SuperBowl. And why it matters who won.

"Cheaters never prosper"
  - My mother, and probably your mother, and every other mother

"Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat"
  - Jesse "the Body" Ventura


Well another NFL season is in the books, and yes, I am incredibly disappointed in the result. The worst organization in the league won, again, proving that our mothers were just fucking liars and "the Body" was onto something.

The New England Patriots have been caught cheating twice.

CAUGHT.

TWICE.

Now, either they are the worst cheaters in the history of the world, and were caught both times they broke significant NFL rules, or they cheat all the time and have only been caught twice. I wonder which one of those statements is true?

The latter, of course.

Let's brush up on our history. We all probably remember Deflategate, in which Tom Brady was accused of having team equipment managers deflate game balls to fit his preference, a clear violation of the rules. Brady and the Patriots were levied huge penalties, not so much for the actual deflating of the footballs, but for lying to the league and failing to cooperate with the investigation. Brady was evasive, had his cell phone destroyed with a hammer, refused to turn over inculpatory evidence in the form of text messages, etc etc etc. The actual act of deflating the footballs wasn't all that relevant - you may remember they clobbered the Colts in the offending game, so it wasn't like the result was in question. But the lying, the evasion, the dishonesty.....Patriots football, all the way.

Before that, in 2007, there was Spygate, where the Patriots videotaped the NY Jets defensive coaches hand signals from unauthorized locations, in order to determine their play calls and get an unfair advantage. Read the entire article if you wish, but I'll sum it up for you: They cheated, the got caught, Belichick was fined a HALF MILLION DOLLARS, and there were tons of allegations that they had done this on many, many more occasions but it was never proven.

Critics can, I guess, say that I am just bitter because I hate this team and regret any success they may achieve. All of that is true...but it's not that I hate the organization that matters. It is WHY I hate them. They don't follow the rules. They, and their fans, can point to their 6 Super Bowl wins and say "See? That's all that matters. They win.".

OK. That's the kind of world we live in today. The results matter more than the method of achieving those results. We see that in many aspects of society, most notably in the President of the United States.

Let's put aside for a minute that, no surprise, the Patriots owner, coach, and overrated Quarterback are all Trump supporters. No, let's not put that aside - it matters. It shows a lack of character and judgement that lines up completely with their habit of playing fast and loose with the rules.

In 2016, Trump once famously said he could "stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any votes.".

Sadly, that has pretty much been proven in the 2+ years since he said that. His supporters don't give a damn what he does or what he says. If he stood in the middle of 5th Avenue and used a sub-machine gun to mow down a crown of Honduran children, his supporters would say "Yeah, but what about Hillary's Emails???".

The once-proud GOP has used this horror of a human being to further their agenda; to steal a Supreme Court seat and pass LGBTQ-unfriendly legislation. They are just like the Patriots. Win at all costs. Doesn't matter how you get there....just get there.

Nazis can march in Charlottetown and Trump says there were very fine people "on both sides". That is something that should have brought widespread condemnation from both sides of the aisle; but the GOP was largely silent. We've all seen what happens when anyone questions Trump. He lashes out at them on Twitter, the MAGA-army sends hate mail that generally includes all natures of horror including, usually, death threats, and then it all goes away.

The New England Patriots are Donald Trump. Their supporters will allow them to do whatever they want, as long as they win. If Bill Belichick shot someone in the middle of Newbury Street, Patriots fans would insist he got paroled in time for the next NFL season.

During the Patriots scandals, we never heard any of their fans, high-profile or otherwise, condemn their actions. On the contrary: all we got was bitching and moaning about how unfair the NFL was being to them. Poor, poor Tom Brady! He's allowed to do anything he wants to footballs, HE'S TOM FUCKING BRADY, THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME! Spoiler alert: He's not even close, but that's a conversation for another thread.

Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

Thanks, Jesse.