“Hey Boys – Hope everyone is doing well. I woke up this morning and it was snowing. With that, I heard that Tom Brady was leaving. I can’t recall a more tragic day in NE. Brady leaving, Bars closed on St Patty’s Day, COVID-19 on the rise with all of us going f’in stir crazy being quarantined and now I’m down to 4 rolls of toilet paper!! Stop the madness!” — Goodboy e-mail, 3/17/20.

My good Goodboys pal couldn’t have said it better: for New England Patriots fans the shock of learning that GOAT QB Tom Brady had chosen to exercise his right as a free agent not to return to the Patriots for the 2020 season was bad enough, but then to hear ol’ TB12 had chosen that hotbed of professional football Tampa Bay – Tampa Bay! – as his new professional football destination, on St. Patrick’s Day, no less!, was enough to make one search for the closest non-quarantined establishment to drown one’s misery in a growler of Guinness.

Look, I don’t blame Brady for wanting to squeeze another 2-3 years of competition with a team that, unlike the Patriots, will assent to his every whim and desire – he’s most certainly earned that right, but that’s something coach Bill Belichick would never allow. I’m guessing in some Foxboro Stadium back room Belichick has been saying to owner Bob Kraft that it was going to be either Brady or him, that the team had gotten everything out of TB12 that was humanly possible, and that based on the latter’s inconsistent performance on the field in 2019 the trend wasn’t TB12’s friend. Sentimental feelings aside, I’m guessing the majority of “In Bill We Trust” Patriots fans are willing to see Belichick’s side of things – at least until the Patriots play like some .500 team come September (if things are anywhere close to back to normal by then).

Which brings me to the other meaning behind this post. It’s not because of the COVID-19 China virus – I still believe a lot of this hysteria is nothing but bullshit whipped up by a mainstream media looking to do whatever it can to destroy President Trump – but the nationwide response to it, courtesy of dimwitted and ambitious politicians at the mnational, state, and local levels, that is going to destroy the world as both you and I know it. Oh I don’t mean we’ll lose our houses, livelihoods, or lifestyles – at least not in significant ways, at least for now. But I thought as I was driving to the local Fry’s to sift through whatever might be left amongst the ravaged supermarket shelves and seeing my gym (Desert Fitness) closed, along with any number of local restaurants along the way due to COVID-19 hysteria, that many may never open back up again.

I think about all our locally-owned businesses – be they gyms, restaurants, shops, or whatever, and think about how their owners probably live their lives on the margins, making enough money to be successful, perhaps, but not rich by any stretch of the imagination. They prosper during the winter “snowbird” season here, making enough money to prosper and keep them going after the snowbirds depart until their return next fall. I think about how hard they work – being an entrepreneur is a 24/7 life in which you sink everything you have in terms of money, passion, and commitment. Now think about your favorite haunts, be they restaurants, bars, stores, and the like. What happens if this hysteria lasts beyond mid-April? Into May, June, or even July? How many of these places that have come to be a part of your daily lives and routines are ever going to see the light of day again? I hate to be a pessimist, but I’m guessing the impact of this hysteria is going to drive a majority of them – perhaps a vast majority – out of business forever. I think about my favorite restaurants and haunts back in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Orleans. Will I ever see them again?

When you think about it, it’s both infuriating and saddening.

Unfortunately, this is the world we now live in: the Patriots are going to start over with (hopefully) some young and hopefully exciting quarterback, and we will see what’s left of the landscape in another 8-12 weeks. I’m praying it won’t look a whole lot different, but I fear the worst. And this is what happens when you have a mainstream media who will stoop at nothing – not even the destruction of this country – to do whatever it takes to destroy a president who had the audacity to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency she so richly deserved in 2016. Because that’s what it all boils down to. Mass hysteria invoked by a bunch of petty, elitist Democratic Party operatives disguised as so-called “journalists”.

…and if we as a country allow the media and all their sycophants on the liberal left to destroy everything we have come to know as familiar and joyful in our lives because of folks and something that petty, perhaps we deserve everything we get.