Why I Hate the New England Patriots

When Super Bowl LII kicks off next Sunday evening, I'm not sure I'll be actually rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles to win.

I will be cheering hard for the New England Patriots to lose.

It isn't because of any sort of jealousy or envy of the Patriots incredible run of success in the 21st century; the dislike actually started before they won their first Super Bowl. When Tom Brady's fumble in the snow against Oakland was overturned by an obscure football rule nobody had ever heard of before, the Patriots and Brady were forever tarnished in my mind. It's hard for mind to reconcile the fact that the winningest Super Bowl quarterback ever could never even be the clear-cut quarterback of his college team.

The Patriots reputation of playing fast and loose with the rules is well established with SpyGate and DeflateGate. And yes, the reactions of Tom Brady and the rest of the New England Patriots made it clear they were guilty; every parent can recognize the tacit admissions of guilt by Brady and company, even if the NFL's 2015 investigation was a bit clumsy in execution.  Maybe the evidence isn't admissable in court, but you know and everybody knows that Tom Brady and the New England Patriots cheated to get to that Super Bowl.

And that's the stuff we know about.

Add in the whole "Masshole" phenomonon, and frankly, the New England Patriots are simply unlikable. I had a small amount of sympathy for Boston fans in the 20th century; I liked Larry Bird, and sympathized with them over the Bill Buckner error in the World Series. (Besides, I hated those Stupid Mets...)  But that dissipated quickly once Matt Perrault started shoveling his dreck on KXSP ten years ago.  One of his famed predictions was that "no Manning would ever win a Super Bowl ring" - only to have the Manning brothers win the next two Super Bowls.

I get why he did that... he loved his Boston teams, but more importantly, loved to troll everyone else.  That's why he didn't last in Omaha, though he's apparently now has a national show.  Go figure.

New England and Boston:  Thoroughly unlikable and despicable. Go ahead, Philly...and give them the full Santa treatment.

Because even awful fans who hate Santa deserve a Super Bowl trophy more than the New England Patriots.