In 2001, I sat and watched from the wood floor of my grandparents’ house as the New England Patriots pulled off an upset of epic proportions, beating the St. Louis Rams for their first of three Super Bowl victories in the next decade.

The Patriots’ third Lombardi trophy coincided with the Red Sox first World Series championship in 86 years when they beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004 (Beating St. Louis seems to be somewhat of a theme for New England sports).

While the Patriots weren’t able to capture another championship after that, The Red Sox went on to win another in 2007, and yet another just last season. Between their last two World Series wins, the Boston Celtics won an NBA championship, and the Boston Bruins hoisted a Stanley Cup.

Even when a Boston sports team wasn’t the last left standing in their respective league, teams have made deep playoff runs and been on the brink of even more championships — The Celtics in 2009; The Patriots in 2008 and 2012; The Bruins in 2012.

The winning culture has seemed to be contagious throughout the four different major sports, and has made the last decade or so a pure pleasure to be a fan of New England based sports teams.

A tough question, though, is this: what will the teams be like five to 10 years from now?

Fans might have seen a preview of what’s to come with the recent Celtics season. The team made the right move in parting ways with aging veterans Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, but now is facing the daunting task of rebuilding the franchise.

The Patriots have been very active so far this offseason trying to shore up their defense and supplying veteran quarterback Tom Brady with some more offensive weapons, and this might be because the team knows Brady’s career has already peaked and the time to win is now.

While it would be a shock if he didn’t retire with the team, the Pats know their window of opportunity to attain what’s been an elusive fourth Lombardi trophy has already begun to close.

The Bruins and Red Sox are the two teams that most likely have the most years of success ahead of them, but it will be a sad day indeed when Patrice Bergeron and Tuukka Rask aren’t performing at their best; The Red Sox have a great farm system that can provide them with a foundation of talent, but David Ortiz probably won’t be crushing clutch home runs in the postseason five years from now.

So the era of dominance that’s made Boston sports fans some of the luckiest in the world is, realistically, closer to its exit than the entrance, and we as fans should recognize this not to be fearful of what’s to come, but to more greatly appreciate what is, right now, the most successful sports city in the world.

Boston’s teams have granted their fans the right to brag, and the fans have cemented their support of four different but successful professional sports teams. The time to win is now, so be grateful for the past victories and optimistic about more. These next couple years may very well be similar to the way New England sports’ success started.