SamBam39
Third String But Playing on Special Teams
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- Feb 10, 2005
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I have some thoughts on why so many people appear to dislike the Patriots so much, both other fans, and people in the media:
1)First of all, it always happens when teams have long runs of continued dominance. People - and this means all people, including the media, are fans of their own teams first - and are either openly admiting this as they spew critisizms, or are trying to hide it or suggest it's not a factor in their views, but that's all bull. Football is a passionate sport, and being a fan of a football teams evokes passion from it's fanbase. Therefore, when the competition is accomplishing what every fan of every other team dreams about their team accomplishing, well, it's hard to just accept. It causes dissappointment, frustration, jealousy, anger, and hatred. Yes, hatred, because people tend to be just so over-the-top with their passion for their team. I believe that's part of the reason Bill Polian appears so mentally ill in his behavior - because he's so over-the-top obssessed with his team succeeding that's he's lost all care about anything else, including reasonableness, and his behavior - well, that and he's just an ignorant loser too, but I digress.
2)Secondly, Watching the same team repeat it's success over and over does get boring for fans from other towns. I remember watching the niners in the eighties and into the nineties, when they won the championship 5 times, and I had no hatred of them, I actually admired them, but I was getting pretty tired of watching the same team do the same thing so often. It just goes with the territory of continued success in pro sports - other fans get tired of watching it. If they can't have their own team win, then they at least want their interest to be kept up by new and interesting story lines. Now it's great for the fanbase from the city that is succeeding, but it gets a little old for everyone else. So that contributes to all this apparant anti-patriots stuff you may hear.
3)Thirdly, and I think this may be the biggest, yet least obvious thing going on here, I think most people still don't understand what the Patriots are doing. They don't understand how a team without many stars, and with no impressive stats are able to win over teams with those things. Most people take very simplistic views of the world and the Patriots require you to do some real studying to figure them out. You'll hear people say all the time, 'The NFL is a coach's league' - meaning that the head coaches of each team play a major roll in determing the outcome of games and ultimately an organization's long term success or lack there of. Yet, despite apparantly recognzing this, whenever teams chances of winning are evaluated, there is very little focus put on who has the better head coach. You don't often hear someone say 'Well, they definately have more playmakers on their team, but the Patriots have such a superior coach that I think he will make a huge difference and the Pats will overcome that and win because of that advantage' - yeah, once a rare while, but not most of the time. They just don't focus on that huge advantage. And make no mistake about it, that's what Belichick is - A huge advantage. Without him, none of this would even be happening! But, as we all know, it's much more than that. It's the deep, balanced roster, it's the intelligent brand of player we develop, it's the unselfishness and spreading the ball around, and not running up scores that all lead to not having big 'stats'. It's the precision and efficiency, even in pressure situations. We don't need big names or accolades. If someone just fits into the system, then the system will win, almost doesn't matter who is filling the role. Gostkowski can do what adam did. Mankins can do what andruzzi did. Koppen can do what woody did. CAldwell can do what Branch did. Dillon can do what antwain smith did. Sauerbrun can do what josh miller did. Graham can replace Fauria. Asante can replace ty law. Seau can replace Roman Phifer. Gaffney can replace Givens or david patten. Brady can replace Bledsoe (and quite well I might add!
) Wilfork can replce Washington. Rodney can replace Milloy. It really doesn't matter. But of course - everyone outside of New England doesn't realize this - even after all this time. They keep saying, like marty schottenheimer said after beating us last year - sooner or later it has to catch up to you! - well, marty, no, it doesn't!
What this all means is, everybody keeps thinking - 'oh good, we're gonna be rid of those annoyingly successful patriots now - they've lost terry glenn, or they've lost milloy and law, or they've lost ted washington, or they've lost branch and givens - on and on it goes. But then we win anyway, and they feel shocked and confused and embarrassed and they think we got 'lucky' and it can't keep up and 'the better team didn't win' and on and on - because they don't understand. They haven't figured out the repeating machine of success that secretly keeps chugging along - that is the new england patriots. ya know what? - there has never, ever, been a dynasty, that after 5-6 years of success was in a BETTER position to keep winning then when they started until this team. Realistically, there's no reason this team won't be able to keep making runs at the title for at least the next 7-8 years, and probably continuing on and on past that. I don't think the rest of the world has any idea what they are in for. still. If you think it's normal for other teams fans, media included to hate the pats after a while cuz their sick of their success, imagine how they will feel say, 5-6 years from now if we've won say another 3 titles? They are gonna get really, really, really sick of us!
Prepare for the hatred to grow and grow - it comes with dominance. we are becoming the yankees of football, except we're not just buying our success!
1)First of all, it always happens when teams have long runs of continued dominance. People - and this means all people, including the media, are fans of their own teams first - and are either openly admiting this as they spew critisizms, or are trying to hide it or suggest it's not a factor in their views, but that's all bull. Football is a passionate sport, and being a fan of a football teams evokes passion from it's fanbase. Therefore, when the competition is accomplishing what every fan of every other team dreams about their team accomplishing, well, it's hard to just accept. It causes dissappointment, frustration, jealousy, anger, and hatred. Yes, hatred, because people tend to be just so over-the-top with their passion for their team. I believe that's part of the reason Bill Polian appears so mentally ill in his behavior - because he's so over-the-top obssessed with his team succeeding that's he's lost all care about anything else, including reasonableness, and his behavior - well, that and he's just an ignorant loser too, but I digress.
2)Secondly, Watching the same team repeat it's success over and over does get boring for fans from other towns. I remember watching the niners in the eighties and into the nineties, when they won the championship 5 times, and I had no hatred of them, I actually admired them, but I was getting pretty tired of watching the same team do the same thing so often. It just goes with the territory of continued success in pro sports - other fans get tired of watching it. If they can't have their own team win, then they at least want their interest to be kept up by new and interesting story lines. Now it's great for the fanbase from the city that is succeeding, but it gets a little old for everyone else. So that contributes to all this apparant anti-patriots stuff you may hear.
3)Thirdly, and I think this may be the biggest, yet least obvious thing going on here, I think most people still don't understand what the Patriots are doing. They don't understand how a team without many stars, and with no impressive stats are able to win over teams with those things. Most people take very simplistic views of the world and the Patriots require you to do some real studying to figure them out. You'll hear people say all the time, 'The NFL is a coach's league' - meaning that the head coaches of each team play a major roll in determing the outcome of games and ultimately an organization's long term success or lack there of. Yet, despite apparantly recognzing this, whenever teams chances of winning are evaluated, there is very little focus put on who has the better head coach. You don't often hear someone say 'Well, they definately have more playmakers on their team, but the Patriots have such a superior coach that I think he will make a huge difference and the Pats will overcome that and win because of that advantage' - yeah, once a rare while, but not most of the time. They just don't focus on that huge advantage. And make no mistake about it, that's what Belichick is - A huge advantage. Without him, none of this would even be happening! But, as we all know, it's much more than that. It's the deep, balanced roster, it's the intelligent brand of player we develop, it's the unselfishness and spreading the ball around, and not running up scores that all lead to not having big 'stats'. It's the precision and efficiency, even in pressure situations. We don't need big names or accolades. If someone just fits into the system, then the system will win, almost doesn't matter who is filling the role. Gostkowski can do what adam did. Mankins can do what andruzzi did. Koppen can do what woody did. CAldwell can do what Branch did. Dillon can do what antwain smith did. Sauerbrun can do what josh miller did. Graham can replace Fauria. Asante can replace ty law. Seau can replace Roman Phifer. Gaffney can replace Givens or david patten. Brady can replace Bledsoe (and quite well I might add!
) Wilfork can replce Washington. Rodney can replace Milloy. It really doesn't matter. But of course - everyone outside of New England doesn't realize this - even after all this time. They keep saying, like marty schottenheimer said after beating us last year - sooner or later it has to catch up to you! - well, marty, no, it doesn't!What this all means is, everybody keeps thinking - 'oh good, we're gonna be rid of those annoyingly successful patriots now - they've lost terry glenn, or they've lost milloy and law, or they've lost ted washington, or they've lost branch and givens - on and on it goes. But then we win anyway, and they feel shocked and confused and embarrassed and they think we got 'lucky' and it can't keep up and 'the better team didn't win' and on and on - because they don't understand. They haven't figured out the repeating machine of success that secretly keeps chugging along - that is the new england patriots. ya know what? - there has never, ever, been a dynasty, that after 5-6 years of success was in a BETTER position to keep winning then when they started until this team. Realistically, there's no reason this team won't be able to keep making runs at the title for at least the next 7-8 years, and probably continuing on and on past that. I don't think the rest of the world has any idea what they are in for. still. If you think it's normal for other teams fans, media included to hate the pats after a while cuz their sick of their success, imagine how they will feel say, 5-6 years from now if we've won say another 3 titles? They are gonna get really, really, really sick of us!
Prepare for the hatred to grow and grow - it comes with dominance. we are becoming the yankees of football, except we're not just buying our success!
