Considering where this team came from, ie basically the first 40 or so years of their history, as a fan I could care less what fans of other teams think or say.
We're talking about a team in the 1960's that made it to the AFL Championship game once and got demolished by San Diego, they were nomads for about 12 years with no real place to call home until the Sullivans built that shithole of a stadium in Foxboro. They were awful the first few years there, hired a very good coach in Fairbanks and were a wagon in 1976 and got royally screwed by Ben Dreath in the playoff game vs the Raiders, then that coach left in 1978 when they had another good team, they could not get over the hump until the mid 1980's when they hired another very good coach in Meyer, fired him, finally made a Super Bowl only to get blown out, then they stunk for a number of years, hired yet another very good coach in Parcells, got back to the Super Bowl only to have him leave...…….they were the football version of the Red Sox, then they hired yet another very good coach in Belichick and the rest is history.
As a diehard Patriots fan, the past 18 years have been a complete joy and something I know I'll never see again in my lifetime, it's going to end at some point, but regardless, it's been a fantastic ride, so blessed and grateful to have seen it.