From Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader (1 Viewer)

[Portis 26]

Since winning the Super Bowl in 2001, the Pats have been all about the "team". They were humility personified, hard-working blue collar guys who may not have been more talented than their opponents but out-fought and out-worked them and won on guts and passion.

This year they became this snarling, aggressive, cocky, nasty, running up the score outfit that America loved to hate. Watch smug, slick Brady being interviewed before the Super Bowl and compare him with the wide eyed kid from 2001.

Why turn to the dark side? Why go from Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader?

It wasn't broke, so why fix it?

If Belichick and Pioli and Kraft and the rest understood that the whole "team" thing was paramount, that it was important to be the good guys, why throw it away?

It cost them the Super Bowl. The other guys played the whole "team" card and it won them the game.

Was Spygate really to blame for this? Was it a natural product of success? The arrival of Moss, of various questionable character guys? Was it a deliberate change in philosophy? What happened here?

 

[Ted Lange as your Bartender]

They didn't change anything - America's perception of them changed.

1) After 2001, they kept winning. People always hate the team at the top, and they became it.

2) Oversaturation of Boston teams as a whole by ESPN and other media outlets created inevitable backlash (also applies to New York teams but in this case, someone had to be the plucky underdog so the Giants suddenly are portrayed as everyone's 2nd favorite team for one night, which is ironic)

3) People respect Belichick's coaching ability but don't really like him as a person (or should I say they don't like his image as portrayed to and by the media).

I would contend that Spygate adds to the already growing backlash against the Pats, and is not a "I now hate this team" factor in and of itself.

 

[Darth Cheney]

Two words:

Thier fans....

 

[SuperJohn96]

Two words:Thier fans....

Two more words.Spell Check.

 

[The Shizzle]

Two words:Thier fans....

Two more words.Spell Check.

 

[jonessed]

- They are a Boston team and Boston fans are the most obnoxious sports fans outside of England

- It gradually came to light that their coach is pretty much the epitome of a poor sport

- The media jammed them down our throats

 

[ichris]

For me it was the 2001 Super Bowl, when the Patriots cheated by taping the Rams during walk-throughs.