So here we go again…
The
fiasco that is the air-pressure scandal involving the defending Super Bowl
champion New England Patriots just keeps getting wackier. Between Tom Brady
appealing his suspension and bringing in a lawyer to his team, in Jeffrey
Kessler, who loves nothing more than feeding Roger Goodell his lunch, to
Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft taking (yet another) one for the proverbial NFL
team of owners. I’ll explain more on these both, below. Understand that I do
not speak on this as a Patriots fan, but merely a sports fan.
I do feel the need to explain why I refuse to
use the “word which shall not be spoken”. I have a lot of pet peeves (there’s
actually a quite exhaustive list), one of which is adding “gate” to any
perceived or actual scandal. Now, since the Watergate break-in, the grand-daddy
of all modern scandals, occurred in 1972, and our news cycles have gotten
shorter and shorter with the public internet going live in the 90s, this has
become an almost Pavlovian response to any scandal. Monica-gate, Spy-Gate,
Gamer-Gate, Doritos-Gate (I did not make that one up, click here). My big issue with this is an etymological
one. Realize that any language, but the English language in particular, is a
living, growing entity. As an example, and much to my despair, the word
“literally” no longer means literally. It has evolved to include the hyperbolic
use of the word as well. For instance, saying “My head literally exploded when
I saw Malcolm Butler’s interception to seal the Super Bowl” is perfectly
acceptable. I do not like this. Language is an important tool and one which
should be used accurately describe an occurrence or event. There is nothing
wrong with changing the way a language works, but my problem with that
particular example is that there is already a word we have which describes
this. That word is “figuratively”. There was no reason to change the meaning of
literally other than laziness. Enough of that diatribe, back to the task at
hand, people adding the suffix
“–gate” to a scandal. Is there a perception
that the Watergate break-in, at The Watergate Hotel, had anything to do
with water? Admittedly, there is a
river which runs through Washington DC. Maybe that is the origin? Not so much.
Once more for effect: it is called the Watergate
Scandal, because the break-in occurred at The
Watergate Hotel! Glad we got that out of the way.
To clarify my point
about the Patriots and this most current scandal. The belief that they are the
only team in the NFL which stretches the rulebook or looks for a competitive
advantage is naïve thinking, at best. Our friends over at yourteamcheats.com have laid out a wonderful view of the
nefarious acts of all NFL teams. I know what you are thinking…”But, Helmet
Nation Blog Guy, just because everyone else does it does not make it okay.”
That is true. However, in my view, the crime is not the big issue. The crime,
as I see it, was perpetrated by the NFL. Their complete lack of concern with
air pressure in footballs or the treatment of the same footballs during games
cannot then be used to completely vilify an entire organization and one of the
league’s most successful players. Do any of you know the story of Phar Lap? He
was an Australian racehorse in the early 20th century. Phar Lap was
so successful that the horse racing powers-that-be in Australia, at the time,
handicapped the horse repeatedly until he was carrying more than twice the
weight of any other horse. Phar Lap continued to wipe the floor with any and
all competition. It got to the point where the owners of the greatest
Australian racehorse of all-time could no longer race in Australia. It would
have killed him. Now, ironically, he came to the United States to race and died
shortly after his first race under dubious circumstances. I’m not saying that
the NFL is trying to kill Tom Brady. That is not my intention at all. I am
merely pointing out the fact that success breeds jealousy. The NFL has built
its current iteration on parity, and a team which has won 4 of the 6 Super
Bowls that it has reached and has completely dominated both their division and
conference over the last 15 years, destroys any semblance of said parity.
Therefore, in the NFL’s mind, they must be stopped. Sally Jenkins, at the
Washington Post, and Tom Curran, at CSNNE, have both written exemplary
articles about this subject and they both handle it much better than I just
did.
One note about
the team penalties and my problem with Bob Kraft not continuing to fight for
vindication. How many of you reading this understand what the actual crime was
that occurred during the opening game of the 2007 season? The Patriots were
caught videotaping and stealing signals from the Jets? The Pats were the only
team filming opponents’ signals? Bill Belichick was only able to maintain his
success by relying on the coaching genius of Eric Mangini? For a quick synopsis:
the NFL sent out a memo in September of 2006, stating that teams could no
longer videotape opposing teams from any location that was accessible, during
the game, by team staff. So there you have it. They videotaped (LEGAL) from the
wrong location (ILLEGAL). Taping was legal, just not from that location. So
this all came down, the Patriots were the worst cheaters in the history of
Sports according to most non-Patriots fans, and a record fine was levied. Bob
Kraft, for the good of the league, paid the fine and accepted the punishment.
The Patriots paid the fine for something the entire league was doing and took a
huge PR hit in the process.
That brings us
back around to air pressure. Bob Kraft just agreed to pay the fine for
something that every QB in the league does. Not illegally deflating or
inflating footballs, but for determining what the qualities will be for that
player’s particular work instrument. Aaron Rodgers likes his footballs
over-inflated. He said as much. This was such a huge concern that Walt Anderson
didn’t even record the air pressure from the before the game, or even which
gauge was used. This problem is not a problem and the NFL has stepped on their
own toes…again.
- HN
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