By T.B. Lefever:
It’s less than a week after Super Bowl LI, and many in the city of Atlanta are still in a state of deep depression, with the exception of the staggering thirty-seven percent of carpet bagging Metro-Atlanta transplants from out of state that were frankly just hoping anyone but the New England Patriots would win the Lombardi Trophy yet again. With a historic collapse that saw Atlanta set records for both the largest blown lead in Super Bowl history, as well as receiving the first ever Super Bowl overtime loss–the real story lies with the Pats.
We’re all accustomed to football fans hating the Patriots for the usual reasons, right? There was ‘Deflategate’ with Tom Brady and his footballs, ‘Spygate’ with Bill Belichick and his cameras, and who can forget about the Tuck Rule Game back in 2001? Plenty of NFL fans feel the Patriots dynasty is one built on crafty circumvention of the rules at best, and flat out cheating at worst.
Then, there’s the winning. There’s been so much winning. Tom Brady now has five, count them, five Super Bowl rings from his seven appearances on the sport’s biggest stage. You just can’t win that much without people getting sick and tired of your smiling face. I’m a New York Giants fan myself, and have never really fostered much animosity towards the Patriots. After all, it was the Giants that handed Tom Brady and company his only two Super Bowl losses. What do I have to be mad at them about? With that being said, this year felt different to me. After so much political discourse was infused into the storylines surrounding the big game, it is uncanny to me how indicative of the times this year’s Super Bowl really was.
The torch-bearers for the Patriots franchise all came under fire this season for reasons outside of football. Tom Brady was demonized months ago on social media and by the press for being found to have an iconic “Make America Great Again” hat in his locker. Despite an utterly vanilla statement declaring that he had been a friend and acquaintance of Donald Trump for fifteen years, the media treated it as if Brady was waving a Nazi flag at campaign events and leading the charge for the forty-fifth President’s eventual election. Belichick’s endorsement letter was read publicly by Trump himself, leaving no doubt which candidate had the head coach’s support. Finally, the New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft weathered PC backlash for a candid moment in which he divulged that Donald Trump called him once a week for a year after his wife died of ovarian cancer back in 2011.
The hysteric left has ranged from calling support of the Patriots an act of racism to Tom Brady’s politics being “more un-American than Colin Kaepernick’s”. What the perpetually hacky Huffington Post forgets to mention is that Tom Brady never aspired to insert himself into political discourse by merely having a friendship that predated Donald Trump’s political career by over a decade. Kaepernick, as we all know, is another story entirely and not worthy of any more ink than he has already charitably received.
Isn’t it ironic that a team called the “Patriots” is the most hated team by our nation’s mainstream media? The single most successful professional sports team over the past few decades, as well as the only NFL franchise paying homage to our nation’s independence, was deemed un-American in the weeks leading up to the big game for — get this — the team’s iconic personality’s support of the President of the United States of America. Even Falcons owner Arthur Blank took a subtle shot at Kraft on a live television interview for his support for the President.
An even more ironic and amusing aspect of it all is that this politically maligned sports franchise calls the deep blue state of Massachusetts its home. Can Elizabeth Warren pander for votes by wearing a Brady jersey, or does that get in the way of pandering for votes with her identity politics? I would argue that the Patriots are more “America’s Team” than even the Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith-era Dallas Cowboys could ever have been.
In a forgettable period of our nation’s historical psyche, where it is “cooler” to criticize our country for its imperfections than it is to be patriotic and proud of all the good our flag has represented, the New England Patriots are unapologetically American. They are no whipping boy for the politically correct, and they win. They might as well serve freedom fries and hotdogs with liberty cabbage at all their home games.
But the politics didn’t just saturate the game. As soon as Stefani Germanotta, better known as pop icon Lady Gaga, was announced to be the halftime performer for the big game, outlets like CNN began to pound the drum for her to make some type of over-the-top political statement in protest of our nation’s president. After imbibing a few cocktails and resisting the advice of my better angels, I took to social media myself moments before halftime to post “Ready to puke for Lady Gaga!” To my disbelief, the prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and campaigner never made that political statement.
There was no embarrassing and self-aggrandizing Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, or better yet, Beyonce Knowles moment. I felt like a damned fool for my post, and gained some respect for Gaga that I never had before. I almost wanted to stop making fun of my wife for enjoying her music! I took to social media again, this time to pay credit where it was due. “Props to Lady Gaga for no political statement after so many personalities said she would give one,” it read. I can admit when I’m wrong. I’m glad that I was.
While I won’t be going out and buying a Patriots jersey or Lady Gaga’s next album, I respect the backbone they both exhibited in Houston. Americans aren’t supposed to self-loathe their way through life, and I know that those of you that feel like I do are tired of the pity party. Today, a celebrity is under attack for not using the Super Bowl to grandstand in front of an ever-shrinking liberal echo chamber. The Patriots are under attack for monopolizing football and having cajones. And I’m enjoying every moment of it.
T.B. Lefever is an OpsLens Contributor and active police officer in the Metro-Atlanta area. Throughout his career, Lefever has served as a SWAT Hostage Negotiator, a member of the Crime Suppression Unit, a School Resource Officer, and a Uniformed Patrol Officer. He has a BA in Criminal Justice and Sociology from Rutgers University.
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