Poll: Would you wear a "Cheaters" shirt to weaken the media?

Anyone wearing a 4x Cheaters shirt would be seen foremost as a Patriots hater vs. a Patriots fan making an ironic statement.

And please, guys, enough of this "embrace the hate" nonsense. The hate comes from envy and ignorance and is better ignored than acknowledged as somehow legitimate.

Good night. Partied hard. This thread makes no sense. I initially thought it was an attempt at humor. It's unrealistic and no I will not wear a 4x cheater shirt. **** "embracing the hate". That **** is absurd. I'm not embracing hate deriving from a witch hunt.

Tunescribe said:

Anyone wearing a 4x Cheaters shirt would be seen foremost as a Patriots hater vs. a Patriots fan making an ironic statement.

And please, guys, enough of this "embrace the hate" nonsense. The hate comes from envy and ignorance and is better ignored than acknowledged as somehow legitimate.

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Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. I've spent dozens of hours reading and posting long posts on PatsFans about the many possible ways Patriots, and later Tom, could be innocent when most Patriots fans thought the Colts complaints were legitimate the first few days here. I even made custom graphics to illustrate. And spent a weekend learning game programming to make "DeflateGame" before the Super Bowl, a parody of the NFL that I haven't released yet. I never expected this issue to keep going four months later, and likely another four months, and then another four months.

Maybe I'm getting jaded, but I'm not getting paid for the time, when even the owner doesn't want to fight for his team. After all, this lead to record sales of Tom Brady jerseys for the NFL.

There's nothing much we can do as fans this off-season besides complain, but if fans wore Cheaters jerseys around Boston, it would be a hilarious statement. Remember, Patriots don't actually cheat, and the other teams will keep getting fined for stupid things all year long -- heck, off-season long -- and our Cheaters shirts will look ridiculously overblown in comparison. And, the NFL doesn't get a dime.

Very few of us are actually employed by the NFL or the Patriots. If we can put aside our pride, we can see we are more independent to the league than Ted Wells.

Belichick was let go when the owner asked the commissioner to rename the "Browns" to "Ravens". There was quite a lot of negotiating between league lawyers and team lawyers.

Same when Belichick joined the Patriots, giving up the number one pick and a negotiation between league lawyers and team lawyers.

Now, the commissioner wants to rename the team from "Patriots" to "Cheaters". The owner agrees to give up the number one pick each time. And the owner agrees not to appeal each time. Each time, the Patriots get nothing in return.

Why not make our own jerseys before the NFL trademarks this name for all 32 teams or the new LA team.

You need an option for fake jersey. This seems like a lame ass spin to show "the fans still want to buy your gear!"

No, no we don't.

"No, I don't want people to hate the pats/nfl?" Are you serious? I'd gladly wear a FAKE NEP 12, but with the name CowardBob, or "32" in the middle of a Ø, on and on...

So who else thinks this poll is ****? Post your fake jersey ideas!

woolster22 said:

You need an option for fake jersey.

"No, I don't want people to hate the pats/nfl?" Are you serious? I'd gladly wear a FAKE NEP 12, but with the name CowardBob, or "32" in the middle of a Ø, on and on...

So who else thinks this poll is ****? Post your fake jersey ideas!

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I actually put up a couple of designs on TeeSpring, a kickstarter for T-Shirts, but they are strict beyond the regular rules of parody and trademark law:

1) You can't make fun of a real person
2) You can't mention sports leagues

I agree that 4x Cheaters is not ideal, but it's generic enough.

One idea I had was Battle of 1812. It's not great, but it's also unrelated to the NFL or Patriots.

I don't know about the specifics ~ and I can't afford to get sidetracked right now by thinking about other Ideas ~ but I APPLAUD the Sentiment behind this Thread. And it is exactly what we should do.

Here is a few flavors of "No!" choose your favorite.

The one at 6:25 might be one of the best

Off The Grid said:

I don't know about the specifics ~ and I can't afford to get sidetracked right now by thinking about other Ideas ~ but I APPLAUD the Sentiment behind this Thread. And it is exactly what we should do.

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Thanks for being brave enough to read the entire post and consider the point, rather than being reactive like ESPN and other NFL fans to the Ted Wells report. We all agree as Patriots fans the team is 100% innocent based on the evidence, so why not give the benefit of the doubt to each other?

I'm probably jaded after spending too much time on MediaGate, but let's separate our personal lives from the team's business, when the owner has never appealed any NFL ruling, giving up at least three first-round picks to the NFL and millions of dollars in fines, since Belichick joined the Patriots.

At least this off-season, I want to support Brady and Belichick without buying Brady jerseys. The easiest way to never care again is to say, sure, we're Cheaters, while other teams do much worse things, such as colluding to inflate/heat-up footballs at heaters together and not getting punished. Nobody in the NFL cares about cheating, the media and other fans just want the "Cheaters" label to sting the Patriots fans. Let's own it, as it would put the focus on Goodell, as he will be either over-bearing (since we're more honest than other teams) or too soft (since we keep winning.)

What a bad idea.

woolster22 said:

I tried to give you a chance, I really did.

But are you kidding me?

GFY

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Hi woolster22. Why so much hate? Is there something in particular you disagree with, or does seeing the word "cheater" make you upset, even though we all know the Patriots didn't? The idea of wearing a Cheaters shirt would be to turn the tables and make the other fans upset, instead of us. That's exactly what many Patriots fans need.

If it hurts to see the c-word by a pats fan, I can't imagine how much the c-word hurts you from opposing fans. That's exactly the point of "owning" the label, to weaken its strength. That's exactly the healing the Patriots fans need. There's so much hate, you'd think we didn't just win the Super Bowl and three more in the last 15 years.

Maybe something like "push it to the limit" or take it to the limit Eagles fans...play song at Gillette. one more time 5x SB

Would prefer a non hologrammed shirt with the simple words of "F..ck Goodell, once you are a Jet you are a Jet all the way".. rather than any of this..

PatSunday said:

We all agree Tom Brady is innocent, .......................

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That's your first mistake.

tom444 said:

That's your first mistake.

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Should we assume he is guilty? From the evidence? from his history up to now in college and NFL ?

nowayback said:

Should we assume he is guilty?

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If you'd like. It wouldn't be illegal.

Some of you guys act as if you have to take **** for the team, as though it were a badge of honor. It's Krafts team and if he is not going to stand up for himself we have no obligation to stand up for him.

Tunescribe said:

Anyone wearing a 4x Cheaters shirt would be seen foremost as a Patriots hater vs. a Patriots fan making an ironic statement.

And please, guys, enough of this "embrace the hate" nonsense. The hate comes from envy and ignorance and is better ignored than acknowledged as somehow legitimate.

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I totally agree about the t-shirt. I think we'd be better off wearing a picture of the last SB trophy, the one that looks like a giant middle finger.

As for the embrace the hate, I'm as guilty of that as anyone, though I meant it more in line with what happens on the field and not off of it.

I never cared much for the off the filed baloney, but wow, this latest bs is way way over the top.

I guess the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick combination really is too much for the rest of the NFL to take. Even Krafty Bob is going against them this time.

White T-Shirt, black or red target on back, "Brady" on the back, "Patriots" on the front w/4 SB trophies.

Can I vote No, the poll options are crap?

NEVER! EVER!