the time, I'm just not willing to do the same...

Who are you cheering on to succeed?
Who are you cheering to fail?
What's really at the core of why?