The polls are out — most of the country doesn’t like the New England Patriots.

Listening to a sports radio station this week, I heard that a recent poll done in the United States had 67 percent of the respondents hoping for the Atlanta Falcons to win this Sunday’s Super Bowl. 

After further discussion by the radio talking heads on why the Patriots are so despised around the country (certainly not in New England), with mention of “Deflategate,” the video-spying, the good-looking Tom Brady and his beautiful wife, etc., the consensus was that NFL fans are perhaps sick of the Patriots winning. Much like the Major League baseball fans hating the Yankees when they were winning all those championships. Ditto, the Dallas Cowboys. The radio guys called it “Patriot fatigue.”

Now, being 60 years old and only being able to enjoy a few New England sports championships (outside of the Boston Celtics’ title run in the 1960s) growing up, I hope to never catch “Patriot fatigue.” Heck, I became an Oakland Raider fan as a young teen because they were winning and the Patriots were not. It wasn’t until around 1986, when the Patriots started getting better, that I began to take a shine to the team. Yes, I was happy when Sam “Bam” Cunningham and Jim Plunkett had good games but, for the most part, Kenny “The Snake” Stabler, Marcus Allen and the “Silver and Black” dynasty were my interest.

Then came 2002 when the Pats won their first Super Bowl. It was great and three Lombardi trophies later, it’s still great. Maybe the rest of the country has forgotten that the Pats lost two Super Bowls since then, too. Oh, how happy those “non-Patriots” must have felt. 

Well, enjoy the game on Sunday. And don’t cry too much, Patriot haters, if the best team wins.