Let me first say that I love Randy Moss, I knew those who were writing his football obituary were wrong, I knew he was going to blow up the league this year, and I’m glad he had a record year, broke Jerry Rice‘s record, and will get to play in the Super Bowl.
That said, with the exception of Moss, I cannot stand the New England Patriots. The Sporting News had an article some months back that quoted Joe Montana‘s wife, as the 49ers approached their third Super Bowl title, complaining that everyone now hated San Francisco. Everyone used to love the 49ers but now that they were going for, and likely to win, a three-peat everyone was against them. It was in this context that the article tried to explain the animosity many now feel against the Patriots.
Dynasty fatigue certainly explains part of my loathing for the Pats but it’s much more than that. I haven’t felt this way about the Patriots until this year but now I think they are a bunch of punks. Here’s why:
Cheaters
First and most obviously, the Patriots are cheaters. They are documented cheaters. They got caught red-handed cheating. And now there are reports that they cheated before their first Super Bowl victory by taping a St. Louis Rams walk through before the game. If you know what your opponent plans to do beforehand, it is clearly a huge advantage.
Patriots apologists–mostly the NFL talking heads and broadcasters who are supposed to be impartial as they call games–dismiss the cheating by saying that now that they’ve been fined and their documents have been turned into the league, they are no longer cheating and besides, they are superior team anyway, which their undefeated season proves and can’t we put this behind us finally and forever and declare Tom Brady God?
Well, I don’t know that the Patriots haven’t continued to cheat. How can I? Roger Goodell destroyed all the evidence? There is only one reason you destroy evidence; because it is damning. So I’m not buying that the Patriots are that good and that they no longer benefit from their years, it turns out, of cheating.
A less talented and less athletic team can vastly outplay a superior team if they know what their opponent is going to do. I know this first-hand from playing football myself by peaking into the opponents’ huddle and watching the quarterback diagram a play. When it works, it works beautifully because I know exactly what the team is going to do and can put myself in position to defeat the play.
Because the evidence has been destroyed, I don’t know how good Tom Brady. I don’t know that he hasn’t simply benefited from the Patriots’ cheating.
The Patriot Way = Arrogance
From Head Cheater Bill Belichick on down, the Patriots are breathtakingly arrogant. And it’s Belichick who sets the tone. LaDainian Tomlinson expressed his disdain for the classlessness of the Patriots in general and Belichick in particular last year after the Patriots rubbed the Chargers‘ nose in the dirt following their playoff victory:
That classless behavior was also on display last year when Belichick dissed his former assistant Eric Mangini after beating the Jets:
Then, of course, there’s the time Belichick tried to bully Vikings head coach Brad Childress over a waiver wire player.
After Mangini exposed the Patriots cheating ways, the Patriots made a point of running up the score on their opponents. Bush league. And I mean that in both the traditional and presidential sense (or, perhaps they’re one and the same).
Poor Sports
Perhaps the biggest joke of the year was Tom Brady being named Sportsman of the Year.
There is a team in my touch football league that is extremely talented and they play very smart football. They nearly always wain the championship. Winning is so important to them that they pay people to play with them so they have the best talent. Pretty lame in my book for a touch football league, but there you go. They are fun to play with and friendly and good sports…when they are winning. When they are losing, they turn into a bunch of whiny pricks who try and knock you over and complain to the refs about every play. They turn into ***holes.
The Patriots behaved exactly like them toward the end of the year when they had been in close games and were losing.
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The only good thing to come out of the Patriots this season is that we will finally shut the 1972 Dolphins the hell up:
So that’s my indictment against the Patriots. I my mind, they will forever be associated with Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and they’re accomplishments will thus be followed by the qualifying asterisk.
I am not sure why, but I really enjoy watching something get built up real big, and then cheer for its demise. I guess that is why I am no longer a fan of the Patriots anymore. I eagerly pray for and await the coming implosion.
The pats rule theres no reason to dislike them.
I think you guys are all just jealous of the excellency in New England. Tomlinson, this is football grow up you crybaby and you are not a very classy person. You would have celebrated too if you won.
Byron, you’re a few years late to this party, don’tcha think? Besides, the Patriots are proven cheaters. Caught red handed.
K, yes they did cheat, but not during their superbowl years. Talk to me February 7, (the day after superbowl 45).
Byron, How do you KNOW they didn’t cheat during their Super Bowl years?
The fact that they were caught red-handed calls into question the legitimacy of the entire Belichick era. I don’t know that they haven’t cheated this year. Once a cheater, always a cheater.
Didn’t the Broncos cheat recently? Did they get any attention? How do we know that everyone didn’t cheat in the NFL? People just use the Spygate thing as a way to hate on the Patriots because their good and they win a lot consistently, every year and everybody who isn’t a Patriots fan hates them, because no one likes people who win 3 championships+ in ten years.
Okay yes the patriots did cheat, yet it was bad. Should there accomplishments from thereafter be questioned? Possibly, does them cheating mean that the whole team actually sucks and is not as good as the rest of the NFL? Of course not! I don’t care if you know all of the plays that a opposing team has you cannot win simply by knowing their plays. up until after the play starts there could be any number of possibilities from a defensive point of view that could be about to happen. there is no way to know. And as to Tom Brady being good or not you can’t know a defenses plays as its mostly reactive, he is exceptional at throwing the ball to the where his receiver can catch it but the defense can’t get a hand on it. I’m not saying that cheating the way they did wouldn’t give them an upper hand, I’m saying its not so substantial as to allow them to have a perfect season winning over and over against teams better than they are. And to those of you who will accuse me of being in love with the Patriots and defend them at all costs. I’m a Raiders fan, die hard to the core, in fact i actually don’t even like the Patriots I just can’t stand biased weak arguments about teams that are in their own right good.