Oh Boy, America's favorite son and his Super Bowl winning team have been caught cheating.
That's right, Tom Brady, The GOPs leading candidate for the Presidency in 2020 and his team, The Patriots, have been outed by Commissioner Goodell.
We here in Raider Nation are more than familiar with espionage and conspiracy theories in Patriot Land. It seems like only yesterday that I nearly broke the big screen TV at the pizza parlor where I was watching the Snow Bowl.
In fact, I am sure that somewhere in Alameda, Al Davis is probably telling anyone who will listen, "I Told YOU SO".
And speaking of Al Davis, imagine IF it were his franchise that had a spy using a video camera on the sidelines stealing signals from the other team. Imagine if Lane Kiffin was using multiple channels to communicate with his players. Or what if a man upstairs was intercepting the play calls from the opposition?
I may just be jaded, it does come with the territory when you've rooted for the Raiders for 30 years and been robbed by the League just as long, but, I think that the Raiders would be stripped of victories in any game in which they cheated, including any Division or League Titles.
Tell me this, Shouldn't the Patriots retroactively forfeit any games they are proven to have cheated when they won?
I think they should be 0-1.
The commissioner is floating around a loss of draft picks. If that is the case, then they should at least receive the same treatment that the Timberwolves got when they cheated the salary cap system.
The Timberwolves were fined 5 draft picks, which covered all of their picks for three years. But, the New England Patriots did not cheat the salary cap, at least not that I know of, the Patriots cheated the integrity of the game as a whole.
It was not a few players taking steroids and cheating. It was the entire organization cheating.
If a players cheats, uses steroids, he is suspended for four games. FOUR GAMES!!! How do you punish an entire organization?
Terrell Davis, on the NFL Network, suggested that the Patriots be on probation and not allowed to play in the post season, like in college. Rod Woodson laughed it off, but I believe he is onto something.
How do the Jets feel right now? Or anyone who has lost a close game to the Pats?
A few draft picks will not aptly punish a team that gets any free agent they want to defer money and restructure their contracts to play with "The Golden Boy" and the "Mastermind". Well after this maybe we should call them the "The Tarnished Boy" and the "Mastercheat".
This will be something to watch closely because it is not just a punter, Todd Sauerbrun, on HGH or a DB, Ray Caruth, in a trunk. This is America's team being caught with their pants down, ala Craig Thomas, and we will see if they get preferential treatment. We all know that Al Davis would be serving a three year ban for something like this.
Heck, even Eddie DeBartolo got the boot for nothing having to do with football and Pete Rose never cheated, that we know of(Although in baseball they do say, "If you aint cheatin' you aint tryin'").
This is Roger Goodell's biggest test and I hope that the punishment fits the crime.
Here is a recent photo of the Patriot's spy being questioned by Goodell:
You will recognize him as none other than: Benedict Arnold Himself!!!