GOOD SPORT: Brady, Patriots wiggle out of another situation
Over the past eight months, Deflategate had made me sick of hearing about Tom Brady and his deflated footballs.
Let’s take a closer look at the play-off game in question. The final score was Patriots 45, Colts 7–far from a close game. Also, the footballs in question were reinflated at halftime. If you look at the box score, Brady and the Patriots scored 28 points in the second half, when the balls were perfectly legal. The Patriots would have easily won the game, even if they hadn’t “cheated”.
They did cheat, and no matter what the score, Brady and the Patriots shouldn’t be able to get away with it. Early on in the pre-season it looked like justice would be served. The Patriots were fined $1 million, and lost two draft picks. Brady was suspended for four games, and two other employees were suspended indefinitely.
Brady threw a fit, and so did his coach Bill Belichick. Brady pled cluelessness to the fact that he was using deflated footballs. I find this hard to believe, but that’s just me. After several attempts to get his suspension shortened, Brady took his case to federal court.
After an 11-hour hearing on Sept. 3, a federal judge ruled there was no evidence that Brady had anything to do with deflating the footballs. Brady got off scot-free, not even suspended for one game.
Let’s take a step back for a second. What made Brady take his case all the way to federal court? Is it because he felt like it? Maybe, but I think it has more to do with how the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handled the whole situation.
Most football fans know who the NFL commissioner is, however I am not a football fan, so I had to Google him, and he is a depressed-looking fellow. Anyway, the way Goodell handled Deflategate rather badly, and he is rather stupid for a lack of a better word.
When Brady attempted to get his suspension shortened, Goodell refused to negotiate with him. If Goodell hadn’t acted like a twit, then perhaps Brady wouldn’t have taken his case to a federal court. If Goodell had just shortened Brady’s suspension by two games, then perhaps Brady would have abided by the suspension instead of getting out of his suspension all together.
Why is it always the Patriots who get blasted about cheating? I highly doubt they are the only team that does it. You never hear about the Jets planting cameras or using deflated footballs. Is it perhaps that the Patriots have been so good for so long that everyone’s out to get them? Before all you Cowboy fans burn me at the stake, realize that this is just a theory, and I don’t really like the Patriots much either.
What of the two draft picks and all that dough the Patriots shelled out as penalty at the beginning of Deflategate? Perhaps the Patriots weasel into getting that back, too, but only time will tell. History keeps repeating itself with the Patriots. Remember Spygate back in 2007? Yeah, the Patriots have done this before. Will justice ever truly be served with the Patriots?
