Keidel: Patriots Haunted By Their Past And Their Unbelievable Arrogance
By Jason Keidel
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Remove emotion for a moment. Forget that the Patriots have always been your favorite team or always beat your favorite team.
Since childhood, we've attached ourselves to team sports because we assume what we're watching is real, that a team wins or loses within the lines and the rules. If one team has a secret edge on the other, then it rocks our preteen sensibilities, and goes at odds with what our teachers and parents tell us about fair play.
And while you can characterize Tom Brady's transgressions as driving 35 on a 30 mph road, does that sound like the actions of someone who so ardently refused to cooperate? Cops don't rip off a ticket for nudging the needle, for getting home in 12 minutes instead of 15.
Mike Francesa made a simple and salient a point as possible. You may recall that Brady bristled when the Ravens questioned the Patriots' use of eligible receivers. He implored the Ravens to read the rulebook.
Indeed. When you bend the rules, you don't need secret meetings in a bathroom to alter the equipment. You don't refuse to cooperate. You don't get a four-game suspension, lose two draft pics, and docked a million dollars.
And it's time to forget this rampant relativism. Pointing to Ray Rice or other teams that slide balls under heaters to keep them warm is just a way of obfuscating this particular offense.
There is no exact equality, exact justice, or perfect punishment. The idea that one person got jail time for one crime and another didn't doesn't mean the former didn't deserve it.
Another deflection is arguing over Brady's cellphone. His supporters assert that he can't give anyone his iPhone because some compromised picture of his supermodel wife or superhero life will appear on some salacious website. But that could have been avoided, in person, by working with investigators.
Not to mention Brady didn't have to preen at that presser, telling us he's always played within the rules and then specifically deny instructing anyone to doctor the footballs. In essence, he begged the NFL to bust him, to question him, to mess with him. And he learned, the hard way, what we know and is what has made the game of football so charming. It's a total team endeavor. No one player is larger than the game.
Not even Vince Lombardi, perhaps the most important person in NFL history, could keep Paul Hornung out of the NFL pokey. The iconic Packers running back missed an entire season, in his prime, for gambling.
People are asking if Brady's status adds to the penalty. Maybe. We know that the more rungs you climb up the corporate ladder, the more eyes are on you, and the more haters in your stable. But Brady has handled his stardom with aplomb, so 15 years into it isn't the time to get cute with the rules. He risks more than a sentence if he appeals -- he'll be asked to prove he wasn't involved, which means surrendering that elusive phone, which he won't do.
We know the Patriots' past didn't help. This isn't the first time they found the rules to be rather elastic. More than one opponent has sworn the Patriots knew what play they would run long before the ball snapped. Part of that is sublime coaching, for sure. But we also know they've taken cameras into clandestine places.
Which brings us to the final point, made by Evan Roberts. During his show Tuesday, Evan wondered why, if this were singularly on Brady, did they snag two draft picks and pluck a million bucks from the franchise?
Surely, someone important thinks Brady had these balls deflated with the brass' blessing, at least implicitly. It fits a pattern, and their past.
Our past matters. It often follows us, sometimes helps us, and sometimes haunts us. You don't need to be a celebrity, or a celebrity quarterback, to know that.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel