Colts Media Exposes Own Hypocrisy With DeflateGate II

By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- After 18 months of endless media bloviating over the insufferable legal and moral twists that encompassed DeflateGate I, the "controversy" that was DeflateGate II came and went with nary a whimper - not even from the quivering lower lip of Mark Brunell.

No, it's not the least bit surprising that the Pittsburgh Steelers did not get nearly the same level of scrutiny, demonization, and punishment from the NFL over their own allegedly deflated footballs as the Patriots did over theirs. The fact that NFL PR man Brian McCarthy tweeted a 32-word statement exonerating both teams, via a screenshot of a note-taking app, showed how little he cared about the "scandal." It's obviously extremely hypocritical, yet understandable that the NFL would not want to endure another deflation controversy with another storied franchise.

But the lack of intensity in the media response to the Steelers' accused ball deflation exposed an entirely different hypocrisy. DeflateGate II has been no more than a tiny blip on the national media's radar. But a closer look at some well-known members of local media markets outside of New England, who are only well-known around here because of DeflateGate I, shows that the hypocrisy boils down to the local levels.

Two particularly vocal critics of the Patriots during DeflateGate who cover the Indianapolis Colts, one of whom was directly involved in the escalation of the original DeflateGate scandal, confirmed in their reactions (or lack thereof) to recent controversies what most of New England already knew: they were simply out to get the Patriots. They are a microcosm of the media's nationwide crusade to tear down the Patriots empire, and they both reside in Colts country.

Let's start with Bob Kravitz, who was the first to break that the Patriots were being investigated for playing with footballs inflated below the legal limit. His report, which was only that the Patriots were being investigated, was accurate. But it was the first time that the story came to light and his report led directly to Chris Mortensen's infamous "11 of 12" tweet that blew DeflateGate up into a full-blown scandal and national headline-grabber.

Kravitz's cardinal sin was not even his original report, which again was not false. Rather, it was his call for Robert Kraft to fire Bill Belichick less than 48 hours after his initial report that truly made him one of the top public enemies of New England. So surely, he had the same reaction for the Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin, right?

As it turns out, if it's not his own story, or if it's not his own city allegedly being victimized, or if it's simply not the Patriots involved in the matter ... Kravitz doesn't even want to hear about it.

It's impossible to express in words how incredibly, disgracefully hypocritical this tweet from Mr. Kravitz was. One of the first reporters to bust out the torches and pitchforks for Belichick can't be bothered to deal with Part II of a mess he helped create. Like any inevitable hypocrisy for the Patriots' critics, this wasn't exactly shocking or unexpected - but for Kravitz to have the gall to send out that tweet amplifies what could have been implicitly understood with a non-reaction. In one flippant exclamation, Kravitz told the world that he only wants to hear about controversy if it originates at One Patriot Place.

Kravitz wasn't the only Indy-based sports writer who exposed his own hypocrisy this season. Gregg Doyel of the Indy Star reaped page views with his continuous assault on Brady and the Patriots, relentlessly affirming their status in his mind as "known cheaters." Tomlin has been fined for underhanded tactics before and the Steelers are like a walking suspension factory these days, but they're apparently not "known cheaters" in Doyel's eyes. He offered no reaction whatsoever to the Steelers' own deflation controversy, but that wasn't his real sin: just days prior, he actively excused the Colts' repeated transgressions.

How did Doyel react when the Colts' D'Qwell Jackson, who coincidentally intercepted the very ball that was alleged to be intentionally deflated in the first place, got hit with a four-game suspension for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy? Jackson was the fourth Colts player to receive a PED suspension since 2014, so Doyel did his job as a columnist and scrutinized, criticized, and demonized the team he covers for habitually crossing the line and affecting the integrity of the game, right? He stayed consistent with this, right?

Wrong again. Doyel instead penned a column on Dec. 7 titled: "Doyel on PEDs: Colts don't have a cheating problem, they have a stupid problem." So if the Colts are known PED users, they're just stupid; they didn't "cheat," they just showed poor judgment.

This is an inherent fallacy that Doyel got away with, mainly because nobody really wanted to even bring up DeflateGate I anymore. But it deserves to be exposed now that he had no intention whatsoever to have an opinion on DeflateGate II, just days after using his own arbitrary ethical platitudes to give the Colts a pass. Never mind that literally any kind of transgression could be argued as "stupid" decisions. It doesn't make them any less unfair or controversial.

The stupidest part of all of this is that we're still talking about ball deflation at all. It's completely understandable that the likes of Kravitz and Doyel would not want to deal with another 18 months of nonsense, because no one should. But it also creates the implicit understanding that they, along with many others in both the NFL and the media, are hopelessly biased against the Patriots when it comes to breaking the rules. That's certainly what Kravitz and Doyel have done here, and it was to be expected.

The only surprise is that they made their hypocrisy so insultingly obvious.

Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.

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• deflategate