You would think it’s a good time to be a Patriots fan. New England is the reigning Super Bowl champion, having just captured its fourth championship of the millennium.  No other franchise has won more than two titles in that stretch.

However, Patriots fans are not elated or even satisfied. What they are — in their own minds, anyway — is persecuted.

The NFL’s other 31 franchises are out to get the Patriots. Roger Goodell is in on it, too. Aliens, free masons … they’re all in on it. Everyone is jealous of New England’s success and, as a result, is going to unthinkable and unethical lengths to bring and end to Bill Belichick’s run of dominance.

It started with “Spy Gate,” when the Patriots were disciplined for videotaping the defensive signals of New York Jets coaches during a game on Sept. 9, 2007.  The act of simply taping the signals was not illegal; rather, the Patriots were filming from outside the area designated by the league.

Goodell deemed the violation “a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid long-standing rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition.” He fined coach Belichick $500,000 and stripped the Patriots of their first-round draft pick. The team was fined an additional $250,000.

The whole ordeal seemed cut and dry. In fact, the only thing shady about it was Goodell destroyed all the tapes he confiscated from the Patriots, making it impossible to know the full breadth of these illegal recordings.

Patriots fans, of course, see things differently. Every team films the opposing coaches’ signals! This in NO way gave the Patriots a competitive advantage. The Jets ratted on the Patriots because they couldn’t beat their rivals on the field. And the league imposed ridiculous infractions to appease a fan base that only wanted to see Belichick & Co. knocked from their pedestal!

Here’s the real issue: Matt Walsh, New England’s video assistant in 2001 and 2002, turned over videos to the league showing the Patriots’ taping practices in those seasons. That time frame encompasses New England’s first championship victory in Super Bowl XXXVI, leading many to believe that victory should come with an asterisk beside it.

That’s where the Chowder Heads get really salty. You can insult their mothers, you can question the quality of their crab cakes, but you will NOT try to put an asterisk next to any of Tom Brady’s accomplishments!

This leads us to Deflate Gate.

Let’s get one fact out of the way … the Patriots would have smashed the Colts in the AFC Championship Game whether they were using flat balls, full balls, golf balls or beach balls. None of it would have made  a difference. New England was light years better than Indianapolis, beating the Colts by a combined score of 87-27 in two meetings last season.

Here’s the problem: the Patriots intentionally deflated those footballs to make them easier for Brady to handle. There is a mountain of evidence that demonstrates this to be true.

No, the cold air did not reduce the air pressure below the league minimum. If that was the case, the Colts’ footballs would been similarly affected. Also, there is no good explanation for equipment manager Jim McNally texting the team’s franchise quarterback and referring to himself as the “deflator.” Or for the ball boy taking a bag of 11 footballs into a bathroom stall with him on the way to the field.

That is why the league felt comfortable stripping the Patriots of a couple more draft picks and fining the franchise $1 million, in addition to Brady’s suspension.

“I’m going to accept reluctantly what he has given to us and not continue this dialogue and rhetoric, and we won’t appeal,” said team owner Rober Kraft afterwards.

Patriots fans, though, refuse to accept this preponderance of evidence. Because Brady did not deflate these footballs himself, and because there is no text message from Brady requesting balls be deflated below authorized levels, these hardheaded homers feel their quarterback is deserving of no punishment.

Of course, one of the reasons there is no “smoking” text message from Brady is he refused to cooperate with the investigation and turn over his phone records, but as Patriots fans will remind you, why should he have to cooperate? He’s Tom Freaking Brady!

Brady’s lack of cooperation is a big reason for his four-game suspension, which will undoubtedly be reduced to two games upon appeal later this month. But that is not enough to earn him the ire of Patriots fans, who are firm believers in, “If you can’t show me a tape of it happening, it never happened!”

And when the crimes are caught on camera, those tapes need to be quietly destroyed.

After all, these are the same fans who supported Aaron Hernandez all the way up to his guilty verdict, and some beyond that.

Whining fans are nothing new in the NFL; most fan bases have their fare share of whiners. And truth be told, it is better to be supported by a bunch of passionate yet whiny fans (that includes you, Seahawks fans) than not be supported at all (strong looks over to San Diego and Jacksonville).

Here’s why the situation with New England fans is becoming toxic. We live in a digital age where football fans communicate online — either by commenting on stories or conversing in message boards — more than any other platform. And this victim mentality the Patriots fans have adopted has turned New Englanders into the biggest internet trolls since those sexy dames that got rich working from home.

Marcell Dareus gets a one-game suspension for marijuana possession? Good thing he didn’t do anything serious like deflate a football! Le’Veon Bell gets a similar suspension, which will cause him to miss the Season Opener in New England? Again, Patriots fans are outraged, even though the man Bell was riding with is now a member of the Patriots’ backfield.

From now through the foreseeable future, ever NFL disciplinary action will be compared to how Goodell treated and the Patriots to help build up the case the league is out to get New England.

Here’s the difference, though. When New England breaks the rules, it is with the intention of gaining a competitive advantage on the field. And while the advantages are negligible — and often completely unnecessary — it is the quest to gain that unfair advantage that keeps getting New England in trouble.

The Patriots aren’t good because they cheat. They’re good … and they cheat. The two things are mutually exclusive, which is why it’s so tough to explain why the Patriots keep skirting the rules. We may never have a good answer as to why, other than the obvious assertion that Belichick will do whatever it takes to win. It’s a mindset that has produced four Super Bowl trophies, as well as an asterisk or two … much to the chagrin of Patriots fans everywhere.

Want to talk more about the best and worst fans in sports? Join Michael Lombardo for his weekly NFL Chat on Friday at 2pm EST. But you don’t have to wait until then … you can ask your question now!