OT: Thornton book Darkness to Dynasty

[Actual Pats Fan]

When you add up a line item exclusion (excuse) for every item it sort of proves the point that no matter what there was alway an episode of the twilight zone when it came to those Patriot teams.

BTW you could almost say the same for the post 2001 team. Every single year, sometimes in their favor, there's been something. Tuck rule, spygate, deflategate, helmet catch, 4 game suspension, multiple first round picks taken away, staring CB benched for SB, epic 28-3 comeback, epic pick at the GL..........This franchise just has had it all happen.

It's true.

Who else would be dumb enough to start Tony Eason over Steve Grogan in the Super Bowl...

 

[everlong]

It's an undeniable fact that everything the Patriots have done since 1970 has been consistently twisted by the rest of the country into something that fits into the "Patriots are not worthy, do not belong, are illegitimate" diatribe.

I don't think that's an undeniable fact. I do think there have been times the league has been stacked against them. Pretty much since they beat the Colts in the AFCCG it's been 100%. In 2001 pretty much everybody outside of St Louis was rooting for them, probably Pittsburgh and Oakland as well. I've talked to Colts fans who have admitted to rooting for the Pats in 01.

I do think 76 was the worst jobbing of all time.

A lot of the others were self inflicted and because we are so myopic locally there's that sense of persecution but again I bet the Vikings fans feel that way between the party boat, Randy Moss with the food services incident and tons of other things, Favre pick, Philly fans, 4 SB losses and so on feel the same way.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I don't think that's an undeniable fact. I do think there have been times the league has been stacked against them. Pretty much since they beat the Colts in the AFCCG it's been 100%. In 2001 pretty much everybody outside of St Louis was rooting for them, probably Pittsburgh and Oakland as well. I've talked to Colts fans who have admitted to rooting for the Pats in 01.

I do think 76 was the worst jobbing of all time.

A lot of the others were self inflicted and because we are so myopic locally there's that sense of persecution but again I bet the Vikings fans feel that way between the party boat, Randy Moss with the food services incident and tons of other things, Favre pick, Philly fans, 4 SB losses and so on feel the same way.

It was prior to 1970 that players - often - refused to accept being drafted or traded to the Pats. In 1974 Tarkenton threw a hissy fit for no reason other than the Vikings were playing the Patriots. That was the Pats first nonlosing season in years, and to this day the diatribe attributes our 5-0, 6-1 start to the players' strike in the preseason, and to the 3-4 defense being a "gimmick" which the rest of the league "caught onto" the second half.

In fact, the Fairbanks-Bullough 3-4 was adopted by EVERY team in the NFL but one within five years; it was injuries that kept them out of the playoffs. In '76 people barely noticed the Patriots were in the playoffs; in '77 the woebegone Donkeys started well and were a national sensation.

Everybody knows who Jim Marshall is (long career with Vikes more than taking it the wrong way once); Nobody knows who Gino Cappelletti or Julius Adams is.

The planet agreed (agrees) that the Pats did not deserve to win the F*ck Yule game; and ear-shattering decibel level accusations of cheating have always drowned out their win a week later in the AFCCG at Pittsburgh...not to mention people still believing - and BSPN still reporting as fact - Tomase and Walsh's fake taping stories the week after.

Nothing anywhere else in professional sports comes close.