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5 reasons to hate the New England Patriots, the Panthers’ Week 4 opponent

By Johnny Wakefield
Barry Chin AP

Can we forget about last Sunday? Ignore the 34-13 loss to New Orleans that dampened everyone’s excitement about the 2017 Panthers season? Let’s just forget about it.

Next up, an easy win against the universally-despised and really-bad-at-football … New England Patriots …

Each week in the 2017 season, CharlotteFive will take a quick look at five reasons you should hate the Panthers’ upcoming opponent. We’ll leave the legitimate previews to the pros at the Observer.

We tried to transition to appreciation last week for the Saints, and we all saw how that turned out. Let’s do this.

(Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. in Foxboro, Massachusetts, and the game will be broadcast on FOX.)

(1) Super Bowl XXXVIII still stings.

We’ll keep this one as brief as possible. On Feb. 1, 2004, the Carolina Panthers went to their first Super Bowl. Jake Delhomme hit Ricky Proehl for a game-tying touchdown with 1 minute, 8 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, and it appeared the game would head to overtime at 29–29.

Instead, John Kasay put the ensuing kickoff out of bounds and Tom Brady worked a short field to get the Patriots in field goal range. Adam Vinatieri finished off the game with a 41-yard kick, and the Patriots won 32–29.

That wound hasn’t healed, and it won’t for a long time. That’s all we’ll say about that.

(2) Spygate.

The Patriots have won a few Super Bowls. Along with the championships, they’ve had their fair share of controversy and scandal, too.

The first was “Spygate,” when the league disciplined the team for “videotaping defensive coaches’ signals from an unauthorized location.”

Spygate led to Bill Belichick receiving the largest-ever fine imposed on a coach in league history ($500,000), a fine on the team itself, and the loss of a first round draft pick. Worse than those though: Spygate put a stain on the franchise, a steroids-in-baseball style question mark around everything that they accomplished.

Ten years later, Spygate is still debated and discussed, frustrating for everyone outside of New England and infuriating for those that believe their team was innocent.

For Panthers fans in particular, the “culture of cheating” stings as it actually might have cost them that 2004 title. Check out this line from an ESPN Outside the Lines investigation:

“Our players came in after that first half and said it was like (the Patriots) were in our huddle,” a Panthers source says. “Do I have any tape to prove they cheated? No. But I’m convinced they did it.”

(3) Deflategate.

More recently, Tom Brady was suspended four games without pay, the team was fined $1 million, and it lost two draft picks for because of “Deflategate.” This one is even more ridiculous: In the 2015 AFC Championship Game, the team allegedly “conspired” to under-inflate the balls Tom Brady used, giving the team an unfair competitive advantage.

While the investigation and evidence were dodgy at best, the league office still found them guilty, and after Spygate, that “culture of cheating” opinion of the team was further ingrained in the NFL fan’s psyche.

If you’re a Patriots fan, you cling to Deflategate as a sign that the league hates you and wants to see your team lose. If you’re a fan of literally any other team in the league, you’re on that “culture of cheating” train and angry the team hasn’t been punished further.

(4) Heartbreakers.

OK, let’s get back to on-the-field stuff, though there’s plenty more off-the-field stuff to bring up.

The Patriots have won five Super Bowls since 2002, five more than the Panthers and more than any other team in the league. They’re undeniably, regrettably dominant.

And they won those Super Bowls in heartbreaking, traumatic ways for opposing fans. Adam Vinatieri kicked two last-second field goals to ruin St. Louis and Carolina dreams in 2002 and 2004. Then the Patriots won by just three points against the long-suffering Eagles in 2005.

Ten years later, an interception in the end zone sealed the Super Bowl fate of the Seattle Seahawks, who really should have just run with Marshawn Lynch, let’s be honest.

The Patriots don’t just beat your team; they crush your soul while they’re at it. I grew up in St. Louis, and I’ll never forget watching that February 2002 kick go through the uprights as friends and family walked out of our watch party in depressed silence. I’m sure Charlotte residents from 2004 have similar stories.

And then last year — oh, wait a second …

(5) They did beat Atlanta though.

Atlanta blew a 28-3 second half lead to the Patriots in last February’s Super Bowl. Never forget. Many are calling the 34-28 Patriots win the best Super Bowl ever — many, many, many people.

So if you need an anti-Atlanta refresher …

Maybe the Patriots aren’t all bad.

Still, even if the enemy of the enemy is our friend, the Patriots crushed our hearts once, too. Here’s hoping the Panthers bounce back from the loss to a bad New Orleans team to pound a somewhat-decent New England team.

Keep Pounding.

Photo: Barry Chin /The Boston Globe via AP

This story was originally published September 28, 2017 at 11:21 PM with the headline "5 reasons to hate the New England Patriots, the Panthers’ Week 4 opponent."

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