Credulity

Who you got?

 

So, I can’t be the only one who shook his head when I read of a “person of interest” in the Deflategate investigation by the NFL. I know. Jay Glazer. I shouldn’t make too much of this but, “person of interest?”

Really?

Okay. Another leak from the NFL now trending on Twitter.

I think Bill Belichick’s now infamous Mona Lisa Vito moment was in response to a broken promise from the League. Remember when the investigation was going to be completed in two to three days? I believe the Patriots were promised the investigation would be completed by Friday and everyone would be able to move on to the actual football game.

That didn’t happen.

So Belichick took the podium the next day and gave the pigskin world a reason to believe that he and Tom Brady were actually telling the truth!

Immediately afterwards, I noted that the League’s gruntle was dissed by Bill’s press conference performance.

While sports blogs seemed to favor Bill Nye’s debunkery, the majority of scientists (everyone else) came down on Belichick’s side. Most of the math came out with a difference of -1.8 PSI. It seemed pretty clear that Belichick’s explanation and his numbers were completely plausible.

And what happens next?

The League gives the pigskin world a reason to suspect the Patriots (and suspicion appears to be sufficient to convict when it comes to the Patriots). An “person of interest” who suspiciously visited a bathroom for 90 seconds with the bag of game balls in tow. This was followed breathlessly by assertions that one could easily deflate a bagful of footballs in 90 seconds, giving a relieved pigskin world a reason to stop questioning their unreasoning hatred for all things New England Patriots.

Okay, the haters never stopped hating.

Science be damned. The Patriots could’ve done it so naturally they must’ve done it.

Why?

The culture of cheating.

I’ve been seeing more and more of this. There’s a pattern here, the pigskin pundits and bobbleheads say as the focus shifts once again to Belichick.

A pattern of deceit. A culture of cheating.

It’s been a long time since 7^th grade geometry but I seem to recall that it takes two points define a line and three points to define a plane. I would assume it should take more than one point to define a pattern (which I admit is not a geometric term).

So, what have the pigskin pundits got besides Spygate?

What is this pattern, this culture of cheating of which you speak, good sirs?

Seriously, tell me what other incident has occurred since Spygate involving the Patriots, Belichick or Brady?

I googled “What have the Patriots done besides Spygate?” which generated a lot of Spygate-related hits but I noted a Wall Street Journal link, “From Spygate to Deflategate” and thought it might provide some insights.

It didn’t. It described Deflategate as the second time the Patriots have been “caught” cheating, the first time being Spygate. Of course, nothing has been proven in Deflategate so it’s probably sloppy editorial practices at the WSJ that let “caught” slip through. There’s also a link in that article to more lazy journalism over at CBS Sports, with a litany of Patriots scandals through the years. This list includes incidents that occurred well before Belichick was head coach or Robert Kraft was the owner of New England’s franchise (Snowplow-Gate!).

It includes a reference to the Tuck Rule game, of course. The Tuck Rule may have been a bad rule (it has since be expunged from the NFL’s rule book so yeah, bad rule) but it was a rule in January, 2002 and it was correctly enforced by the officials. Tuck-Gate? Child, please. I thought everyone wanted the Patriots to follow the rules?

The list also includes Aaron Hernandez, confusing murder with cheating (hey, happens to everyone), but fails to note the Patriots cut Hernandez immediately, suffering a significant hit to their salary cap over the last two years. I know some might confuse that with “integrity” so let’s just move on.

Bill Belichick outwitting John Harbaugh is there, too. Deception-Gate! Flip the script and Harbaugh is a genius badass. Belichick? Devious. Tricksy. Still, should this be included on a list of cheating?

Unless and until evidence that the Patriots tampered with game balls is produced, this pattern of behavior, the culture of cheating comes down to a single, seven-year old event.

That’s it. That’s the list.

Tell me the last time Tom Brady was “caught” in a lie?

You can’t.

But you know who is a proven liar?

Roger Goodell.

Look, I get it. Journalists can’t function without access. Going after Goodell and the NFL front office is a career-limiting move. Of course, “journalist” may be too dignified a term. Most news organizations would trumpet the fact that one of their employees got it right but I’ve yet to see anything from ESPN acknowledging that Bill Simmons nailed it when he called Goodell a liar. And they won’t. Guys like Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen, Jay Glazer, et al., can’t function without sources within the League office. Without that, they’re just sitting in their mom’s basement, eating corn flakes for dinner and posting their pigskin conspiracy theories on Tumblr.

Why is the NFL facilitating a Super Bowl with an asterisk on it?

Because all of this sound and fury regarding the integrity of the game is bullshit.

This is all about the Benjamins, homes.