Patriots, Belichick Facing Historic Penalties From the NFL?

As a Colts fan, I’m still licking my wounds from the 45-7 beating that my guys suffered at the hands of the Patriots this weekend. I didn’t suffer from delusions of grandeur. I knew full well that the game was going to present a monumental challenge. Just like every Colts fan out there, I’m mad at the apparent lack of effort, I’m mad at the lack of execution, and I’m mad at being humiliated on national TV.

When I heard about the whole “deflate gate” story, to be honest, I kind of just dismissed it as silly. Let me say, I really don’t think that under inflated footballs had much to do at all with the Colts getting pummeled. Indy got beat by the better team, plain and simple. No excuses can change that.

So when I see Patriots fans making comments on twitter and such, talking about this all just being sour grapes, and the Colts fan base just looking for any excuse to justify the absolutely butt kicking we received Sunday night, I tend to get a little bent out of shape. I’ve also heard people talk about how it’s “no big deal” and how “everyone cheats.” Really? It seems funny that Belichick always seems to be the one who gets his hand stuck in the cookie jar.

As the story started to grow legs, I have to say it started to get under my skin. Again, make no mistake about it, I believe the Colts would have lost the game regardless. I’m not looking to make any excuses about why my favorite team got their butts handed to them in the conference title game. What I am saying though, is this is no small matter.

To add insult to injury, the Patriots steadfastly maintain that they don’t have a clue how those footballs got deflated. In a press conference Tuesday morning, Patriots head coach Bill Belicheck denied any knowledge of the alleged deflation of 11 out of 12 game balls in the Patriots possession that were used in the AFC title game.”Knowing that now in the future, we will certainly inflate the footballs above that low-level to account for any possible change during the game,” he added, suggesting the weather had something to do with it. Oh, brother.

Later the same day, New England quarterback, Tom Brady, followed suit, echoing his coach’s denial of any wrong doing. “When I pick those footballs out, at that point, to me, they’re perfect,” Brady answered in Thursday’s press conference. “I don’t want anyone touching the balls after that. I don’t want anyone rubbing them, putting any air in them, taking any air out. To me, those balls are perfect, and that’s what I expect when I show up on the field.”

Oh really? We’re going to play that game now?

Apparently the Patriots are either completely clueless about what goes on their sidelines, or someone’s being less than truthful about what happened to those footballs. I don’t know, I suppose a group of invisible leprechaun’s could have been responsible. The Celtics are from the same town after all.

As Belichick alluded to, some have claimed that the change in pressure could have just been due to weather conditions in Foxborough that day, siting that decreases in temperature could be to blame for the 2 PSI decrease. Let me be the first to tell you, while I applaud the effort to explain away this conspiracy, it simply isn’t the case. Both times, when the PSI was measured on the footballs in question, it was done indoors. Thus, no temperature change. Got anything else?

To top that off, even if the temperature change outside was to blame (which we’ve already mentioned could not be the case) that wouldn’t explain how every single ball, save for just one, was under inflated. Was that 12th ball stored in some sort of magical climate-controlled bubble? There is simply no denying the fact that someone within the Patriots organization knowingly broke the rules, and is lying about it. Even in Gillette Stadium, one plus one still equals two. This isn’t rocket science.

There’s no shortage of opinions on the issue. As you can see, the Patriots don’t really have a lot of PR capital right now:

Now we get to the nitty-gritty of this whole thing. This isn’t the first time the Patriots have been caught red-handed. Just a few short years ago, Belichick was personally fined $500,000 out his own pocket, and the Pats lost a first round draft pick in the wake of “spy gate,” their effort to steal opponents’ defensive signals by use of video tape.

These guys are repeat offenders. They clearly don’t have any respect for the integrity of the game, and have essentially thumbed their nose at the league by their continued efforts to game the system. Quite frankly, as a fan of the NFL and sports in general, I find this kind of stuff appalling. If we look at this as though “deflating footballs is not that big of a deal” then where do we draw the line? What rules should be upheld and which ones should we just ignore? It’s a slippery slope that I don’t think Roger Goodell wants to go down.

So what should happen to the Patriots in light of all this? WTHR  channel 13 sports contributor, Bob Kravitz, who originally broke the story, said he believes that Belichick should be fired immediately, if found to be responsible, and at the very least, suspended from the Super Bowl.

It’s likely the Patriots will face a pretty hefty fine, and likely the loss of at least one first round draft pick. To be quite frank, I think whoever is ultimately found responsibly should be suspended for all of next season? Some of you might think that it too harsh, but what else should be done? They already have shown to the world that they were willing to cheat once, and got huge penalties, then did it again.  How should a repeat offender be handled to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

If making Belichick’s wallet $500,000 lighter didn’t stop him from breaking rules, I’m not sure what will, but the league absolutely has to do something to send a message that this type of conduct will not be tolerated. When the Saints staff was found guilty of putting a bounty on opposing players, their head coach was suspended for an entire season.  This is something that warrants the same level of punishment, in my opinion.

The worst part about the whole thing, and this I takes a lot for me to say, is that the Patriots are the best team in football right now.  They didn’t need to cheat to win.  I said the same thing when Kelvin Sampson was fired at Indiana. Why the need to take shortcuts when you’re already in the front of the line?

Roger Goodell should throw the book at the Patriots, otherwise, he’ll open up a can of worms he doesn’t want to open. The owners will be out for blood on this one, and for good reason.

What should happen?  The NFL needs to drop the hammer in New England and make an example of what happens to those who knowingly and blatantly break the rules.

What will happen? That’s anyone’s guess.