Somewhere between Monday’s announcement that the league was investigating the New England Patriots for using deflated footballs in the AFC Championship game and Wednesday’s announcement confirming it, people across the country have lost their minds over the event. The New England Patriots deflation scandal has taken over sports media and has people clamoring for the head of Patriots coach Bill Belichick. I however, think it’s time that we sorted a few things out.
First things first, yes the Patriots deflated footballs sometime after the officials checked them, yes this is against the rules, yes the Patriots organization should be punished, and no “deflategate” is not a clever name for the scandal and is actually quite stupid (more on this later). What people are failing to realize is that the NFL only finished the investing into the actual act of the balls being tampered with. Now they must investigate who was involved, how the balls were tampered with, and how often it was done. I agree that the Patriots should be punished however, I realize it would be imprudent to just assume that Belichick had anything to do with it just because of what happened in the past. That being said, I do think Belichick was partly responsible but I am willing to let the NFL finish their investigation because unless you were the person actually deflating the balls you don’t know the whole story. Honestly there is so much speculation regarding what happened it’s not even funny. For example, some people say that the Ravens tipped the Colts off after their loss in the Divisional round, some people say that the Colts figured it out on their own after D’Qwell Jackson’s interception in the first half, and some people think that the Colts raised suspicion after Mike Adams picked off Brady twice in the regular season matchup. For all we know it could be a combination of all three, but it is stupid to speculate and make accusations without all of the facts.
There is a lot of concern that the Colts had a disadvantage, while this is true it’s only sort of half true. According to the report by ESPN the Patriots only used the tampered footballs for one half of the game, “ESPN Sports Radio 810 in Kansas City reported that the Patriots’ footballs were tested at the half, reinflated at that time when they were found to be low, then put back in play for the second half, and then tested again after the game. The report did not reveal the results of the test following the game. All of the balls the Colts used met standards, according to the report. Meanwhile, a source told WEEI.com that the Patriots used 12 backup balls for the second half against the Colts after issues were found with most of the originals. Patriots spokesman Stacey James confirmed that the team had 24 balls total available, WEEI reported.” I think that it’s safe to assume that the Patriots only used the bad balls for the first half. Of course you could make the argument that the Patriots re-deflated the balls, but considering the refs would have been aware of the previous deflation they would have been on the lookout for tampering with the new set and intervened. Unless of course the refs were in on it, in which case this goes way deeper than anyone thought and we definitely need to let the NFL finish their investigating. But of course if the refs were in on it why fix the situation with the tampered balls in the first place? So if the Patriots only played the first half of the game with the tampered balls then we can assume that they really didn’t have any impact on the outcome considering the Colts were only down 10 at the half. Now, had the Colts lost by ten points we could say that the deflated balls had an impact on the game.
Even figures around the league don’t believe the deflation of the footballs had that big of an impact on the outcome of the game. Former NFL quarterback Matt Leinart tweeted this, “Every team tampers with footballs. Ask any Qb In the league, this is ridiculous!!” Former Tampa Bay Quarterback Brad Johnson admitted to having footballs scuffed prior to the Super Bowl, “I paid some guys off to get the balls right. I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them.” Art Rooney the president of the Pittsburgh Steeler doesn’t seem to care, “I wouldn’t put it on the scale of serious, but if it’s in fact true, it’s a violation of league rules that I’m sure the league office will deal with in an appropriate way.” Even Vikings coach Mike Zimmer weighed in, “I think it was like 41-7, right? I don’t think the balls had a lot to do with it.” Zimmer went on to say he felt the Patriots substitutions against the Ravens were a bigger league concern. Now again I’m not saying the Patriots don’t deserve to be punished but I just don’t think that this is the big deal that people are making it out to be.
The last thing that I want to address is the fact that people claim this violates the integrity of the game. Really? That’s what your going with? All of the guys around the league beating their wives, violating the leagues substance policy, and doing god knows what else, deflating footballs is the biggest threat to the sport of football? Players are in jeopardy of getting their knees blown apart and having their careers ended by defensive backs tackling too low to avoid penalties for accidental helmet collisions but who cares about that? This scandal certainly isn’t as detrimental to the sport of football as the name “deflategate”. Seriously people it’s not clever, it’s a hassle to say, and it honestly sounds stupid. Like I’ve been saying I think the Patriots should be punished but I don’t think it is the worst thing to happen in the league.
