Respect

Setting aside the relative merits (if there are any) of Deflate-Gate, could this have actually done the Patriots a favor?

 

Remember back in the day when New England was authoring back-to-back 14-2-0 regular seasons and back-to-back Super Bowl wins and Rodney Harrison was doing his best Rodney Dangerfield?

No respect.

Nobody believes in us.

Yeah, I know. It seemed silly even then. Except in the playoff games against Peyton Manning’s Colts, of course. And the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh. But otherwise silly. And still this “nobody likes us/everybody hates us” silliness had an undeniably galvanizing effect on those championship teams. I suppose it helped that Tom Brady still has that 6^th round draft pick chip on his shoulder or players they picked up like Corey Dillon came to Gillette wanted to prove something. Maybe Belichick loves the underdog. Belichick has been on top for so long it’s easy to forget he got famous as an underdog (the Giants were 7.5 point underdogs to the Bills in Super Bowl XXV). Maybe Belichick knows the players like Brady, Julian Edelman, Brandon LaFell, Darrelle Revis, LeGarrette Blount and many others on the New England roster understand the bitter taste of disrespect. Brady a famously sixth round pick, Edelman not considered good enough to replace Welker, LaFell the consolation prize when the Patriots couldn’t sign Emmanuel Sanders, Revis traded to the Bucs for a bag of magic beans, LeGarrette Blount riding dirty and riding the pine in Pittsburgh.

Someday somebody's gonna make you want to
Turn around and say goodbye.
Until then baby are you going to let them
Hold you down and make you cry?

Sorry, I was just having a moment there.

Okay.

I’m thinking now about how Deflate-Gate (not to mention suggestions the Patriots’ detailed understanding of the NFL rule book is somehow tantamount to cheating) is playing in the locker room and meeting rooms in Foxborough.

No one respects you and what you’ve accomplished this year. No one respects how you bounced back from a loss in Kansas City that would’ve broken lesser teams and put them in a season-ending tailspin. Or how you ran the mid-season gauntlet of division leaders and won every game except for one, a competitive loss in Green Bay. No one respects how you won the AFC East (again) and secured the #1 seed and home field throughout the playoffs while playing one of the toughest schedules in the league.

Nobody believes in you. Nobody believes you can win a football game without resorting to something devious if not downright nefarious. You are the willing thralls of Pigskin Satan!

If the Patriots were looking for an extra edge, they need look no further; it found them.

Nobody believes in us.