Patriots Writers Dropped Ball and Didn't Ask Bill Belichick Any Questions About New Kicker's Tattoos Sunday

The New England Patriots' core of beat writers have an unenviable task ahead of them.

In the coming weeks, they have to decide if they want to press the issue on the morals of the team's new kicker, or if they want to feign being satisfied with Justin Rohrwasser's explanation for his "Three Percenters" tattoo and subsequent promise to "cover" it rather than remove it.

Day 1 of their challenge? Well, they didn't get anything done. Patriots writers on Sunday morning grilled Bill Belichick with the tough questions. You know, the ones about his dog sitting in a chair.

Yeah, what's the deal with the danged doggo, Bill? Any far-right nationalist militia or white supremacist sympathizer marks on its fur, too?

So far, so bad for the Patriots' beat crew, which should be focused on far more than football and laughs at this moment.

Shortly after he was drafted, it became clear that among his tattoos, fifth-round pick and former Marshall kicker Justin Rohrwasser sported a "Three Percenters" logo tattoo, referring to an independent paramilitary group with the stated goal of fighting back against alleged government overreach. In practice, they look a heck of a lot more like an anti-government militia with a warped view of American history.

No, the "Three Percenters" are not "bad" because they're "right-wing," as many will surely claim I'm arguing in the comment section of this piece. They're "bad" because they protected the violent Charlottesville white nationalist protest with heavy artillery, a protest during which a civilian was murdered by a vehicle ramming into a crowd of counter-protesters.

When you wear their logo on your arm, that's the type of ideology you're implicitly aligning yourself with. Rohrwasser claims he supports the US military and gun rights, and had no idea what the tattoo meant when he permanently inked it on his skin. When informed of its true meaning, he simply said he'd cover it up when playing, but did not commit to removing it.

This immediate rebuke of a Patriots pick feels reminiscent of their 1996 selection of Christian Peter, a defensive tackle accused of domestic violence who was immediately cut because of Robert Kraft's late wife Myra's objection.

With a similar opportunity ahead of them to at least make the decision-makers publicly reckon with what they've done, the Pats' local media members instead swallowed their tongues and laughed about a Dog GM.

Three times.

It's up to those who cover the Patriots to pressure those in charge to at least reckon with the issue, admit they're aware of it, and take a stand, in some direction. Thus far, there's not much indicating they care.