Sports media finally have jumped the shark with the anti-Patriots takes, and Colin Cowherd is to blame.
Cowherd on Thursday dragged the industry to a new low when he claimed that the Patriots now are an "irrelevant franchise" without Tom Brady in the fold. According to the FS1 talking head, New England, a six-time Super Bowl champion, now are just another NFL team and no longer are among the most relevant sports franchises in Boston.
Take a look:
"The Patriots now, with Brady, feels like forever ago," Cowherd said. "They're irrelevant. I mean, Tom's going to be the only guy that gets two statues -- one in New England, one in Tampa. They're irrelevant. They're so bad and Tom's so good that they don't matter.
" ... In Boston, the Patriots aren't the Celtics, or the Red Sox. They're not even the Bruins. ... The Patriots were a mess forever. The stadium was a mess, they didn't make any money. ... They were a mess forever before Tom Brady. ... They've never had any sustained success without Brady."
Listen, we understand the two-week stretch before the Super Bowl often lends itself to unnecessarily hot takes, but this is just stupid. If nothing else, we probably should wait just a little while longer before labeling a franchise like the Patriots as "irrelevant."
That said, if Brady, Rob Gronkowski and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers somehow beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV, expect the anti-Patriots takes to get even hotter. Perhaps someone finally will say the six Lombardi Trophies are flukes and that Bill Belichick is a below-average NFL coach, or something.
