Still Waiting for the Outrage

I think comparing the Wells Report to a steaming pile of shit is an insult to actual piles of shit. There are commercial uses for piles of shit, after all.

Perhaps the NFL should sue Ted Wells for the $5m they paid him instead of fining the Patriots and suspending Tom Brady.

 

Okay, I never thought the Wells Report justified even the $25,000 fine the rule book calls for (Logo Gauge + The Ideal Gas Law = 12.5 PSI). You can take the Wells Report apart, but you can't put it back together. The latest deconstruction from the American Enterprise Institute lays bare the ineptitude of this obvious and pathetic witch hunt by destroying the flawed justification for a conclusion that is ineluctably now more unlikely than not.

So, where is the outrage? Where are the mea culpas for the venomous screeds and condemnations of Patriots and Brady? Why are pigskin pundits and bobbleheads still taking it as accepted wisdom that Brady and the Patriots cheated even as what little credibility the Wells Report had is crumpled into a little ball and tossed into the trash bin?

Months and millions later, this is where we are: Based on all the evidence – not just the bits and pieces the Wells Report chose to use – it seems more likely than not the Patriots and specifically Tom Brady did nothing wrong.

Doesn't integrity include admitting it when you made a mistake?

Doesn't good sportsmanship include acknowledging when you lose that today the other team was simply better?

I really can't think of anything else to say right here and now but fuck all of ya. 

Seriously. 

Fuck you guys.

Every living football fan west of the Connecticut River who had a party in your pants simply because it was the Patriots and Tom Brady getting taken down.

Fuck you.

Every pigskin pundit and bobblehead who was more than happy to join the mob and their chants of "Kill the monster!"

Fuck you.

Roger Goodell (FTG) and Troy Vincent and Ted Wells and Mike Kensil and the other 31 owners who blackmailed Robert Kraft into standing down.

Fuck you.

All of the players who failed to support Tom Brady, who was willing at some personal risk to put his name on the anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL for his union brothers.

Fuck you.

This isn't about beliefs or suspicions; it's about facts and science. It isn't – or shouldn't be – about Spygate or jealousy.

Strangely enough, it is about integrity. Just not the way anybody thought when it started.