The biggest self-entitled whiners in the history of sports?

Arrogance deflates opinion of Patriots Tom Jones,      Times Sports Columnist Thursday, July 30, 2015 2:57pmNew England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady wipes the sweat from his head during camp Thursday in Foxborough, Mass. [AP photo]This is for you, Patriots fans.It's not that people outside of New England hate the Patriots because they are too good. They hate them because they are too arrogant.Too arrogant. Too smug. Too full of themselves.They are a great organization, no doubt. A tremendous team, for sure. Best ever? Yeah, maybe.No question, however, they are the biggest self-entitled whiners in the history of sports.For the second time they have been busted for cheating. First it was Spygate. Now it's Deflategate. Both times, the Patriots act as if they are the victims, that they are the ones being wrongly persecuted.Oh, it can't be that they did something wrong. It can't possibly be that they got their hand caught in the cookie jar. It must be because the NFL, the media and everyone else has an ax to grind.It all starts at the top. Like any organization, the personality of that organization can be directly traced back to ownership. In this case, owner Robert Kraft spends more time holding angry news conferences than any owner in the league.His outraged speeches are the equivalent of a 4-year-old spoiled brat stomping his feet and holding his breath until he gets his way. When he is told to go stand in the corner, he only gets angrier.Maybe Kraft is victim of Rich Man's Disease, someone who believes he can do whatever he wants because he has money. Just a couple of months ago, Kraft agreed to be docked $1 million and two draft picks because he claimed it was in the best interest of the NFL to have this thing go away quietly.When Kraft found out that Brady's four-game suspension for deflating footballs and obstructing the investigation was upheld, Kraft went bonkers. Sounds like agreeing to pay that big fine had nothing to do with best interest of the league. Sounds more like he thought it was a bribe.Kraft now says he regrets agreeing to the penalties. He apologized to Patriots fans for having faith that the NFL would do the right thing, which apparently would have been to overlook illegally letting the air out of footballs. Kraft went out of his way to say the Patriots have done nothing wrong, yet can't or won't explain why two equipment managers were fired.The most absurd part of Kraft's tantrum — the part that shows just how full of himself he is — was the woe-is-me bellyaching about why the NFL would do this."It is completely incomprehensible to me that the league continues to take steps to disparage one of its all-time great players,'' Kraft said.Is he suggesting that Brady is above the law? Look, the last thing the league wants is to have one of its marquee franchises come under scrutiny for breaking the rules. Do you really think the league enjoys having, arguably, the best quarterback to ever play the game have words like "cheater'' and "liar'' attached to him? This is not a proud moment for anyone, including the NFL.Hey Bob, you know why the league is doing this? Because they believe your man is guilty.That brings us to Brady, who right from the start didn't seem to take these accusations seriously. He laughed them off the day after the story first broke in January. At the Super Bowl, he gave a very lukewarm, "I don't believe so'' when asked if he thought he was a cheater. Now he goes to Facebook to deny any wrongdoing. His master plan was to destroy his cellphone just as the NFL wanted to take a look at it.Brady is trying to protect his reputation. That's what he has been trying to do all along. Now he's in too deep to back out. What he doesn't realize is no matter what happens — even if the courts rule the NFL had no proof to suspend him — his reputation has taken a major, lasting hit. Those who root for the Patriots will defend Brady forever. Pretty much everyone else, including reasonable-thinking people who can be objective and have no emotional ties to any of this, will always believe he cheated and then lied about it.Too bad because if Brady, from the start, had said, "I asked the equipment guys to put the balls at the lowest pressure possible and I'm not sure what happened'' this story would have died down. If he had said, "Every quarterback messes with the football and this time it might have gone a little too far,'' he probably would have gotten a game or two and no one would have thought a whole lot more about this.Instead, he comes off looking like Pete Rose or Lance Armstrong. The lies and coverup make the crime worse.Deflating footballs is hardly the worst transgression in the world. Maybe it is the equivalent of drifting through a stop sign. Then again, if there was no big advantage to it, why do it?But doing it and then going to extremes to avoid getting caught and then acting as if the whole world is out to get you just shows you how incredibly self-absorbed this franchise is.Patriots coach Bill Belichick can be a major jerk, and his refusal to talk about Brady's future or this case proves that. But now I'm starting to wonder if he is doing us all a favor by not talking.Maybe Kraft and Brady should do the same. It's time to shut up, take their medicine and go back to playing football.It's the one thing they do almost as well as cheat and whine.