Whose continued success is worse for their league: Pats or Warriors?

Now that the Warriors are champs for the second time in three years and presumably will continue to have Kevin Durant on the roster, the question becomes whether anyone can challenge them. We may very well see yet another Cavs-Warriors Finals in 2018 unless Golden State somehow botches the business of retaining Steph Curry and Durant this summer or a slew of injuries decimate the Dubs.

That means a repeat of an 2016-2017 NBA regular season that was largely devoid of drama not only next year but for the foreseeable future. This year’s NBA Playoffs were also mostly forgettable, and that was the case the year before as well, but at least 2016 provided a classic Finals series to keep fans satisfied through the off-season.

There are those who argue that the Warriors steamrolling through the league will somehow raise the level of competition all over, as that’s simply what will be required to beat them. Except if you take away one historic series comeback, the Warriors have just three-peated and posted the best regular season record since 2014. There’s been ample opportunity for the rank-and-file of the NBA to emulate Golden State’s success and they simply haven’t.

Over in the NFL, the Patriots are in a similar situation. Back in February, they captured their second championship in three seasons by completing the biggest Super Bowl comeback ever. If the fact that the Pats trailed the Falcons by 25 at one point suggests some amount of vulnerability then New England did away with that in the off-season by making their roster even stronger with the addition of Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks.

The Pats, of course, have long faced little competition in their own division, which they’ve won the last eight straight seasons and 14 times in the last 16 years. There seems like little realistic obstruction outside the East in the AFC. New England had no trouble dispatching Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship in January, which has always been the case in the Brady/Belichick era. Beyond the Steelers it’s hard to see a team in the conference that could unseat the Pats. Perhaps the Raiders if their defense continues to improve, though theirs is still a largely untested core in the postseason.

There are many reasons why people discuss being “over” the NFL, though it certainly can’t be helping that a league that prides itself on the idea of parity has been dominated by one of its most loathed teams. The reasons fans have for disliking the Patriots ranges from cheating to politics to enmity for Boston sports fans. There’s also the general dislike of both Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Granted, there are plenty of Warriors haters out there, but there’s no comparing the level of casual fan antipathy that is aimed at the Patriots.

Perhaps the end of the Brady/Belichick era can now be guessed at, there remains the possibility that it could go on for another five seasons. Brady turns 40 this year and has discussed playing into his mid-40s. Some presume that Belichick will depart with Brady, except there’s no guarantee of that happening.

Another factor in Brady’s retirement is what it means for the league itself. In the next few years, three all-time great quarterbacks will have retired. Peyton Manning hung it up after the 2015 season. Brady is nearing the end, as is Drew Brees. There are some promising young passers who might be able to take their place one day, say Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, Jameis Winston, and a few others. But we simply don’t know and can’t be sure.

Even if those young passers do end up living up to their promise of consistent high levels of play, the process of becoming a star in any pro sport is postseason success. The Patriots closing out their current era with a run of more titles likely chokes the life out of the next generation of NFL talent in that regard. The NFL and Tom Brady have had plenty of issues of last few years, but he remains one of the league’s most marketable players and an all-time icon of the sport.

Both the Patriots and the Warriors are shaping up to remove the suspense of at least the next season. Their respective sports will survive, of course. Except with NFL fans in many cases already looking for excuses to disengage, the Pats are likely to do more damage.