Well if being a consistent fan of the Pats since around 1962 to the present isn't enough of a dedication to avoid being considered a fair weather fan then I don't what to say in my defense.
I paid my dues over the years and this team should be continuing to provide an enjoyable experience as we watch a team full of very promising young players, established veteran greats, and a HOF HC get to compete and chase excellence and their place in NFL history; but elements not directly tied to the play on the field are seemingly conspiring to short circuit it.
For me, the 2007 season was the start of the downturn. I don't have a problem with what BB did in Spygate; it was drastically overblown, and punished far too severely.
All the Pats did that was year was to pound all comers into submission, but the constant drumbeat of media scorn and negativity made watching the most successful season a team has ever had in the history of the NFL, into a thoroughly unenjoyable experience. Then the bogus charge of taping the Rams' walk through gets leveled two days before the SB along with threatened congressional investigations, and by that point I just wanted the SB and season to be over.
I have compared the Pats attempt at going undefeated, to the scene in Caddyshack where Danny Noonan is putting, and the other caddies are saying "Miss!", and trying to otherwise distract him from making the putt. Rather than being given a chance to reach greatness, the Pats had to play while dealing with outside distractions not of their doing. As if the pressure of what they were attempting to do wasn't enough, the naysayers and obstructionists continued trying to hamstring the Pats right up to the opening kick off.
Remember the commercial right after the SB where there were 1972 Dolphins players celebrating that the new neighbor wouldn't be moving into their neighborhood after all? It didn't get much run time though; maybe even the naysayers thought the gloating was a bit much.
Then the media distortions and controlling of the narrative, combined with the uneven dispensation of justice by Goodell and the league office have been steadily diminishing the enjoyment for me.
A Pats team which should have been admired, has been consistently badmouthed and denegrated by yellow journalism media fueled scorn from opposing fans.
Now we have this officiating fiasco which is furthering dampening my enthusiasm and I'm getting to the point where this form of enjoyment just isn't worth the aggravation.
My point is that I don't like the direction that the NFL is going and when the Pats are again at the bottom working their way back up, I don't see enough of a payoff to follow them on their quest to try and become a top team again. The payoff used to be worth it......