Patriots Haters Coming Out Of Woodwork For Super Bowl Week

It's Super Bowl time, and you know what that means. The Patriots Haters are out in full force.

In one of the rites of winter around these parts. New England fans get to sit back, sip their Dunkin' and hear a majority of the country grouse about how the Patriots are playing for the championship - again. This is the ninth Super Bowl appearance for New England since Tom Brady and Bill Belichick joined forces. It's their third straight and fourth in five years.

Mercy.

Except for Patriots Haters, there is none to be found. Brady, Belichick and Co. beat the upstart Kansas City Chiefs in overtime to rob the nation of an exciting, fresh Chiefs-Rams matchup in Atlanta. Instead, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host the latest Brady-Belcihick Super Bowl Invitational.

Patriots fatigue psychosis has even permeated into their opponents.

"Age has definitely taken a toll," Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman said about Brady in a Bleacher Report interview published Monday.

By the end of Monday, Robey-Coleman was backtracking like it was an Olympic sport.

"They asked me how Tom Brady is from then to now, the only thing I said was his age," Robey-Coleman told the NFL Network later in the day. "I said nothing about that he’s too old. I never said that he can’t do anything."

Nice try.

It's the media pundits who are really twisting themselves into Patriots-hating pretzels, monumental hyperbole and all.

"I cannot sit here and watch the New England Patriots — the Mongol Empire of the 21st century — win week after week, year after year," Washington Post columnist Norman Chad wrote. Chad took it a step further: "The Patriots and their fans are so loathsome, I wish we could Brexit New England."

The New York Post's Steve Serby didn't hold back, calling the Patriots "the Yankees of the NFL."

"Greatest NFL dynasty of all time. Nine times in the Super Bowl since 2002. You’ll miss them when they’re gone, right? Wrong. Who are we kidding? They’ve earned your hate. No one wanted them here."

At least Rick Morrissey at the Chicago Sun-Times appreciates the role the obligatory Patriots Super Bowl has taken in the fans' lives:

"Brady is 41 and says he has no intention of retiring any time soon. I hope he sticks to that vow. We need him and Belichick. We need the Patriots. They give a huge percentage of the country an ideal to believe in — that, if we all hate something enough together, maybe there won’t be room for hate anywhere else."

Maybe our favorite comes from The Associated Press:

"Patriot Fatigue is a national affliction.

Outside of New England, we've all become a bit nauseated at the sight of these guys in the Super Bowl year after monotonous year, a numbing, inevitable exercise that's transformed America's greatest sporting event into nothing more a quaint backyard game hosted by Bill Belichick and Tom Brady."

Oh wait, that story was written last year. Sorry.

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)