I know how they feel

I'm enjoying my unpaid birthday holiday from the newspaper on this the opening day of the 2011 NFL season. I used to get my birthday off with pay but then the New York Times needed to buy some new artwork for their headquarters in Manhattan .. so I still get it off but the money goes towards a lovely new urn for the lobby.

I spent the day with the NFL Network on in the background. Deion Sanders -- as entertaining an ex-athlete as they come -- picked his Top 10 Primetime Players entering the season. He announced his list in front of the crowd tailgating in Green Bay for tonight's big Saints-Packers NFC battle.

His No. 1 pick? Yes. Tom Brady. The Packers and Saints fans listening in begin booing and groaning. Ah yes. Fans throughout the rest of the league hate Tom Brady. And the Patriots. They are sick of hearing about them. How great is that?

Primetime's list of top players was followed by a commercial for the new NFL Films series "A Football Life." First subject? Bill Belichick. That's right. Mr. Spygate. Mr. Gray Hoodie. Mr. Best Coach The Game Has Ever Seen. Mr. He Could Lighten Up Just A Little Bit.

NFL fans must be thinking .. Didn't we get rid of these guys with Spygate? Or when Harrison retired. Or Bruschi? Or when Brady got hurt? Or when Moss had an emotional breakdown? Or when Brady danced at Carnival? It's like when the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star at the end of "Episode IV" ("One in a million!") only to see the Empire building a bigger, badder one just two movies later.

I've seen some clips from the two-part Belichick "A Football Life'' which premieres next week. It looks great. The scene with him and Brady talking about different plays in the coach's office shows that neither has lost his passion for the game -- and for being the best. I can't wait to watch it. No one does football better than NFL Films. I expect it to be well watched in New England. And only in New England.

If the first "A Football Life" was about Brett Favre I'd have the same reaction. I wouldn't watch a second of it. (If the series was on ESPN it would have been on him, of course.) Fans are sick of the Pats? I know how they feel. I don't blame them.

15 years ago if you mentioned the Patriots in the parking lot of any other NFL stadium you would have stirred some laughs and some yawns. The Pats? Who cares? It's like mentioning the Seahawks now.

The reaction is different after the last 10 years. The Patriots are the team everyone loves to hate. When the team you root for reaches that status you know your team is not just good. But great. When I was a kid watching football I always rooted against the Steelers. The Raiders. The Cowboys. The Redskins. And I'm guessing fans of those teams could not have cared less.

That's how I feel as a Pats fan today. When fans boo Deion for picking Brady as the best player in the game (and the boos were pretty mild), it makes me smile. Ten years after the Pats won their first Super Bowl they are still pissing off people from New York to San Diego.

I'm still not quite used to it. But it's fun.