{"id":65336,"date":"2026-02-04T06:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/from-evil-empire-to-super-bowl-underdogs-is-it-ok-to-like-the-patriots-now\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T06:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:00:42","slug":"from-evil-empire-to-super-bowl-underdogs-is-it-ok-to-like-the-patriots-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/from-evil-empire-to-super-bowl-underdogs-is-it-ok-to-like-the-patriots-now\/","title":{"rendered":"From Evil Empire to Super Bowl underdogs: is it OK to like the Patriots now?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Under Tom Brady and Bill Belichick New England were ruthless winners. But new head coach Mike Vrabel has transformed the narrative around the team<\/p>\n<p>There used to be a simple rule: Anybody but the New England Patriots.<\/p>\n<p>From 2001 through 2019, the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick dynasty totaled six Super Bowl titles, 13 conference championship appearances and 17 divisional crowns. They were the Evil Empire, constant contenders in a league designed for parity. It didn\u2019t matter who you were; the Patriots were the final boss.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/feb\/04\/new-england-patriots-super-bowl-mike-vrabel\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under Tom Brady and Bill Belichick New England were ruthless winners. But new head coach Mike Vrabel has transformed the narrative around the team There used to be a simple rule: Anybody but the New England Patriots. From 2001 through 2019, the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick dynasty totaled six Super Bowl titles, 13 conference championship appearances &#8230; <a title=\"From Evil Empire to Super Bowl underdogs: is it OK to like the Patriots now?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/from-evil-empire-to-super-bowl-underdogs-is-it-ok-to-like-the-patriots-now\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about From Evil Empire to Super Bowl underdogs: is it OK to like the Patriots now?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}