By Anthony Strait, OTSL Panelist
We all love
a good underdog story. Who doesn’t love the classic tale of an individual or
group of people who rise above all obstacles and become a symbol of greatness?
It makes for good television and stories we can tell for years. But what
happens when that loveable underdog continues to win? What happens when that
symbol of greatness continues to be so great that we forget they were even
underdogs in the first place? Its real simple, we grow to hate them. We start
to despise their winning and deep down we wait around for them to ultimately
fail because that will teach them for becoming bigger than we want them to be.
Secretly however, it becomes pretty clear that we wish to be like them. We are
a society that builds up greatness like Lego blocks only to tear it down when
we get sick of it.
How
else can you explain some of the more successful people in the world seemingly
having a large collection of critics? Everyone hates or supposedly hates the Kardashians
because they are so famous despite their perceived lack of talent. How many
people bash the family but deep down wouldn’t mind having their sizeable bank
accounts? Beyonce, Jay-Z, Amy Schumer, Kevin Hart and now even Cardi-B’s
success story isn’t safe from the bitterness of haters. It definitely rears its
ugly head in the world of sports. Everyone hates the Duke Blue Devils and the
New York Yankees are the evil empire. Sydney Crosby is a crybaby and LeBron James
has his very own “I Hate LeBron James” Facebook page. We latch onto anything
that will discourage us from facing the honest truth: maybe these individuals are
just simply that good.
This
ideal brings me to the NFL team everyone loves to hate, the New England
Patriots. You pretty much heard it all about this team over the past decade. They
are cheaters, the referees have been bought off by owner Robert Kraft. QB Tom
Brady and all the very unflattering jokes about deflated footballs. Coach Bill
Belichick and “SpyGate”. The question is, if they supposedly can’t win without
somehow cheating, then how come they have been so consistently good for so
long? Once upon a time however the Pats were the underdog story heading into
Super Bowl XXXVI. They faced an uphill climb against the St. Louis Rams and the
“Greatest Show on Turf” with a backup QB name Brady. The Rams themselves were a
loveable story, just two seasons prior winning it all but they were now the
brash team that people wanted to see lose at any cost. Adam Vinatieri kicks a
game winning field goal; Tom Brady leads a Super Bowl-winning drive to set up
that field goal, wins MVP and we have a great story. We can now cherish it and
move on right?
Except
the Patriots didn’t just fade into obscurity. They added two more Super Bowl
wins over the next three years. The Indianapolis Colts complained about the
Patriots grabbing and holding receivers in the 2003 AFC Championship Game. They
held onto that excuse deep into their playoff rematch the next season. With the
rules changed and actually favoring their vaunted passing game, the Peyton
Manning-led Colts offense that scored the most points in the NFL was held to
just three measly points by New England. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick only got
more powerful when guys like Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Junior Seau joined the fray.
The 2007 New England Patriots went 18-1 including playoffs. We put an asterisk
to it not due to them losing the Super Bowl to the Giants, but because of “SpyGate”.
“SpyGate”
took place in week one; the team lost draft picks and was labeled cheaters…and
they were blowing teams out after the fact as well. Teams like the Jets and
Steelers always have them on the brain even when New England is not their next
opponent. That tends to happen when you can never figure out a way to beat
them. It becomes an obsession. Hard to ignore that the Steelers upset loss to
the Jaguars was in some part due to them looking ahead to New England. Oh and
who can forget “DeflateGate”? The biggest waste of money and resources ever.
The idea that somehow under inflated footballs was such a big factor in a 38-point
blowout win where the Patriots RAN for over 150 yards shows just how much we
want to take away from their success. Truth is we wish our teams were as good
and consistent in any year let alone the past 17. The Ravens, the entire AFC
East, Seattle and now Jacksonville can be added to the list of teams that
whined about some unfounded advantage when in reality they just can’t beat New
England. After all, it’s pretty difficult to beat a team that doesn’t beat
itself.
The
key to sustained success is consistency. The Pats have had the same coach, same
quarterback and stable front office for 17 years. They have a system and
culture in place where no matter how players come and go, the team is always
set up to compete at a high level. Bill Belichick is surely not the guy you
want to go out and grab a cold one with, and his post-game pressers can cure insomnia.
Tom Brady has the super-model wife; millions of dollars; boyish looks even now at
the age of 40; and STILL plays like a Hall of Famer. Robert Kraft is the owner
of a team of cheaters according to critics. He always pays off the refs and the
league always help the Pats even as the league spent a year trying to punish
them for a few ounces of air in a football. All of these are reasons to hate
this bunch except for the obvious one: they are just damn good.
The
fans, especially on social media, provide the greatest commentary on our
envious ways. Think back to the Super Bowls against the Seahawks and Falcons
and the AFC title game against the Jaguars. Social media was a parade of Pats
haters licking their chops, ready to bash the Pats when they were losing those
games. Social media had Tom Brady memes all lined up to mock arguably the greatest
quarterback of all time. When the Patriots came back and won all three games, it
was a different tone. Memes and still shots from the conspiracy theorists filled
Instagram trying to prove -- without merit -- how the Patriots cheated to win.
They always cheat right? Twitter gets bombarded with explicit language cursing
the team to no end and seeing your friends cry over the most hated team ever on
Facebook tends to provide great entertainment. We’d just rather drink acid then
tip our hats to a team that has simply done it all and continues to do so.
The
Super Bowl is coming up and again we will sit and hope for the Patriots to lose,
hoping that this era of greatness will FINALLY end rather than take the time to
enjoy something we may never see again. Deep down however, anyone not a
Patriots or Eagles fan will be wishing it was their team playing for it all.
Why do they ALWAYS have to be so good while our favorite teams struggle to get
over the hump? The Patriots have owned their division and no one has come close
to challenging them. The Steelers, Ravens and others spend all offseason
building to take them on but still fail. Belichick is still around and Brady
still plays at a high level. Critics will be glued, waiting for the next “AH-HA!”
moment when they think the Pats got a break and then will use it to fire up the
next round of “The Patriots are Cheaters” talk should they win another Lombardi
trophy.
We don’t hate the Patriots because they are pure evil. Heck,
we don’t even hate them for beating our teams. We hate them because they’ve
been SO good for SO long. That wasn’t the plan way back in 2001. They were
suppose to have their moment and then go away, but they are still here and still
going strong. New England has been the prime example of sustained greatness in
sports. We desire to be great and we hate it when we helplessly watch someone
else be what we want to be. Greatness,
no matter any walk of life, breeds contempt and spite. It’s the way nature
tends to work. We hate what we wish to be plain and simple. Fans and teams
around the league don’t hate the New England Patriots, we simply envy them.
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