Scott Garceau: Deflate-Gate, An Issue With Integrity
Who let the air out? I feel a Baha Men comeback coming on. Sing along with me, who, who, who, who, who? I just watched the CBS Evening News and the lead story, maybe the collapse of the Yemeni Government and the resignation of the pro-American president, nope. Could it be the report that says that the US has killed 6,000 ISIS fighters, not on this night. Maybe talk of some common ground between the President and the Republican controlled Congress, if you guessed none of the above go straight to the head of the class.
The lead story was footballs and how much air is in them. There's nothing like a gate to get the nation's attention and Deflate-Gate has a grip on us and won't let go. I get it, NFL football is the national pastime and we're leading up to a game that's so big they need Roman numerals to count them. Throw in a handsome quarterback and a hooded coach and you've got the cast for a killer movie.
The hooded coach addressed the issue Thursday and Bill Belichick said he was "shocked" that his team used under-inflated balls in Sunday's AFC Championship game. He said he was "completely and totally unaware" of the accusations until Monday. He didn't quite solve the puzzle saying "I have no explanation for what happened."
Was coach-hoodie telling us the truth? Not sure, but hearing Belichick saying he was "shocked" sounds strange. Belichick and shocked--I don't know if I can connect those two words. Some thought the coach threw Brady under the bus when he told us "Tom's personal preferences on his footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly provide." Thanks coach, so we'll get to the bottom of this when Brady speaks this afternoon, finally!
Thursday afternoon Brady stood in front of cameras in a packed media room and put an end to this nonsense with this, "I have no knowledge of anything. I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing. I'm very comfortable saying that nobody did — as far as I know." Now we know the rest of the story. What!
Three things jumped out at me after hearing coach and QB speak. First, Belichick's "shocked" statement. Nope, not buying it Bill.
Second, Brady lost me when he was asked about playing with a football that was some 20% deflated. His response, "I'm not squeezing them, that's not part of my process," Brady said. "I grab it. I feel the lace, the leather. I feel the tack on the ball. That's really what you go for." Sorry Tom, I'm calling BS! You, sir, are a craftsman among the best to ever play your position. You've handled a million footballs and have a feel for those footballs like few others in the world. Please don't tell me you played half of a football game and didn't notice that the ball was deflated, unless maybe you always play with deflated footballs, C'mon man!
Third, I found it interesting that Brady hasn't heard from the NFL, he' a key figure in this controversy and he hasn't heard from the home office? Ravens players and coaches have been contacted by the NFL but not Tom Brady, strange.
The Patriots are a damn good football team, maybe the best in the NFL. Belichick and Brady are two of the best ever at what they do, but this doesn't smell right. This isn't a safety issue or an off-the field issue (see Ray Rice) this one is about the integrity of the game. Roger Goodell and his investigative posse had better get this one right. If Deflate-Gate leads to Brady he should be hit hard and if the trail gets to Belichick (see Spy-Gate) look out Bill. Messing with the integrity of the game and the shield is a serious offense, covering it up could make it a lot worse.
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