I know what you're thinking. Another Patriots fan who just can't let go of Deflategate.
Of course, that's never going to happen. We're never letting go. Then again, we're not the ones picking the scab.
I had shrugged off the NFL's lack of transparency in their less than comprehensive (and therefore less than scientific) spot checks of PSI data in 2015, data that has yet to see the light of day. Don't worry, though, Commissioner Goodell assured us that no violations were found. Nothing to see here. Integrity assured. I didn't expect anything different. The NFL could ill afford to provide exculpatory evidence after all their chest thumping and dick wagging about the integrity of the game.
I was bemused by Deflategate 2.0, a regional theater production of the original with the Giants taking on the role of the Colts and the Steelers repping the Patriots. That story was quashed with remarkable dispatch by the League. PSI, it seems, no longer matters (did someone finally explain what that low tire pressure indicator in Goodell's car console means and why it only seems to come on in the winter?). No, it's all about game day ball prep protocols. As for the Steelers' soggy footballs, not to worry. Protocols were followed. Nothing to see here. Integrity assured.
Then came WalkieTalkiegate. Giants head coach and part-time musketeer Ben McAdoo broke NFL rules for sideline-quarterback communications by resorting to the use of a walkie talkie device to communicate with QB Eli Manning in the Giants' game against the Cowboys when the league approved headset-based communications system failed. To ensure the integrity of the game in such situations, the other team is supposed to have their communications gear shut down until the issue is resolved and communications are restored. McAdoo was either unaware of the rules of the game he coaches or he just didn't give a fuck. Either way, it was clearly a violation of in-game protocols with obvious implications for the integrity of the game. The NFL communications system is controlled; it shuts down when the play clock hits 15 seconds. There were no such controls on GI Joe McAdoo's walkie.
For their sins, the Giants and McAdoo were fined $150,000 and $50,000 respectively and the Giants 4th round pick was shuffled down to the bottom of that round in the 2016 draft.
So, the Giants were fined 20% of what the Patriots were fined for Deflategate in dollars; I'm not sure how to calculate the difference in draft picks (the Patriots forfeited 1st and 4th round picks). Deflategate was based entirely on circumstantial evidence while McAdoo and the Giants clearly, obviously and ineluctably cheated.
Integrity much?
Don't do the crime if you can't pay the fine...
According to Forbes, the Giants had an operating income in 2015 of $133M.
$150K is .001% of $133M.
Is this supposed to dissuade teams from stashing walkie talkies on the sideline in the future?
More importantly, what ever happened to precedent?
Isn't $1,000,000 and the loss of draft picks the bar the league set for any threat (real or imagined) to the integrity of the game?
Small differences matter, except in the case of PSI...
In Kevin Seifert's NFL Nation post, he suggests that one factor in the different punishments is that the Giants cooperated with the League's investigation while the Patriots didn't.
He notes New England failed to make a part-time employee available for a second interview (I seem to remember it being a fifth interview but whatever) and because Tom Brady destroyed his personal phone, a device the League had no legal rights to, by the way, and which Brady had every right to withhold, destroy or seal in amber (that just sounds like something rich people might do).
As for the Giants, of course they cooperated. McAdoo was all over SportsCenter going all "Broadsword calling Danny Boy! Broadsword to Danny Boy!"
Another point Seifert raises is the recidivist behavior of those cheatin' Patriots. Ah, yes. Spygate. You remember Spygate, don't you? 2007? And then there were all those other times the Patriots were caught cheating over the intervening seven years. Let's see… um… That's right. Nothing. You got nothing.
So, yeah, I'm calling bullshit on that. I don't care if Roger Goodell and the League thinks Robert Kraft and Tom Brady were acting like jerks. They didn't tamper with football PSI. They didn't cheat. That should be the only thing that matters.
I'm calling bullshit on Goodell and the League having learned a lesson from Deflategate and getting it right this time, too. The only thing these events proves to me is what I've known from that Monday following the 2014 AFC Championship Game. Goodell and the other former Jets employees in the League office as well as the Other 31 Owners all hate the Patriots. They are jealous of New England's success and the mockery they've made of the NFL's efforts to ensure league-wide mediocrity. I'm sorry. Did I say mediocrity? I meant parity, of course. They would do anything within their considerable powers to bring the Patriots down to their level, to absolve themselves of their failures to do so on the field of play.
The League couldn't even dock the Giants a 4th round pick for an overt effort to undermine the integrity of the game and that's "getting it right?"
Bitch, please.
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