Why DeflateGate Says More About the NFL Than It Does About the Patriots

It's a pinprick of a scandal—but the league, as with Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson and concussions and pot-smoking, has no idea how to handle it.

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By Will Leitch

January 22, 2015 at 5:53 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Is it OK if I admit to you that I find the DeflateGate (or the edgier “Ballghazi”) scandal a total nothingburger of a story?

This is not to say I do not understand why it has blown up. It features Bill Belichick, the Dark Sith Lord of the NFL, a man widely considered to be happy to sacrifice the eternal souls of those who love him most intimately if it meant an extra half-yard on a second-and-8 wideout hitch. It features Tom Brady, the golden-boy quarterback with the supermodel wife, million-dollar smile and a faint but undeniable hint of sulfur. And it’s the Patriots, once the plucky underdog upstarts of the 2002 Super Bowl, and Bono, and socialist player introductions, and now, thanks to the infamous Spygate, the symbol of avarice and win-at-all-costs greed. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady could have teamed together to solve world hunger, defeat ISIS, and get “Freaks and Geeks” back on the air, and people would still hate them both. Any time there’s anything remotely scandalous near the Patriots, people are going to pounce.