It says something about a person’s arrogance that he can make statements so absurd — even if delivered with a serious, reptilian cool — that anybody with more than a few brain cells collectively responds: “Hahaha. Oh, you’re serious?”
As Bill Belichick morphs before our eyes from an NFL coaching legend to a cartoon, an actual astrophysicist weighed in Monday regarding the New England coach’s claims that “atmospheric conditions” at the AFC Championship game caused 11 of his team’s 12 footballs to lose air and become under-inflated in slightly more than two hours.
This comes from Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist by way of Harvard, Columbia and other institutions of the really smart, even if he mixes with the common people on Twitter: “For the Patriots to blame a change in temperature for 15% lower-pressures requires balls to be inflated with 125-degree air.”
Just further affirmation: I think we know where the only hot air is coming from.
This isn’t about whether Belichick is in danger of being viewed as an afterthought among greatest NFL coaches in history, or whether New England will lose its status as one of the premier organizations in professional sports history, or if Tom Brady ever will lose his place among the one-name icons sprinkled through football’s history of quarterbacks (Montana, Unitas, Starr, Marino, etc.).
This is about legacy. They’re forever tarnished. All of them.
It doesn’t matter what Bob Kraft, the New England owner, said Monday after the Patriots arrival in Arizona, even if he delivered it with such conviction and passion: “It bothers me greatly that (Belichick’s and Brady’s) reputation and integrity has been called into question. … If the investigation (clears them), I would expect and hope that the league will apologize to the entire team, and in particular Coach Belichick and Tom Brady.”
It was a smart move by Kraft to speak up for his coach and quarterback, even if it didn’t probably didn’t convince anybody in the room.
Brady, Belichick and this entire chapter of Patriots’ history never will be viewed the same. Any historical reflection on Belichick, Brady, New England now begins: “They were great, but …”
They are Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, sure-fire Hall of Famers before making the conscious decision to become chemical mutants in the name of more fame, more money. They are everybody who ever cheated and probably didn’t need to (even if winning three Super Bowls in four years but getting blanked since being caught videotaping another team’s hand signals in 2007 fuels speculation otherwise).
The NFL has yet to interview Brady. You know the last time a league wants to do is confront an athlete about cheating before he plays a really big game. But the league reportedly has “zeroed in” on a Patriots’ locker room attendant as the culprit in the ball deflation, according to Fox Sports.
Stating the obvious here: Minimum-wage locker room attendants don’t go rogue. They do as they’re told by coaches and quarterbacks and even kickers, or they go back to their old job, which possibly involves a spatula.
If New England defeats Seattle Sunday, Belichick will tie Chuck Noll as the only four-time Super Bowl winning coaches, and Brady will tie Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana as the only four-time winning quarterbacks.
But Noll, Bradshaw and Montana never had their names connected with “Spygate,” never were accused of taping another team’s practices from Super Bowl week, never were caught using deflated footballs (which are easier to throw and catch, particularly in inclement weather), never turned its weekly injury report into a comedy skit.
Question: If they’ve been caught doing this much, how much haven’t they been caught doing?
Belichick followed Kraft to the podium and said little beyond, “My attention is on the Seattle Seahawks.”
Brady said little at the press conference. Earlier, on his Monday morning radio show in Boston, he said his “feelings got hurt” by the accusations. He’ll get over it.
The greater truth was spoken by Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman, who referenced the cozy friendship between Kraft and his good friend, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, after the two were pictured together at a party on the eve of the AFC title game. “Will they be punished? Probably not,” Sherman said. “Not as long as Robert Kraft and Roger Goodell are still taking pictures at their respective homes. … You talk about conflict of interest. Nothing will stop them.”
Maybe you discount Sherman’s comments because he plays for the opposition this week. Maybe you discount all of the noise in the media.
But can you discount all of the rest?
Belichick and Brady have united the masses: an astrophysicist; Hall of Famer Troy Aikman (“It’s obvious Tom Brady had something to do with this.”); respected ex-quarterback Mark Brunell (“And I don’t believe there is an equipment manager in the NFL that would on his own initiative deflate a ball.”); former Carolina GM Marty Hurney, whose team lost a Super Bowl to the Patriots by three points (“This isn’t about deflating balls. It’s an issue of if there is a culture of cheating at the organization that most people look at as the gold standard in this league.”); Hall of Fame coach Don Shula (“Belicheat”); Bill Nye, The Science Guy (“I’m not too worried about coach Belichick competing with me. What he said didn’t make any sense.”).
They’ve all called b.s. on Belichick and Brady in some form, except for Wilson manufacturer spokesperson Jim Jenkins who literally said, “That’s b.s.”
These are stains that will not come out.
