Surprise: Shaughnessy Blames the Patriots Losses on Their "Arrogance"

Shaughnessy, Boston.com – The Patriots are free-falling and it’s open season on the arrogant/smarter-than-you “System.” Folks are lining up to skewer the franchise that has consistently given the NFL and the national/local media the finger during a decade and a half of division dominance and Super Bowl contention. Listening to the postgame fallout from Monday night’s 41-14 Arrowhead massacre made your ears bleed. It was a field day for Patriot haters. And they are legion. You could tell that folks have been waiting for this… These are interesting times at Gillette. Watching Kraft’s escalating cartoonishness, the inevitable erosion of “In Bill We Trust,’’ and Brady morphing into Drew Bledsoe circa 2000-01 makes for a lot of noise in this Foxborough fall of 2014. But the dirty little secret, of course, is that the Patriots really haven’t been championship-driven for a while. Artificially inflated by their fortunate spot in the Warhol, they have settled for a string of Adams Division flags while compiling almost zero impressive wins in January. Since Jacksonville in 2005, they’ve been punched in the mouth in the final game every year. This year, we’re just seeing it a little earlier. And millions of frustrated folks with Patriot cleat marks on their backs are ready to pounce.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that every media member in this town and hundreds of football pundits across the country have had some variation of this drivel saved to their hard drive since about 2002, just waiting til the time is right to publish it.  And of course leave it to the Curly-Haired Boyfriend to be the first one in the circle jerk to ejaculate prematurely.  The Pats are off to what is for them a terrible start.  They’ve yet to face a quality opponent, but still haven’t looked good.  They’re fresh off one of the worst performances they’ve had in an era where you can count the really awful games on your fingers, without using your thumbs.  I concede that.

But on the other hand, we’re a quarter of the way through the season.  They’re 2-2.  As are model-franchises-with-elite-quarterbacks-in-their-primes-and-genius-coaches Indy, Pittsburgh, Green Bay and the Giants.  Media darlings Drew Brees and Sean Payton are 1-3.  But Shaughnessy… excuse me, the “folks” … don’t have a problem with them.  If they’re 2-2 or worse, well they just have to play better.  There is only one team in all of pro sports whose struggles are always a product of their “arrogance.”  It’s because of the Pats smarter-than-you “System.” It’s because the owner who turned the worst franchise in all of sports into an empire is now a cartoon.  It’s because the trust we put in (objectively speaking) one of the great coaches who’s ever lived is eroding.  THAT’S why they’re 2-2.

Make no mistake, this is what the future looks like when and if when the Patriots ever do achieve true mediocrity.  Aging, increasingly-irrelevant hacks like Shank have had to stand by for 14 years with their thumbs up their asses while their power eroded and Belichick and Mr. Kraft flipped the script on them.  The Shaughnessys of the world have never forgiven the Pats for the sin of not being Billy Sullivan, Rod Rust or Pete Carroll,  circus clowns the writers could pants at will and have a good laugh at their expense.  The pack of them have been hiding in the tall grass, waiting for some sign of weakness so they could pounce and bathe in the Patriots blood.  And when they do, nothing that’s happened this century will count.  They haven’t been championship driven.  They’re only interested in winning the AFC East.  Those playoff wins over Baltimore in 2011, Houston in 2012 and Indy last year don’t mean shit.  And if the coach wasn’t such a prick to everyone and never traded a veteran, why they’d be a great team year in and year out, like all those other great teams who never, ever get punched in the mouth.

I’ll tell you, the current state of the Patriots is bothering the shit out of me.  Just like Brady said, every time they lose it’s a quality of life issue for me.  But I need them to get back to playing Patriots football if for no other reason than to make all these wretched, jealous, vindictive Jihadist cocksuckers have to swallow their hatchet pieces for another season at least. @JerryThornton1