New England’s Trump-loving quarterback and owner have turned them into ‘the official team of American White Nationalism’: columnist

As America prepares to gather for Super Bowl LIII, the New England Patriots -- and star quarterback Tom Brady -- were slammed in The Daily Beast for being the team of "white nationalism."

Brady has known the president for over 15 years, after the two met when the quarterback judged a beauty pageant for Trump.

Brady, coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft are all aligned with Trump.

Brady "flashed a red MAGA hat, an accoutrement that is gaining more and more traction as a symbol of white nationalism in America, in his locker back in the primary days. He wasn’t the only one! Patriots’ Coach Bill Belichick wrote a goddamn letter to Trump right before the end of the campaign that basically amounted to an endorsement, that Trump then read on stage," Daily Beast writer Corbin Smith wrote. "And Pats’ owner Robert Kraft is also his pal, and was even shouted out at Trump’s pre-Inauguration dinner in D.C. for his most deep-pocketed donors."

Part of the dynamic may be Boston itself.

"The whole institution of Boston sports, from root to stem, is tinged with the sort of racism that brought Trump into office," he continued. "Bill Russell, the legendary Celtics center and 11-Time NBA champion, the greatest Boston athlete of all time by a considerable margin, called Boston a 'Flea Market of racism' in his wonderful memoir Second Wind."

"Look, it doesn’t matter if the Patriots like it or not, they are the official team of American White Nationalism, the MAGA Boys On the Field," he explained. "You can’t implicitly or explicitly support Trump, who reads speeches written by Stephen Miller as a matter of course, play in a market whose sporting culture is renowned for its racism, have a decade-plus organizational obsession with undersized white receivers, and be called, no sh*t, the Patriots, without getting the vile Fox News Soup that poisoned half the country on your shirt."

"When you root for the Patriots, you are associating yourself with a virulent and revolting strain of politics that seeks to Make America Great Again—which is to say, white, European, English-speaking," he added.