Love 'Em or Hate 'Em, People Watch the Patriots

Belichick seems to use his team's new image in a similar fashion, pushing the Patriots to show their detractors they don't need to cheat to win. In a league known for its parity, they've won their games this season by an average margin of 21.7 points. They beat the Washington Redskins 52-7, and the Buffalo Bills 56-10.

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Even so, Madden said he doesn't think fans have the same level of antipathy for these Patriots that they once had for the Raiders, in part because the ire isn't aimed at popular players like Brady and linebacker Tedy Bruschi, who returned from a stroke suffered in 2005 to be a major contributor to the team again.

"I don't know that they're hated like that," Madden said. "You can go back to the SpyGate thing, I know that, but when you think of the players, I would think this team is probably half loved and half hated."

Indeed, Brady seems to have mostly escaped the backlash. At a late-October owners' meeting in Philadelphia, Kraft said: "I would say every female in New England between the ages of 2 and 80 is nice to me so they can meet him." He currently dates supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

The Patriots seem more popular than ever with their own followers. Carter, the sports business expert, said they remain interesting to, even if not beloved by, other fans as well.

"It's the team that you love to hate," he said in a telephone interview. "If you were sitting there watching the Celtics-Lakers or Yankees-Dodgers playing for a championship, you didn't have to like them to know they were a great brand. You were still watching. It's the same with the Patriots. They used to be milk and cookies. They were clean-cut. They were Tom Brady. Now they're disliked.

"But if you dislike them, part of it is because of their success. In many ways, that reinforces the success of their brand. The opposite of love isn't hate. It's indifference."

Yet even Brady has been an accomplice to shows of on-field ruthlessness by the Patriots this season.

"We're not trying to win 42-28," the quarterback said recently on Boston radio station WEEI. "We're trying to kill teams. We're trying to blow them out if we can. You want to build momentum for each week. You don't want to be up 42-7 or 35-7, and all of a sudden you look up and it's 35-21. We don't want to be part of that. You don't want to go into next week realizing that for the last 18 minutes of the game your team didn't play well or didn't play up to its capabilities. You gave other teams momentum for the next time they play you, or you gave another team a reason not to be intimidated."

The prowess of the Patriots is unquestioned.

"The whole operation looks magnificent," said Marv Levy, formerly the Bills coach and now their general manager, after watching the dismantling of his team. "They certainly rank with the best I've ever seen, absolutely."

There have been some cracks in the foundation showing recently, however. The Patriots have had to overcome fourth-quarter deficits against three of their last four opponents -- the Indianapolis Colts, Philadelphia Eagles and Ravens. The Eagles and Ravens, both having mediocre seasons, managed to make the Patriots' defense look vulnerable, while also getting pressure on Brady and making wide receiver Randy Moss all but disappear because of physical play.