For years, Chuck Daly served as a dedicated and unflinching New England Patriots supporter.
When his New York friends poked fun at Tom Brady, he extolled the virtues of the future Hall of Fame quarterback. When the Deflategate scandal painted the team as a less-than-upstanding organization, he wrote it off the way most fans did: as an anti-Patriots conspiracy.
But then came a development that even Daly felt he couldn’t defend. In the midst of a contentious presidential election, the three figures most commonly credited with the Patriots’ success — Brady, head coach Bill Belichick, and owner Robert Kraft — all expressed support for their friend Donald Trump, despite many divisive and polarizing statements made by the then candidate.