Nobody Likes You

The Patriots "underdog" mentality has been less than charitably described as bullshit by pigskin pundits and bobbleheads.

The money guys have made New England 2.5-point favorites, so, not underdogs as far as that goes. ESPN's FPI says Los Angeles has a 52% chance of winning but pigskin pundits and bobbleheads favor the Patriots 6 to 4. I've got to think some of those picking the Pats are working a reverse jynx but even so… underdogs?

Maybe it's really just semantics.

The 2018 New England Patriots couldn't get a tan during the regular season because they spent so much time in the shade being thrown at them. Certainly, their performance on the field had something to do with the crowd that gathered at the Rob Parker Observation Deck overlooking Kellerman Cliff. After the loss in Pittsburgh you could almost hear the collective exhalation from the fans of the Other 31. Not this year. Maybe not ever again. The Patriots weren't just in trouble, they were done. Brady's arm was overcooked linguine. Gronk was a shadow of himself. Edelman was struggling to get back to his pre-injury/suspension form. The Patriots limped into the playoffs and the consensus view of the gridiron cognoscenti was that they would not make it out of the divisional round.

The least talented team of recent years; maybe the least talented Patriots team since SB36.

Old, slow, and woefully out of step with the NFL wunderkind offensive revolution zeitgeist.

And nobody west of the Connecticut River likes you, New England Patriots. That's not quite right. It isn't that they don't like you; they fucking hate you. They loathe and despise you. They think you're cheaters. They don't think your head coach made a deal with the devil; they think he is Satan incarnate. They think Brady has every NFL official on his payroll. They think the Pats win in the "Tuck Rule" game is tainted despite the word "Rule" being in the name. They still think Peyton Manning was the greatest quarterback of all time unless they still think it was Joe Montana. They have Patriots Fatigue. They want you to go away. Right after the Rams beat you 63-0.

That's got to hurt. Everyone wants to be liked.  

"Underdog" may not be the right word, but it has that feeling to it. The disrespect that comes with being written off, thrown out of the still moving car, left for dead, of being spoken of in the past tense; it feels like you're 14-point underdogs.

"We're still here" makes a lot of sense in that context, doesn't it?

I don't see this as something Tom Brady, Julian Edelman and the rest of the Patriots manufactured. The too old, too slow, no talent, can't play defense narratives have been out there since the loss to the Lions in Week 3. Pigskin pundits and bobbleheads were putting New England squarely in the rear view. Everyone had moved on. They were looking forward to the Chiefs and the Rams (or the Saints) in SB53 with an over/under for total points scored in the 90s.

The Patriots weren't supposed to beat the Chargers, a much better all-around team that was going to win in Foxborough and maybe even in Kansas City.

The Patriots weren't supposed to beat the Chiefs, the #1 seed, with MVP Patrick Mahomes II and his 50 TD passes because they couldn't win on the road.

All week long, I've been hearing about how the Patriots won't be able to stop Ndamukong Suh and Aaron Donald, won't be able to stop Sean McVay's next gen offense, won't be able to overcome the Rams obvious advantages in speed and athleticism.

Super Bowl LIII. We'll see. It'll be fun.