The New England Patriots are headed to yet another Super Bowl. While Boston rejoices, many outside of roll their eyes and double bird their TV screens. Led by two-time MVP Tom Brady, six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick, and a defense led by "mountain man" Matt Patricia, this team is good.
I mean, damn good.
Built on sustained success, they are the model franchise with a model quarterback. Literally.
However, with all of this success, the football community loves to hate one of the best we have ever seen play his position.
Why is this?
Below I have broken it down into several categories. Happy reading.
When Tom Brady gets MAD, it's passion and because he cares about the game:
When Odell Beckham gets mad, it's met with vitriol and he is supposedly making a mockery of the team:
Super Bowl winning coach Brian Billick thinks the same of Dez Bryant:
I’ll just leave this here:
It's simple; we want what we cannot have. The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology did a study (via Elite Daily) with two groups of women, displaying the same guy but two different titles: "single" and "taken." In the end, 59% expressed interest in the single guy, while the "taken" number spiked to 90%.
It is the same with Brady.
Guys envy his success on the field (4 Super Bowls, 2 All-Pro awards, 2 MVP awards) and off (Celebrity Net Worth puts him at $180M). His sponsorships include Uggs, Under Armour, Tag Heuer, and Simmons, which pays him roughly $8M per year (via Forbes)
They, myself included, envy his many hairstyles. I mean FFS, he just played football for three-and-a-half hours but still looks like Robin Thicke.
And his model girlfriend, Gisele Bundchen, whose estimated worth is $360M.
He even had a moat built around his house (which he does not own anymore) in Brentwood, California!
We are guys, cut from the machismo cloth. Whether you admit it to yourself or not, it is painful to watch someone else succeed you in many different areas to which you attain success. Tom Brady trumps (for lack of a better word) all of us.
This falls under "love to hate." For all of his attained success, he will never be Usher on the dance floor. And we LOVE IT.
Tom Brady and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick
With the Pats' incredible success has come shame from the league office and many avid fans of the National Football League. In 2006, a pair of teams caught the Patriots videotaping their signals. The league office did as much as used toilet paper. One year later, an assistant to the team videotaped the New York Jets' defensive signals. This sparked, as we know, "Spygate." What made matters worse was the evidence being destroyed with direct orders coming from Judge/Jury/Executioner Roger Goodell, a man who has an infatuation with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and the team. One senior executive stated, "Goodell didn't want anybody to know that his gold franchise had won Super Bowls by cheating...If that gets out, that hurts your business." (ESPN)
Fast forward to the Pats' demolition of the Colts (45-7 final score) in the 2015 AFC Championship game, and the now-infamous tweet by Bob Kravitz that set off a firestorm:
In the Ted Wells Report, Brady was found to be "at least generally aware" of deflated footballs. The day of his scheduled interview with Wells, Brady broke his cell phone, crushing the evidence and bringing presumed guilt. In the process, he refused to turn over his phone records, citing privacy. The league office handed down a 4-game suspension, which Brady appealed, then later served.
Moving on...
If you are from the midwest (like myself) you grew up on Michigan games being broadcast every Saturday on ABC like Notre Dame to NBC. It is, at times, insufferable. The over-exposure of the Wolverines brings attention to new fanbases growing up and those already installed that despise them. I always had the feeling Michigan compared itself to Ivy League schools, not its fellow Big Ten opponents. Similarly, New Englanders do the same with their teams. Foxborough, MA boasts less than 17,000 people, but they pump out their chests, basking in the reflected glory of their team. They win. Michigan wins. With success comes hate.
Tom and his father, Tom Sr., sent out roughly 54 recruiting tapes to schools, trying to get one program to bite.
When enrolling at Michigan, there were seven players ahead of him on the depth chart. SEVEN! By his sophomore season, he and starting quarterback Brian Griese, were in a tight battle to start for the maze and blue. He finally earned the right his junior year, where he won 10 of 11 games. However, incoming freshman (and Michigan high school phenom) Drew Henson entered the equation. Then-head coach Lloyd Carr didn't buckle, recognizing what many scouts coined "can't miss talent" in Henson. In response, Carr allowed both players to showcase their talent: Brady played the first quarter of games, Henson the second. A decision was then made who was the "hot hand" to play after this sample size.
(REMINDER: TOM BRADY WAS THE CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM).
Against Michigan State and Illinois, Brady propelled himself above Henson - earning his spot, like he always had, to start and more importantly, win (see Alabama).
Still, his visit to the NFL Combine and Pro Day workouts left many scratching their heads. For example, Mel Kiper, Jr. stated, "His 40 time and that vertical jump...in 32 years of doing this..we talked about 576 quarterbacks. He was number 576."
On draft day (the year 2000), the 49ers, in need of a quarterback, picked Giovanni Carmazzi from Hofstra in the third round. The Brady family had season tickets for 25 years and Brady Sr said it best, "We were hurt." Inevitably, Carmazzi never played a regular season down for San Francisco and was beat out by Tim Rattay. Brady, then sitting at home taking in the misery of the draft, was so frustrated he went out for a walk. That was when he was selected by the Patriots, round 6, pick number 199.
In the 2000 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, Brady and Carmazzi suited up against one another. Carmazzi struggled while Brady, with a clear chip on his shoulder, shined against his beloved 49ers.
As a rookie, he barely made the final cut with the Pats (the team carried four quarterbacks, a rarity in modern football).
On September 23rd, 2001, Mo Lewis hit Patriots starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe HARD (seen below) and knocked him out of the game.
In comes Brady, and the rest is history. He led New England to their first Super Bowl. Ever. He was doubted at every level of football, overlooked for sexier prospects with better mechanics, a stronger build, (insert dumb draft lingo here), yada yada. The fact is, whether you love him or hate him, you can relate. I can relate. We all relate to being doubted. We all relate to being put down, stepped on, overlooked, told we weren’t that great, shunned, made fun of, etc. It is a lonely place. But in the end, we all relate to finally getting that shot and using that given platform, on that given day, to prove to the world what you are capable of.
Make your own judgment. Do not be drowned out by the model girlfriend, the moat, the good looks. Do not be drowned out by the sideline antics, by the "passion and gusto" cheered by the media. Silence all of this, and more importantly, come to your own conclusion.