Patriots Use Squishy Balls. Have They Tainted Life In America?

If Belichick approved of cheating, has Brady
been a complicit or innocent participant?

What we know right now is that the New England Patriots were proven to have used 11 out of 12 game balls in the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts that were under inflated.  What we also know is that Tom Brady prefers a ball that is a little squishy, "so to speak", especially when throwing in the cold weather. What we don't know is who deflated these balls, and more importantly, who knew that it happened.

Love 'em or hate 'em, the Patriots are the most successful NFL franchise for the entirety of Tom Brady's stellar career that is quickly concluding its second decade.  The love or hate of this team is partially connected to its Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick, but Belichick remains just another good coach absent the discovery of Brady as his Hall of Fame quarterback. Together, they are the kind of guys that only a mother or a New England Patriot fan can love. They not only beat you...a lot- they rub your face in it with touchdown spikes from the quarterback and pompous interviews from the coach.  As much as haters like myself would love to consider this team just another bunch of cheaters, we all know better.

That being said, these guys might be a bunch of cheaters.

Going into the AFC semi-final, there was a key controversy over the Patriots distorted use of a "fair" substitution rule in which they un-declare a lineman and then set him out wide to confuse the defense and disrupt the substitution response.  The move is entirely legal but it might be changed as a result of the way the Patriots have used it.  This is the team famous for Spygate and for the worse interpretation of the Tuck Rule in recent memory, so bending the lines on linemen substitutions while softening the balls in an AFC Championship game are typical and mind boggling infractions for a team that seems not to need the extra advantage.

On one level, there is an obvious understanding that every fierce competitor has towards Belichickian behaviors.  We created the saying- "if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'"- for reasons that even champions understands clearly.  I too have coached my own basketball players to test rules under the guise that it is only illegal if the referee calls it.

Whether you only pull jerseys or you actually pinch private parts in pile-ups, cheating comes in lots of forms, but most of them are expected- and thus regulated. Cheating that bends the lines or occurs outside of them is like first degree murder of cheating and deserves the kind of punishment that we reserve for premeditated abusers of the public trust- especially when you have done things of the sort in the past, and particularly when you have forced a league of fans to question your righteous placement in the most important game in America.

Stephen A. Smith of ESPN FirstTake fame has declared it, and I will repeat it.  If Belichick has cheated the fans of America from an opportunity to love or hate the Patriots purely for their football brilliance, then he deserves to be suspended for a season just like Sean Payton received for his part in the New Orleans Saints BountyGate scandal that Payton was only found guilty of obstructing the investigation.

When the 9-11 massacre took our beloved twin towers away, we healed ourselves with football.  We heal ourselves every week with football and the Superbowl has become the biggest worldwide fellowship day outside of Easter Sunday- with no guilt or getting dressed up required. Tim Tebow, and now 5'11" Russell Wilson, have forced legitimate arguments over whether or not God cares about football too. Most people seem to answer MAYBE!

I don't personally care for the Patriots or the Dallas Cowboys who are supposedly closer to being America's Team than are my Denver Broncos, but when Detroit Lion Ndamukong Suh stepped on Aaron Rogers' ankle to try and injure him recently, I sensed that karma, or God, or whatever you want to call it, would come against the Lions because they allowed Suh to play in the playoffs despite his unsportsmanlike behavior and initial suspension. If you saw how Dallas beat Detroit, you probably think karma had some impact on the Lions just as it later impacted the Cowboys who beat Detroit in a questionable fashion themselves.

Has cheaters karma been the reason that a really excellent organization has not reached the highest peak of the mountain over the course of an entire decade?  Will it be the reason that Russell Wilson gets to do a Tim Tebow like interview at the end of another Superbowl? I'm praying against the Patriots, but I know that great teams can overcome stupid coaches and sometimes players hit freethrows even when nobody fouled them. In other words, the ball does lie. Are these freethrow shooters making good on previous missed calls, thus they are pure in karmic energy? Maybe, because the more I involve myself in sports on any level, the more it seems that forces greater than ourselves are regulating the thing called luck.  Luck has always leaned towards the team that is working the hardest, but is that just a human way of hoping that pushing yourself so hard provides some added benefit?  Does a losing team have just as many, or more lucky opportunities but discounts them due to the loss?

New England probably cheated and probably will still win the Superbowl, but the asterisk will live on Wikipedia until the end of time right along with Spygate, the Tuck Rule, the Substitution Rule (coming soon) and whatever else comes to the light when speaking of an organization that has now made this a part of their legacy.  If they lose, karma will get the credit and Belichick will get a reduced punishment like lost draft picks since losing the game will be part of his reward.

Goodell must remind the Patriots how important the NFL is to all of us. Even if Belichick loses a year of duty as opposed to just a couple of draft picks, he will not be able to take away the stink he's created of our beloved game.  We'll watch the game and the Patriot fans might even enjoy it as if the squishy ball scandal never happened.  Everybody else will watch it- or not- and hope the Patriots get what they deserve from taking away the purity of our favorite day of the year. The Colts don't deserve to be in the game, but the Patriots don't deserve to win it either. Hopefully God, or karma or Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks will restore the balance of integrity that makes the NFL a reason life in America is so good.