Patriots Haters Take 'Brady Got Away With Cheating' Angle
BOSTON (CBS) -- If you still believe Tom Brady cheated, I don't blame you.
The "deflator" texts, the destroyed cell phone. I know, it looks suspicious. But the important thing is, it's not definitive proof of wrongdoing on Brady's part. And even if Brady stuck the needle in the footballs himself, Roger Goodell threw the QB in jail for life over a speeding ticket.
Social media exploded after the news broke that Judge Richard Berman overturned Brady's four-game suspension for his alleged role in DeflateGate, with strong reactions from both sides. New England was obviously overcome with joy at the news, but everywhere else in the country it is quite the opposite.
No matter what the court ruled here, the court of public opinion has already made up their minds: to them, Brady and the Patriots are cheaters.
Good thing the court of public opinion means very little, if not nothing at all. Since the league had such an embarrassingly low amount of irrefutable evidence, and Brady ultimately won this first round, he will always be able to say he was exonerated.
Even if the NFL wins their later appeals, it will not make nearly as many headlines as DeflateGate has in the past seven months and they will have a hard time getting back any suspensions. Brady gets to play all 16 games in the 2015 season, and for the league and 30 owners that is a massive defeat.
Perhaps as predictable as a Patriots AFC East win, those outside of New England reacted to the news on Twitter with a hot take you could have seen coming thousands of miles away while perched atop the tower at Gillette Stadium: 'Tom Brady got away with cheating.'
It would be great if these Twitter trolls and haters could at least get creative, but they're just salty.
Won't someone PLEASE think of the children?!
Never mind that the league is already filled with guys who committed actual crimes and Richard Sherman also won an appeal when he got suspended for PEDs. Where was all the outrage then?
All Patriots fans can do now when anyone bloviates about cheating and setting an example for kids is shrug. Nobody's mind is going to be changed, nobody's taking the Patriots' Lombardi Trophies away, nobody's adding any asterisks, and nothing's stopping the Patriots from raising their fourth Super Bowl banner on September 10.
It would be a waste of Patriots fans' time to even engage fans who try to argue that the Patriots "only win because they cheat." Those people aren't worth it. They don't get it. They're jealous. They're vindictive. And they're terrified of the Patriots winning ring No. 5.
But if you must keep going on about cheating, let me grab a bucket first. I need to draw a bath for your tears.
Matt Dolloff is a digital producer for CBSBostonSports.com and knows it takes a lot more than 0.2 psi to be a Hall-of-Fame quarterback. Read more from Matt here and follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff.
