Sports

Did The New England Patriots Cheat… Again?

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“I’m not really aware of what’s being said outside of the locker room… It’s unfortunate. We would rather be celebrating our trip to the Super Bowl. But the situation is what it is,” Matthew Slater, New England’s wide receiver said. Wouldn’t we all? I really wish I was reporting about your team’s excellent performance and your preparations for the Super Bowl rather than your team’s deflated game balls.

The deflate-gate scandal was first brought to our attention by Bob Kravitz, of WTHR in Indiana who tweeted “The NFL is investigating the possibility at one point the officials took a ball out of play and weighed it.”

At first, I just thought “can’t the Patriots win without being accused of cheating?” And I honestly believed they were innocent this time around. Deflated footballs? Ridiculous – as Tom Brady would like to say. As if New England wasn’t already at an all time advantage playing Andrew Luck and his herd of Colts at home.

Not so ridiculous. The NFL discovered that all except for one of the game balls did not meet the league’s requirements. 11 of the 12 balls were inflated way below standards.

“I was shocked to learn of the footballs on Monday. I had no knowledge until Monday morning. I’d say I’ve learned a lot more about this process in the last three days than I knew, or had talked about it, in the last 40 years that I’ve coached in this league.” Bill Belichick addressed the deflate-gate issue with an 11-minute press conference, stating how he was unaware of it.

“In my entire coaching career, I have never talked to any player or staff member about football air pressure,” Belichick went on to say, “The footballs are approved by the league and the officials pregame, and we play with what’s out there. That’s the only way that I have ever thought about that.”

When Patriots’ running back was asked about the deflated balls, LeGarrette Blount simply said “I don’t know what the proper inflation feeling is but it felt like a normal ball.”

Kyle Arrington, Patriots’ cornerback prefers to “ignore the noise” and feels as though the rest of the team should do the same.

“It sounds like I’m preaching at this point, but that’s our motto. It’s what we firmly believe in. We have one job to do and hopefully we will come out on top of this one. Just let the dust settle,” said Arrington.

Pete Carroll, Seattle Seahawks head coach, commented on the deflate-gate scandal in his interview with Rachel Nichols when she asked how important it is that coaches relentlessly protect the integrity of the game.

“I think it is ultimately, absolutely important. We’ve seen the power of the league and how at every turn of issues that have come up one right after another, people have looked to the league for leadership. And for the kind of guidance, and the kind of wisdom that’s necessary to make these great choices – well there’s another opportunity again. Of course we want to do it right. We want to do everything the best way we can possibly do it for all the right reasons. Not just because it’s football or because we’re coaches. But for all the right reasons. And you can see us working to figure that all out. You can see the league, and the league office working to figure out what is right, and let’s stand for what’s right. And when we make our mistakes we admit to them and we fix the situation and we send the message that that’s the right way to do things. And so we’ll see what happens with us.”

For the record, I love how the National Football League puts more effort towards investigating deflated footballs than they do domestic violence. It’s funny how you can get fined up to $25,000 for too much or too little air pressure in a frickin’ football and only a one game suspension for going all Street Fighter on your wife. Don’t you?

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