The New England Patriots are my guilty sports pleasure.

By all rights I should hate them-as should all men and women of good character born south of the Connecticut River. For starters, they’re a bunch of cheats. And they win so often that they’ve become the NFL version of the New York Yankees. Rooting for the Pats is, as was once said of the Bronx Bombers, like rooting for Microsoft. Also, they harbored an actual murderer on the team! (Allegedly.) And even worse, they denied the Philadelphia Eagles their best shot at a championship in a generation. The Tuck Rule, Spygate, Aaron Hernandez-pretty much every criticism of the Patriots is true.