There are serious issues on the NFL’s docket, including domestic violence and drug abuse among its players, a looming feature film on concussions that is almost certain to destroy a large portion of the NFL’s reputation and a mascot that is a racial slur. So why is everyone up in arms about Deflategate and the PSI of a few footballs?
Because the NFL wants them to be, that’s why.
I should admit straight off the bat that I am a diehard Patriots fan. And there are many who will discount me just because of that fact. But I am also a writer who is trained to think critically – to question everything and find the truth behind what is presented at face value.
The truth here is pretty plain to see. The Patriots probably committed some form of minor rules violation involving footballs. They might have actually been caught in the act if the NFL followed any of its own protocol with regards to rules violations (which are, for the record: to warn the accused team and then keep a closer eye on them with regards to said accusations). The NFL could have slapped them on the wrist or issued a quick fine.
Instead we have been subjected to over six months of the sports media acting like pre-teens at summer camp. There has been drama, intrigue, controversy, anger, and just about everything else you wouldn’t expect from a group of professionals that call themselves “journalists.”
And we are finally, mercifully, hopefully coming to the end of this saga.
With the release of the full appeal testimony, and hundreds of Tom Brady’s personal emails, we have reached the pinnacle of the ridiculous. Twitter is abuzz with his emails describing mundane everyday problems – looking for new clothes, scheduling dinner with people, a planned visit to the Vancouver Canucks, restaurant preferences – you know: Tom Brady stuff. There was, of course, nothing about deflating footballs to gain a competitive advantage.
After over six months, we are exactly where we started. There is little evidence proving that they did anything (and I say that mainly because the science is so disputed it is no longer a piece of evidence – leaving only the text messages), and there is equally little (to no) evidence that they didn’t do it. Neither side is ever going to be satisfied. Patriots haters already thought they were a bunch of cheaters, and Patriots fans already didn’t care what anyone else thought.
Translation: so far, we’ve gotten nowhere.
Of course, in the midst of all of this, Greg Hardy had his suspension dropped to four games from ten, for one of the most heinous domestic violence accusations I’ve ever read an account of. Le’veon Bell had his suspension dropped from three games to two for a DUI/possession charge. The NFL has so many problems it needed something, anything, to distract the masses.
Somehow, Goodell has restored his reputation. All of the sudden, people take his word as gospel. The same man who was declared by a Federal Judge last fall to be an outright liar (and who commissioned an investigation just as an attempt to exonerate himself). That man’s word is somehow now more valuable than that of a four-time Super Bowl winning quarterback with no history of doing anything other than being awesome. Does anyone really think this is a coincidence?
In a few weeks, the NFLPA and the NFL will reach a settlement, get an injunction, or (slim chance) actually resolve the case in court. But no matter the outcome, football is about to resume, and the rules deficiency regarding football protocol has been addressed. My educated guess is that Brady serves one or no games of his suspension. In other words: it was all a bunch of hot-air.
What the whole process did accomplish was a few months of respite from the constant waves of negative PR facing the NFL. It stopped the loud and repeated calls for Goodell’s job. Deflategate has overshadowed everything. Even the Super Bowl. As the whole thing crumbles, what remains is only this: a glimmer of positive PR for a league swimming through a sewer of excrement.
Quite honestly, I don’t care if the Patriots (or any other team, for that matter) messes with a few PSI on game day. I don’t care if Brady was “generally aware” or even how the team was skirting the rules, because every single NFL team skirts the rules. Hell, I don’t even care about Brady serving a 1 or 2 game suspension.
What I do care about is that domestic violence is once again on the back burner. DUIs are somehow a less serious offense than being “generally aware” of something that “more likely than not” happened. The fact that the country’s most incompetent commissioner still has his job and is still bumbling through it like an idiot is ridiculous. That the public themselves have been hoodwinked by this PR campaign is unbelievable and it has caused many people to forget about the real issues facing the league. We had an entire offseason of debate over 1.5 PSI, and, even with every team now in training camp, Deflategate still hasn’t gone away.
It’s August and the NFL needs to focus on football. The preseason starts next week. Look at your fantasy football draft boards. Read about playoff projections. Try to pinpoint your team’s next breakout players. But for the love of God, shut up about Deflategate.
