Bill Belichik's been accused of leading a team of cheaters, once again. Briefly, for those of you who rely on The Burrow for all your sporting news, footballs are checked by the officials 135 minutes before the kick-off. In the interim, they are returned to the safekeeping of each team's equipment staff. In last week's playoff game, 11 of the 12 balls in the Patriot's care were found to be underinflated to a level below that which is mandated for game play use. Underinflation makes the ball easier to catch, to carry, to throw. It makes it harder to fumble. Tom Brady, Belichik's golden boy quarterback, prefers a softer ball. While it is true that the final score (45-7) belies the notion that the softer balls made all the difference, or even a significant difference, there is no disputing that the Patriots were not using regulation footballs.
Would Andrew Luck have done better tossing a softer ball? We'll never know. Certainly, the softer balls had no impact on the play of the Colts' defense, nor that of their offensive line. That's not the point.
The point is that I have to cheer for the Seahawks next weekend. The point is that this is a second offense for Belichik's Patriots. In 2007 they were called on the NFL carpet for illegally videotaping the Jets' defensive signals during practice. Denials, then and now, seem thin. Tom Brady denying that he noticed a difference in the balls while he was on the field seemed disingenuous, especially following ESPN's talking head former quarterbacks easily identifying the too soft and too hard balls on Sportscenter. After all, Newsday reported Monday that the Colts first noticed something unusual after an interception by Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson late in the second quarter, according to espn.com.
If the brief moment in time during which the linebacker held the football was enough for him to notice the softness, how is it possible for the quarterback to be clueless.
There is a process in place for a $25,000 fine for an underinflated ball. There are calls for other sanctions - banning the coach for the Super Bowl or the 2015-16 season - but my concerns are more personal. After having to tell Mr. 9 that his adoration of Aaron Hernandez was inappropriate since the man was awaiting trial on not one nor two but three murders, after removing Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson from his pantheon of heroes for abusing the women and children in their lives, I am now forced to inform him that his man cave, replete with its Patriot's banner and posters and other forms of fandom, is also teetering on the edge of immorality.
Where will he ever find his heroes?
I hate having to cheer for a team I do not really care for, but I too will be supporting Seatle, as the Patriots are cheaters, always have been, always will be. The had been accused of cheating and were in the SuperBowl the last time it was in Phoenix and I had to cheer for NY, who ended up winning the game. So, once again, I will cheer for any team other than the Patriots. GO SEATTLE!!
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Too true, Ellyn, too true.
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Keep in mind Brady threw with the underflated balls only for the first half and had actually more success in the second half. If they have been doing this regularly, it's hard to see why refs didn't notice. The first words out were 2 lbs. under but under which, the top or bottom possible? I personally do not think this is a big deal and won't cheer for either team as I rarely watch the Super Bowl. If I do, it's to see the ads. Rush Limbaugh was talking about it today, about how blown up it was by the media and how important NFL had apparently become to Americans. Amazing when I might agree with him on anything. I read that the Patriots rarely ever have a fumble which some are saying may be impacted by the balls being 1 lb under the minimum they should be. The whole idea of having the teams be responsible for their own leads to possible cheating. But what I'd like to know is if this was supposed to be so obvious to quarterback, why wasn't it to the refs who handle those balls all the time? Time will tell what happened and maybe it will go back to Brady or Belichik, but right now it's still up in the air. If it turns out neither had anything to do with this, it'll be too late as frankly it has become one of those things that what people think about it is more important than what was true.
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