The New England Patriots will raise their Super Bowl XLIX banner at Gillette Stadium before taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL’s season opener Thursday night.
Finally, we’ll be able to talk about football, about the plays that were made and the ones that weren’t.
Finally, we can forget about the Wells report, Tom Brady’s suspension and appeal before Commissioner Roger Goodell, and a federal judge who was forced to rule when the two sides couldn’t resolve their dispute.
Well, maybe.
The Patriots and their fans just want to enjoy the game, but many fans outside New England remain highly suspicious of the team.
They will always apply asterisks to the Patriots’ Super Bowl championships in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2014. Those outside New England will say that Spygate – the 2007 videotaping scandal in which the Patriots were caught cheating by videotaping opposing coaches from their sidelines – was the reason the Patriots won the first three Lombardi Trophies.
They will insist that Deflategate – in which the Patriots were accused of deflating footballs used in their 45-7 AFC championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts in January – was just another example of continued cheating by the NFL’s alpha franchise.
Patriots fans have had enough. You can see their frustration on Twitter, on Facebook, in the comments section of every Deflategate story. You turn on talk radio and hear their angst when one of their favorite players is attacked.
Patriots fans are tired of the accusations, especially those in Tuesday’s dueling stories by ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated that detailed just how much the rest of the NFL distrusts – and dislikes – the Patriots.
ESPN dredged up Spygate and delved into many previously undisclosed aspects of the investigation. While Goodell punished the Patriots, many others in the NFL, according to the story, felt he went easy on the franchise because of his relationship with owner Robert Kraft.
That’s why, according to the ESPN story, Goodell came down so hard on the team in Deflategate.
Sports Illustrated listed the various ways in which opposing teams felt the Patriots were cheating, especially during home games at Gillette Stadium, from having clubhouse personnel stealing game plans and jamming radio frequencies in headsets to failing to provide Gatorade at the right temperature.
It’s become fashionable to bash the Patriots, to join the chorus that New England’s rise to the top of the NFL is greased with illegal activities.
Certainly the Patriots aren’t entirely innocent. They were caught cheating in Spygate. And the balls were deflated. They often appear to be arrogant, something other teams hate.
But to suggest their championships are completely tainted is unreasonable.
Yes, Malcolm Butler knew what play was coming when he sprinted in front of wide receiver Ricardo Lockette to intercept Russell Wilson’s pass in the waning seconds of Super Bowl XLIX and secure New England’s fourth title. But it wasn’t because he stole a signal. It’s because the Patriots scouted the Seahawks and had run that play against the defense in practice days earlier. Butler had been beaten in practice for a touchdown. He remembered the formation and made the play.
Yes, Tom Brady knew where to throw the ball on his game-winning touchdown pass to Julian Edelman, but not because he had someone whispering in his ear what the Seahawks were doing on defense. He knew because, six minutes earlier, they had run the same play and Brady had overthrown a wide-open Edelman.
It’s time to stop piling on the Patriots.
It’s time to stop dredging up infractions and accusations from seven, eight years ago. It’s time to stop talking about properly inflated footballs and court appeals.
It’s time to enjoy football again, to appreciate the physical skills of a Rob Gronkowski and the determination of a Tom Brady.
Let the games begin.
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