01-23-2015, 02:23 PM
Suspend the coach, play the game over, make the coach sit out of the SuperBowl game, fine the team heavily and take away a couple of draft picks...none of it sounds bloodthirsty, to me -- they're all rational options to one who cares about the integrity of competition.
But, it's not even about the Patriots or football to me. It's about cheating.
If I was teaching a college history class and I found out that my best and favorite student had stolen a copy of the final exam to unfairly prepare in advance, I'd call that student an effin' cheater, without qualm. If it turned out the majority of the test was on the Renaissance period which that student knew like the back of his hand and that he would have scored the highest grade on the bell curve even if he hadn't unfairly prepared in advance, he'd still be an effin' cheater. Not a little bit of a cheater. Not a justified cheater. Not any less of a cheater because other students before him had cheated. An effin' cheater, period. He would get more than a slap on the wrist. Whether I'd make him take the test again, or put a letter in his academic file which could hurt his graduate school prospects, or recommend that the school suspend him, or fine him and put him on academic probation...would depend on school policy, whether it was his fist infraction, how student cheating penalties had been handed down in the past, etc... Same principle as the deflated ball situation.
I think the NFL is a sorry organization if you can't call cheating what it is without people contending that cheating is just part of NFL football or that you must have it out for the cheating team if you call a spade a spade.
I don't know how those balls got deflated and who's responsible. But, if it was intentional and someone on the team ordered it, then the Patriots cheated in a championship game and that shouldn't be considered "minor", in my opinion.
But, it's not even about the Patriots or football to me. It's about cheating.
If I was teaching a college history class and I found out that my best and favorite student had stolen a copy of the final exam to unfairly prepare in advance, I'd call that student an effin' cheater, without qualm. If it turned out the majority of the test was on the Renaissance period which that student knew like the back of his hand and that he would have scored the highest grade on the bell curve even if he hadn't unfairly prepared in advance, he'd still be an effin' cheater. Not a little bit of a cheater. Not a justified cheater. Not any less of a cheater because other students before him had cheated. An effin' cheater, period. He would get more than a slap on the wrist. Whether I'd make him take the test again, or put a letter in his academic file which could hurt his graduate school prospects, or recommend that the school suspend him, or fine him and put him on academic probation...would depend on school policy, whether it was his fist infraction, how student cheating penalties had been handed down in the past, etc... Same principle as the deflated ball situation.
I think the NFL is a sorry organization if you can't call cheating what it is without people contending that cheating is just part of NFL football or that you must have it out for the cheating team if you call a spade a spade.
I don't know how those balls got deflated and who's responsible. But, if it was intentional and someone on the team ordered it, then the Patriots cheated in a championship game and that shouldn't be considered "minor", in my opinion.