As an “older” guy, I have been following the Patriots for a very long time. I really appreciate the wonderful thirteen year streak of excellence the Patriots are riding. The window may be narrowing (maybe) but it is still open.
Many younger Patriot fans are seen as “arrogant” or “entitled” or at least “Bandwagon”. Fans of other teams are mad at them for daring to think their team in the northeast corner of the country is one of the elite franchises in the NFL and expect it to stay there. Other team fans want them to know how much the New England/Boston Patriots sucked most years for many decades.
You might as well ask LeBron James to include Bill Russell on the Mount Rushmore 
of NBA players. My son is 24 years old. His first memory of the NFL as a six year old is the Drew Bledsoe led Patriots falling to the Packers in the 96 Super Bowl (he still hates Green Bay for this). By the time he was twelve the Patriots won their first Super Bowl and have only missed the playoffs twice since then. He sees a great quarterback, a great coach and an owner who learned to let the football people run the football side of the business. That owner was also instrumental in ending the last lockout. His son seems to be cut from the same cloth and that is key.
If ownership remains consistent, the Patriots can remain an upper tier franchise (with some down years) even after the HOF quarterback and coach depart. So when these younger people laugh at the foolish things that teams like the Raiders, Cowboys and Jets do and laugh, who can blame them.
Us older guys with the memory of team suckage know it is about the ownership. The Patriots had great talent in the late 70s and ownership screwed it up. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I enjoy when “arrogant” Steeler fans go berserk when New England is mentioned as an elite franchise or that I didn’t smile when other teams make mind-numbing bad moves. You know what they say about payback.
By: Northshore
Facebook
Twitter
RSS