Deflated Gate: A West Coast Perspective on an East Coast Champion

2/13/2015

While normally a political columnist, Arthur Schaper weighs-in on how a contrived controversy cost a Super Bowl champion its limelight.

Arthur Christopher Schaper

Ever since the Patriots won the 2015 Super Bowl in Arizona, I have heard very little fanfare celebrating the Foxborough, Mass. team's close victory against the Seattle Seahawks.

They deserve a lot more praise and celebration for what they accomplished.

The final game between last year's Super Bowl winner and the Patriots was a good game. It was not a shut-out or a slaughter, but a close fight to the end.

Normally, I don't get excited about sports, but for football, I make an exception, and particularly for the Patriots.

Why are the Pats my favorite team? I love the logo, pure and simple, and perhaps puerile and simplistic to some. Deal with it.

Who doesn't like Pat Patriot? He is based on a real figure, an inspiring example to football fans, and anyone else who bothers to watch the pigskin run up and down the field. Patriots are still alive and well on the field of life, as well as the football field. Sometimes their plays are spectacular (Governor Scott Walker restricting public sector unions) and sometimes their passes fail (Mayor Allan Fung losing the race for Governor), but no matter what they outcome, you know that they play to win.

I don't care about Seahawks or Ravens, and Steelers? What the heck is that? I can't get behind a mascot like that.

So, what else about the Patriots impressed me enough to make them my team?

It was the 1997 Super Bowl, the Patriots against the Packers, and the Pats were the underdogs then. They played okay, but the Packers practically walked their first touchdown early in the game.

Not impressive, but so what? I respected the team then because at least they showed up to play.

I have been a Patriots fan ever since -- not that I watch football religiously, or anything. Another game gets my attention most of the time. Starts with a P, but has jockeying elephants trying to stomp out jack-asses, with a mixed-up media spreading lies about the winning team, all trying to downplay their successes. Still sounds like football, but politics is a full-contact sport with long-term consequences. Lives are at stake as well as the fate of the nation. One day I hope that more people will get worked up about their politics, values, and goals at the statehouse as much as at the stadium.

This year, though, I was following the NFL games, from the pre-season to the playoffs. My coworkers got me into the professional sports spirit. A friend as well as coworker wore his Patriots shirt every Monday to work, since company policy lets employees wear their teams' jerseys on site. The customers love it, and we get to rah-rah about our team against the others. I even bet that the Patriots would beat the Packers toward the end of the season. Yes, I lost that bet, but the Patriots won the Bowl, didn't they?!

The Pats plugged ahead, lost to the Bills, edged out the Ravens, then wiped out the Colts. After that spectacular take-down, the rumor mills started rolling. The Patriots were running a deflated football toward the end of the game. So, they cheated to defeat the Colts for the Championship? Since when has a deflated ball helped a team's game? The logic escapes me.

What can one say. Haters are gonna hate, but the Patriots just shook it off.

Now, CBS Boston reports that the rival teams inflated the whole controversy just to embarrass Patriots' Quarterback Tom Brady. Wow.

Whatever happened to sportsmanship? How sad that football players are upending the professional aspect of the sport. Don't hate the player, hate the game if you can't play it and win on the field. What's next? Are we going to see Tennis star John McEnroe yell at every field judge who calls a ball out? Sports is all about winners and losers, and the losers should stop whining and focus on fixing what they did wrong to win the next time.

That's life, and that is what life is all about.

Another reason why I like the Patriots. They played a good game, regardless of all the politicking. This Brady guy has been with his team for ten years, too. Loyalty still matters in this world, and the symbolic significance of a Patriot staying with his team. . .well, there is no need to spell it out further.

The Patriots victory is big for me, too, because for the first time since I reached out and contacted conservatives, Republicans, and any freedom-loving advocate in New England, a team that I was rooting for finally won, and won big. I believe that the Patriots' Super Bowl victory will translate to bigger and better victories for my other team in the other game that I watch so closely in Rhode Island and throughout the country, where patriots stand up to tyranny, push aside the media lies, and win playing a good game for the greater good of all.

Arthur Christopher Schaper is a writer, blogger, and political commentator on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance.

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