The NFL’s Deflategate Story Is Crumbling Around Them

(Pats Pulpit) – Folks, this is absolutely incredible. ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that the NFL has fired an official from the AFC Championship Game for stealing one of the footballs and attempting to sell it. A second ref noticed this during the game. Schefter also reports that Jim McNally, the attendant supposedly tagged for “trying to introduce an unapproved football”, was provided the footballs by two league employees. One of these employees was fired. Are you following this? A referee stole a game ball and gave the Patriots locker room attendant a replacement football, that was incorrectly approved. This is likely the root of the nonsensical report from last night, and would explain why the attendant was trying to give the ball to an official- he was told to pass the ball along by another official.

Remember that time I said, “I maintain the Patriots had no nefarious scheme here because I’m a huge Patriots homer (I’m so self aware), but also because the numbers don’t add up.” I hate to say I told you so… (but not really, this is awesome).

It looks like there was a good reason the numbers didn’t add up. It wasn’t because the Patriots needed a leg up to beat the big bad Colts with deflated footballs. It was because THE NFL EMPLOYEES WERE THE ONES MESSING WITH THE BALLS THE WHOLE TIME. This honestly feels likes a TV show. Or a plot from a made for TV movie. The NFL’s league officials were the ones messing with the balls. Not the Patriots ball boys. Not Tom Brady. Not the hooded genius. It was the shield’s own employees. Yet Goodell and his goons still pushed the blame away from themselves and put it on the Patriots like a child blaming his friend for breaking something even though he knows he did it.

So, there you have it. I can’t wait for this Wells report to come out because it will roast the NFL for putting the Patriots on blast for two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.  ESPN will probably air 100 hours of straight coverage dedicated to nothing but how innocent New England is. Grown men will cry tears of happiness for Brady’s innocence. Ray Lewis will proclaim Tom Terrific to be the greatest QB of all time. And Goodell will apologize to the fans, staff and players in New England. Just kidding – all those things will never happen. Although I’m sure Kraft will ask for another mea culpa from the league.

APOLOGIZE DAMN IT!

PS: With this blog I can cross off, “use capitals, italics, bold and underline in one post” from my blog bucket list

The New England Patriots Are 4x Super Bowl Champions

Before you read the 2,300+ words I wrote about the Patriots, I highly recommend you watch this fan reaction video so you can relive the highs and lows of Super Bowl XLIX.

I won’t lie, I put off this post longer than I should have. When I started this blog I told myself that I wouldn’t allow a single sports moment to overwhelm me into blogging-paralysis. I was positive that I would always be able to write some thoughts on here no matter what game I was watching or team I was rooting for. Well, I definitely underestimated just how much watching the New England Patriots win their fourth Super Bowl would mean to me.

I always knew this would be amazing, but holy hell. The way I felt watching the final seconds tick off the clock, with Edelman running around telling everyone he loves them and Brady throwing his hands up in celebration, was as close as I’ll ever get to the intense feeling of joy that ran through me when the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. I don’t think I’ll ever really feel that ’04 way again (because that was 86 years of Red Sox angst melting away), but watching this team – a team I never gave up on – prove all the doubters wrong and win the first title in a decade was something I’ll never forget. And that intense feeling was overwhelming and I had no idea how to put it into blog format. Overall the feeling was something like this:

If you really want to get into my head watching the end of this game, just take a look at my Twitter timeline. This is a very high level version of the Super Bowl retro diary Bill Simmons put together on Grantland, which I highly recommend you take a look at.

The Pats go down 14 to open up the second half. At first I throw in the towel, but after texting with my uncle I rally all the positive vibes I can muster:

THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS ARE SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS

WE’RE ON TO… the draft? So my voice is shot. I am emotionally drained. I’ve been doing nothing but watching ESPN/NFL Network all day and reading every article I can get my hands on. I’ve watched the goodness that is Malcolm Butler running straight from Popeyes to intercept Wilson about 3,000 times. But I’m not at a point to write a well written piece of analysis.

Give me a day or two to compose myself and I’ll give you the breakdown of this game that Don’t Think Just Throw readers deserve. But right now I’m just going to live in the moment. I’ll just sit here and enjoy Tom Brady’s amazing Facebook posts and revel in the fact that he shut up all those haters with 4 TDs and new Super Bowl record for completions. Life is so fahkin’ good right now (so good! so good!).