Hating Patriots

As I contemplated the writing of this the Patriots were ahead of my beloved Colts and I feared that their uncanny ability to always land butter side up was once more in effect.

Since the inception of this article the Colts produced a remarkable comeback and showed their maturity and talent by overcoming a 1st half deficit of 15 points to win the game with a touchdown in the final two minutes.

I may talk about the Colts and lessons from their trials of the last few years but today I will express my hate for the Patriots.

I hate the Patriots in much the same way as much of the world hates the US.

Shortly after 9/11 the Patriots won their first Superbowl ever. Most Americans, including myself, rooted for the underdogs who played as a team and never gave up.

A year later they repeated as champions and most Americans acknowledged their skill, team work and coaching. Two years later they won yet another Superbowl and as of half time today they looked like they were destined to a fourth Superbowl in six years.

The problem is that they haven’t taken all of the fans from five years ago with them. While they have kept their talented quarterback (Tom Brady) and coach (Bill Belichick) they have lost much of their supporting cast as well as the good will of much of the country. The question that haunts me and that I find very relevant to America’s position in the world of the 21st century is why?

First of all the thing that was so unique about the Patriots of 2001 (2002 Champs) was that they had no big name players but worked as a team and overcame tremendous odds and more talented teams to win the Championship.

Since that time winning has come their way easily. Too easily. As mentioned they seem to always find a way to win much to the frustrations of better team (ala The Chargers last week). But that doesn’t explain why I hate them.

I think the biggest reason I hate them is that they have been too good. Too lucky. Too fortunate. Add to this the fact that they seem to take it for granted that this is their lot in life. They seem to think that they deserve to always win. And winning is apparently all that they care about.

They don’t seem to care about their players. This past year they lost four major players (Two wide receivers, kicker Adam Vinatieri who is with the Colts and Cornerback Ty Law who as a Chief provided KC’s only redemption by intercepting Manning twice two weeks ago) because they weren’t willing to reward them (with money of course) for their contribution in three Championships. The also lost an assistant coach, Eric Mangini, who became the coach of the Jets. Belichick, ala Peter, has denied even knowing who this traitor is … or so it seems.

Winning is everything to the Patriots. More on this attitude and the personality of Coach Belichick can be found at an article on Yahoo.

So what does my bitter grapes toward the Patriots have to do with the World’s hatred toward us.

1. In 2001 the world was our biggest fan after 9/11. Even France had kindness in their Grinch like heart.

2. Instead of appreciating this good will we’ve become so obsessed with winning with or without fans (allies) that we’re increasingly gone our own way … on our own.

3. We’re too successful and because of this it is hard for anyone to root for us. Now this isn’t something we can really do much about except for to try to make successes of other countries as well. It would’ve been nice if Bill Belichick was a fan of Eric Mangini the way the Tony Dungy is a fan of Lovie Smith and Herm Edwards (two of his former assistant coaches).

4. We only do what is in our interest and the world knows this. Ironically our foreign policy is a very Marshall Plan’esque approach and we really do want other countries (especially Iraq and Afghanistan) to succeed but this is not what the world perceives.

5. We don’t seem to value the people (though we are doing better by our soldiers now then we did 30 years ago – nevertheless we could do much better) and allies that have made our country such a success. Some of our biggest enemies now (Iran, Venezuela China, and France) were once our allies that we took for granted. Now they’re kicking for the other team.

Again much of what I write here is my perception of the world’s perception. But in this 21st century perception becomes reality when men are willing to blow themselves to pieces in order to express their anger.

While we can’t fix all of the perceptions it is at least a good idea to know what these perceptions are so we don’t make them worse. And while President Bush has made many mistakes to take this as an attack solely on him is missing the point. Radical Muslims hated us before either Bush was sworn into office. Any President we have would be the target of their hate. The problem, I believe, with America’s perception around the world is more a reflection on America’s unbridled success and decadent opulence. This perception is more right then we might want to admit so its more comforting to blame our chief executive then to take a look at our own self-centeredness.

Most New Englander’s love the Patriots and don’t understand why the rest of the country hates them.

Tonight I cried, prayed, begged, tore out my hair and screamed in my humble effort to propel my team, the Colts, to victory over the hated great Satan. Unfortunately, this is the same approach many young men are taking in the Middle East. Except for them the fireworks are real.