Sports Opinion Piece
By: Ellis Toll
Ever since the Patriots romped to a 45-7 win in the AFC Championship game, the only thing that NFL and its fans have been able to talk about is the “Deflategate” scandal. It’s time we moved on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of all the fun the internet is having at the expense of the Pats, but this whole thing is blown way out of proportion.
Come Super Bowl Sunday, I will be wearing my Wes Welker jersey from the days where he actually had an elite QB throwing to him (yes, Peyton, that is an insult). Some of you may write me off as blindly following the Holy Trinity of Kraft, Bill & Brady, but I swear I’m not. Those who fall into that category have been preaching the “you hate us ‘cause you ain’t us” doctrine ever since SpyGate. Guess what, everyone, THE PATRIOTS CHEATED. You heard that right…I admit that they cheated, but I still think it doesn’t matter. Why? 45-7, that’s why.
By all accounts the Colts used properly inflated balls (don’t laugh, I dare you) for the entire game. The Patriots defense only allowed seven points. On the other hand, the aging Patriots and their under-inflated balls were only really present in the first half. The most recent report states that the referees were alerted to the possible violation and looked into the situation at halftime. That means that for the entire second half, the Patriots were using regulation footballs. In the first half (the one where they cheated) they scored 17 points and accumulated 201 yards of offense. In the second half, when they played by the rules, they got 28 points (more than 7!) and 199 yards. So, in the end, all cheating got them was two yards. In other words, barely anything.
Now that we’ve established their guilt, let’s look at what the penalty should be. Officially, the latest word is that they will lose draft picks. As a fan, I will take a Super Bowl appearance over a draft pick any day. Just ask Redskins fans…if we took a time machine back to 2012 and told them how RGIII would perform in his first three NFL seasons and gave them the option of taking him again or giving them an automatic berth in one of those Super Bowls, I’d put lots and lots of money on the fans choosing the Super Bowl.
There are members of the media who are advocating for much harsher penalties, such as firing Bill Belichick or giving the Pats spot in the big game to some other team. However, from all the different reactions around the league, it seems like it would be difficult to find a team to replace them…because lots of teams do it. Aaron Rodgers, who likely will be the MVP this season, admitted to tampering with footballs in an interview with CBS personnel before “Deflategate” even became a thing. Since then, many different QB’s have admitted to similar activities. Among those was retired QB Matt Hasselbeck who tweeted “QB’s are picky about fb’s and could tell you everything about their game balls. broken in to their liking. how it works. period.”
Since this will be Brady’s 6th Super Bowl, there has been a lot of chatter about recent Super Bowl history lately. That, combined with Hasselbeck’s tweet, sparked something in the deep recesses of my memory. The Seahawks were in the Super Bowl in 2003…and their starting QB was, you guessed it, Hasselbeck. So, if we read between the lines (something us English majors are good at), it would be a safe assumption to say that the Seahawks are no stranger to this practice themselves. Yet, you don’t see anyone accusing them of deflating their footballs.
When the opponents from the game in question theorize that Brady could have thrown bars of soap to his receivers and still won, there really shouldn’t be a scandal. Let the NFL conduct its investigation, find them guilty and penalize them a middle or lower round draft pick or two, then move on. Oh, and make sure to properly inspect the balls in Arizona so that when they win that game in a landslide too we will not have to deal with this again.