Blissful ignorance
It's Tuesday, friends. Hope you had a "super" weekend!
By now you know that the New England Patriots won Super Bowl 53 over the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 13-3. The Patriots have now won six Super Bowl titles with Bill Belichick as their head coach and Tom Brady as their quarterback, and their victory sets numerous records. Congratulations to the team, its owners and its fans.
For my part, I could care less, I didn't watch a second of the game for the third straight year.
Why?
I suffer from Patriots Fatigue, an ongoing malaise that keeps me from admiring ongoing success by a given team. I watch a fair amount of professional football every season, but have reached the point that I don't watch the Patriots, since they're often shown on CBS and the games broadcast by Jim Nantz, the openly-Patriots-friendly play-by-play announcer. Each time the Pats appear on CBS it seems that we're reintroduced to the greatness that is Robert Kraft, the team owner, and the afore-mentioned coach and quarterback. Not to mention the outstanding culture of winning they have all helped to form.
Let me detail the Super Bowl routine for my wife and me. Two years ago, when the Patriots qualified, I said to my wife, let's not watch the game. We used to make a big deal of Super Bowl Sunday, preparing a carefully planned menu of treats and having our son and his family over. Gradually that kept getting more difficult to plan and now that our son is attending law school at night, he needs that time for studying after a usually busy weekend with his family.
So two years ago we went to the movies. Hardly anyone there, saw a good movie ("Rogue One--A Star Wars Story" two years ago and "Star Wars--The Last Jedi" last year) and enjoyed the alternative experience.
I have to confess that two years ago, we left the cineplex and I looked at my phone to see that the Atlanta Falcons were comfortably ahead in that Super Bowl versus the Patriots, so decided to watch the rest of the game to see the Patriots lose.
But they didn't. They came back to win. All the more reason to avoid them more consistently.
So I didn't watch last year when they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, and I didn't watch this year when they won.
Not for nothing, but my angst toward the Patriots revolves around their apparent and ongoing penchant for bending or breaking rules, some of which may be minor, but in my mind, if you don't play by the rules, you don't deserve to win. Here are a few of the things for which the Patriots have been investigated and/or punished:
Six times since 2007 they have had players serve suspensions for using performance-enhancing drugs
In 2007 the Patriots were caught videotaping the New York Jets (whom they play twice a year, as they're in the same division) and were punished by the NFL in the form of fines for coach Bill Belichick and the team and they were forced to give up their first-round draft choice
Numerous times during his tenure as head coach, Belichick has failed to list injured players as required by the league on the team's injury report; in response once to allegations of this, Belichick listed THE ENTIRE ROSTER as "questionable" for that week's game
Prior to the Super Bowl in 2002 (I didn't bother to figure out which Roman numeral that game was) the Patriots videotaped the St. Louis Rams' pregame walkthrough, which potentially gave them some understanding of the Rams' intended game plan. No punishment ensued, as no proof was found.
In 2015 the Patriots defeated the Indianapolis Colts to qualify for the Super Bowl and were shortly afterward accused of using underinflated footballs when they were on offense. The allegations originated with a beat writer who covers the Colts, and eventually included input from reporters from ESPN and other outlets. Because this was allegedly done at the direction of QB Tom Brady, there was even more attention paid to this story, and Brady was eventually suspended for the first four games of the following season. Brady appealed the decision in court, and the case eventually reached the U.S. Court of Appeals, which overturned the suspension.
There have been other allegations over the years, such as the instances when the headsets that coaches wear on the sidelines to communicate with each other and their quarterback on the field cease to work for the visiting team when playing in the Patriots' home stadium. Or that the Patriots illegally "tamper" with players who are under contract to other teams (this most likely happens uniformly throughout the NFL). And on and on and on.
To be fair, it's entirely possible that these accusations of rule-breaking of which the Pats have been accused over the years were either fabricated or over-reported because they're so good. It's equally possible that they're so good because of these activities. I used to spend my football Saturdays working in the broadcast booth for University of Kentucky football games. One of the broadcasters when I started was a former NFL offensive lineman. He told me that he held the man he was assigned to block on every play for the entire 16 years he played in the league, or something to that effect. In short, it happens, whether it's noticed by the officials or not.
So in summary, that's why I opted to do something other than watch the Patriots defeat the Rams on Sunday.
By now you know that the New England Patriots won Super Bowl 53 over the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 13-3. The Patriots have now won six Super Bowl titles with Bill Belichick as their head coach and Tom Brady as their quarterback, and their victory sets numerous records. Congratulations to the team, its owners and its fans.
For my part, I could care less, I didn't watch a second of the game for the third straight year.
Why?
I suffer from Patriots Fatigue, an ongoing malaise that keeps me from admiring ongoing success by a given team. I watch a fair amount of professional football every season, but have reached the point that I don't watch the Patriots, since they're often shown on CBS and the games broadcast by Jim Nantz, the openly-Patriots-friendly play-by-play announcer. Each time the Pats appear on CBS it seems that we're reintroduced to the greatness that is Robert Kraft, the team owner, and the afore-mentioned coach and quarterback. Not to mention the outstanding culture of winning they have all helped to form.
Let me detail the Super Bowl routine for my wife and me. Two years ago, when the Patriots qualified, I said to my wife, let's not watch the game. We used to make a big deal of Super Bowl Sunday, preparing a carefully planned menu of treats and having our son and his family over. Gradually that kept getting more difficult to plan and now that our son is attending law school at night, he needs that time for studying after a usually busy weekend with his family.
So two years ago we went to the movies. Hardly anyone there, saw a good movie ("Rogue One--A Star Wars Story" two years ago and "Star Wars--The Last Jedi" last year) and enjoyed the alternative experience.
I have to confess that two years ago, we left the cineplex and I looked at my phone to see that the Atlanta Falcons were comfortably ahead in that Super Bowl versus the Patriots, so decided to watch the rest of the game to see the Patriots lose.
But they didn't. They came back to win. All the more reason to avoid them more consistently.
So I didn't watch last year when they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, and I didn't watch this year when they won.
Not for nothing, but my angst toward the Patriots revolves around their apparent and ongoing penchant for bending or breaking rules, some of which may be minor, but in my mind, if you don't play by the rules, you don't deserve to win. Here are a few of the things for which the Patriots have been investigated and/or punished:
Six times since 2007 they have had players serve suspensions for using performance-enhancing drugs
In 2007 the Patriots were caught videotaping the New York Jets (whom they play twice a year, as they're in the same division) and were punished by the NFL in the form of fines for coach Bill Belichick and the team and they were forced to give up their first-round draft choice
Numerous times during his tenure as head coach, Belichick has failed to list injured players as required by the league on the team's injury report; in response once to allegations of this, Belichick listed THE ENTIRE ROSTER as "questionable" for that week's game
Prior to the Super Bowl in 2002 (I didn't bother to figure out which Roman numeral that game was) the Patriots videotaped the St. Louis Rams' pregame walkthrough, which potentially gave them some understanding of the Rams' intended game plan. No punishment ensued, as no proof was found.
In 2015 the Patriots defeated the Indianapolis Colts to qualify for the Super Bowl and were shortly afterward accused of using underinflated footballs when they were on offense. The allegations originated with a beat writer who covers the Colts, and eventually included input from reporters from ESPN and other outlets. Because this was allegedly done at the direction of QB Tom Brady, there was even more attention paid to this story, and Brady was eventually suspended for the first four games of the following season. Brady appealed the decision in court, and the case eventually reached the U.S. Court of Appeals, which overturned the suspension.
There have been other allegations over the years, such as the instances when the headsets that coaches wear on the sidelines to communicate with each other and their quarterback on the field cease to work for the visiting team when playing in the Patriots' home stadium. Or that the Patriots illegally "tamper" with players who are under contract to other teams (this most likely happens uniformly throughout the NFL). And on and on and on.
To be fair, it's entirely possible that these accusations of rule-breaking of which the Pats have been accused over the years were either fabricated or over-reported because they're so good. It's equally possible that they're so good because of these activities. I used to spend my football Saturdays working in the broadcast booth for University of Kentucky football games. One of the broadcasters when I started was a former NFL offensive lineman. He told me that he held the man he was assigned to block on every play for the entire 16 years he played in the league, or something to that effect. In short, it happens, whether it's noticed by the officials or not.
So in summary, that's why I opted to do something other than watch the Patriots defeat the Rams on Sunday.
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