Obligatory « innocent until »...
Only here to point out that, for whatever reason, the NFL seems obsessed with glorifying its worst elements. Hill, Manning, Von Miller, Ray Lewis.. talked about like heroes. But then, who does this wrestling-wannabe-league choose as its heel ? BB (who is gruffy at the mic, but widely respected by so many players and coaches, who helps out individuals w/o looking for praise) & Tom Brady (widely seen as a classy, great humble teammate). Just can’t understand.
Very simple.
Sick, corrupt, wealthy, powerful, racist, misogynist assh*les driven by greed, ignorance and pettiness.
Why did the AFL have to be formed in the first place? Within five short years the NFL had got its ass kicked and accepted a merger where many of the positive elements and innovations of the new league and its teams were absorbed, but there was zero accountability or acknowledgment never mind reduction or elimination of the corrupt, sick, petty, misplaced prejudice and hatred that dominated the old one.
Unable to continue their cult war against the new league, the NFL was left with all this abuse and needed somewhere to direct it.
To the rescue! comes that Irish bug Billy Sullivan and his hapless Boston Patriots. With the lusty support of its own Boston media, the NFL can dump all the sh*t they please on that embarrassing little team:
"Get a home stadium or you're outta here!!!" But Billy manages to borrow and get sponsorship for one of the only half dozen privately funded venues in the country. Now the league can enjoy beating us on the football field while still raking in the TV revenue.
But when that team suddenly starts winning, and winning big against the best teams in the league, well, that's just not part of the equation.
Not to worry, Sullivan's clowning will keep the slave-wages paid All Pro linemen off the team long enough to keep them out of the playoffs, and then his despicable response to Darryl Stingley will drive away the great coach and the All World tight end two years later.
League grounds crew will complain that the Patriots' logo is too intricate to comfortably paint in the end zone when they finally make it to the Super Bowl, while media will trumpet that any of the other teams they beat on the way there would have made a better matchup and game. The Pats' coach will corroborate all of that by starting the kid who was a project all seven years here while active, healthy and available far superior quarterbacks stood on the sidelines.
Then, when the financial house of cards inevitably crumbles, some local Jewish guy will sabotage plans to move the team to St. Louis. They'll make and of course lose the Super Bowl again but it'll be okay because the great coach will immediately head south back to New York which is "better for the league." Then the big spending owner will miraculously keep the Boston media market profits by swinging a last minute deal to keep the team in Massachusetts and out of Hartford. Later he'll give up a first round draft pick so he can sign the quirky, weird, hated eccentric as his new head coach, and after a 5-11 season will sign the astronomically overrated but absolutely worshipped quarterback to the richest contract in history.
So, all was well in NFL land, where the Patriots would never go all the way yet would always be around to beat and denigrate and hate.
But...
Along came some unheralded kid who walked on a winless team and then had his coach distribute his highlights video from high school and he got a scholarship to Michigan, where he worked his ass off to get to be the captain and starter yet was benched and platooned with a ballyhooed media darling. Then when he led them to the big comeback major college New Year's Day bowl game win, he scored so low at the combine that on draft day he was treated like a malcontent, untalented, drug addicted criminal locker room cancer for whom only one team scouted, spoke to his coach, or considered - and on Day Two they drafted him in the sixth round. Which team? Need you ask?
Not to worry! The Patriots promptly started 0-2 right out of the gate and were on their endless quest to oblivion when...well...the by then lousy starter got himself hurt, the kid who'd by then worked his way to #2 on the depth chart came in, and when the starter was all better and ready to go back in the crazy coach said, "Um, no, I think we'll keep on winning instead" and out of nowhere they won their first (official) Super Bowl, aided by a questionable rule correctly enforced yet the losing team, the very same team that was gifted a stolen Super Bowl 25 years earlier cried "Foul! Foul! Foul!" and a week later in Pittsburgh something 'fishy' was felt although the Dolphins had long since been eliminated: like the Patriots knew what the Steelers were calling on offense ahead of time, etc.
The initial great playoff runs by the Cowboys, Dolphins, Steelers, 49ers et al. were strangely not accompanied by these baseless denigrations, belittlements and cheating allegations...because...because they weren't the Patriots.
Well! Two more Super Bowl wins later, after Kraft endorses the Commissioner's former lackey/stooge who helped facilitate the building of Gillette Stadium to succeed Tagliabue, Former Jets Executive Kennesaw Mountain Goodell laid down the hammer, first on NFL Europe (no thank you for giving us Kurt Warner and Adam Vinatieri) and then on the most hated franchise with the most resented owner and the most hated coach and the most disrespected 'system' quarterback. Years of denigration and baseless cheating allegations were corroborated! legitimized! Unleashing a torrent of pent up Patriots hatred that makes the Trump fan base look disinterested, dispassionate, listless, small and unenthusiastic.
Wait! There's more! Suspending the MVP QB over made up ball manipulation accusations and later more fines and stolen draft picks over a 15-minute media camera crew production oversight with zero connection to the team coaching staff or management.
Like I said, very simple.
