Patriots Fans Still Aren't Thrilled With John Tomase's Coverage of the Team

When the Boston Herald's John Tomase first reported on the Patriots, allegedly, filming a St. Louis Rams walk-through prior to the 2002 Super Bowl, it did nothing but throw a burning barrel of gasoline on an already raging inferno of season-long spy-gate hysteria. Simply put: it was chaos. Especially since it all came out the night before the Patriots were getting themselves ready to take on the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

Naturally, instead of focusing on trivial matters like, you know, the upcoming Super Bowl, the topic of discussion was a game that had taken place five years earlier. And not only a game that had taken place five years earlier, but whether or not somebody had video tape of the Rams walking around in their shorts and helmets (turns out, they didn't). In other words: chaos.

In the wake of the Patriots' stunning loss to the Giants, (some) fans in New England turned their anger and rage towards the most logical and sensible whipping boy - the team's beat writer, presumably for drumming up yet another needless distraction. A distraction that was proven to be incorrect.

The Herald later retracted the story, while Tomase issued an apology that, predictably, went over like a led balloon within the Patriots nation.

Through it all, Tomase kept his job with the paper, but spent much of this summer writing about the Red Sox, while the Herald had a job posting for the position of Patriots beat writer. All signs pointed to the Herald doing the humane thing and removing him from his now heavily scrutinized spot with the Patriots, and putting him on a beat that absolutely nobody in Boston cares about... the Red Sox (heavy sarcasm there, if you can't catch it, it's hopeless).

Trouble is, for Tomase anyway, the Patriots open their season on Sunday, and he's still covering them. And fans still aren't amused.

Today, Tomase has an article up talking about the infamous Super Bowl hangover, usually felt by the losing team in the previous year's Super Bowl. Some of the reader comments are... well...

The only hangover I have is the one over the most libelous story in sports history that Tomase authored...and it won't go away since Tomase does not have the honor to resign and the Herald does not have the integrity to fire him. Yet. That's OK - we'll be Tomase's hangover.

Ouch.