So here we are, about a week and a half out from the biggest event in the NFL season, Super Bowl XLIX.
And yet, we’re only about four days in what will be a two week long media scandal about deflated footballs.
I’m here to tell everyone to take a step back and calm down. This whole ordeal is a complete non-issue and has blown up to an extreme level.
Quarterback’s have been marking up footballs for years and I really don’t see what the big deal is of a little air missing from a football. I’m sure if we checked the balls in every single NFL game played over the years, we wouldn’t be too surprised to see that most teams push the envelope on this issue.
Would everyone be in this big of a hissy fit if this happened to say Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning or Russell Wilson?
But no, it happened to the team that everyone loves to hate, and got caught with SpyGate a few years ago so let’s bring out the pitchforks and make the Patriots replay this game. That or let’s suspended Brady and Belichck!
Give me a break.
For starters, the AFC Championship game on Sunday wasn’t even close.
Everyone does remember the final score was 45-7 right, in a game in which the Pats had 177 yards and three touchdowns on the ground?
ESPN Sports Radio 810 in Kansas City reported that the Patriots’ footballs were tested at the half, reinflated at that time when they were found to be low, then put back in play for the second half, and then tested again after the game. The Patriots played with 12 new balls for the second half and went on to score 28 unanswered points, completely blanking the Colts in the process in route to their blowout win.
Heck, and not saying me or my team was good or anything (we weren’t, we were pretty mediocre, sorry fellas) but we did the same thing in high school football! We would get at least one new ball about once a week and me and my other quarterback would rub that ball up and use it all week in practice until we felt that we had it to our likings. A football out of the box is probably the worst thing in the world to throw. It is still so shinny and slippery. Just like pitchers with a new baseball, you have to rub it up to get that shine off. He also had a little bit smaller hands than I did as well, so if the ball was missing a little air we didn’t really think twice about it.
Just like the referees in this weekend’s Patriots/Colts game, if they felt or noticed something a little off with the ball, they wouldn’t hesitate to throw it back to the sideline immediately.
It just comes down to a feel thing. It sounds silly, but every quarterback I have been around likes his own footballs a different way. It isn’t an advantage or anything like that, if the balls are right then it is just one less thing a quarterback has to worry about come game-time.
An under-deflated football wasn’t the difference in this game and isn’t a difference in any game. You think it really made Tom Brady, one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, that much more accurate or able to throw passes he otherwise wouldn’t have been able to complete?
If you do, honestly, you’re a fool.
Former quarterback Drew Bledsoe weighted in on the matter, telling WEEI of Boston;
“This story seems kind of silly to me,” said Bledsoe. “Did they actually deflate some footballs? I don’t know maybe. Does it really affect the game? I don’t think it does. It’s one of those stories that if they did it, they probably should’t have. Is it an offense that changes the outcome of a game, or dealt with in some serious matter? I don’t really think so.”
Colts tight end Dwayne Allen, when speaking to @NFLonFOX added that this whole thing is “Not a story. They could have played with soap for balls and beat us. Simply the better team. We have to continue to build.”
They’re right.
Let’s stop the nonsense now.
