CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — I’m a fan of the New England Patriots, and in the circles that I move in — liberal, underdog-loving, far from New England — that’s a bad thing to be. One hears that the team’s coach, Bill Belichick, wrote Donald Trump a commendatory letter not long before the president took office. One hears that a Make America Great Again hat was seen hanging near the locker of the quarterback Tom Brady. President Trump and Robert Kraft, the team owner, were once big buddies and may well be again.

Then there’s the cheating business. A good friend of mine, a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers (losers!), calls our coach “Bill Beli-cheat,” and he’s not alone in his distrust. Brady apparently deflates footballs to suit his taste and then, maybe, smashes up the cellphone that contains evidence of said deflation. The Patriots did illicitly videotape coaching signals from the New York Jets (super losers!) — a controversy known as “Spygate” — and they were caught and disciplined.

The Patriots win all the time. That’s another reason people hate them. This will be Brady and Belichick’s eighth Super Bowl together since 2002, and they have won five of them. Only one team has won more: the (soon-to-be-matched) Steelers, with six. People don’t like a winner unless it’s their team. They prefer that everyone takes turns winning and plays nice, like in today’s schoolyard. The Patriots do not play nice; they crush you.

Some people even deride the Patriots for being a “white” team, whatever that is supposed to mean. Going by the numbers, the team with the largest number of white players in the National Football League may be the Philadelphia Eagles (losers-to-be!), which will face the Patriots on Sunday in the Super Bowl. (Rosters can change week to week, which is one reason it is hard to be precise about such statistics.)