PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Massarotti: Why America Hates The Patriots, Part II

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Massarotti: Why America Hates The Patriots, Part II

Know what this makes Patriots fans? The nouveau riche. The toothless goobers who struck oil in their backyards. The Beverly Hillbillies. (Tom Brady was a sixth-round pick, after all.) And so now Patriots fans think they have it all figured out, that they will be great forever, and they want their owner to crush the league as simply as Belichick and Brady have crushed the competition.

Usually I try to stay above the fray with guys like Felger & Mazz, Dan Shaughnessy and the rest of them who care more about stoking the fire than actually analyzing football. That’s why I started blogging about the Patriots almost eight years ago, because the reporters actually following the team and providing insight about the most complex and violent sport on the planet were few.

I think it’s unfair to stereotype any fan base. There are Jets fans I like better than some Patriots fans to be honest. But now Mazz wants to lump all Patriots fans together and certainly he’d have no love for a blogger like me regardless of what stance I’ve taken on this issue or the integrity that I try to maintain with no oversight from any editor or corporation.

The unique problem with what happened yesterday with Mr. Kraft is almost entirely related to how much he’s stoked the fires ever since he first stepped in front of the microphone in Arizona and said he would demand an apology if the Patriots were found to have done nothing wrong.

That set the tone for this entire thing and the sides were only more galvanized with the Wells Report Context website and then Mr. Kraft’s lengthy conversation with Peter King this week.

Had Mr. Kraft played the role he usually plays, quietly working behind the scenes, most of Patriots Nation would not have been quite as whipped into such a frenzy.

At the very least they would not have been looking to Mr. Kraft as the leader in this episode of us against the NFL. 

I know what Mr. Kraft has done for this franchise and what he has meant to the NFL, especially what a vital role he played in 2011, when we might not have had a season if not for him.

But Mr. Kraft’s complete about-face and what is being spun as an admission of guilt pulled the rug out from under a Patriots fanbase that had rallied behind him and taken his lead. That is what stings.

I believe most Patriots fans understand why Mr. Kraft did what he did and I’d even venture so far as to say some of us respect him for it despite disagreeing with it.

But painting the entire fan base as entitled crybabies is just Boston Media Trolling for Dummies 101 and it’s why I don’t listen or read any of these guys. What have I ever learned about football, about team-building, about scouting, about strategy from Felger and Mazz or Shaughnessy or Ben Volin or any of these guys who write about the Patriots like they were the Kardashians?

I refuse to respond exactly how they want me to – with outrage and discussion that will only drive more traffic to them. That I even linked to Mazz’s article should be surprising.

Regardless of the reason why, a lot of the NFL, it’s employees, pundits and fans do hate the Patriots. Some might just hate them because they’ve been on an unprecedented run of success. Some of them hate Belichick. Now some of them hate Brady too. True or not, their reputation is that of a team that pushes the boundaries, and perception is reality. That’s the reality Patriots fans have lived with since 2007.

But what are Patriots fans supposed to do? Yes, we get to watch the best team in the league win a lot of games and championships, but we also have to be called cheaters and “toothless goobers” just because we refuse to abandon a team that has been with many of us since we were kids in the stands of the shitty old Foxboro stadium watching the Patsies get smoked just like Mr. Kraft used to do.

Should we abandon our team? Give the NFL the benefit of the doubt this time that the glaring holes in the Wells Report don’t really matter because well, we’re cheaters and if it wasn’t deflating balls they must’ve been surely doing something else that deserves punishment?

Most of us with an online voice have been “Defending the Wall” ever since September 2007. Spygate galvanized Patriots fans unlike any other fan base in the NFL and now Deflategate has pushed it to another level.

We are attacked by the other fans, the national media and many members of Boston’s own media. How else do they think we will respond?

I respect the hell out of Robert Kraft, but yesterday hurt when the man who was leading the charge against the big, bad NFL suddenly changed his mind and sided with them. Now the Boston media trolls can pile on the Patriots fans and say how silly we looked for following Mr. Kraft’s lead. We’ve been through this stuff before and yes, it will eventually be behind us and the community of true Patriots fans will never have been stronger.

It might take a few months but eventually we’ll be able to go back to just rooting on our favorite team and favorite quarterback and hoping they win football games. 

As the saying goes, “winning cures all”, unless you want to listen to Mazz.

what are the helmet rules?

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Another case of the NFL mistaking activity for achievement. From 2013:

The league office told all teams planning to wear throwback uniforms this season that players must wear their regular helmets on throwback dates. The outside of the helmet can be modified by removing or replacing decals, but the helmet itself must stay the same. Once players have properly fitted helmets that they’re comfortable wearing, the NFL doesn’t want them changing helmets during the season just for appearances.

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Might be in the minority but I miss the silver alternates. And with the stupid helmet rules they could still wear them, unlike the red throwbacks.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/might-be-in-the-minority-but-i-miss-the-silver/

Curran: Kraft does the right thing for the wrong people

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Curran: Kraft does the right thing for the wrong people

Tom E. certainly has his finger on the pulse of Patriots Nation. I’m not sure even I could’ve predicted how harshly Patriots fans have rejected Mr. Kraft’s actions. This thing just seems to keep getting worse and worse. 

I can’t even imagine what it would be like if Marshawn Lynch had rumbled into the end zone for a Super Bowl win, handing the Pats a third-straight miracle defeat in the big game. Thankfully that didn’t happen and that’s all we can hold on to right now as town favorites like Dan Shaughnessy do their victory laps over downtrodden Patriot fans who still believe their team has gotten unfairly put through the ringer.

Prior to 2001, Patriots fans were the low men on the Boston sports totem pole. No one really cared who they were or what they stood for. Now, it seems like we are the favorite punching bags of not only a league that our team has systematically destroyed over the past 15 years, but also of many members of the Boston sports media, who delight in sticking it to “fanboys” almost as much as they like sticking it to the teams.

Tom Brady’s appeal still looms large, and from the sounds of it, he will certainly not go quietly into the night like Mr. Kraft did today. If Brady’s suspension is absolved by a neutral arbitrator, it won’t look good for Mr. Kraft. 

Are you saying that this year you think instead of bringing in another corner they will keep the three LB on the field and shift say Collins out to that third corner spot and play zone

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In spots, yes. And it doesn’t have to be Collins, I think more significantly it’s Mayo because there wasn’t another linebacker who could run like him after he went down. Assuming full health this year, I’d predict the sub/regular numbers will shift down closer to what they were the last few years – regular 60-65% of the time.

It’s not a coincidence that the last two seasons when Mayo went down they’ve gone to their sub defense the most.

Still, when it comes down to an obvious passing situation I think they’ll probably pull Hightower most often for the extra DB, though he could have an additional role as a sub-rusher in some spots.

With essential 4 good LBs, how do you see them rotating

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Assuming we hit a point where everyone is healthy and ready to go by somewhere in October, I think you’ll see more of a dip back toward the regular defense. Last year they were in sub over 70 percent of the time. I think that related a lot to Mayo being out and no reliable third linebacker.

Really they can rotate however they need to. Spikes could play in more 34 looks, while you can rotate Ninkovich/Sheard/Chandler/Hightower/Collins at the edge spots as necessary, whether they’re standing up or have a hand down.

The defense I think we’ll see vs. passing teams will be more of the double nose 43 we’ve seen in recent years looking like this: Ninkovich/Sheard -Brown/Siliga/Branch – Easley/Siliga/Jones – Chandler/Sheard, then at LB Hightower – Mayo – Collins. 

Might be a sprinkling of Flowers at DE or Grissom at LB, but I’m not convinced either will play much on defense this year.