Diegate

 

Spygate appears to be limping to a pathetic but noble end. The story has been carried to its natural end to a slow clap, much like the Bobsleigh in Cool Runnings except instead of being carried by four Jamaican stock car racers/sprinters, it has been carried over the line by Gregg Eastbrook, a couple of bitter Rams players and of course, Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter.

 

The style in which this story has played out is ridiculously mundane. Stories like this should be used as an example for  journalism teachers as advice on what not to do, in the same realm of the way primary teaches maintain;  “don’t end with ‘it was all just a dream”’. In the context of the sports media, a story shouldn’t be created on the impetus of a bitter senator with compromised interests looking for a cheap pop from voters by catapulting him into being a talking point round the bars of Pennsylvania still bitter from the success of their East Coast neighbours. Before going all the way out with the media furore, we should perhaps consider if there is anything more than a bitter video assistant with his one time to gain attention. Finally, we should also not make a story out of a no names Rams player suing the Patriots. MTV would be missing a trick if they didn’t invite these guys on some low budget celebrity reality tv type vehicle, just to see what else they are willing to do for any sort of recognition.

 

Even the Boston Herald jumped on the Spygate story in particular fashion, it was as if the Boston media saw that the New York media were glorifying a team that was winning, so the Boston Media thought they had to restore the East Coast equilibrium and began to eat alive a team that had just lost.

 

In parallel to this, we are also seeing the collapse of the restraining order from the woman who claimed that Randy Moss was abusing her. Awful convenient that this emerged just as the Patriots were beginning there playoff push, just as things seemed a little too quiet. It created a story from nowhere and manufactured more reasons to hate the Patriots, the Patriots could be exposed for not being the perfect little team they are.

 

Brett Favre can be glorified because he wasn’t always a threat, he was always a nice little side story. He was liable to collapse by himself, he was liable to be let down by his team mates and he was liable to be beaten by villains with more weapons. The Patriots had the most weapons and people couldn’t stand it. We build people up to knock them down.

 

At times, I think the impetus on parity is a brilliant display of league structuring by the NFL. I often spend time wondering how it would work in the Premiership for example. The one caveat must be that if a team can rise above the leagues restraints, we should accept them and commend them.

 

The real reason people are so bitter about the Patriots is because of the stupidity of most other teams. Patriots get the best out of all their players,  that is why they are so good. Teams continue to be stung by over paying Patriots players only for them to completely stink once the reach their chosen destination.  People like Deion Branch are the focal point of why the league hates the Patriots, they constantly put one over on people by lulling lesser teams into thinking a Patriot will change the mentality and be the missing piece in the jigsaw of victor. While the Patriots acquire table scraps through the back door and mould them into winners, then they sell the table scraps as three course Michelin star meals.