You’ve been around a while, think it has something to do with it
Patriots fans disappointed by charges against owner, but love for team is undimmed - The Boston Globe
The crux of Patriotdom:
For nearly 50 years, Rick Grossman has held season tickets to the New England Patriots, trekking two hours from outside New Haven for home games, where he and some two-dozen fans tailgate in parking lot P-10...Grossman, like many Patriots fans, created a mental division...
“And to me they’re separate,” Grossman said in an interview Monday.
“I don’t see how this has any bearing on the team. It doesn’t reflect what they do on the field.
Should he have used better judgment? Of course. He will have to deal with a tainted [reputation]..."
Which brings me to
William Hallissey (Billy) Sullivan Jr.
As I point out endlessly, since the merger between the AFL and NFL in 1970, local Boston media has taken the exact opposite view from the one stated above, of this team. And many Patriots fans, along with national media, the National Football League and opponents, have lustily followed suit.
How in all that is holy can people like this guy be such a moron?:
Like many Patriots fans who felt burned by the Deflategate saga, Grossman thinks NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has it out for the Patriots. But Grossman also believes precedent “somewhat ties Goodell’s hands,” limiting how severely he can punish Kraft and his team.
...how can anyone ignore the fact that "precedent" blew up like a supernova in both CameraLocationGate and DefameGate?
Stupidity Reigns.
As for Bob Kraft, he dabbled in ownership of several local teams, but he harbored a personal resentment of Sullivan, and spent his career since purchasing the stadium lease determined to prove he was better than Billy, or "not Billy". When he purchased the team in 1994, he lustily leaped right on top of the NFL/media pig pile of Patriots haters/detractors, agreeing that yes, the Patriots are a "national embarrassment, a laughingstock, damaged the league" etc., but he was setting everything right. From retaining the ugly, insulting flying elvis and uniform, to anointing Drew Bledsoe the greatest Patriots quarterback ever, ahead of half a dozen predecessors who were clearly better, to hiring Gestapo thugs to run security in the new stadium, Kraft did everything he could to bury his own team's colorful and proud history of its first 33 years.
I can only think of Malcolm X's comment that "Chickens always come home to roost".
