I certainly view the NFL* as corrupt. Even if you grant the Wells report its conclusions on the face of it - and to me, that right there is a sham, when its numerical component rests on the assumption of reversing the testimony of their own officials - the "penalty" phase rests on an earlier "penalty" that's specific to the Patriots. Comparable behavior preceded the last sham proceedings on the part of other teams; Comparable behavior preceded this unproven infraction on the part of other teams; neither merited any penalty. "That's football," if it's anybody else. For us, total 2 first rounders and a 4th rounder, plus a 4 game suspension for the GOAT QB.
So even bending over backward to say - and this is, by the admission of the NFL*, unproven - "Yeah you got us", this stinks of off-field "leveling." Of course the other 31 owners like it. They can't beat us on the field. Big surprise that it's teams that can't get past us that pull this crap.
So I'm still watching, I'm still a fan. Maybe it's my version of liking Wrestler X more than Wrestler Y in WWE. Sad, when you think that this was once one of the "major" sports that were tracked as somehow "real" games -- the equivalent of what you played as a kid, when someone won, someone lost, and wahhh, losers sometimes cried that something wasn't fair, which got them bupkes. The score is the score.... and everybody knows if someone really cheated. None of this "if you measure with Gauge 1, then measure with Gauge 2, then take into account for the ideal gas law, now follow the ball its under one of the three cups, keep watching it, hold on what's in that text over there..."
I'm not going to waste my time and virtual breath trying to get other fans to keep watching the NFL*, because, for exactly the reasons I stuck the asterisk there, it's proven itself to be intentionally attempting to take down one of its constituent franchises.
All I'm saying is that the Pats banner over my computer stays there, despite the Mrs. insistence that my bedroom at our age should not look like a college dorm. And the Pats, unfortunately, play in the NFL*, cheatery as that "league*" is. So I'm stuck.
Some of the fans that are just un-friending the NFL* and the Pats are younger, or jumped the bandwagon, and some have been with the team 50 years. I don't blame any one of them.
I just don't expect anything from the Brady appeal but the possible restoration of some playing time. I think even if we go 0-4 we end up in the playoffs this year with a big chip on our collective shoulder. It's a "maybe" rather than a "done deal" that we win the division - hmmmm sounds like the "parity" (or parody) that the League* wants, right? What a coinkidink.
I wouldn't be surprised if Brady gets in Goodell's office, Goody has a lackey close the door, he puts his shoes on the desk and says,
"Tommy, fact is, you win too much. You do the 4 games. Now let's talk about the weather or something for half an hour so it looks like there was a meeting. One word of this and football's over for you. You and I both know I've been granted the power to do that."
And I don't think TFB goes the court route. Maybe yes, maybe no, I just don't hang my hat on it.
Which means, for me, I don't have a choice - on to 2015, until I see otherwise. I'll add that I'm always wrong, so this would be a fine time to be wrong.
I just see anybody looking for vindication as stretching out the inevitable. You won't get "full vindication." Even vindication would come with a raft of other **** that we haven't even seen before, some **** about when you're allowed to re-lace a cleat or some crap, which would immediately become the "latest" way the Pats "cheat," even though everybody else in the league does it too and has never heard of the rule. ("Hold on, that rule is written in crayon...")
Doesn't matter. What happens on the tilted field is all that matters at this point. I know they've tilted it, don't get me wrong. But that's the lay of the land evidently.
Another year, another ring, another "asterisk" from the NFL* and a bunch of whiny Clots/Jest fans... yeah I'd be okay with that. The whole league is spending its time looking for new excuses for losing to the Pats a this point. There is no greater flattery.