PSIcheated: Deflategate caught on quickly, but TMQ is weary of "-gate," perhaps because there have been so many. Your columnist will call the scandal PSIcheated.
Newspaper front pages, the lead story of network evening newscasts, 24-7 cable news coverage -- if the Patriots doctored game balls, that's wrong, but why the four-alarm level of coverage?
One reason is simply that football is the king of sports. America is obsessed with this game, down to its minutiae. The NFL has an outsized role in society, and never hesitates to use that outsized role for money and ratings. When the NFL screws up, it's an outsized screwup.
Another reason is that many Americans feel the NFL has gotten too big and deserves to be brought low. This is especially true at the top of the news media, which has never understood football culture, but many who love football feel the same way. The National Football League broadcasts the word "arrogant" on all known frequencies. The public subsidies to billionaire owners, the taxpayer-funded motorcades that treat teams, owners and Roger Goodell like visiting royalty. Millions of Americans are sick of that stuff. And the NFL needs to become aware that there are millions of Americans who are sick of its excesses.
Initially mulling this, I was tempted to say another factor in the reaction is that so many people viscerally dislike Belichick*. But the Saints' bounty scandal and the Ray Rice imbroglio got four-alarm treatment, and neither involved Belichick*.
He doesn't help himself by having a public appearance style that makes Ben Bernanke seem like a stand-up comedian. Belichick's* dad was an assistant coach for Naval Academy football; the son may have grown up thinking football wasn't just an entertaining sport but every bit as important as what the United States Navy does. One of the failings of football culture is taking itself too seriously, as if football games were vital to society. Belichick* radiates this failing.
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AP Photo/Rick OsentoskiWho's to blame for PSIcheated? Maybe the Trilateral Commission.
Pete Carroll has a smile on his face, likes a good time, chats up reporters, slaps fans on the back. Carroll is the gregarious host who wants everybody to come to his party. Belichick* is the angry guy who wants neighborhood kids to stop running across his lawn. The New England coach clearly despises the sports reporters whom his contract requires him to speak to, and doesn't show affection for spectators, either. This makes him seem an ingrate -- if it weren't for sports reporters and sports fans, he wouldn't enjoy a phenomenal salary. The negative energy field that Belichick* projects causes many to enjoy seeing him squirm.
But on reflection I don't think the reaction to PSIcheated is about Belichick*. It's about the assumption that people reach positions of power and privilege -- in sports, business, government, school, Wall Street -- by cheating, and most are never caught.
The American economic and cultural systems are far from perfect but are mostly open, surely less rigged than the systems of most nations. Laws are far from perfect, but in the main, American law pushes for fair competition. But if there's a fair, open competition and one person ends up with a powerful, highly remunerative position while another ends up with little or nothing, we may prefer to believe the whole thing was fixed. Seeing a powerful, wealthy person caught cheating reinforces this.
Postscript No. 1: Reader Will Krummel of St. Louis notes, "After the trick plays in the Patriots-Ravens playoff game, Tom Brady lectured the Ravens that they should read the rulebook. Meanwhile, the Patriots were breaking the rules. How arrogant."
Postscript No. 2: Even the National Federation of High Schools mandates football inflation levels. There's just no way on God's green earth the Patriots did not know about this rule.
Postscript No. 3: TMQ regularly reminds -- including in this 2007 column as Spygate started -- that there is no law of nature that says professional football must remain popular. One reason NFL games are so great is the sense that they are ultimate all-out competition. If a sense arises that the games aren't really fair, popularity will decline. Add to this that the growth of legal sports betting. In a sports-betting environment, any indication of shenanigans will be magnified.
Postscript No. 4: Andrew Luck's hand size (pinkie to thumb with fingers spread) is 10 inches, Brady's is 9.4 inches. That's a bigger distinction than it may seem. Belichick* leaves nothing to chance. Going into a rain game for the AFC title, he would have known that all other things being equal, Luck would have a better grip on the ball. He wouldn't have known the Patriots would breeze to victory.
Postscript No. 5: In September 2007, Goodell said, "The consequences are severe if you don't follow the rules and you don't play fairly." Now the NFL says it can't possibly finish an investigation until after the Super Bowl. Can't possibly! This is like when Washington deflects some controversy by appointing a commission that files its report years later.
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