Deflate Gate Scandal: Are New England Patriots in big trouble?
Now let’s start with this….is purposely deflating a football cheating.....yes. The rule in the NFL is, a football must be inflated between 12.5-13.5 per square inch of air pressure. Now the NFL has found that 11 of the 12 balls allotted to the New England Patriots were underinflated by 2 pounds of pressure. 11 of 12 balls, yes that is cheating, but there are still a lot of unknowns here.
Bill Belichick
The biggest unknown is the involvement of Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
If Bill Belichick knew about, or was the one that had the balls deflated, then there should be huge sanctions dropped on the Patriots organisation. If the NFL finds that Belichick approved the underinflation of the balls huge sanctions may be dropped on him as well.
The reason big sanctions may be dropped is because this is not the first time the Patriots have gotten caught bending the rules. In 2007 the Patriots got caught illegally taping opposing teams practices. The NFL fined the Patriots for what would become known as Spy Gate, but a fine may not cut it this time.
In 2012 the New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton was suspended for a year The NFL found out that Saints defensive players were getting bonuses for purposely injuring opposing players.
Now the deflation of the balls is not as atrocious as putting a bounty on certain player’s heads, but the fact that this is possibly the Patriots second offense makes those types of sanctions reasonable.
A one-year suspension for Bill Belichick, if it is found that he is involved, and a fine on the organization would be an appropriate punishment. A one-year suspension would be appropriate because of the fact the he quite simply broke the rules.
If the NFL finds that Bill Belichick is the one at fault, then this would be a huge blemish on his career. Bill Belichick could easily be argued as one of, if not the best coach of all time, but his legacy may be in doubt if he is found to be at fault.
The Colts vs Patriots game
The only thing in this whole scandal that should not be in question is the Colts vs Patriots game this past Sunday. The Patriots defense dominated the Colts offense holding them to only 7 points.
It’s completely irresponsible to say that the deflated balls played any factor in the Colts loss to the Patriots. The defense dominated the Colts offense; holding Andrew Luck to only 126 passing yard, and only allowing him to complete 12-33 passes.
The outcome of the game had nothing to do with the deflated balls, and everything to do with the Colts horrendous play.
Final thoughts
The New England Patriots organization is going to be in a whole lot of trouble if the NFL finds that the coaching staff or someone on the team was behind the deflating of the balls.
Sanctions of any kind may not be given until after this very important Super Bowl for the Patriots. If the Patriots lose this game, people are going to say they lost because they had to play fair. The Patriots legacy, or at least the legacy of the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick era will be in question if they lose the Super Bowl.