FOXBORO — The Patriots are angry, and the NFL won’t like them when they’re angry.

Since January, the Pats’ accomplishments have been slandered, their brand mocked and their quarterback ridiculed. They’re the NFL’s greatest villains, and they’re used to the role because they’ve been living in the penthouse for a decade and a half.

The Pats are accustomed to the hatred, and they know how to use it to fuel their success. It worked for Bill Belichick’s gang for the vast majority of 2007 when they dealt with the Spygate fallout, and the plan is in place to repeat that process.

Belichick won’t allow the players to address Deflategate in the media, and that was on display last week when they pleaded ignorance after Tom Brady’s four-game suspension was vacated. But the players do discuss it in their own circles, and they’re keeping score of who’s saying what.

Their list of enemies is growing, but it’s easier to take it out on the whole league, starting tonight with the Steelers.

“Those guys, the players, are going to want to embarrass people,” said former Patriots wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth, who played for the 2007 team. “Who knows what Bill is thinking, but the players will be ready to embarrass guys. I’ll tell you, this first game, it’s going to be amazing because they’re going to be so fired up. Bill is going to make sure they enjoy the banner being dropped, but he’s going to make sure they’re focused on winning that game. I guarantee those guys are going to be taking it out on them the first week of the season.”

Belichick addressed Spygate right off the bat in 2007, preaching to ignore the noise and focus on everything in-house. That’s been the same message this season with Deflategate. He doesn’t want the players wasting energy on anything other than the most important task in front of them, and that mentality has produced a high level of success for 15 years.

“Whenever stuff like that comes along, it’s one of those things where everyone is going to have an opinion,” wide receiver Julian Edelman said. “The more time you take away by thinking about what other people are thinking about, that’s just wasted time on your preparation and trying to improve. People want to keep on talking about that and bringing stuff up, they can go ahead. We’re just going to continue to prepare and keep them hating us.”

The reason for the hatred is rooted in victories, but the outsiders’ reasons have evolved through time. Remember, members of the league office and television networks advised Robert Kraft not to hire Belichick in 2000 because he wasn’t a marketable commodity, so the hooded coach always has worn a cloak in some minds.

Since then, the Patriots lead the NFL in Super Bowl wins (four) and appearances (six), total victories (196), playoff wins (21), playoff appearances (11) and division titles (11). That can be tiresome for everyone outside the New England market.

And of course, people like Marshall Faulk and Jerome Bettis have led the cries regarding the legitimacy of the Patriots dynasty since Spygate, which penalized the team for taping the Jets defensive coaches in the 2007 season opener. The Patriots have heard it all since then, and the Deflategate truthers have grasped at any circumstantial detail they can find to connect the pair of controversies and deface the team’s Lombardi Trophies.

“I know the Spygate year, he talked to us just once how they were saying we weren’t good enough to win games, and everything in the past was due to us cheating,” Stallworth said. “Players like (Tedy) Bruschi and (Mike) Vrabel and Brady who were there for the Super Bowl years, they took exception to that.”

There’s a new crop of leaders now, guys like Jerod Mayo, Dont’a Hightower, Devin McCourty, Rob Ninkovich, Rob Gronkowski and Edelman, who all believe in the legitimacy of their accomplishments. And surely they’re ticked about the way Brady has been treated.

Just take last season, for example, when they were noticeably emotional after their Week 5 dismantling of the Bengals, which occurred a week after Brady’s on-field ability was nationally criticized. If his teammates were heated after his performance was under fire, just imagine how they feel about a seven-month character assassination.

Their family member was attacked, as far as they’re concerned.

“We always have the mentality that everyone in that team room, that’s all we really care about as far as football is concerned,” Mayo said.

So how will the Patriots inflict damage on their opponents? The 2007 squad played angry, set a scoring record and beat teams by an average of 17.1 points, which remains an NFL record. They were so ruthless that prognosticators complained the Pats were running up the score, which was a laughable concern on a professional level.

“We are competitors,” former Pats running back Kevin Faulk said about the 2007 season. “Yes, we did feel a certain way about the whole situation, so we wanted to go out there and prove to the world, ‘Hey look, we don’t need any of this to go win football games. We have a good football team. We have a good nucleus, a good core group of guys that Bill brought in together, and that’s what makes this organization successful.’ ”

Stallworth added, “If Bill wanted to go out there and put 100 points on whoever, we didn’t care. We were looking forward to scoring as many points as we could.”

The Patriots kick things off tonight against a Steelers defense that Brady historically has tormented, and they’ll have 10 days to prepare for Rex Ryan’s Bills before hosting the lowly Jaguars. They’ll then have a bye week to prepare for trips to Dallas and Indianapolis.

Oh right, the Colts, who helped the NFL concoct a sting operation based on, at best, second-hand information without evidence that ultimately sparked Deflategate. They’re also the same Colts who have lost four consecutive games to the Patriots by a combined score of 189-73.

It’ll be somewhat reminiscent of the Pats’ first meeting with the Jets in 2007 after coach Eric Mangini ratted them out to spawn Spygate. The difference is the Patriots were a little more preoccupied with improving to 14-0 while the Jets only had three wins at that point, and the current Patriots and Colts still are considered the best teams in the AFC.

“Those guys will be up for that game,” Stallworth said. “I guarantee you it won’t be like when we played the Jets. Those guys will be fired up for that for sure, I guarantee you.”

It’s billed as the marquee event of a season-long quest to stick it to their adversaries. The Patriots haven’t entertained that topic publicly, but that was the formula in 2007, too, and their true feelings about that season have since been revealed.

But why would anything change since January? The Patriots were thoroughly ticked off as they prepared for Super Bowl XLIX against the Seahawks, to the point where players were getting extra heated at practice, and it paid off. In the run-up to the game, players quietly expressed their utmost confidence in an impending victory as though it already was fact.

Deflategate has gotten exponentially stranger since, so the anger shouldn’t have dissipated too much. No, the Patriots can’t force others to like them, but there’s something to be said for beating a little respect into those who might deserve it.

It begins tonight.

“I think the electricity and the atmosphere of (unveiling) the banners, that’s just going to fire those guys up. If they have a great showing, that can catapult them and get them some awesome momentum for the rest of the season,” Stallworth said. “They’ve lived with this, not only preparing for the Super Bowl but the aftermath of the Super Bowl. And honestly, how long is this thing going to go on? The players will definitely use that as motivation, and you can bet your damn life that Brady will.”