No. Hate should be reserved only for abject abomination. It must be saved for those things we truly despise -- like new age music, Kevin Costner movies, spam (both edible and Internet versions), car insurance deductibles, and cable companies that send us into voicemail hell when we call with service needs.
Curt Schilling endeared himself to millions of Red Sox fans when he first donned a Boston jersey and announced, "I guess I hate the Yankees now."
But the 100 Years War between the Red Sox and Yankees has a football cousin in this century, and it'll be on display for all to see Sunday afternoon at the Razor. Bill Belichick hates the New York Jets with the proverbial fire of 1,000 suns.
Naturally, Coach Bill won't admit any of this. But we know. Belichick hates the Jets more than he hates Bill Parcells and Bill Polian. He hates the Jets more than he hates Titans receiver Bobby Wade. He hates the Jets more than he hates the Inside Track, more than Cleveland football writers, more than Tom Jackson. He's collaborating with David Halberstam on a new book, this one about his relationship with the Jets. Belichick was distraught to learn that his working title already had been used for a major motion picture: "10 Things I Hate About You."
It goes back to the days when Belichick was Little Bill in the Jets' hierarchy, under the thumb of Big Tuna Bill Parcells. Little Bill never got the credit he deserved, just like when they were together with the New York Giants. When Parcells finally stepped aside, and magnanimously prepared to put his crown on Belichick, Little Bill revolted. He cut a deal with Bob Kraft and resigned as "HC of the NYJ," triggering new hostilities in a border war that goes back to the earliest days of the American Football League when the Jets were known as the New York Titans.
In the last half-century, the Patriots and Jets have played 94 regular-season games vs. one another (Jets lead, 48-45-1), but have met only once in the postseason (26-14 Patriot win in 1985).
