Voice of the 'Fan

While the results aren't in yet on the latest scandal involving the AFC "champion" New England Patriots, the public opinion against the AFC East champs will only grow until the NFL finally decides to toss aside political favoritism and throw the book at owner Robert Kraft and his staff.

While it's readily accepted that the Colts were totally outplayed in a 45-7 loss, the 4th blowout defeat at the hands of the Pats in the Andrew Luck era, the revelation after the game that some of the balls were under-inflated (11 of 12 Patriots game balls, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen) taints the result. The Pats have had the rep of being bullies with certain teams to the point of running it up, as they have 4 times now against the Colts, as if they needed to. Coach Bill Belichick hasn't learned his lesson from the first of those blowouts, in which star tight end Rob Gronkowski was injured when he should've sat out the 2nd half, with his team comfortably in front.

The question I have, before going forward, is how in the blue hizell did Belichick, a respected defensive assistant under Bill Parcells with the Giants before landing his first head coaching job with Cleveland, go from being "nattily clad" as Chris Berman often referred to him, to being a coach auditioning for a job with the CIA, given his lack of communication with the media? If anyone has a legit answer, I'd like to read it.

Digression aside, the media will stick with this story up until February 1, when the Super Bowl takes place in Glendale, AZ, the same place where the Pats' tainted "perfect season" of 2007 went up in flames vs. the Giants. While Belichick & Crybaby Tom Brady may not admit it, they're looking to exorcise the ghosts of that night. Good luck with that against Seattle, boys, 'cause it ain't gonna happen. While Belichick may deny any knowledge of the balls being deflated, just throwing an unpaid underling under the bus isn't going to cut it, unlike Spygate in '07. Because of the simple fact that Kraft has political pull to enable the NFL to accept what amounts to plea bargaining from the Pats, it may take a higher authority to bring down the Patriots. Like, maybe, the government.

Think about it. If embattled commissioner Roger Goodell can't properly penalize an ally like Kraft, the house of cards will start tumbling with him. The league would be forced to remove him as commissioner, and a federal investigation would result in the following:

1. Forfeiture of draft picks, not only for this year, but for 2016-8. Yep, 4 years without draft picks.
2. A very large fine levied against not Belichick or Brady, but Kraft himself.
3. New England would give up as many as 4-5 home games per year while the government investigates the prospect of other shady doings at "The Razor".

As it is, while some of us might think of Belichick as a real-life version of "Wacky Races" villain Dick Dastardly, save for the fact that he's a winner (Dastardly was a comedy relief villain who lost every race), how could he let something like this happen on a consistent basis, and if he really doesn't know what is going on among his lesser assistants, where do we go from here? While someone suggested that Belichick be dismissed or suspended for his role, whatever it is, in "DeflateGate", we'd need evidence to tie him to it, which right now is difficult. For a man who's been in the league as long as Belichick has, with 5 rings, why would he even approve of taking shortcuts?

I guess we'll never know for now.