PatsPropaganda

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An Inconvenient Super Bowl Win (for those who hate the Patriots)

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“The Patriots haven’t won anything since Spygate.”

That was (once) a popular refrain around NFL media circles when looking for an easy crutch to knock down a franchise on an unprecedented run of success over the last decade-and-a-half. 

Of course, the Patriots had won more games than any other team in the league, including seven division titles and three AFC championships since they were caught videotaping the Jets’ defensive signals from an illegal location in September of 2007, but why let facts get in the way of a good sound byte?

Falling just short of another Super Bowl title from 2007-2013 kept the door open for the #HotTakez pundits to say their success was somehow dependent stealing signals.

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The elusive fourth Super Bowl title was supposed to be the one that silenced those still banging the Spygate drum so many years later. 

It was supposed to be the one that cemented the legacy of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, and perhaps Patriots fans naively hoped it would win some good will back from general NFL fans.

After another title, even the two Super Bowl losses would look like more like feathers in the cap than examples of a team that couldn’t win without cheating.

The legacies of Brady and Belichick would be cemented with their fourth Lombardi Trophy together, but it was not a win of redemption, it was one inescapably as the villain.

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The Patriots have gone from a team that an entire nation felt connected to after the attacks of September 11, 2001, to one of the most hated franchises in sports.

When the Patriots came out of the locker room announced as a team in Super Bowl 36, no one thought about how much they hated Bill Belichick or Tom Brady. That they were cheaters.

No, this wasn’t a dynasty. It was an upstart team of underdogs led by a bunch of castoffs, including their head coach, and a second-year quarterback who was drafted 199th overall the year prior.

The Patriots’ failure to hang on for the win in Super Bowl 42 only empowered the Spygate crowd. 

Yes, the Patriots had been busted and punished in September and had gone 18-0 while not taping opponents’ signals from an illegal location, but one miracle catch by David Tyree and the causation between taping opponents signals and winning Super Bowls was cemented in the minds of anyone looking to discredit the Patriots’ success.

By the time the Patriots took the field for Super Bowl 46, ten years after their first Super Bow victory, few outside their fan base were pulling for the them to win. And when Eli Manning put together another last-minute Lombardi-winning drive, the “they haven’t won anything since Spygate” crew were smiling.

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In 2014, with their best defense in a decade, the Patriots once again were the top seed in the AFC, but both games en route to the Super Bowl would be filled with controversies.

The use of deception with ineligible receivers was nothing new to the NFL, but when executed by the Patriots in a playoff game, they cheated!

With Deflategate, the Patriots were once again in the national spotlight for the wrong reasons. Even today, no one argues that any deflation of footballs before the first half of the AFC Championship had any impact on the game, but the implication of secretive operations to circumvent the PSI rules was more than enough for the torches to be lit, once again calling for asterisks and sanctions.

Then, months later, comes the Wells Report, itself igniting another powder keg of controversy as Patriots fans dug in, with plenty of ammo from the Washington Post, New York Times, and even Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com.

Super Bowl 49 was a crowning moment for Tom Brady, but it wasn’t quite the universal coronation many Pats fans might’ve hoped for.

Brady, facing unprecedented controversy with his integrity being called into question, put together one of the greatest games of his life against one of the best defenses he had ever played against.

Brady went 13-of-15 for 124 yards and two TDs in the fourth quarter against the vaunted Seattle defense. There was no taping of signals. The balls were all legally inflated. Neither mattered, just like they never mattered.

What we were left with was a legendary performance that no one can disregard or discredit, and Brady did it under the harshest off-field circumstances of his career. 

Spygate was about Belichick, but Deflategate was about Brady, and when the confetti fell on him in Arizona, Brady was far removed from the charismatic backup who defeated the Rams 14 years earlier.

The Patriots fell just short of another Super Bowl numerous times after September 2007, allowing Spygate to be held over their head for eight long seasons. They were under the dark cloud of Deflategate for just two weeks.

But the both were erased in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 49 in Glendale and the haters can never say Brady and the Pats haven’t won anything since Spygate… or Deflategate.

Mike, if we see emergence from the newly drafted and acquired DEs, could you see a scenario where Chandler Jones might get traded? After seeing what pass rushers are getting paid, I’m not sure he’s a Patriot after the 2016 season anyway.

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Yeah, I wouldn’t rule it out. Signing Sheard gave them a viable third defensive end so you have to consider his presence means something when it comes to Ninkovich and Chandler, even if it’s just reducing their ridiculous snap totals. But I wouldn’t count on any of the rookies to immediately step in and make Chandler expendable.

The sexy thing Patriot fans would undoubtedly want would be a cornerback in return, but projecting a trade is so hard to do. Though I’m sure there would be plenty of teams interested in Chandler.

As for 2016 I think it feeds back into linebackers being more valuable than defensive linemen and ends in Belichick’s system. Going back to the 3-4 when the defensive line was just there to eat space so the linebackers could make the plays. That 3-4 defense isn’t really relevant to their game-to-game scheme now, but I think the philosophy largely remains. So yeah, Hightower and Collins are priorities in my eyes over Chandler.

Adding 3 or 4 defensive ends this offseason was necessary given the lack of depth and it’s not crazy to read the tea leaves and think Ninkovich could start slowing down and Chandler could depart. The draft is about a year or two down the line more than it is about this year.

I don’t think it’s crazy to think trading Chandler for a good corner would make the defense better, but if I had to bet, it would be on Chandler playing this last year out.

i’m probably in the minority, but I think the secondary and the backfield will be JUST FINE. fletcher – ryan – butler will be competent, cadet will create mismatches, white will be solid, and grey will be his usual scruffy self. i’m only really worried about the interior D line. I really like Siliga, but I wish there was someone better than branch there as well. i hate getting all run over like 2013 sans wilfork,

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No two positions have been less loved by Belichick than CB and RB over the years. At corner you had offensive guys like Troy Brown and Julian Edelman filling in, or undrafted guys like Randall Gay and Malcolm Butler playing major roles in Super Bowl victories. I know it was a lot more exciting when we had two of the best in the business back there last year, but that was far from the norm.

At running back you had Danny Woodhead come in from the Jets practice squad and immediately become a big piece, or castoffs like Sammy Morris become significant players in very good offenses. Ridley and Vereen were basically drafted, given a year to acclimate then played major roles for three seasons before being let walk. 

I’m really not concerned at all about the running backs. More curious to see who seizes the opportunity because there are two big roles open heading into camp.

At corner, there’s a ton of talent around them, including up front and on the back end with McCourty. There will be some bad moments for sure and I’m curious how they match up with bigger receivers like Decker and Marshall with the Jets, but we know they’ll be a well-prepared group that won’t be easily rattled.

Everyone gets nervous after seeing the defense get torched for a ton of yards and big plays in recent years, but the talent level up front is so much better now than it was then. Really if the front seven stays healthy this year I could see the pass defense begin statistically better than last year, even without the big names at corner.

For the life of me I cannot understand while the NFL is still making the Patriots twist in the wind for something that (allegedly) happened in January. Six months later and no resolution to this insanity. A whole football season gets played out in less time.

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When it comes to the NFL and stuff like this I’ve gotten to the point where I just assume it will be handled as incompetently as possible and that’s what they’re doing once again. And I’m sure once the appeal decision is handed down, it will once again be a tone-deaf decision that leaves even the Patriots haters scratching their head.

Does anyone think Goodell didn’t know exactly what he was going to do within 24 hours after Brady’s marathon appeal session? Are we really to expect he’s sitting around pondering what he’ll do? He has absolute power here so why let it hang in the breeze?

Well it certainly keeps the NFL in the center of attention. He just mentions a decision is coming “soon” and the entire sports media was on high alert for the last week. I’m sure Goodell takes some enjoyment out of that.

Is he calculating? Or is he just so up his own ass he’s really that aloof?

Either way the whole thing has been handled horribly from the moment the balls were tested at halftime. The NFL has made it worse on the Patriots at every turn, but let’s face it, fans who hate the Patriots certainly drive a lot of traffic and eyeballs.

Whatever is really going on at NFL headquarters I just want this all to be behind us, but not at the price of Brady accepting a penalty if he never told or expected his game balls to specifically be below the legal level of 12.5.

If it goes to court so be it, but all the other NFL fans who are enjoying this treatment of the Patriots better be wary if/when their team breaks the rules. The only thing the NFL has proven over the last six months is that they can and will make every situation worse on themselves, the team and the fans.

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It leads a cynic to think that competently measuring, documenting and tracking the PSI of game balls isn’t that big a deal to the NFL. That protecting PSI wasn’t the goal here, but “getting” the Patriots –- at the behest of the Colts equipment man -– was. And that all the games played with balls under 12.5 PSI in the past will be followed by thousands of games played with under-inflated balls in the future thanks to Mother Nature. On just one night did it matter. That’s a helluva protocol.

NFL yet to share new ball protocols regarding PSI | Comcast SportsNet – CSNNE.com

https://www.patspropaganda.com/it-leads-a-cynic-to-think-that-competently/