A Letter To Rafaelites

From Pete Bodo's blog:

In response to comments from quite a few readers of yesterday's "Deal With the Devil" post from Pete (apparently the world drastically lacks adequate media coverage of Rafael Nadal's victory at the Australian Open), some of you may not have seen that he responded in the comments with the following : 

"Guess I'll have to write a Nadal post tomorrow. Fair enough. Then we'll have a Q and A type thing, maybe live, later this week, so I can handle some of these questions I can't take on now."

Meanwhile Russ provided the following interim attempt at comfort to deprived Nadal fans everywhere:

Dear Rafaelites,

I am writing to thank you for helping me get over Fed's loss much sooner than I had expected. Here I sit, barely 48 hours removed from that match, feeling better than many of you. I mean, Fed's just been crushed, and I feel so bad for so many of you that I can't even revel in that sadness. Just as Fed stole Rafa's moment by crying, you've stolen my moment of grief.

I hope that one day, Rafa does beat Djokovic, Justin Gimelstob, or Vince Spadea on a big stage so that I don't have to spend so much time reading through posts of how horrible it is to be a Rafa fan. I cannot bear to think how painful it must be for you, as fans, to see Rafa reduce Roger Federer to tears, and then have the gall to comfort him. Djokovic fans seemed to handle victory over Federer much better than you. This is ironic, since we all know there is only one King (Queen-- where did we stand on that debate, anyway?) Killer, and that is your boy.

Anyway, this letter is rambling, but I just want to close by saying that I hope you find a hug from someone who can help you through the bitter disappointments of no article by Peter Bodo, and people claiming that Nadal is not the GOAT at 22 years old.

May you find comfort in knowing that the Gold Medal, Wimbledon, French Open, and Australian Open belong to him, and he's just entering prime tennis years. I didn't foresee that Rafa winning would cause so many of you this much pain -- and I wish you the strength and comfort you will need in what will certainly be a very difficult 4 years ahead.

Had I known this, I'd have personally flown to Australia with Tim and knocked over his water bottles, and prevented this travesty from occurring. May St. Toni keep you in his prayers.

With Condolences,

Russ

*Fixed to please one special Rafanatic. Apparently there's no point in doing a post about Rafa without his picture. Apologies. Will never happen again.