I can speak to the whole New England being the evil empire thing as I live in the heart of it.
Patriot fans are mostly faggots. Then you have the heady types that follow the games and know all the players and let you know they are proud, knowledgeable fans. Which is cool, but the young Patriots fans are stuck up and dont know anything but winning. Anyone who is in the age bracket of 15-26 or so will only remember the success and the Super Bowls (as well as the crushing losses to the Giants) so they dont really appreciate what it means to have such a quality team as a fan.
They are also hostile to any non Patriots fans like myself. When I say im a Niners fan people look at me like a traitor but I do it with pride. I even bought the gold 1980's 49ers jacket for the winter just to be a faggot. I think most fans would embrace being the bad guy to be honest. As long as Brady and Bellichick are running the show the team and their identity will be the same, as long as they keep winning, and people will keep hating.
Its gonna be pretty refreshing for me though when Brady does retire and the Hoodie is fired.