Why do the Media and the NFL disrespect and dislike the Pats so much?

[seven]

There are a couple of things here.
There have been a bunch of Patriot related rule changes,
over a number of years.Ty Law's technique of checking with one arm while looking back was banned,more changes followed the Pats beating the Colts. More on timeouts,player injury reports,there are actually about a dozen of them,the result of various pressures on the Commissioner's office. Attempts at winning off of the field.
This offensive nuttiness is the direct result of that.
BB saw they were effectively demanding more scoring,so this is what we have. Now he does what they want,and is attacked from all sides for scoring too much.
This year, a week has not gone by without something,from the " filming the game" fiasco,to Wilfoks "low hit",as he was getting whacked from behind, Vrabel for firing out to no resistance,Brady 5 or 10 grand for not having both parts of his chinstrap buckled.

BB's hoodie really is related to league pressure to have everyone wearing/promoting the rags of the week.
Merchandizing,that one.

The other aspect of it is related to media expansion.
The entire thing has expanded to include almost anyone willing to talk into a mic. ESPN radio,Sporting news radio,
every city,24 hours on 2-3-4 TV channels.
Combine this with a trend toward ex players,coaches,basically the media is filled with people who do not have the background,do not really know thier subjects,are not objective journalists basically yapping all the time.
They run out of things to say,so controversy,unsettleable arguments,talking about personalities,all the "people" magazine aspect of our culture is just taking over.

Finally,the media,as always, gives everything the big build-up,then proceeds to tear it down.
This happens everywhere,from Politicians,public personalities,Brittany Spears,to Mike Vick.
We have gone from are the Pats a dynasty,to tearing down the dynasty,discrediting it.
So we have gone from camera-gate,to fines,to running up the score,to basically being the brunt of attacks every week,all year.

Add to this the ,what to call it Amzing calls by the refs thisa week,and well you have the old saw,you are not paranoid if they are out to get you.

 

[patpatriot]

Add to this that writers of all kinds but especially sports writers are among the laziest bastards on the face of the planet. Given the choice between providing fesh new material at the required deadline, they will produce the product that requires the least effort every time (with some notable exceptions, Mike Reiss, Micheal Smith and a few others often including Curran).

 

[tuckeverlasting]

i don't think the league is out to get the pats, but i definitely think the ny lovers at espn have an agenda. espn is the joke here. they even want to analyze the handshake and make bb look like the devil. i can understand why the league would want bb wearing nfl gear but why would espn care. they just want to villify bb because he left their favorite team at the altar. most of those fools at espn make my skin crawl. i'm pretty sure john"super chicken"clayton is on the colts payroll. i know he's on mannings' nuts.

 

[PYPER]

Seven, as well as others have made some good points.

The other thing that people need to realize is the impact of politics in the media. The public perception (misperception) of Belichick and spygate is a direct result of the media and their non-existent relationship with Bill Belichick.

The media is comprised of individuals who all try to create and maintain contacts with important people in the NFL.

I would say that 99 percent of all fluff pieces are written by writers who have a great relationship with the subject of their article. People write great things about people they like. They like people they get close to.

Belichick doesn't play the political game very well. He has no interest or care in being "popular". As a result he doesn't get close to many media persons and therefore doesn't give them a chance to like him.

If a popular coach like Bill Walsh or Tony Dungy were caught filming opposing coaches, their relationships would ultimately save them from all the ridicule that Belichick has received. All those writers who have great relationships with Walsh and Dungy would look for an angle to explain the rule violation in a manner that is respectful towards the coach. In addition, those close relationships would likely enable them to get the inside story and there would be no need for the mindless speculation and assumption that has taken place with Belichick.

The bottom line is that all the hate towards Belichick and the Patriots has little to nothing to do with filming opposing coaches. It has everything to do with the media's desire to bring down the hammer on a coach that they don't like (or understand).

 

[upstater1]

Interesting, is there a history of the NFL fabricating a bad and good guy to sell the sport? Not XFL, NFL.

I was responding to the question of the media hating New England. Not the NFL, necessarily. This isn't hard to detect. Did you hear how awkward Ditka was this weekend? Coach, why will the Colts beat New England? "The Colts have a great running game and a fast defense, and when you put them up against a passing game, it always happens that Good triumphs over Evil."

Huh? Seems like someone was reading from a script and he missed the transition. Unless, that is, he believes a passing game is the devil's spawn.

 

[PatriotsReign]

Outside looking in, from a Coltsfan perspective, I've been eating my popcorn and read several, several threads here (highly entertaining) the last week or so and there is a very common theme. I'm curious to what the thoughts are as to

1.) Why the media is out to get the Pats at almost every turn?

2.) Why the NFL is against the Pats to the point of trying to undermine the franchise?

I'm especially curious about #2 because the Pats are a big part OF the NFL...


Maybe I'm wrong its just a few peripheral fans that are saying these things, but it reads on here that it is the majority of diehard fans that believe this.

I'll answer you questions, but you have to answer mine.

1) I believe many (not all) in the media don't like Belichick because he sucks for an interview and he's blatantly anti-media except to the few he has chosen. The media also wanted that big juicy story on spygate, but got their legs cut from under them. Remember, BB pushed a camera guy once...the media takes that personally.

2) The NFL is not out to undermine the Patriots. No other team in the league is doing more to create interest than the Patriots.

Now, here's my question.

Why was Indiana the only state in the country that voted in support of putting an asterisk beside the Patriots if they go undefeated this year. The remaining 49 states voted overwhelming against placing an asterisk beside them if they set any kind of records this year. Why is Indiana so obsessed with spygate and so bitter toward the Patriots in general?

 

[TNTitan]

I do not see anything. Infact, all I notice is all the Pats love. Watch NFL Total Access, NFL Live, its all Pats, ALL the time.

 

[MDPATSFAN]

i don't think the league is out to get the pats, but i definitely think the ny lovers at espn have an agenda. espn is the joke here. they even want to analyze the handshake and make bb look like the devil. i can understand why the league would want bb wearing nfl gear but why would espn care. they just want to villify bb because he left their favorite team at the altar. most of those fools at espn make my skin crawl. i'm pretty sure john"super chicken"clayton is on the colts payroll. i know he's on mannings' nuts.

I heard somewhere that there are over 500 sportswriters/talking heads in the US desperately looking for subject matter.... Currently, the Pats scandal is solid gold for them.!

Of course this is also fueled by the hatred and jealousy from misguided fans of perpetually diseased and dysfunctional franchises. Just look at some of the posts from Pests, Dysphunk-phin and Charger fans, The Pats haven't had an early draft pick since 2001 and should not be beating the built in parity of the NFL Salary Cap/Draft system....but they are and it drives them crazy.

 

[ironwasp]

There is absolutely no question that to a very large extent the Patriots, through BB, is now reaping what it has sewn with the media.

I was a sports journalist for about 18 months and (coming from a business media background) was shocked by the way in which sports journalists' feel a sense of entitlement from the subjects of their reports. (This was in the UK, by the way, but everything I see in the US media suggests the same "rules" apply)

And what I experienced was that sports figures who refused to play the game of the media - ie be all friendly and cooperative with them and work to the media's agenda - are ultimately targeted by the media as "Bad Guys" or whatever characterisation best applies to the individual. Whatever is best utilised to "bring them down a peg or two".

What the media either fails to understand - or more pertinently doesn't give two sh*ts about - is that the job of a player, coach, executive, is to win games and perform in the arena of Ws and Ls. Their overriding objective is to be successful for their organisation.

Some manage to combine this with being helpful, charismatic media figures. Some only manage this when things are going well. Some do the minimum base activity required of them by their sport or their club.

What all ultimately come to understand is that eventually, in every single last case, the media will screw them over at some point. In some cases they probably think that by being friendly with the media they can mitigate against the worst coverage in the worst times.

BB, with his first class analytical mind, will understand all this. And he has apparently reached the conclusion that he and the organisartion are simply better off doing what's best for the Patriots and for him and just not playing the game at all.

And the media, or the elements of it that think these things important, has taken offence and decided that he shouild be punished for hsi shocking disrepect for their profession. And they would have you believe, as consumers of the media and people interested in football, that a disrespect for them equates to a disrespect for you.

And that message plays well in Dallas, New York, Miami and wherever else, because the football fan base there is already consumed with envy of the Pats success. It plays less well in NE because people here - Felger, Borges etc excepted - because all we care about is the W and L column and BB is in credit there until he dies, retires or murders John Tomase (and in the latter case probably afterwards too).

And so into this whole mess of fan envy and the media's manufactured outrage comes something like Spygate. And to them it looks like nothing more than a giant hammer with which to beat BB and the Patriots.

And so we are subjected to 9 weeks of this nonsense, propagated by the media, fed by the likes of Don Shula in which the Patriots in general, and BB in particular, are depicted as PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE, and over which the lazy and general consensus is formed that it would be better for the NFL if the Colts won the Superbowl.

And it's all a bunch of manufactured nonsense, based on the inflated egos of a small handful of influential hacks.

And we here, the faithful, could give two sh*ts.

Here endeth the lesson. Apologies for the length of the diatribe.

 

[speed]

I'll answer you questions, but you have to answer mine.

1) I believe many (not all) in the media don't like Belichick because he sucks for an interview and he's blatantly anti-media except to the few he has chosen. The media also wanted that big juicy story on spygate, but got their legs cut from under them. Remember, BB pushed a camera guy once...the media takes that personally.

2) The NFL is not out to undermine the Patriots. No other team in the league is doing more to create interest than the Patriots.

Now, here's my question.

Why was Indiana the only state in the country that voted in support of putting an asterisk beside the Patriots if they go undefeated this year. The remaining 49 states voted overwhelming against placing an asterisk beside them if they set any kind of records this year. Why is Indiana so obsessed with spygate and so bitter toward the Patriots in general?

Voted where? On a poll somewhere? I disagree with the premise that they are obsessed with spygate and that they are bitter.

I think that the Pats for years were their obstacle, obviously after the Pats beat them 6 straight and won 3 superbowls, that only makes sense. I think you'll find Indy fans who do dislike the Pats particularly Belicheck, but that is subjective for sure. Belicheck is not likeable to me in the same way Bobby Knight probably isn't very likeable to alot of people who weren't Indiana fans in their prime. Dude doesn't have to be liked, but in either case you can't argue the success.

Overall, I think Indiana see the Pats as the primary team standing in the way of the Colts winning it all and that definitely draws attention and interest, the spygate thing, as well as cheap leg whips just give fans fodder, meaningful or not. The league taking a pick and fining the team and coach just gave tangible fuel to those who want to criticize. I mainly think its funny and maybe pretty arrogant of BB to do it, when he absolutely didn't have to. As far as everyone jump off the deep end..... bump that soundgate thread back to the top and read through some of those posts, now that is funny or maybe the Dungy smiled sacastically when Moss caught a touchdown thread, now that is pure exhibit 1 and 1a for sounding bitter and obsessed, its all in how you see it and which side you're coming from.

I wouldn't take the asterick thing too serious, I think that Pat fans get upset by the thought of it, is the only thing that has given that legs.

 

[Pass_The_Rum]

Speaking as a neutral viewpoint...

1) It's definitely all about the media access with regards to the Patriots being 'evil'. Reporters and columnists are stupendously lazy (not just sports columnists... I've had personal experience with spectacularly lazy reporters and their newsprint droppings) and get mad at anybody who doesn't feed them info. The Patriots leak less than the CIA, so as soon as the media had something to slap them around with, they fell on the Patriots with great vigor.

2) Colts fans are probably more willing than others to stoop to caricaturing/hating the Patriots because they have the attitude that the Patriots have taken the dynasty that would otherwise be theirs. I dispute that - if you magically made the Patriots suck in the 2000's, I think you have a Steeler-Colts duopoly- but I understand it. It makes me wonder how Manning takes it, myself, considering that this is the second time he's been in this situation. The UF Gators took away his chance to have an SEC dynasty... I imagine if the Patriots put on orange helmets the next time they played the Colts, Peyton's head would explode.

3) I don't think the NFL 'hates' the Patriots. I do think they wouldn't mind if the Patriots lost, because an unexpected loss by the "Evil Empire" would make for a suitably dramatic media-fest, but so would them winning out. As far as dynasty-making goes, the owners probably know that on one level you can't fully even it out with salary caps and such because so much of the game is determined by people who aren't under salary caps or endlessly shopping for dollars in the free agency market - coaches, GMs, and that sort of thing. The Patriots organization isn't going anywhere, and Kraft is free to spend as much money as he wants to keep it that way.

 

[PatriotsReign]

Voted where? On a poll somewhere? I disagree with the premise that they are obsessed with spygate and that they are bitter.

I think that the Pats for years were their obstacle, obviously after the Pats beat them 6 straight and won 3 superbowls, that only makes sense. I think you'll find Indy fans who do dislike the Pats particularly Belicheck, but that is subjective for sure. Belicheck is not likeable to me in the same way Bobby Knight probably isn't very likeable to alot of people who weren't Indiana fans in their prime. Dude doesn't have to be liked, but in either case you can't argue the success.

Overall, I think Indiana see the Pats as the primary team standing in the way of the Colts winning it all and that definitely draws attention and interest, the spygate thing, as well as cheap leg whips just give fans fodder, meaningful or not. The league taking a pick and fining the team and coach just gave tangible fuel to those who want to criticize. I mainly think its funny and maybe pretty arrogant of BB to do it, when he absolutely didn't have to. As far as everyone jump off the deep end..... bump that soundgate thread back to the top and read through some of those posts, now that is funny or maybe the Dungy smiled sacastically when Moss caught a touchdown thread, now that is pure exhibit 1 and 1a for sounding bitter and obsessed, its all in how you see it and which side you're coming from.

I wouldn't take the asterick thing too serious, I think that Pat fans get upset by the thought of it, is the only thing that has given that legs.

The poll I was referring to was aired on ESPN this past Tuesday night and they showed the entire country in blue (voting 63% against * and 37% for) in the lone state of Indiana in red.

Although Matt Light got penalized for leg-whipping, he just stuck his leg out and tripped him. A true leg-whip is sweeping your leg in a manner which could cause serious injury by itself. O-lineman trip guys all the time but usually only in the interior. I played O-line & tripped guys few times myself. I also used cut-blocks and had them used on me...just a part of the game.

Also, Dungy seems ok to me. I have no issues with him other than his negative comments on the Patriots & spygate.

 

[tuckeverlasting]

I think that the Pats for years were their obstacle, obviously after the Pats beat them 6 straight and won 3 superbowls, that only makes sense. I think you'll find Indy fans who do dislike the Pats particularly Belicheck, but that is subjective for sure. Belicheck is not likeable to me in the same way Bobby Knight probably isn't very likeable to alot of people who weren't Indiana fans in their prime. Dude doesn't have to be liked, but in either case you can't argue the success.

i've never seen bb throw a tantrum or a chair or strangle a player or kick his son or make asinine faces during press conferences or cuss out reporters. other than that, i can see your point.

 

[rabthepat]

Outside looking in, from a Coltsfan perspective, I've been eating my popcorn and read several, several threads here (highly entertaining) the last week or so and there is a very common theme. I'm curious to what the thoughts are as to

1.) Why the media is out to get the Pats at almost every turn?

2.) Why the NFL is against the Pats to the point of trying to undermine the franchise?

I'm especially curious about #2 because the Pats are a big part OF the NFL...


Maybe I'm wrong its just a few peripheral fans that are saying these things, but it reads on here that it is the majority of diehard fans that believe this.

America hates a winner. If you stand out too much for too long the herd tries to knock you back down.

 

[speed]

There is absolutely no question that to a very large extent the Patriots, through BB, is now reaping what it has sewn with the media.

I was a sports journalist for about 18 months and (coming from a business media background) was shocked by the way in which sports journalists' feel a sense of entitlement from the subjects of their reports. (This was in the UK, by the way, but everything I see in the US media suggests the same "rules" apply)

And what I experienced was that sports figures who refused to play the game of the media - ie be all friendly and cooperative with them and work to the media's agenda - are ultimately targeted by the media as "Bad Guys" or whatever characterisation best applies to the individual. Whatever is best utilised to "bring them down a peg or two".

What the media either fails to understand - or more pertinently doesn't give two sh*ts about - is that the job of a player, coach, executive, is to win games and perform in the arena of Ws and Ls. Their overriding objective is to be successful for their organisation.

Some manage to combine this with being helpful, charismatic media figures. Some only manage this when things are going well. Some do the minimum base activity required of them by their sport or their club.

What all ultimately come to understand is that eventually, in every single last case, the media will screw them over at some point. In some cases they probably think that by being friendly with the media they can mitigate against the worst coverage in the worst times.

BB, with his first class analytical mind, will understand all this. And he has apparently reached the conclusion that he and the organisartion are simply better off doing what's best for the Patriots and for him and just not playing the game at all.

And the media, or the elements of it that think these things important, has taken offence and decided that he shouild be punished for hsi shocking disrepect for their profession. And they would have you believe, as consumers of the media and people interested in football, that a disrespect for them equates to a disrespect for you.

And that message plays well in Dallas, New York, Miami and wherever else, because the football fan base there is already consumed with envy of the Pats success. It plays less well in NE because people here - Felger, Borges etc excepted - because all we care about is the W and L column and BB is in credit there until he dies, retires or murders John Tomase (and in the latter case probably afterwards too).

And so into this whole mess of fan envy and the media's manufactured outrage comes something like Spygate. And to them it looks like nothing more than a giant hammer with which to beat BB and the Patriots.

And so we are subjected to 9 weeks of this nonsense, propagated by the media, fed by the likes of Don Shula in which the Patriots in general, and BB in particular, are depicted as PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE, and over which the lazy and general consensus is formed that it would be better for the NFL if the Colts won the Superbowl.

And it's all a bunch of manufactured nonsense, based on the inflated egos of a small handful of influential hacks.

And we here, the faithful, could give two sh*ts.

Here endeth the lesson. Apologies for the length of the diatribe.

Wow, thanks for taking the time to write that, very insightful! I don't know that even on my best day I can try to find anything to dispute.

 

[speed]

i've never seen bb throw a tantrum or a chair or strangle a player or kick his son or make asinine faces during press conferences or cuss out reporters. other than that, i can see your point.

I didn't say he did, I said they are both unlikeable, imo.

 

[patpatriot]

Don't you guys realize that the "truth" doesn't matter? All that matters is the cheapest way the media can file their story and head to the bar! The 4th Estate in this country has been so degraded that any thoughts of a clean and wholesome examination of the truth has been discarded in favor of Happy Hour and free Strippers!

Look not to the media for any "vindication". They are beyond redemption.

 

[Pats_AZ]

My take on the Media is that BB gives so little to them that they have to reach for info, take what they can and "run" with it. Thats why there are so many head scratcher articles. BB's "dryness" is seen as something other than that he may just rather be on the field or a film room coaching rather than talking about coaching. so any positive article written about BB is showing him immense respect.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I was responding to the question of the media hating New England. Not the NFL, necessarily. This isn't hard to detect. Did you hear how awkward Ditka was this weekend? Coach, why will the Colts beat New England? "The Colts have a great running game and a fast defense, and when you put them up against a passing game, it always happens that Good triumphs over Evil."

Huh? Seems like someone was reading from a script and he missed the transition. Unless, that is, he believes a passing game is the devil's spawn.

I don't know why, but this may be the funniest thing I've read all day.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

And, just to prove ironwasp's point . . .

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/lee_jenkins/11/08/patriots/

My take on this: Week 2 called. It wants its storyline back. [I especially like the fact that merely trading for Randy Moss is a sign of "moral inferiority." Never mind the fact that being with the Patriots has apparently worked wonders on him. . . .]