The Patriots (and everything remotely connected to them.)
Apparently, they are the subject of unending hatred from a large segment of miankind. Please post your bile and utter hatred, with details. This is not a “Well, that guy sucks!” thread. Please tell me in as much ire-filled detail why you hate them. Or hold them in contemp. Or don’t hate them but want them to suffer unmitigated agony for the rest of their long but fruitless lives.
I just don’t follow football much (read: at all) and have no idea what’s going on.
They are good, they win, and in so doing, a number of the members of the team and their fans have become even bigger assholes than is normal for such. This brings out the “Drag them down!” attitude on people who have to deal with these people.
That, and Americans just can’t seem to allow anybody to be successful without digging up something to vilify them for.
Oh, and they’re from the Northeast, which is full of godless communists, Mormons, and fellow travellers of all sorts.
Here in Cleveland, we (OK, me), hate the Patriots because their smug, arrogant, jerk of a coach, Bill Belicheck, was previously the coach in Cleveland. He was a smug, arrogant jerk of a coach here too, but without the all the success he’s attained in New England. We (me) feel the success Belicheck has had with the Patriots could’ve happened to someone more deserving of success, specifically, anyone else on the planet except for Art Modell, Osama and possibly Saddam.
I was just talking to a co-worker about that (she was born in Cleveland and she’s been a lifelong Browns fan) and she has nothing against Belichick as far as his tenure with the Browns goes.
To answer the OP, most of us hate the Pats for the same reason we hated Apollo Creed - they’re the best, and they know it, and they know you know it. That’s pretty much it… they make our teams look bad.
Of course, now people have a real reason to hate them- that being that they’re a bunch of cheaters. Or their coaches are, at least.
I’ve heard this from people from about every other English speaking country in the world, but this might be the first time I’ve seen an American say it. In fact, usually I see Canadian and Australian pundits lament how we can’t “celebrate success” like they do in America.
For me it is a Boston thing. I never hated the Pats before, mainly because it is hard to hate a team (unless it is a traditional rivalry) when they aren’t that good. But since the ascendancy of the Patriots, coinciding with a period where, much as I hate to admit it, Boston sports in general have become pretty damn fine, their fans, and Boston sports fans in general, have become intolerable, acting as if Championships are their God given right.
I’m not overly fond of the Giants either, and had this been any other time, I might have surrendered my pro-NFC nature and supported the Patriots last night. But not this time.
They used to be the Boston Patriots, but I believe they switched to “New England” when they built their first stadium in Foxborough, which is well south and west of Boston.
But wouldn’t that sort of thing describe, say, Yankees fans in New York’s prime? Cowboys fans, Dolphins fans, Green Bay fans in their heydays, etc., etc.? Right now it’s Boston’s turn to ride high, so they’re the magnet for hate. Let the Boston teams decline, let another city’s team(s) be similarly dominant, and the hate will migrate.
Which reminds me – what’s the attitude toward the Celtics these days?
Re Bellichick- is he an asshole in real life, or just to the media? And if just to the media, why do fans care if he doesn’t like answering stupid media questions, especially when most of them are trying to bait him into being a dick anyway? Hell, most famous people don’t like dealing with the media, albeit only a few a e as obvious about it as he is- but you can’t assume he’s an asshole in real life based on press conferences. Anyone ever reported on a personal interaction with him where he was dick?
I hear what you’re saying, but I say that maintaining good P.R. is part and parcel of a coach’s job description. Belicheck made a number of bone-headed decisions while coaching the Browns (the drafting of “Touchdown Tommy” Vardell in the first round, shortly thereafter being known as “Second and Long” Tommy Vardell being Exhibit A) and his response to the media’s questions that “They just didn’t understand football like he did” very quickly wore thin in the face of his numerous highly questionable decisions.
I understand that tee-shirt hawkers and the like had already mass produced all manner of paraphernalia which had something along the lines of: 2007 - 2008 New England Patriots 19 - 0 - Perfection.
Wanting to cash in while the time was ripe, they are now going to take a bath on that one.
Reminds me of a story I read in Sports Illustrated where someone inquired about what happens to the losers’ tee-shirts, ball caps etc. that are pre-made so the champs can immediately sport the new duds.
It turns out that those items are sent overseas to some god-forsaken struggling country where they’ve never heard of nor give a rat’s patootie about either of the teams in question. The writer remembers a visit to war-torn Sarajevo in the early '90’s and saw some kid sporting a tee-shirt that said: “Super Bowl Champions - Buffalo Bills.”
As a Yankee fan, I’m conditioned to hate all things Boston. That said, I just don’t feel anything one way or another towards the Patriots. Of course, I wanted to see them lose on Sunday, but that’s just because I’m a GIANTS fan.
ETA: minlokwat, a friend of mine in my Air Force days had gotten his hands on a 1986 Boston Red Sox World Series Champion baseball cap. It was cherished; he proudly wore it whenever out of uniform. I wondered if he retired it when the BoSox actually won it; maybe put it in a trophy case.
Because Tom Brady, (even though he played at Michigan, which will keep me from swearing at him), is a smug, superior jerk. He is the Jeff Gordon of football. (Being Jeff Gordon of anything is bad. Very Very Bad.)
Because Bill Belichick is a jerk, asshole, and wears those goddamn mangled hoodies.
Because they took in Randy Moss, who is in a competition with T.O. and Ocho “Fucking Arrogant Moron” Cinco for the NFL’s Biggest Ego Award with the Most Irritating All-Around Jackass bonus prize.
Well it is rare that a team has three major sports teams that are at or very close to being the top of their respective sports, all at the same time. If it is just one team, there isn’t the same chance for that hideous smugness to develop.
Say the Eagles were to win the Superbowl, we know how Eagles fans would be. But I wouldn’t begrudge them their moment in the sun, or change my view of the team or Philly teams as a whole, because it is a one off for a city starved of sports success. On the other hand, if the Sixers, Flyers, Iggles and Phillies all won in the same year, and were challenging for that the following season, I think Philadelphia fans might get a little hard to tolerate, and my opinion of the teams would plummet. (Disclosure, I am actually a Flyers fan).
And yes, it absolutely describes Yankees fans. They are always intolerable, winning or losing.
