Patriots Haters - You Don’t Sound Confident. You Sound Nervous.
It’s been two weeks. Two weeks since the New England Patriots' magical 2025 season came to an abrupt end in Super Bowl LX. The Seahawks were a better team no doubt about it, but any time you are in the Super Bowl, don’t take it home and lose the way the Patriots did - it sucks.
If losing wasn’t bad enough, fans of all the other the teams that have been eliminated (some long-since eliminated) come out of the woodwork to pile on and when you’ve had the success the Patriots have had - you get it from everyone. Bills, Broncos, Chiefs, Bears, even Dolphins and Jets all are thrilled for their chance.
The Patriots are frauds
Drake “The Schedule” Maye
2024 QB Rankings - Caleb, JD5, Bo Nix, Maye
I’d rather my team lose earlier than get beaten like that in the Super Bowl
I could go on and on - I’ve heard them all.
A lot of them, I brush off. A Jets and Dolphins fan is coming at me…Seriously?
Bears fans - I’ll admit you guys were a little unexpected as Patriots fans give you ZERO thought. We understand why you do it though. You once traded up to draft Mitchell Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes. Deep down you are petrified that not one, but two QBs from that draft have put together better seasons than Caleb Williams has, so you feel the need to try and put down Drake Maye.
My favorites (and most delusional) though, have come mainly from Bills and Broncos.
I’ll start with Bills fans. You poor, poor Bills fans. Tom Brady and the Patriots dominated you for 20 years and when I say dominated - I mean dominated. Brady had a 33-3 record vs you. I can’t imagine first never having won a Super Bowl, losing 4 Super Bowls in A ROW, then shortly after going through TWENTY years of being the Patriots’ doormat. That’s punishment.
But then - things started looking up. You hit on a QB - Josh Allen is admittedly a stud. Tom Brady went to the Buccaneers. The Patriots didn’t have a succession plan and the AFC was wide open and you took advantage of the AFCE winning 5 years in a row.
Then Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye happened. No one expected the Patriots to challenge the Bills in Year 1 of their rebuild. No one expected Drake Maye and the Patriots to go into Buffalo and beat the Bills and ultimately win the AFC East. But that didn’t matter to Bills fans yet. Allen had playoff experience and his nemesis (Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs) had a down year and the AFC was WIDE open for the taking. This was THE chance - Could the Buffalo Bills actually WIN a Super Bowl? We all know the answer ended up being no. Allen committed four turnovers against the Broncos and the Bills lost in the divisional round.
Then Bills fans had to watch their division rival and their 23-year old Quarterback win the AFC - something Josh Allen has yet to do in his 8 seasons in the NFL.
I get why you try and put down Maye and diminish the Patriots. You are terrified the Patriots are starting a 20-year run all over again.
Now Broncos fans - I do feel for you as well. You lost Bo Nix before the AFC Championship game - that’s really brutal. Nix has been excellent in the Sean Payton’s system since being the 6th Quarterback taken in the 2024 NFL Draft and he has knack for performing well late in games. It would have been a fun AFC Championship and its unfortunate the injury happened. That is where you should leave it.
But you don’t.
Maye only threw for 86 yards!
STIDHAM played better than Maye
The Broncos would have DOMINATED the Patriots with Nix!
The Broncos would have easily scored more than 10 points against the Patriots!
You get the point.
The problem with these arguements though is Broncos fans are making assumptions based on a reality that didn’t exist.
Let me explain - Bo Nix didn’t play in the AFC Championship Game. You can’t just assume that the Patriots would have played the game the same way if he did. I think its pretty apparent that they did NOT play the game the same way.
But for Broncos fans, maybe it isnt as apparent. So I’ll spell it out - Maye and the Patriots offense was incredibly conservative.
Once Maye (2-3, 14 yards passing and a 28-yard run on 3rd down) drove the Patriots down the field to open the 3rd quarter and get them a 10-7 lead. The Patriots shut it down. They knew Stidham and the Broncos weren’t going to score - especially in those blizzard-like conditions. So they ran the ball and played conservatively. They wanted to make sure they didn’t commit any turnovers, just kill clock and get the hell out of Denver.
Style points don’t matter in the post-season. Win and advance and that’s what the Patriots did. Maye threw the ball 6 times the entire second half. Did he have his best game? No. But he made the plays the Patriots asked him too and came up big when they mattered.
Would Maye have thrown for 86-yards if Nix played? No, of course not. It would have been a completely different game, but Broncos fans don’t want to hear that.
And that’s really what this all comes down to.
You can argue hypotheticals. You can debate yardage totals. You can screenshot box scores and pretend they tell the whole story. Banners aren’t awarded for “what would have happened.” They’re earned on the field. In the snow. In the pressure. In the moments that actually exist.
Drake Maye didn’t light up the stat sheet in the AFC Championship. He didn’t need to. He did what franchise quarterbacks do — he assessed the situation, protected the football, made the handful of plays that swung the game, and walked out of a hostile environment with a win.
So let the Bills fans cope. Let the Broncos fans speculate. Let everyone else pile on.
Because if Year 1 of a rebuild ended with a 23-year-old quarterback winning the division, winning the AFC, and playing in a Super Bowl… the rest of the league doesn’t actually sound confident.
They sound nervous.
