A viewer asks: “Contrast the Detroit Lions with the New England Patriots. If there is a team that is the carbon opposite of the Lions, it would be the Patriots. The Patriots have won six Super Bowls since 2002, and have appeared in more than that. If the Lions keep losing in unexpected, almost inexplicable ways, the Patriots do the opposite, they “win” in unexpected, almost inexplicable ways. They won last year’s Super Bowl, and are on track to even win another one this year. Quarterback Tom Brady is 42 years old, which is ANCIENT for an NFL quarterback, but if he’s winning Super Bowls, he’s going to keep playing! Brady is a great quarterback, because of all the winning. Yet he is not as highly regarded as a skilled quarterback like Dan Marino who never won a Super Bowl. Lions’ quarterback, Matthew Stafford, is actually MORE skilled than Brady, in that he easily and routinely makes more difficult throws than Brady. Stafford was selected first overall in the NFL draft, while Brady was drafted in the last round and was nearly not drafted at all. Yet Brady is just the “magic” man who whips up football miracle after football miracle after football miracle. What’s the difference and primary factors behind all this winning? For both the team and QB Tom Brady? If Barry Sanders was a victim of the Lions’ losing atmosphere, how much is Brady a fortuitous recipient of, versus contributor to, the Patriots’ winning atmosphere?”

What you are seeing with the Patriots is a sum total of positive influences carrying the day even in the face of individual limitations. What matters more than the innate skill and athletic prowess is the heart, the inner resolve and conviction that one can be a winner in spite of any liability. Everyone in athletics knows that winning and losing is a consequence of forces that are elusive and somewhat inexplicable because fortunes will change from day-to-day in unexpected and unpredictable ways. There is something always intangible about it except when there are long‑running themes in play. The chronic loser that seems to only rarely win and the chronic winner where they can seem to do no wrong and even when they do, the other team does worse. The winning record of the Patriots is to some extent the product of crafty choices in player selection, financial support, and so on, but for the most part, is the momentum from prior winning that will continue because it increases the likelihood that it will come again. It is a consequence of the collective energies of positive expectation and the confidence within that fosters as well as the appeal to positive karma from the history of other lifetimes experienced by the players rather than hard times and losses that would be triggered when the team is in a slump that can worsen things and then create a real prolonged losing streak that is hard to recover from. Winning streaks can develop a life of their own and continue from year to year. There is nothing like success to breed success. This is a truism that is the end result not just of positive expectations being a force for good, but really the alignment of karmic influences to the positive and the confluence of individuals participating with more positive karma than negative in their history. That can in part be an occasional statistical benefit that creates a dynasty that carries for a whole generation of winning, on average, but there can be many influences on the part of coaching staff and management as well to create the right atmosphere of expectation and encouragement. The support given by those in a supervisory role can be quite instrumental in appealing to the best in the players and helping them to find the inner strength and resolve often from their own review of prior karmic events where they were strong enough, they did stand their ground and carry the day. And with that as an inner wellspring of inspiration, will outperform other players who have their past negativity and failures triggered too often and that is what is re-echoing for them and being an influence on their day-to-day performance. So this is truly a case of winning begetting more winning and illustrates how karma can line up in your favor when it is the expectation to happen. So there are many factors involved and many points of potential control or influence over all that takes place. Here too there is a tremendous fanbase of eager, positive, and loving fans cheering them on and adding their own positive energy into the mix as well. This is no small thing. After all, the players are, in many respects, playing for the fans and that is the dynamic and the type of karmic events that will be referenced in thinking about the burdens and the stress and responsibility of each player to add to the overall success and call on the best within themselves to carry the day and be an asset and not a liability.