OPEN THE FLOODGATES
Look out Colts! Here come the Deflate-inspired Pats
T HIS WAS THE beginning of Deflategate, a tweet from the highly respected Bob kravitz of NBC affiliate WTHR in indianapolis, delivered to the world shortly after the 2015 AFC Championship game on the morning of January 19, at 12:55 a.m.:
Breaking: a l eague source tells me the NFL is investigating the possibility the Patriots deflated footballs Sunday night. More to come.
there was so much more to come: psi and ted Wells and troy Vincent and Jim Mcnally and John Jastremski and tom Brady’s cell phone and Jeffrey kessler and Bill Deny the Science Guy and ideal Gas Law and the fractured relationship between longtime pals Roger Goodell and Robert kraft and Brady’s four-game suspension overturned by Judge Richard M. Berman after it has been upheld by the commissioner whose disciplinary powers have come under fire.
“i knew it would be a big story. ... i knew that anytime the flag- ship franchise, a team headed to the Super Bowl, is gonna be under investigation for cheating, especially given Spygate, i knew it would be a big deal,” kravitz said from indianapolis. “But the fact that it went to the Wells Report, the fact that it ended up in federal court, was a total shock to me. i thought it might be a couple of weeks, and they would objectively be able to ascert ain whether t he balls are deflated or not using whatever gauges they chose to use. But the fact that it became this incredible passion play that lasted eight months, was just overwhelming to me.”
it all comes full circle Sunday night.
Balls to the wall inside Lucas oil Stadium.
andrew Luck and the Colts and the city of indianapolis against tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
Brady and Belichick against the world. again.
here’s what we sometimes forget about Belichick and Brady: they would beat their grandmothers 45-7 if they could. So they will want to bludgeon the Colts 45-7 again because it is what they do when they start keeping score.
a possible added problem for the Colts is tthis: Because the Colts were the ones who started the Deflategate mess, Brady and the men fiercely loyal to Brady will look to punish them for igniting the series of events that called his integrity into question, that left him with the Scarlet Letter “C” for Cheater in the eyes of Goodell’s NFL and precincts reporting outside of new England.
Deflategate seemingly has resulted in Brady and the Patriots motivated to exact the same type of vengeance on the rest of the league as they did post-Spygate in 2007, until they ran into Eli Manning and the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
on the other hand, this socalled rivalry has been so onesided lately the Colts probably are fortunate they remain below the Jets on the Belichick-Brady enemies list.
on the other hand, it probably doesn’t matter: it’s personal with the Patriots no matter who they play. Belichick and Brady crave one for the thumb and history as much as they did one.
For the Colts, this is a chance to avenge their humiliating AFC Championship defeat in Foxborough, Mass., the last place they want to visit in January.
as fortunate as the Colts faithful are for andrew Luck being delivered to them after Peyton Manning, the fact remains Belichick and Brady stand as the same Evil Emperors for Luck that they did for Manning. only once — a memorable comeback victory in the 2006 AFC Championship game in indianapolis — did Manning as a Colt deny Belichick and Brady 60 minutes from a Super Bowl.
Perhaps it is coincidence Luck sat the past two games with a shoulder injury that, barring an 11th-hour setback, has been revived just in time for the exorcism his entire town has planned. or perhaps it isn’t.
Luck’s 0- 4 record against Belichick and Brady includes such one-sided humiliations that you might wonder why Colts general manager Ryan Grigson hasn’t tried to swing a trade for the Deflator: 59-24, 43-20, 42-20 and 45-7 in last year’s AFC title game. the envelope, please: six touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 9-for-42 rushing. Colts fans still are waiting for Luck, who has yet to advance to a Super Bowl, to overtake Brady as the face of the NFL. no such Luck.
Disregard all t he mealymouthed platitudes from the Colts. they hate the Patriots. their manhood is on the line. they’re sick