It's official! No one likes us!!

[Pats_AZ]

This may be the "No Duh!" post of the year, but after watching Sports Center tonight, I'd say that this team really is not liked.

They are comparing the Patriots to Barry Bonds!! They tried to make the comparrison that they both cheated to gain an edge, and that the argument that even though the Pats may have done something that a lot of other teams do as well (steal signs) that in light of the steroids investigation Bonds might have the same argument. I say that this is a stretch at best. what Bonds and many others did in taking steroids is and was illegal. What the Patriots and many other teams did and still do, stealing signs is not illegal and from what i gather not against the rules of the NFL. The only thing that Patriots did was break the rule in "how" to steal the signs. If the act of stealing signs is cheating than the Patriots are labeled correctly and so would every other NFl team have to be labelled as well. But since the stealing of signals is not against the rules of the NFL to label the Patriots as cheaters is grossly irresponsible. They broke a rule, took responsibility for it and paid a heavy price. Lets move on.

I think the fact that ESPN would continue to entertain that the Pats have an asterik on the season is just wrong. What, because Shula says they should have an asterik, all of a sudden it's a great idea? It's something even worth considering? The Commish has come out and said that the video had no effect on the Jets game (first of the season) and has taken what other video the team may have had. I am dumb founded by the fact that the Commish has let this smearing go on for this long! Why hasn't he come out to defend the Patriots? why hasn't he made a strong statement protecting his product?

As a fan i am fine with everyone making my team out to be the bad guy, but there is a point i think where journalism has to be a little more responsible and not just put out whatever they feel might "sell" but be even and honest. To close my loooong rant i will say that the closing statement of the report is what pushed me overboard and fuel my need to type this rant. It went something to the effect of...."if the Patriots don't want this label, this asterik there is one thing they could do....lose."

Blow em out, Wipe em out the rest of the way! Lets go Pats!!!

 

[Joker]

Egocentric Scumbags Pinheads Nitwits

 

[solman]

Each year they come out with rankings of America's favorite NFL teams.

If we go 19-0, I GUARANTEE that we will be America's favorite team heading into the 2008 season.

Since the glow faded on Indy's championship we have DOMINATED news from the NFL in a way that no other franchise in recent memory has.

We have interesting personalities and extraordinary on field performances coupled together by a no-nonsense, just-win attitude.

For every fan that gets pissed off by the Patriots, there is another fan who thinks that the over reaction to our success has been absurd.

If this season plays out as we hope, the Patriots will be America's most popular (AND most hated) team for years to come.

MILLIONS like us. Everybody else likes hating us.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Oh well, the only deoderant at this point is to keep winning.

ESPN is gonna ride this pony as far as they can. At some point, they will take it too far and they'll get tuned out. At some point, people (even Pats haters) are gonna say "Enough Already, we already heard you". There is a shelf life for this story.

 

[Patriots Nation NY]

This is great.. More fuel for the fire..

 

[SoonerPatriot]

Each year they come out with rankings of America's favorite NFL teams.

If we go 19-0, I GUARANTEE that we will be America's favorite team heading into the 2008 season.

Since the glow faded on Indy's championship we have DOMINATED news from the NFL in a way that no other franchise in recent memory has.

We have interesting personalities and extraordinary on field performances coupled together by a no-nonsense, just-win attitude.

For every fan that gets pissed off by the Patriots, there is another fan who thinks that the over reaction to our success has been absurd.

If this season plays out as we hope, the Patriots will be America's most popular (AND most hated) team for years to come.

MILLIONS like us. Everybody else likes hating us.

Yep. This pretty well sums it up.

 

[Joker]

well...things could be worse...we could be like this Colt fan...

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/ATA/26407M~Stuart-Smalley-Posters.jpg

 

[SamBam39]

again, remember, it's not what they really think, necessarily.

it's like borges or felger, they're trying to create interest by being controversial. it's got nothing to do with reality - think about it - they
taped signals for less than a half of one game and it got confiscated and the commish said it didn't effect the game - so there's never been any real story here - it's all about playing on the hate of opposing teams fans and former jocks who are from other teams, who are all obviously jealous of our total domination and success, and it's the media not liking belichick and trying to get him back for not being cooperative - just like jim rice not being in the hall of fame. but bottom line, it's about ratings and controversy is better than status quo for selling news.

just like the cowboys, niners, steelers were all hated at their peak, this will all blow over. for now, they sustain out of jealousy and because it's good for viewership.

it's kinda funny once you see it for what it is. people reveal how small they are and become so petty. hilarious.

 

[tuckeverlasting]

of course espn doesn't like us. that's the ny lovers sports channel. they are going to sensationalize and over blow anything anti-boston. no real surprise. that's their agenda. they are the sports propaganda machine for all things ny. they will continue to try and discredit boston teams whenever possible. knowing this, i laugh at them. so transparent.

 

[Mosi Moose]

what makes me laugh, is that as much as the mainstream media says they hate us, they CAN'T stop talking about us. I mean it's week 10. WEEK 10!! Why are they still talking about this? I want to go 19-0 and blow everyone outta the water and be done with it. As for Shula, he sucks. I still don't understand why he thinks there should be an asterisk if we go 19-0 THIS year. We got caught after week 1. What the F does that have to do with the rest of the season? He's a fool and his steakhouses suck too.

 

[dtbrks]

As a Pats fan, I want them to be liked and respected. But I also understand that no matter what the pats do that's "good", they will be hated by some. I remember hating the Raiders, Cowboys and steelers growing up. Why? Because they won and now that we are winning so much these past 6 years, a lot of other teams fans are sick of us and the media is playing it up.
Oh well, as long as we win, I am happy.:rocker:

 

[DefenseRules]

F'k them then. Let them hate us. Who cares? If this team continues to play hard and destroy every team they face, these morons won't be able to say NOTHIN'.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

PatsAz, this may be "restarting" a sort of neverending debate, but I only take issue with one thing -

What the Patriots and many other teams did and still do, stealing signs is not illegal and from what i gather not against the rules of the NFL. The only thing that Patriots did was break the rule in "how" to steal the signs. If the act of stealing signs is cheating than the Patriots are labeled correctly and so would every other NFl team have to be labelled as well.

My belief is we do not have to even go that far. All we know is:

1) There was a rule
2) Our team broke it
3) The league declared a penalty
4) Our team paid it.

I agree with you about the aftermath being bull****. It's way out of proportion. But it's just semantics to twist around in a circle to "we didn't cheat."

It's athletics, and there are rules. We broke them. We did not break them to get worse as a team. So whether we got any advantage, we clearly broke rules seeking an advantage. That's pretty much the sum total of what is known.

And that's where it went off the rails. Since you can't disprove imaginary scenarios and innuendo, after the camera event, teams and fans decided to make them up and say "hmmmm. who knows" until their team no longer sucked. Never mind that they couldn't prove the story either.

Teams and players claiming they didn't really lose to the Pats. Trying to bring down a 6-year legacy over what did not really (evidently) amount to a hill of beans. Asking for "their" rings, now that the Pats were "exposed." Talking about how "oh yeah, they were calling out our plays," or "it's like they were in our huddle" -- without noting that this can happen from superior coaching, not just sign stealing.

Oh, we still have haters. Hell we even have doubters. But of late, any team's doubters tend to fall very silent the week after their date with the Pats.

This sneaky, wheedling "asterisk attack" has been the leave-no-doubt fuel for this season -- hence the blowouts. And now Shula is enough of an ass to try to carry forward an asterisk into this season -- which just tells me Shula is scared.

Well, Shula shouldn't be scared. Those guys playing against the Pats should be scared.

Said it before, will say it again:

You take a team 4 minutes shy of the Super Bowl in 06. You load it up with talent. And then you back it into a corner... WTF do you think is gonna happen????

And now that it's happening, what are you going to blame it on this year? And honestly, if you're more focused on hating the Pats than your own team's success... how are you even a football fan?

Bring the hate!!! We thrive on it, you idiots. You'd think you'd get that by now.

PFnV

 

[Patsman]

The irony of all of this is that if you date back 3 years ago, everyone in the world adorned us as being the absolute model franchise in all respects. It's funny how everyone will turn on a dime because of one really dumb infraction, that in reality, half the league was also probably doing.

Listen, the sour sh$t that we get from all that aren't Pats fans is EXACTLY what a team like the Yankees get. When you are a proven winner, and then go through a rich get richer offseason where we were able to stockpile unreal players that actually came to play here because they wanted to win(not just buying them), people go green with envy. You have a stud of a qb who is dating the hottest chick in the world and showing up on the cover of GQ. You have the best WR in the league who everyone was adorning to be a cancer. We were keeping up a spotless rapport during that time where everyone considered us what the NFL should be, but the jealousy was brewing and everyone was looking for the first thing to be able to turn on us and call us on BS.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

The irony of all of this is that if you date back 3 years ago, everyone in the world adorned us as being the absolute model franchise in all respects. It's funny how everyone will turn on a dime because of one really dumb infraction, that in reality, half the league was also probably doing.

Listen, the sour sh$t that we get from all that aren't Pats fans is EXACTLY what a team like the Yankees get.

There is one important difference--the Yankees can basically outspend any team to get anyone they want. Because of the salary cap, the Patriots can't.

 

[sieglo]

I think Bruschi just about says it all:

"If someone questions your integrity . . . if someone questions the organization you've been a part of ever since you walked into the league, would it upset you? So, yes, it does upset me. . . . If they want to keep saying those things, maybe we just need to play a little bit harder."

 

[Hoodie]

You know what I like best about this? When everyone else was pretending that Bonds wasn't going to break the HR record, ESPN was "breaking in" with coverage. They are the network that gave Bonds a reality show! They treated Bonds as if he didn't have any baggage as if the steriods accusation never existed.

So go ahead, compare the Pats and Bonds.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

The irony of all of this is that if you date back 3 years ago, everyone in the world adorned us as being the absolute model franchise in all respects. It's funny how everyone will turn on a dime because of one really dumb infraction, that in reality, half the league was also probably doing.

Here lies a toppled god,
His fall was not a small one;
We but built the pedestal,
A narrow and a tall one

- Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune (I think.)

People like to build up legends. People really like to watch the guy they built up toppled.

What do we see when we see Belichick? Probably a grumpy guy, not naturally camera-friendly, focused on the job at hand like nobody's business, and a guy with a wry sense of humor, rather than a "guffaw guffaw" sense of humor.

What does everybody else see? Some embittered, tainted, corrupt husk of a coach, arrogant, slimy, hypercompetitive (true, but that's basically a good thing,) and rude. Not to mention just plain mean.

Truth is, he's a smart guy who coaches football. Astoundingly, he never claimed to be anything else - not "the best," not "the smartest," just a guy who coaches football.

The Patriots slew vanity football just like Grunge stomped the hair bands singlehandedly. Suddenly it all looked so stupid. Being introduced as a team became the norm. With the exception of the biggest prima donnas, everybody started trying to mimic the team-first mentality of the Pats. To an extent it worked, although the discipline isn't there on most teams; after all, the Pats' model is a culture, and you can't dictate that. It has to evolve. Sure it evolves under careful guidance... but you can't create it in a memo.

That's why they loved us through, say, 04... but now that everybody's on that same track (or trying to be), we're yesterday's news. We don't stand for something needed... we just stand for ourselves (all we were ever trying to be in the first place.)

So imagine the delighted shock with which the world learned that the "model franchise" not only doesn't do anything different... it only does bad things different!

Such is the simplistic mindset of the casual fan, or the fan or pundit who is carried away by the whim of the moment.

Well, 9 straight wins seem to have sobered many such worthies. There are still holdouts, of course, and there's still a little mini-holdout in the minds of others. But they will come around... sort of like when Ray Lewis, mainly known for pleading down from murder to obstruction, played like a man possessed in the 2000 season. The only way to shut them up was on the field. He did it.

The Pats seem to be taking the same approach, though nobody had to die to get us there.

PFnV

 

[psychoPat]

This is great.. More fuel for the fire..

What i think is really great ... and the highest BTU-value fuel yet ...
is that NY Post backpage you show!

I hope each player receives one in his locker
when they return from break.

And i hope you keep that sig
until after they win the Lombardi.

(So THE TEAM is the "Hatriots"
... but the Post's editors are .. what are they?)

 

[Buchanty]

Nice post, and I fully concur. I hate to say it but as fans we are going to have to put up with this and much more for quite a long time. We are wasting our energy looking for fairness, understanding and respect. Perception has taken over and will not relent until the situation is changed. Sadly I think the only catalyst for that is BB's retirement, for that is the head that the crowd is braying for. The upside is that BB does not heed vox populi thank goodness, and is carefully working the situation to the team's advantage. My hope is that translates to multiple superbowls.

The media on the other hand is hyper sensitive to popular opinion and feeds it with the necessary soundbytes and opinions to maintain the level of interest and size of audience. While Easterbrook may be guilty of spawning the good v evil slant on things, the rest of the media is delighted that in doing so he created a story that has the allure to last the season. Nice too that they dont have to be the ones crying evil and good. The season has its moniker and they wont let it die. That is why they are so focussed on the positives of the Colts game on Sunday and so disinterested in the negatives that affected the Patriots. It is in their interest to maintain equal forces for the ultimate showdown in January. Sadly another victim of this will be the Superbowl, which will seem anticlimactic compared to the AFCC.

Didnt mean to make this post so long, but I might as well finish what I started, by saying that the league itself is much happier with today's perception than they are in bringing clarity to the situation. Because, much like the media, this story sells the product. And for the 2007 season the product is a little in shambles. Good v evil carries better headlines than substance abuse, illegal gambling, cruelty to animals and perhaps the worst sin a disparate league. To all intents and purposes 28 teams might just as well scout college games prior to the draft. The Patriots and Colts have optimized their management prowess to fit the salary cap, and displaced parity with laughable ease. There is no conspiracy but the NFL is happy that the Patriots have become a scapegoat, and even happier that they could run the table as it drives television audiences. Have you noticed the change in TV schedules to accommodate the possiblity of defeating the Pats (or toppling the legend as PFnV so nicely put it).

As I said winning the SB is not going to change that perception, it will only fuel it. The biggest crime is against BB, who will increasing be pilloried as the Dark Emperor, because no-one has a greater love and respect for the game than he. He is in love with the game, and his passion shows in his willingness to discuss and illustrate characteristics of the game and its history in front of the press and anyone else willing to listen.

So Bill, keep doing what you're doing, keep going for those Lombardi's, and in return I will try to keep in mind that all the hate and disrespect is just noise and will one day go away.