The Patriots changed after the helmet catch. The organization changed, the team changed, and the fans changed. 18-1 was a big slice of humble pie, and we've bore it for awhile. and still bear it today. We don't want to pump our chests because someone might catch a football on their helmet if we do, and then rub all kinds of salt in our wounds.
I've been optimistic about a 4th Superbowl a few seasons since, which we missed, but I didn't talk trash about it, and most other fans didn't either, and the team has certainly been the same way. We just watched quietly and prayed.
Tom once openly laughed at a reporter that said we wouldn't score 17 points in the Superbowl. I know, it's the one comment he had to pay for, and he's never done it again.
Even Belichick used to do some crypo-trashtalk, like when idiot-face from Pittsburgh guaranteed a win and he sent bombs over Baghdad in his direction all night long, then told reporters "Well, we've faced a helluva' lot better safeties than him before, that's for sure."
Honestly, I was bashing the Jets for all the trash their talking this season. Then I started watching some football stuff on youtube for the first time in awhile, as I get myself ready for football mode.
I gotta' be honest....
I miss the New England Patriots that danced on other teams logos on the 50 yard line on the way to a Superbowl win.
I miss other teams whining about how "classless" we are as we dump all over them while condescendingly telling them they should be classy like us.
There's a case to be made that this sort of thing doesn't win football games, and that it only invites enemies to pour on the heart break when it comes, but at this point in Patriot history, we get all that anyway.
I think a case can also be made that the old school Patriots trash talking ways were liberating for our football team, and that being smug, arrogant #$$&@*%'s makes the game more fun for the players, and that fun creates a better product on the football field.
I feel like maybe after so much success we got away from being that `roll into your house and stomp your face in` football team and became all about upholding legacy as a `serious` football team that's always the epitome of professional.
We used to talk trash. We used to dance on logos. We used to be... disrespectful.
And we used to win Superbowls.
Ever since we became... stuffy... we've had a lot more seasons where we started clamming up in the biggest moments. In fact, I would say some of our best post season games since 2007 have been against teams that naturally inspired that old Patriot fire to burn, like the war we had against the Ravens in the 2011 AFCCG, because we hate those bastards.
I'm sick of this post-2007, humble, by-the-book, "our opponents are great" Patriot way. It's got us exactly nothing.
I don't care what the pink hats say, with their holier-than-thou fandom `professionalism`
This season I would love to see New England return to its Dynasty swag, take no prisoners, ruffle a whole lot of feathers, and disrespect whoever the hell we want to, and let it all hang out.
Agree or disagree?
