If you look up dynasty in sports on Wikipedia and look at the NFL, the New England Patriots seem like the best of all the dynasties that played in the league.

They’ve done it since the start of the century and Tom Brady at the center of it has more rings than most franchises in the NFL. It is an incredible thing to see in the world of sports, which is usually governed by twists of fate and weird phenomenon to occur (see Jon Bois).

So yes, the Patriots and their fans get to act smug about all of it.

That fact is quite grating for the rest of the league. No other team was so dominant in nearly 20 years and most of the Super Bowl wins in general were by a handful of teams. So that’s a lot of hate brewing for years on one end and plenty of smug satisfaction on the other.

Throughout the time period there were plenty of accusations and penalties put against the Patriots from Spygate to Deflategate, but that seems more like a kind of jealousy and wanting to find some flaw in the team than anything else. I’m not denying the accusations of those scandals, but I find it hard to believe that they made such a decisive difference over those games or that the other teams aren’t trying to find an edge.

Given how popular and drawn out these accusations can last, it feels more like the people are being given what they want more than anything else.

Yes, all the bragging and annoying comebacks can really sink in and harden hearts, but these dynasties don’t last and it could be years before the team could come back to their glory days.

I’ll leave you with the following example. Dan Marino played his entire career with the Miami Dolphins. He is regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play and despite playing in Super Bowl XIX, he never got a ring.

Super Bowl XIX was played in 1984 and in 34 years, the Dolphins have not returned to the championship.

Some people can live and have a family and never have their team even appear in the Super Bowl, and some can enjoy the appearances, wins and regular season success for 17 years. Brady is 40-years-old and who knows when the level of success could come back to the team.

Dislike them all you want, but it is what any NFL fan hopes their team could accomplish.