The NFL, Patriots Need to Move on From Deflategate

Full disclosure: I cheer for the New England Patriots. So take this for what it’s worth.

Deflategate has truly deflated some of my love for football. And no, it’s just because one of my favorite players — Tom Brady — is caught in the crosshairs. Or that one of my favorite teams is now down its best player for four games, two division games and two tough non-division contests. It will be tough for the Patriots to secure a No. 1 seed, maybe even a division title, in a now tougher AFC East.

The reason I don’t like it is that there are no winners here. The NFL looks silly, despite saving some face, and the Patriots look even sillier because now they’re without a draft pick or their best player — something they could have taken on the chin last year and been done with.

But now we have yet another year of Deflategate. Instead of celebrating the NFL Draft, we’re talking about deflated footballs, PSI and whether or not Brady and the Patriots cheated. Guess what? None of it matters because fans have largely already made up their minds. All this collateral damage does is hurt the NFL and the Patriots, it’s just a matter of who got hurt a little bit less.

Regardless of where you stand on Deflategate, it’s “more probable than not” that this decision did nothing to change your mind. In the eyes of people who don’t like Brady and the Patriots, he was guilty the day the story came out and no amount of factual evidence or court rulings was changing that.

Patriots fans like myself are not about to change their minds about Brady or the Patriots being one of the greatest dynasties ever. So really what was the point of all this court bickering?

As this thing rolled on it only continued to push a bad story into the spotlight for the NFL and the Patriots. You have to admit it’s odd that the league would want to drag one of its biggest, most marketable stars through the mud like this. Most logical fans on both sides believe that while something certainly was fishy about Deflategate, there was something equally fishy about the way the NFL handled the investigation.

Yes, the Patriots look awfully guilty. Brady destroyed a key piece of evidence, his cell phone, and the text messages the NFL did recover were quite damaging. I agree that the most plausible outcome is that there was some funny business, but I’m also not going to say that it was definitely the Patriots at fault or that they were doing this all year.

The NFL looks just as guilty with the way it handled its investigation. The league destroyed — oh, excuse me, “misplaced” — key PSI data from 2016 that would help bring clarity to the issue. Not to mention that the league never really questioned the officials administering the test, despite the fact that when each football was examined twice during halftime, every single result from the second test was lower than the first.

Were the officials administrating the test right? We’ll never know. And why test all of the Patriots footballs and only four of the Colts? Did weather have an impact? Again, we’ll never know.

Then there’s the most damaging piece of evidence — a Sports Science video that essentially showed that deflated footballs had a “minimal impact,” and actually gave the defense an edge in closing on the football. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the deflated footballs were switched out at halftime and Brady threw his only interception in the first half. Furthermore, the Patriots outscored the Colts 28-0 in the second half, with regulation footballs, after leading 17-3 at halftime.

(Side note: I didn’t forget about that Deflategate study on the Patriots’ fumbles, it’s just irrelevant because it’s largely been debunked.)

I understand why the NFL had to challenge this court ruling, it’s been beat up in court lately. Bountygate was probably the most brutal example. The NFL’s suspensions of Jonathan Vilma, Anthony Hargrove, Will Smith and Scott Fujita were overturn by the court, only to be re-instated by the league. Goodell’s decision was ultimately overturned by his predesessor, Paul Tagliabue, who was brought in to hear the player’s appeals on a second go around.

While Tagliabue confirmed Goodell’s factual findings, the fact that the suspensions were overturned left a black eye on his reputation. He couldn’t let another team land another haymaker.

But you know what? The Patriots would have been better off taking these penalties and being done with them in 2015 than to have another year of finger pointing. This will now be a story until October, and beyond if the Patriots limp to a sub-.500 start. Had the Patriots taken their lumps last year, this thing would have truly been dead and buried.

The Patriots shouldn’t have appealed, but neither should the NFL. This has become an “ego” measuring contest and it needs to end. The mere thought of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing a case about deflated footballs is sickening. It’s time for New England to take its lumps and move on.

Both sides should have done so long ago.