Eli Manning, New York Giants. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The New England Patriots may be the NFL dynasty of the century, but there are still a few opponents that draw the ire of every Patriots fan.
On any list of the NFL’s greatest villains, there’s a trend among who usually tops the list. On the offensive side, NFL fans loathe to see quarterbacks who defeat their team every season, much like the way Tom Brady did for two decades in the AFC East. On the defensive side, fans critique defensive players who become known for damaging hits, sometimes questioning the intent behind what appears to be “dirty” plays. On both sides of the ball, fans denigrate players who flaunt inflated egos or insulting mannerisms, but sometimes, all someone has to do wrong is win the Super Bowl.
Tom Brady is revered in New England, but he is reviled around the league for kicking teams out of the playoffs year after year after year. The Patriots are called “cheaters”, and even former NFL players like LaDanian Tomlinson take every opportunity to disparage the franchise that prevented him from ever winning a Super Bowl. While it makes sense that everyone else would bristle at the winningest franchise in recent memory, there aren’t many players that evoke those feelings in the hearts of Patriots fans. The Patriots win, so there aren’t many opponents that have kept New England from succeeding at the highest level.
There may not be many worthy 21st-century adversaries, but there are still a few in New England Patriots‘ history. After all, the Patriots could have won nine Super Bowls in the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era, and at least eight if a certain New York quarterback didn’t exist.
Here are three Patriots opponents that fans still gripe about to this day:
3. Eli Manning
Funnily enough, Patriots fans dislike Eli for the same reason people dislike Brady: because he’s the one who kept their team from winning two Super Bowls.
But part of the frustration with the younger Manning brother is that Peyton Manning was billed as Brady’s rival, not Eli. During the regular season, Eli never came close to performing the way Peyton and Brady played over their illustrious NFL careers. The contrast between “Regular Season Eli” and “Playoff Eli” is so stark that it’s become a common joke that Manning isn’t even the same player in the postseason.
Rather than losing to Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees, Brady lost championships to Eli Manning and Nick Foles, who is currently on the sixth NFL team of his career. It doesn’t help that Manning won those games with miraculous plays like David Tyree’s “Helmet Catch“, nor does it help that these two Super Bowl losses caused some to question Brady’s NFL legacy.
To Eli’s credit, seeing the Giants ruin what would have been a perfect undefeated season did motivate Brady to continue playing and win three more championships for New England.
