Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch with an absolutely epic rant. Can't say I necessarily agree with everything but he does make some good points. If nothing else, it's an entertaining read. Hint: It's not exactly objective.
Big Bad Bill Belichick.
He really does bring out the absolute worst in the media. Things that would be ignored, or laughed off if they were done by any other team, results in hysterical, hair-on-fire denunciations if the Patriots are involved.
He causes the media to become unable to think for themselves, and become subject to a mob mentality in which they are all sheep, following along with the loudest voices, and afraid to produce an original thought.
The NFL, specifically its Commissioner, is a laughingstock, pledging a transparent investigation, they instead allow late night leaks of salacious details to good ol’ boy reporters. They pledge to get all the details and facts from Foxboro when they can’t even ascertain whether a video was received by the league office showing a player knocking a woman unconscious. They want us to trust their investigation when they hire a former associate to investigate themselves over said video incident.
As usual Roger Goodell has lost control of the situation, and will be in full reactionary mode once he decides to take action.
For Goodell, he can get himself into the good graces with the media by inflicting the harshest possible punishment upon Bill Belichick and the Patriots. This satisfies the bloodlust of the media and the public outside of New England, and gets Goodell back into the good graces of the media after his PR fiascos earlier in the season.
What I’m saying is be prepared for the worst possible outcome from this. Belichick suspended for Super Bowl? Entirely possible. Suspended for next season? Entirely possible. Multiple first round draft picks taken away? Entirely possible.
If, after all of that Robert Kraft kowtows to Goodell and tells us all what a great job he’s doing one more time, I’m going to be gravely disappointed in him and what he stands for.
For making the football a bit softer so the QB could grip them better. (and that’s even speculation, we don’t actually know the facts here yet, just that the balls were under regulation by 2 PSI.)
It doesn’t matter that the best quarterback in the NFL told CBS earlier this season about liking to overinflate balls and pushing the limits and seeing if they can fool the officials, all so he can grip them better.
It doesn’t matter that a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback insists on his footballs being doctored for months before he will use them in a game because he wants to be comfortable gripping them.
It doesn’t matter that a Super Bowl winning quarterback has admitted to paying $7500 to have the 100 footballs used in the Super Bowl he played in altered so that he could grip them better.
It doesn’t matter that the Minnesota Vikings and Carolina Panthers were using heaters to warm up footballs on the sidelines this season. (which would impact the hardness/grip of the football, by the way)
Nothing matters other than the fact that the Colts were getting their butts kicked and wanted to find a way to try and get in the Patriots heads. They didn’t actually anticipate it going this far, very similar to the Jets when they reported the Patriots for taping in an incorrect spot.
Nothing matters other than the fact the owner of the Colts, coming off a season in which he was suspended for six games, gave a crony columnist a middle of the night tip, which initially the columnist thought to ignore, but instead decided that since it was the Patriots, he’d get a lot of play out of it, and ran with it, and now says Belichick should be suspended for the Super Bowl and is a national star.
Nothing matters other than the fact that Belichick isn’t cuddly with the media, and most out there would like nothing more than to see him fired and disgraced, so they’re put aside any objectivity they may (unlikely) have possessed and have gone all-in on the idea that this is a huge cheat masterminded by Bill Belichick who personally oversaw the deflation of the footballs. (also unlikely) That’s the true endgame here.
The national media, in addition to the piling on of Belichick also goes after the fans who make the points above. They call it excuse making, and saying that those incidents don’t matter because the rules were broken here, and the Patriots were caught. OK. That’s legit. Punish them according to the severity of the alleged crime. But why can’t the hypocrisy be pointed out at least? We’re supposed to take this incident seriously – to the point of huge suspensions/punishments – but it’s OK to completely ignore the other incidents that have taken place?
sometimes you can get lucky and put an extra half a pound of air in there to help Aaron Rodgers out.
Hypocrites. Cowards. Frauds.
Well, I'm a biased Pats fan as well, so keep that in my mind as you read my comments, but the above writer makes some great points that should be heeded. For example, the Panthers and Vikings were captured on live TV last November heating up footballs during a cold game—and it seems that the only thing the league did was issue a league-wide memo reminding teams that balls are not to be heated during games. Ok, fine. No sweat.
But this is a witch hunt, a case of "we've had enough of Belichick pushing the envelope and sometimes crossing the line, and this is our chance to nail him to the wall." Pure and simple.
I'm not a cheater. If I'm playing a friendly (or competitive) game of cards with friends and a card falls to the floor and I have a chance to look at it without anyone knowing, I don't look at it. So I'm disappointed if any of "my" teams or players cheat.
But the NFL isn't treating all offenders of this rule equally, and that's also wrong. In fact, this rule seems to be one of those "it's technically a rule but not really a rule" kind of rules—you know, like how cars technically aren't supposed to be over the line marking the crosswalk, but people do it all the time. I'm a cyclist and I see this happen a lot, but it usually doesn't bother me—no harm, no foul. Whatever. That's life. God gives me grace, so I try to give it to others.
Or to look at it another way, technically I'm breaking the law if I'm driving 46 mph in a 45-mph zone, but am I
really doing something wrong? Am I being reckless? Am I endangering anyone? Because is there any
real difference between 45 and 46 mph? Only a jerky police officer would pull me over in that instance, and that's what the NFL is being here: a jerky police officer.
I admit that I'm more of a "spirit of the law" kind of guy, as opposed to being a "letter of the law" person. And it seems that the NFL has been a "spirit of the law" kind of entity when it comes to footballs and how QBs prefer them to be (Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Brad Johnson), basically sending the message, "Hey, as long as the balls aren't at some extreme—like rock-hard or pillow-soft—do what you want."
And I have to ask this question: Why is there even a rule about inflation? Really, why? You obviously can't play with a flat ball, but why does it matter whether the ball is a bit soft, or firm, or superfirm? And yes, I realize that the level of inflation changes the grip, but that's not what I mean by "why does it matter?". What I mean is, the football is usually in the hands of the offense, so why not let each QB inflate the ball to the level he wants, to whatever level works best for him and his receivers? That's not cheating. That's not an unfair competitive advantage. It's letting each QB be comfortable. And each team would have the same opportunity to do what it wants. That's perfectly fair. In fact, the NFL is already allowing this to an extent, by allowing a
range of PSI in which the football can be. So the league is already saying there can be differences—so why not just allow
all differences (or virtually all, excluding those extremes I mentioned)? What's the rationale behind saying a ball can be anywhere from 12.5 psi to 13.5 psi? Why is 12.4 psi bad? Or 13.8? Seems arbitrary to me. And I also have to ask: What's the difference between slightly deflating a ball—and letting receivers wear supergrip gloves?
Granted, the NFL hasn't made any ruling yet, so it may end up adhering to the spirit of the law, but that's not the impression I'm getting so far. Instead, judging by what has taken place to this point, the NFL is poised to crush the head of the Belichick snake. Over a little bit of air.
I realize the Patriots have a track record of pushing the envelope, if not outright cheating, but the past is the past. The Patriots paid a price for SpyGate. But if SpyGate was so egregious, the NFL should've just banned Belichick then and been done with it. You can't keep punishing someone for old wounds. Move on. Judge them on this instance alone, an instance that, at worst, is so minor as to be not worth the fuss.
Topic: #DeflateGate (Court of Appeals Reinstates Suspension) (Read 599613 times)