I am personally offended by these accusations against the New England Patriots over the deflation of footballs in the Patriots' victory over the Colts in the AFC title game, which has been sensationalized into one of the biggest sports stories over of the past year. How dare people accuse such a noble and honest organization of doing something that so distasteful: cheating! Bill Belichick is the best and only role model in the NFL for demonstrating what it means to lead with honorable integrity and ethical maturity due to his outstanding track record.
Without him upholding that standard across the league, we would probably be dealing with issues of coaches taping opposing teams' signals or something like that (I’m suspecting you, Tony Dungy!). I think that the issue here is our greatness — every team is jealous of our success, and they are looking for any way possible to get a competitive advantage over us! We, all the loyal Patriot “fans” born and raised everywhere other than Boston, are deeply disturbed by this news.
As a precursor to this column, I want to fully admit that I have a profusely slanted bias when talking about this: I feel that the New England Patriots organization is the worst thing to happen to humanity since the invention of bell-bottom jeans. Since I was a kid growing up in Denver, I have had an intense hatred of the arrogant and privileged organization. Every time I see Belichick’s and Brady’s smug faces celebrating a victory on SportsCenter, it makes me sick to my stomach. So thus, I am personally enjoying this "deflate-gate" scandal and hoping that the Patriots face the consequences for their actions.
The most recent development in this story happened during the weekend during a press conference when Belichick used an assortment of useless, random scientific facts for excuses on why the footballs were the way they were. In retaliation, I will quote Bill Nye, who responded, "Rubbing the football, I don't think you can change the pressure. To really change the pressure, what you really need to change the pressure is one of these – the inflation needle.”
Patriot fans that I have talked to recently continue to stand by their team and claim that this happened during a 45-7 blow-out, a fact that should render this controversy meaningless. The fact is that the Patriots broke the rules. Just because the football game was not close, should the league should sacrifice the integrity of the game and overlook any sort of cheating that might be involved? Of course not! Using that argument is making an excuse for the Patriots’ inexcusable behavior.
I feel that if found guilty of "deflate-gate," Belichick and Brady should face multiple-game suspensions next year as adequate consequences for their actions.
While some feel this might be a little too extreme, remember that the reason why the NFL suspended Saints coach Sean Payton for a year was his “ignorance of the rules." This is the exact same scenario: Belichick claimed that he did not know the rules for air pressure in a football prior to this scandal. How does a NFL head coach, who knows the obscure way to manipulate the amount of offensive linemen on the line of scrimmage and eligible men downfield, not know the rules about the proper inflation of a football?
Belichick and the Patriots are repeat offenders, so the league must do something soon in order to uphold the integrity of the game. Personal bias aside, and the silliness that is the internal pressure of footballs, the NFL must harshly punish the Patriots for their arrogance in thinking that they are above the rules if they are found guilty of “deflate-gate."
Reach the columnist at ndsmit12@asu.edu or follow @noahsmith1996 on Twitter.
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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