[Cypress Knee]

The Patriots have visited the Super Bowl 10 times this century. Only 5 other AFC teams have been. The NFC has had 13 different teams represent the conference. There is a natural jealousy when a team plays for a championship far more often than the statistical odds would indicate.

Then there is the innovation - the Patriots play into far more "grey" areas that they identify, and when the resulting howl goes up, the NFL changes the rules. The snow plow rule, the Tuck Rule, the Brady Rule, the 5 Yard contact rule, and more - these have all been influenced by the Patriots pushing the limits.

Then there is Brady's encyclopediac knowledge of the Rule Book. He wins so many arguments with the referees resulting in favorable rulings for his team that it seems he must know the rule book better than the officials. The NY Times actually profiled one game where he consistently convinced the refs to pick up a flag or throw a flag after the fact. No other players get that deference.

Couple that with all the various spygate, deflategate, helmetgate and what other borderline issues the team has been involved with under B&B, then it is easy to understand why a public that resents the tremendous amount of success that the team has enjoyed has plenty of reason to list the NE Patriots as their public enemy #1.

I just consider the Pats the NFL's version of a WWF bad guy.

Go Rams!