For those of us that don't stay in a Patriots-centric bubble like this forum, these narratives are something we have to deal with, online and in our personal lives.
I've had to say this twice now-- a lot of you people on this forum live in or near New England, so you don't have to deal with opposing fans or ideas. For those of us that don't, we have to deal with this in real life. I've been in fist fights for simply wearing my Patriots colors. I'm LITERALLY in a somewhat heated Reddit argument with two people right now on r/NFL for simply stating "I believe a rematch with the Ravens will go differently". My fans constantly give me **** for repping the Pats in my streams or my Twitter.
My point is, it's a thing: Patriots hate IS REAL. Being a fan not living in New England is hell sometimes. A lot of this has to do with the narratives created by the media, which is all these fans of other teams have to go on (because they sure as hell don't watch the Patriots when we aren't playing their team).
So it's nice that you have the luxury to not have to care about what people think of the Patriots. Just know that the fandom is larger than Boston, and out here, in these streets, **** gets real.
And
@QuantumMechanic