In every sport, there are teams who are hated by most because of their winning habits. The Lakers in basketball and the Yankees in baseball are examples of these hated teams, and the New England Patriots are the football equivalent of them.

Dynasties in professional football are relatively rare, but the Pats are absolutely one. They have won four Super Bowls, seven AFC Championships and 14 divisional titles since 2001. These ridiculous numbers show the dominance of New England in the last decade and a half.

People from older generations may be reminded of teams like the 1970s Steelers, Early 1990s Cowboys and 1980s/early 1990s 49ers when they look at the Patriots’ success in the last two decades. These teams are some teams that most older people generally love or hate, similar to the Patriots. The Patriots have a large fan base, as a result of the large population of the northeast and the large amount of bandwagon fans (there are a lot of these).

What also makes the patriots a hateable team is their figures that lead the franchise: Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

Brady and Belichick are known for their egotistic personalities, and have been involved in multiple scandals in their times in Foxborough. Some of their major scandals over the year have been Spygate and Deflategate.

Spygate is the incident in which the Patriots were caught stealing signals from the Jets in a regular season. The Patriots were fined and lost a first-round draft pick for their involvement in Spygate.

While Spygate caused an uproar around the league, their second major scandal in the Belichick era, Deflategate, may have been more malicious. In Deflategate, the Patriots were accused of deflating footballs to below their required weight in the 2014 AFC Championship.

It is likely that the inflation of footballs did not affect the game, as they defeated the Colts, 45-7, but it is possible that they deflated footballs in the previous round against the Ravens, which was a close, 35-31 victory for New England. The Patriots once again lost a first-round pick and Tom Brady was suspended for four games this year, but the cheating was not thoroughly punished, for they went on to win the Super Bowl and are once again in the game.

Finally, it is hard for me to root for the Patriots because I am a diehard Seahawks fan. All Seahawks fans have hate for the Patriots instilled in them because of Super Bowl XLIV. This game, which was played two years ago, was the Super Bowl where Russell Wilson threw an interception to Malcolm Butler at the goal line to lose the game.

This was the most devastating moment in sports in my entire life, and I will likely never feel so much disgust for a team as I did for the Patriots the night of Super Bowl XLIV.

“Cheaters never win” is a well-known saying, but the Patriots are living proof that cheaters sometimes win.