Close but the Sullivans weren't cheap so much as broke. In fact their willingness to inadvisably spend money they didn't have in all the wrong ways was both the calling card and the tip of the iceberg for their ineptitude. Only the Sullivans could invest $8300 of their own money, see it increase in value more than 11,000 percent but end up not just bankrupt and forced to sell but barely stay out of jail in the process. The true story of the Sullivans and their ownership almost defies belief.
It's entirely understandable for men like Orthwein and Kraft to desire to distance themselves from the sh*tshow that was the Sullivan ownership. Don't forget how they ripped off the stockholders.
The problem is their complete lack of acknowledgment or respect for the
33 years of players, coaches, fans, families etc. who supported and rooted for the team.
The media story of the Patriots is:
- they complained forever about being robbed of a title by officials
[Which they were. Meanwhile, the recipients of the gift title, the Raiders, cried exponentially more loudly and stupidly about one correctly called play in a game whose winner did not even go to the title game]
- they complained forever about having one of their most valuable players paralyzed for life by a cheap shot
[Which happened. By an unrepentant cheap shot artist, and member of the Raiders, who proceeded to insult his victim and the Patriots till the day he died.]
- their coach decided to take a lucrative offer from a university, in large part to escape the Sullivans
[Gee. Never heard of a coach doing something like that before.]
- they had the worst record in football, they were hapless and terrible
[For exactly four months in 1981. Other than that, winning records in the other 12 seasons in a 13 year span]
- they used a snowplow
[And broke no rules, and when Shula was offered the same for his kicker, he refused.]
- they lost the Super Bowl, 46-10
[When their coach, as he did till the day he was fired, pretended that Tony Eason was Dan Marino]
[Incidentally, whenever I hear the words "John Elway" I immediately think 55-10. Which is being generous, because if I gave it further thought, I'd think of his last two seasons, when his owner decided to convert to ugly blue uniforms and a dreary new logo, and his team was given two titles when they, unlike the Patriots, did in fact break rules to gain an unfair competitive advantage (right they cheated).]
- their players were on drugs
[Five players. Or was it six? And the rest of the NFL wasn't?]
- they were bad for three seasons
[Three (3). After Doug Flutie was benched, and then cut, and then proceeded to make history in the CFL where they actually allowed him to play. Not ten, or twenty, or twenty-five, like with all the other NFL dynasties at times in their history.]
League and media propaganda do not mention that the Patriots won the ninth most games in a ten year span, out of 28 NFL teams, or that they regularly filled the old stadium with over 60,000 fans in the 70's and 80's.
