#SuperBowl: The winning team is classy, supports America, and supports Israel; the losing team — let’s just say NOT

Tom-Brady-Bill-BelichickI was rooting for the Patriots to win, not because I cared about the Patriots, but because I truly dislike the Seahawks. Russell Wilson is a hugely talented quarterback, but overall I think the team is a classless act, something the players demonstrated perfectly when they elected to start a fistfight in the last seconds of the game, after it was clear that they were losing. Whenever Seahawks players have a choice between sportsmanship and boorishness, they choose the latter. Small surprise that, by a factor of two to win, they lead the league in penalties.

My already-in-place dislike for the Seahawks escalated when I learned this afternoon that their coach, Pete Carroll, a Marin native, is an icon to 9/11 Truthers. He’s never come out explicitly and said he’s a Truther, but he’s professed the type of bewilderment about 9/11’s events that only comes from Truthers’ mouths:

As USA Today notes, ever since Carroll spoke to former Army chief of staff and four-star general Peter Chiarelli two years ago and peppered him with questions about what really happened during the terror attacks that brought down the World Trade Center in September of 2001, 9/11 Truthers have loved him.

Carroll has been asked about his status as a 9/11 Truther and he hasn’t denied that he has serious questions about what happened that terrible day. He has never accepted the title of “9/11 Truther,” mind you, but he has also not disavowed the movement.

“Any notoriety is good I guess,” Carroll told USA Today of his unfashionable supporters. “I will always be interested in the truth, yeah.”

Things are a little different on the Patriots’ side of the field. When I came back to my computer tonight, I learned two really cool things about the Patriots.

First, Patriots’ coach Belichick, who is apparently the anti-Truther, showed up at the game wearing a red shirt bearing the Gadsden flag insignia of a snake and the words “Don’t Tread on Me”:

Second, I learned tonight that Tom Brady, in addition to being almost as good a QB as Joe Montana, supports Israel, as does the team owner, Robert Kraft:

By rooting for the Patriots this afternoon, I feel like I rooted for the winning team in more ways than one.