Patriots, You Just Won The Super Bowl! (Now, About Your Little Nazi Problem.)
Tom Brady just led the New England Patriots to the greatest comeback in NFL history — and the #AltRight’s Richard Spencer loved every minute of it.
Super Bowl LI has come and gone. What started so impressively for the Atlanta Falcons became nothing short of a gut-wrenching, Shakespearean tragedy. Tom Brady and his goddamn — some would argue God blessed — New England Patriots became the first team to ever win a Super Bowl in overtime. The franchise became the first to ever come back from more than 10 points down in the championship game. Brady became the first quarterback in NFL history to win five Super Bowls.
In the most ironic of ironies, the Pats winning after being down 25 points in the second half was the perfect cap to the 2016 NFL season. The year was belatedly able to claim one last victim, the tombstone reading: “Here Lies the Atlanta Falcons.”
If I sound biased, it’s because I am. Let’s be honest, nobody actually likes the Patriots except Patriots fans. They’re the team that people are supposed to hate unless you’re from the Boston area and grow up with a wicked hard-on for them.
#PatsNation extends to more than just the fanboys, though. Sounding like horny teenagers that have just received their very first Fleshlights, guys like Joe Buck and Terry Bradshaw barely contain their giddy excitement when describing Brady. Still, I don’t want to paint too glum a picture with too broad a brush. Not every fan rooting for the Patriots are “wicked” spouting, signal stealing-condoning, Deflategate (or is it Ballghazi?) defending, Casey Affleck sexual assault-excusing assholes. I mean, we all like the other Affleck brother, Matt Damon, right?
But I’ve got some news for you, New England fans — you keep some truly awful company.
Self appointed leader of the Alt-Reich — don’t let him fool you with that #AltRight crap — avowed National Socialist, and all around douche-canoe, Richard Spencer, is a Patriots fan, apparently.
And not just for the team’s play on the field.
Think that’s bad? Yeah, not so much.
So congratulations #PatsNation! You now have the distinction of rubbing shoulders with a Nazi. A Nazi that believes Brady and the Patriots’ whiteness carried the franchise to a Super Bowl victory for the ages.
Not skill. Not fortitude. Not coaching. Whiteness. (Let that sink in for a moment.)
No matter what side of the political spectrum you currently reside, there is an overwhelming and undeniable shadow of uncertainty across the country. But make no mistake, Spencer and his ilk are not a fleeting blip. They are real. They are dangerous. They attempt to elicit fear and provoke reaction with their rhetoric of hate under the guise of free speech. The Alt-Reich maintains that they are true patriots; acting and speaking out in the best interest of the “real” America, but the bile that courses through their veins corrupts every orifice it seeps into.
Like Xenomorps in Alien, the Alt-Reich is attempting to burrow its way into the heart of American society, just waiting to explode through the nation’s chest.
New England’s football team is a just a host; a vessel to inhabit.
For the franchise best known for spying, allegedly listening to opponents, tampering with headsets, social media incompetence; and fans that defend a murderer; maybe having a Nazi fan isn’t that surprising. To hear Spencer tell it, a win for the Patriots is a win for white nationalism.
Speaking of “bigly.”
Surely, the New England Patriots are not at all responsible for Spencer’s hateful rhetoric. To suggest that the (seemingly) Donald Trump-supporting Brady, his coach, Bill Belichick, or his team’s owner, Robert Kraft, believe as Spencer does would be unfair and untrue. But given the present climate, it sure feels appropriate that New England’s power trio should publicly disavow Spencer and his fandom.
Metaphorically speaking, despite the win for the Patriots, I believe a larger win for humanity was broadcast in the space between the plays. Super Bowl LI ran numerous commercials that spoke beautifully — both subtly & not so subtly — about immigration, humanity, and equality. I was encouraged by message after message championing themes like acceptance and unity.
Ultimately, the symbolism of Super Bowl LI was too obvious to miss. Like the Atlanta Falcons, Americans that oppose bigotry, hate and exclusion will pick themselves up, figure out what went wrong, and get to work in making things right. The Patriots aren’t going away anytime soon, and neither are the likes of Richard Spencer.
Game on.
