There's a new phrase in town . . . "DEFLATE GATE."
And with it . . . soooo many jokes!
It will be interesting to see what comes of it!
Deflate-gate
has been the main topic of the first few days following championship
Sunday. Everyday more information is released about what seems to be the
next big “scandal” in the NFL. So lets start from the beginning.
One thing that should be quite obvious to everybody is that the Patriots did not win this game because of under-inflated balls. The final scored was 45-7 and under-inflated balls do not make up for a 38 point difference. Colts tight end Dwayne Allen seems to agree:
In the same article linked above, Mortensen also reported that 11 of the 12 Patriots balls were under-inflated according to the NFL. This basically rules out the belief that maybe one or two balls were under-inflated, and therefore it was an accident, or a ball was defect. It is definitely not a good sign for a Patriots team that is still heavily scrutinized for their Spygate “scandal” back in 2007. Now it is the NFL’s job to figure out what happened, who knew about it and what a good punishment would be, if rules were broken.
I
personally can not picture the Patriots letting air out of the balls on
the sideline in plain sight of any cameras, but it seems to be the only
way they could have altered the ball, because the balls are only in the
hands of officials prior to the game. If they did in fact alter the
balls, both Brady and Belichick must have been in on it, especially
Brady since he is gripping the ball the entire game and is the player
that would benefit most from it being altered. Still, the NFL must gain
proof that the Patriots knowingly deflated the balls in order to gain an
advantage in the AFC championship.
The other likely option could be that the officials are the ones to blame for this entire thing. Did they follow all the regulations and accurately check all the balls prior to the game? If they didn’t, the Patriots could have just under-inflated their balls, and gotten by with it because the officials did not do their jobs, and they should get most of the blame. As ESPN’s Mike Reiss notes, Aaron Rodgers likes to over-inflate his balls, so if those also go undetected, maybe referees have not been doing their job very accurately.
Especially because it is the Patriots, who so many people consider to be cheaters, everyone is giving their input to this situation, but many people have been way to drastic. On ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith said that Belichick should be suspended for an entire season. A lot more people seem to believe that if the Patriots are found guilty, they will likely lose draft picks.
Nobody actually knows what exactly happened yet, and people should not jump to conclusions about “Deflate-gate.” This will not tarnish Tom Brady’s career, and it shouldn’t tarnish Bill Belichick’s as well. The Patriots deserve to be in the Super Bowl and will play in Arizona in about a week and a half. The Pats will have to deal with any consequences, but I do not believe that those consequences will be very harsh. It could be a large fine, but the worst case scenario that I could see playing out is the loss of a draft pick in the 5th round.
The Patriots themselves will focus on preparing for the Super Bowl, and not on all the news surrounding the Deflate-gate. I do hope the NFL will finish their investigation quickly, so that the attention will go back to the Super Bowl. No matter what happens, there will always be doubters who will say the Patriots cheated their way to another championship, but if the Patriots take home the Lombardi trophy on Feb. 1st, none of them are going to care.
More From New England Patriots
It all started with D’Qwell Jackson‘s
interception of Tom Brady in the AFC championship game. After that
interception, Jackson believed that the ball felt under-inflated, and
gave the ball the Colts equipment manager, so that he could check the
pressure of the ball. From there on in went to head coach Chuck Pagano
and then to GM Ryan Grigson, who reported it to NFL officials. According
to ESPN.com’s Chris Mortensen, the Colts already had concerns about under-inflated balls in their week 11 matchup in Indianapolis.- 1/25 - Brandon LaFell Super Bowl 2015 Projection
- 1/23 - New England Patriots: It sure seems like someone is lying about the deflated footballs
- 1/21 - How tarnished is the New England Patriots’ Reputation after newest scandal?
- 1/21 - Super Bowl 2015: 5 Turning Points for Patriots in 2014
- 1/21 - Patriots: AFC Championship game balls
One thing that should be quite obvious to everybody is that the Patriots did not win this game because of under-inflated balls. The final scored was 45-7 and under-inflated balls do not make up for a 38 point difference. Colts tight end Dwayne Allen seems to agree:
In the same article linked above, Mortensen also reported that 11 of the 12 Patriots balls were under-inflated according to the NFL. This basically rules out the belief that maybe one or two balls were under-inflated, and therefore it was an accident, or a ball was defect. It is definitely not a good sign for a Patriots team that is still heavily scrutinized for their Spygate “scandal” back in 2007. Now it is the NFL’s job to figure out what happened, who knew about it and what a good punishment would be, if rules were broken.
The other likely option could be that the officials are the ones to blame for this entire thing. Did they follow all the regulations and accurately check all the balls prior to the game? If they didn’t, the Patriots could have just under-inflated their balls, and gotten by with it because the officials did not do their jobs, and they should get most of the blame. As ESPN’s Mike Reiss notes, Aaron Rodgers likes to over-inflate his balls, so if those also go undetected, maybe referees have not been doing their job very accurately.
Especially because it is the Patriots, who so many people consider to be cheaters, everyone is giving their input to this situation, but many people have been way to drastic. On ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith said that Belichick should be suspended for an entire season. A lot more people seem to believe that if the Patriots are found guilty, they will likely lose draft picks.
Nobody actually knows what exactly happened yet, and people should not jump to conclusions about “Deflate-gate.” This will not tarnish Tom Brady’s career, and it shouldn’t tarnish Bill Belichick’s as well. The Patriots deserve to be in the Super Bowl and will play in Arizona in about a week and a half. The Pats will have to deal with any consequences, but I do not believe that those consequences will be very harsh. It could be a large fine, but the worst case scenario that I could see playing out is the loss of a draft pick in the 5th round.
The Patriots themselves will focus on preparing for the Super Bowl, and not on all the news surrounding the Deflate-gate. I do hope the NFL will finish their investigation quickly, so that the attention will go back to the Super Bowl. No matter what happens, there will always be doubters who will say the Patriots cheated their way to another championship, but if the Patriots take home the Lombardi trophy on Feb. 1st, none of them are going to care.
STAY TUNED . . .
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