As most of you have probably guessed, I am a huge New England Patriot fan. Like it or not, the Patriots have the best winning pct. of any team of the past ten years. However, I'm not here to talk about that beyond pointing that salient fact out. What I'm here to talk about is the major disconnect that most football fans and the NFL has between reality and fantasy.
For those of you who live across the pond and thus don't really follow American Football, the uproar over the Patriots (specifically Tom Brady) is over the fact that some footballs during a playoff game lost some PSI's. Forget the fact that the Patriots were the better team and the opposing team simply did not bring their "A" game to the field and instead concentrate over the American equivalent of flopping/diving on the pitch.
Now, we all have teams we love to hate, simply because that team is very good at what they do and they don't have a problem in pointing that fact out to everyone. In baseball, there is a love/hate relationship with the New York Yankees; basketball, it's probably the LA Lakers; hockey, probably Chicago or Detroit; football, the Patriots hands down.
Anywho, Tom Brady received a four game suspension for using a slightly deflated football. By and large, most sports fans who are not the Patriots and talk radio/television have been raising cane over the fact that this suspension was TOO LIGHT. That's right, too light. For a deflated football.
For the past several months, people have been going slugnutty over this issue. Now, on the other side of the token, let me bring up another story that will justify my opinion about American sports fans.
Last year, football player Greg Hardy was arrested and charged with DOMESTIC BATTERY. Initially, he recieved a 10 game suspension for DOMESTIC BATTERY. However, he reached an out of court setttlement with the woman he beat the snot out of , the charges were dropped and his suspension was reduced to 4 games.
4 games people. For beating the snot out of a woman who didn't deserve to be treated like that.
In its infinite wisdom, the NFL feels that deflating a football is just as bad, if not worse, as beating the snot out of an innocent woman.
Let's see: a domestic violence incident that originally got the player 10 games, reduced to 4; deflating a football that the NFL is taking a hard intractable line on, 4 games.
Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture? How can people, of all persuasions, call for the head/career of a marquee football player over the fact that he MAY HAVE used an underinflated football to win a playoff game, yet remain stunningly silent over the fact that another marquee player beat the snot out of innocent woman?
Personally, I think the underinflated football is much ado about nothing and in fact, it's nothing more than a witch hunt against the Patriots, because after all, once you have been caught legitimately doing something wrong (Spygate some 12 years ago), it's always good to be considered guilty right off the bat. Because you know the old adage, shoot first, ask questions later (maybe).
I am on hiatus until Tuesday, as I'm going with my wife to see Peter Frampton and Cheap Trick at Foxwoods tonight and I'm planning on not being on the 'net for Monday, so all comments will be answered then.
(c) 2015 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.
I'm in agreement with you. I haven't paid any attention to deflategate beyond the initial stuff. So silly.
ReplyDeleteExceptionally so.
DeleteWhoops, I seem to have broken my world about not being on the 'net today. I didn't hit the sack until 12:15 this morning and when I'd finally woke up, I was still somewhat psyched from the concert last night. My apologies. I will now spend the rest of Monday recuperating and vegetating.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely have a point there.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteIt just bothers me that people are taking such an ungodly hard line on this, like it was the end of the world or something.
Someone should beat the snot out of Greg Hardy with an under inflated football. Or maybe just insert one up his rectum. Either would be a far better punishment than sitting out a few games.
ReplyDeleteThe NFL, in its infinite wisdom, always chooses to piggyback what the judicial system does, which more often than not, doesn't really work. They should've kept the suspension at 10 to make a point, not go easy on him just because the judicial system went easy on him.
DeleteSparkling Red's comment made me grin, and I agree. Mind you I have no idea what you are talking about apart from the fact an innocent woman has been beaten up, and any man or woman that beats up another innocent person deserves to be punished.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes. American sports can be about as strange as European sports.
DeleteIn a nutshell, a football player, Greg Hardy, originally received a 10 game suspension for domestic violence. However, it was reduced to 4 because he settled out of court with the woman for an undisclosed amount of money. Because of the settlement, the woman never came to court to testify and the charges were dropped. The NFL reduced his suspension to 4 games.
Another football player was accused of using an underinflated football (footballs are inflated to roughly 12-13psi, possibly the equivalent size of a soccer ball) during a playoff game. He was given a 4 game suspension for it.
The gist of my argument is that the NFL is not differentiating between the two, so each transgression is receiving the exact same punishment, even though domestic violence is 1000 times worse than an underinflated football.
There lies the rub.
They certainly have fucked up priorities (lack thereof.) Makes me ill. I love Sparkling Red's comment!
ReplyDeleteYou would not believe how fucked up their priorities are. If you get bored, do a little Googling for quality stories about this and you'll see how bad this has gotten.
Delete