by Gus Griffin
Photo courtesy of DesigningSports.com
Let us cut right to the chase: I hate the New England Patriots with a passion impossible to describe in words.
I am sure that I speak for most folks in America outside of the Northeastern part of the country.
It is a team on my short list of most hated, along with Notre Dame Football, Duke Basketball, the Celtics, and the Dodgers.
Contrary to popular belief, there is a method to the madness of hate. For me, within the larger American sports media culture, any team portrayed as the “good guys”, I hate. It is similar to the epiphany the great James Baldwin had when reflecting on how he grew up rooting for the cowboys in their conflicts with Native Americans. Either gradually or via a light bulb moment, he came to realize that there was no significant difference in how the cowboys, portrayed as the “good guys”, were treating Native Americans, and how America treated Black folks.
Simply put, any Black folks who root for the Cowboys are confused. I will allow you to determine of which Cowboys I speak.
It is within that context that I typically root for the “Villains”.
Having said all of that, if you are still one of the holdouts that cannot bring him or herself to acknowledge the greatness of the Belichik/Brady era New England Patriots, there is something seriously wrong with you.
With Sunday’s win, albeit boring, the Patriots have now tied my Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl titles with six. Their 3 postseason wins this year give them 37, which allowed them to pass the Dallas Cowboys, who have 35, and my Steelers, with 36, for most of all time.
From an organizational consistency standpoint, a case can still be made for my Steelers, given that their level of greatness stretches back to the 70’s, over the span of multiple coaches and QB’s. From a sustained standpoint, the Niners still have a case, going from Montana/Walsh to Young/Siefert 1981-1994, and hardly skipping a beat. Those Niner teams missed the playoffs twice, had only one losing season, and a flawless 5-0 Super Bowl record.
However, for longevity of a single defining QB/Coach core, it is the New England Patriots and then everyone else. Over 18 years they have NEVER had a losing season and have missed the playoffs only twice. One of those missed playoffs seasons occurred when Brady went down with an injury for the season in the opening game. The team still won 11 games.
Still yet, their haters cling to three primary suggested asterisks: they cheat, they have had a weak division, and the owner, Bob Kraft, is a Trump supporter.
Even if all of this were true, the cumulative effect would not account for nine Super Bowl appearances and six wins in an 18-year span.
Let’s look at the cheating with so called “Spygate”. There is definitely an advantage in football if you know what your opponent is going to do. However, that was exposed before the 2007 season. They went 18-1 that year and have won three more Super Bowls since. To suggest that this has been the primary reason for their success is like saying steroids were the primary reason for Roger Clemons and Barry Bonds’ success. Both suppositions are ludicrous.
The “Deflategate” nonsense does not even warrant the space or time to dismiss.
Then there is “they have been in a weak division”. Has anyone ever considered that the 9-7 Bills, Jets, or Dolphins team would have been 10-6 and a likely playoff team if they just could manage a split with the Patriots? Furthermore, while the Broncos have held their own overall, as well as the Ravens in the playoffs, the Patriots have been as dominant over the best AFC teams over that era as they have been within their own division. During the past 18 years, against the other 4 AFC teams to win Super Bowls, which are the Broncos, Ravens, Steelers, and Colts, the Patriots are 44-20, which is a .687 winning percentage.
The last one is not even football based: The owner, Robert Kraft, is a Trump supporter. This is likely true of most of the other owners as well. They are “Made Men”, even among the 1%, and with that makeup, the single demographic that can cite a tangible reason to have supported Trump: HE PROTECTS THEIR LOOT!
One of the more amazing things about the Patriots is that there has only been one year when one can say that they were clearly the most talented team and that was the 2007/18-1 team.
That team DID NOT win the Super Bowl.
One of the signs of emotional maturity is the capacity to lay aside one’s passions to engage in a reality-based assessment of a situation. Anyone who does this and looks at the Patriots’ body of work over the past 18 years can only come to one conclusion: they are some bad MF’s.
If you cannot do this, it says much more about you than it does them. My suggestion: GROW UP, and give credit where credit is due!
Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports
