Inflated Deflategate Hate

I’ve been surprised how many people I have heard say they were thinking about not watching the Super Bowl because of the cheating allegations from deflated footballs.  I can’t speak about everywhere else, but living in what would be considered the Denver Bronco market, it seems that the fans here have taken cheating personally, starting with Ray Lewis’s deer antler spray 2 years ago, Seattle’s Adderall use last year, and now their rival, and Peyton Manning’s nemesis, has moved on to the big game all because of deflated footballs.

It’s ridiculous to me that fans or teams would feel victimized by all this, especially since a lot of these claims and accusations were unfounded, and the results of the deflation investigation haven’t been released yet. 

Given the Broncos recent history of cheating, it would be extremely hypocritical for their fans to get upset about it.  In 2007, the Patriots were involved with “spygate” in which they were “caught” videotaping a Jets practice.  In 2010, the Broncos were caught doing the same thing to the 49ers.  This year, the Broncos are being looked at for the way they handled and misled injury reporting surrounding Manning.

So my next question is, if fans are wanting to boycott this Super Bowl because of “cheating”, why didn’t they do it last year, or the year before that? 

Gaining an advantage over an opponent isn’t anything new.  Last year, the Giants were faking injuries to slow down the Eagles fast paced no-huddle offense.  The Colts were pumping in artificial crowd noise a just a couple years ago.  The Redskins were penalized for salary cap violations recently.  The Giants kicked footballs that were lined up on the line of scrimmage in Super Bowl 25 to slow down the Bills no huddle offense.  The Giants also filmed the Bills practices for that Super Bowl, too.  Bill Romanowski was infamous for his steroid use.  Offensive linemen use double-sided carpet tape to hold down their jerseys to prevent defensive linemen from being able to grab them.  They also used Vaseline in the ‘80’s to accomplish the same thing.  Fred Biletnikoff and Lester Hayes were famous for their use of Stickum when they were amongst the league leaders in receptions and interceptions respectively.  Paul Hornung was suspended for the 1963 season for betting.  In 1925, the Milwaukee Badgers fielded a team of high schoolers in a colluded effort with the Chicago Cardinals to inflate their win percentage.  

And pro football probably has the shortest list of cheating per capita compared to all the other sports.

Much like the wealthy taking advantage of loopholes in the tax system, the working class milking the clock at work, and presidents of the United States issuing executive orders to circumnavigate proper procedures, NFL teams will look to gain advantages over opponents.  Of all the forms of “cheating” that I have seen over the years, deflated footballs seem like the least likely to offer a real advantage.

But if fans are really going to consider this “cheating”, where will they stop?  Stadium designs?  The Seahawks stadium is designed to amplify crowd noise.  

Russell Wilson, following the Seahawks improbable win in the NFC championship game, blamed divine intervention for the victory.  If that's not blatant cheating, I'm not convinced anything else qualifies.