5 reasons the Patriots actually ended up better off after Deflategate
Roger Goodell had to shake hands with Tom Brady and Robert Kraft. And if that awkward moment wasn't enough reason to be thankful for the way that the NFL's two-year Deflategate saga ended (let's hope), there were always the Twitter jokes.
Deflategate was always more about Goodell than the Patriots. The NFL commissioner seemed to take this one seriously, as though he had to prove. He wanted to show he wasn't a pushover by penalizing the best team of his era because they did something that nearly every other team probably has done at some point.
The Patriots, though?
Rarely has a team so clearly come out as winners of its own scandal. They took everything Goodell threw at them, turned around and won a championship. At this point, Deflategate's contrived presence in the NFL world serves only as a reminder of the Patriots' greatness.
Let's take that one step further and present five reasons the Patriots actually are better off because of the 2014 scandal, from least important to most:
5. It definitely didn't hurt
The Patriots were "caught" deflating footballs during the 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Colts. They proceeded to win the Super Bowl in the following game, make the AFC title game the next year and win another Super Bowl this year.
The Patriots are 17-7 overall since the Deflategate game, including those two Super Bowl championships. Brady has thrown 76 touchdowns to 15 interceptions in that span. Wasn't he the one who needed softer balls?
4. It gave them motivation
Honestly, NFL teams shouldn't need extra motivation. But the Patriots had an easier job than most in painting an us-against-them vibe in the locker room. That chip on the shoulder extended all the way up to Kraft, the owner whose victory speech Sunday was a spectacular "F U" to the commissioner.
3. It overshadowed Spygate
Deflating footballs is no big deal. Spying on opponents, though, is pretty blatant cheating. Wake Forest had an ugly one blow up last month, but in the history of spying in football, there's never been anything quite as grandiose as the accusations against the Patriots for Spygate.
Spygate should be the real black mark on the Patriots' dynasty. It should be the thing that has people questioning Bill Belichick's legacy, at least a little. It should be the thing that Goodell can hang his hat on to prove he came down hard on a dominant team. But he didn't. He failed to thoroughly pursue Spygate, which reportedly was part of his motivation for being overly aggressive on Deflategate, which was an embarrassment for the league and managed to make a lot of people forget about or dismiss Spygate entirely.
The exact details and level of knowledge involved in the spying of Spygate remains unclear. The overriding truth is that the Patriots probably deserve a lot more acrimony for it than for Deflategate.
2. It kept Brady fresh
What 39-year-old professional athlete couldn't use an extra month off? Brady is way too competitive to be happy about his four-week ban, but even he must look back now and realize it jump-started perhaps the best season of his career, from an efficiency standpoint.
After a 3-1 start without him, the Patriots went 11-1 with Brady as he racked up 28 touchdowns to two interceptions. This was a year in which older quarterbacks — who are still younger than Brady — such as Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger showed their age. It was a year after we watched a shell of Peyton Manning get carried to the finish line by a spectacular Broncos defense.
Brady threw 512 passes and was sacked 19 times this season entering the Super Bowl. Matt Ryan, who won NFL MVP and performed spectacularly all year and even in the Super Bowl losing effort, threw 609 passes and was sacked 40 times entering the big game.
There was the added bonus of giving backup Jimmy Garoppolo some significant playing time. Garoppolo proved that he could be a reasonable facsimile for when Brady retires, but he also dramatically increased his trade value. Yes, the Patriots could end up getting something very good for a guy who didn't even play a postseason snap.
1. It made them the good guys
The Patriots already were the bad guys. They were the bad guys not because of Spygate or Deflategate or any other gate. They were the bad guys because that's what happens when you win a lot of games, especially when you've got the surly coach and the movie star-looking quarterback. Most of America rooted against the Patriots for no good reason before they were handed some vaguely good reasons.
Deflategate, though, gave people a reason to root for New England. That reason was Roger Goodell. NFL fans love the NFL and hate Roger Goodell; this is a unified thing. The Patriots made the commissioner look bad over and over again. They made him look petty. They made him look disorganized. They made him look vulnerable.
For that, every fan base owed the Patriots a little sliver. The next time Goodell comes down hard on one of their guys, spewing vitriol his way will be a little easier because of Deflategate.
Everyone except Patriots fans will go back to disliking the Patriots now that they won again. That's doubly true of those who also dislike President Trump, given his often-discussed friendships with Kraft, Brady and Belichick. But for a moment, the Patriots were a team that America needed to succeed — for every concussive hit, for every retired player without benefits, for every domestic abuser gone mostly unpunished, for every non-guaranteed contract in a brutal sport.
The Patriots were vigilantes. Sunday, they delivered their own brand of justice.
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