Thursday, May 14, 2015
This conspiracy is, well, less vast...
The big news this week is Deflategate, the Clintonesque scandal involving underinflated footballs used by the New England Patriots in last year's AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The sports media has quickly taken sides, the majority calling it another skirting of the rules and embarrassment to the game with a vocal minority quickly rising to the defense of the Patriots and much maligned Quarterback Tom Brady and Head Coach Bill Belichick. The sides are predictable much like those of both the pro and anti-Clinton contingencies.
This certainly isn't the first time the Patriots have gained an advantage from defiance of "loose rules" or even an out-and-out violation of actual rules of the game. A "loose rule" actually propelled the Patriots to their first Super Bowl victory, Super Bowl XXXVI on February 3, 2002...the infamous "Tuck" rule allowed the Patriots to beat the Oakland Raiders in that season's AFC Divisional Game when Raiders' cornerback Charles Woodson sacked Brady, causing him to fumble. The fumble was recovered by Raiders' linebacker Greg Biekert; however, officials reviewed the play and changed the call to an incomplete pass, thus surely changing the game's outcome.
The Patriots had already been engaging in ignorance of or (even) defiance of rules as early as 2000, more specifically the Spygate controversy, whereby they would videotape (steal) other teams' signals giving their own players clear advantages during games. Although documented cases of these infractions date back more than several years, the Patriots weren't actually caught until the 2007 season and penalized prior to the 2008 season (fine and loss of draft choice). It is further noted the Patriots last won a Super Bowl in 2005, a possible motive for their involvement in the current controversy and subsequent victory in Super Bowl XLIX earlier this year.
The parallels between "Deflategate" and (your choice of) Clinton controversy are striking. Both are clearly scandalous and contain aspects of cover-up. Both involve a basic lack of respect for others and a slap in the face of tradition. Although "Deflategate" didn't involve violation of the law, even if the Patriots broke the law, it feels as if the media would give them a pass anyway. If nothing else, the media has been able to easily change the narrative (much like any Clinton scandal). For instance, the clear engagement in systematic cheating (playing with underinflated footballs) has been altered through media manipulation to "11 of 12 footballs measured in the second half of the Patriots-Colts AFC Championship game were underinflated."
We went from a clear pattern of cheating (Tuckgate, Spygate, Deflategate) to "11 or 12 footballs in the second half of one game"...much the same as Monicagate, Benghazi, or something as nefarious as "selling nuclear secrets to the Chinese," becoming simply "the GOP attacking the good work of the Clinton Foundation." No one but the media (and kudos to the sports media) could minimize a pattern of bad behavior, even lawlessness, and turn it into a simple annoyance. Still, if I'm Brady, I go ahead and delete all those texts and phone calls...
This certainly isn't the first time the Patriots have gained an advantage from defiance of "loose rules" or even an out-and-out violation of actual rules of the game. A "loose rule" actually propelled the Patriots to their first Super Bowl victory, Super Bowl XXXVI on February 3, 2002...the infamous "Tuck" rule allowed the Patriots to beat the Oakland Raiders in that season's AFC Divisional Game when Raiders' cornerback Charles Woodson sacked Brady, causing him to fumble. The fumble was recovered by Raiders' linebacker Greg Biekert; however, officials reviewed the play and changed the call to an incomplete pass, thus surely changing the game's outcome.
The Patriots had already been engaging in ignorance of or (even) defiance of rules as early as 2000, more specifically the Spygate controversy, whereby they would videotape (steal) other teams' signals giving their own players clear advantages during games. Although documented cases of these infractions date back more than several years, the Patriots weren't actually caught until the 2007 season and penalized prior to the 2008 season (fine and loss of draft choice). It is further noted the Patriots last won a Super Bowl in 2005, a possible motive for their involvement in the current controversy and subsequent victory in Super Bowl XLIX earlier this year.
The parallels between "Deflategate" and (your choice of) Clinton controversy are striking. Both are clearly scandalous and contain aspects of cover-up. Both involve a basic lack of respect for others and a slap in the face of tradition. Although "Deflategate" didn't involve violation of the law, even if the Patriots broke the law, it feels as if the media would give them a pass anyway. If nothing else, the media has been able to easily change the narrative (much like any Clinton scandal). For instance, the clear engagement in systematic cheating (playing with underinflated footballs) has been altered through media manipulation to "11 of 12 footballs measured in the second half of the Patriots-Colts AFC Championship game were underinflated."
We went from a clear pattern of cheating (Tuckgate, Spygate, Deflategate) to "11 or 12 footballs in the second half of one game"...much the same as Monicagate, Benghazi, or something as nefarious as "selling nuclear secrets to the Chinese," becoming simply "the GOP attacking the good work of the Clinton Foundation." No one but the media (and kudos to the sports media) could minimize a pattern of bad behavior, even lawlessness, and turn it into a simple annoyance. Still, if I'm Brady, I go ahead and delete all those texts and phone calls...
# posted by mediacopp : 5:03 PM
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...another MediaCopp prognostication come true...Brady DID delete and/or destroy all those text messages...
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