“Oh yeah? How’s ya mothah?” is essentially what Bob Kraft and the Patriots are saying to the NFL.
From the defiant statement Bob Kraft put out defending Tom Brady like a brother wronged, to the changing of the Patriots’ Twitter avatar to the back of Brady’s jersey, the entire organization is acting like a Bostonian. A Bostonian sticking up for a friend who just got dumped. Or who got a parking ticket he didn’t deserve.
Or the guy who just got picked up in a bar fight. Everybody was throwing punches and swearing and shattering barstools, but the Pats were the only ones who got in trouble. Why? Because they invoked the fifth amendment after the arrest.
Brady’s suspension over what boils down to not incriminating himself is ludicrous. That take’s been took. And just as members of Patriots Nation wouldn’t react well to being told to sit down and take their punishment when they felt it wasn’t deserved, the team isn’t going to either.
Bostonians can be a stubborn, rude, difficult-to-deal-with bunch. You could call Patriots fans arrogant, cocky, and entitled. But there’s something kind of wonderful about seeing someone like that give the finger to someone else who really deserves it.
Timeline of Deflategate
Jan. 18: The New England Patriots defeat the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium, 45-7, to advance to the Super Bowl.
Jan. 18, 2015: Bob Kravitz from WTHR.com kicks off Deflategate with this tweet after the Patriots beat the Colts in the AFC Championship.
Jan. 20, 2015: The NFL finds that 11 of 12 Patriots’ game balls reportedly are underinflated by about 2 pounds per square inch each.
Jan. 22, 2015: Bill Belichick takes the podium in the morning and offers no explanation to what happened to the underinflated game balls.
Jan. 22, 2015: Tom Brady’s press conference is moved up a day to follow Belichick. Brady denies any wrongdoing and says the Patriots won the game “fair and square.”
Jan. 23, 2015: The NFL puts out a statement, saying that 40 interviews were conducted in the first week and names Ted Wells the lead investigator.
Jan. 23, 2015: Questions swirl around the Patriots locker room as they practice for the Super Bowl. Players also deny any knowledge of suspicious activity.
Jan. 23, 2015: D’Qwell Jackson, who picked off the initial Brady ball that spawned suspicion on the Colts’ sideline, says he noticed nothing wrong with the football.
Jan. 23, 2015: NFL confirms the footballs were not legal, and puts no timetable on when the investigation will be wrapped up. A conclusion is unlikely to happen before the Super Bowl.
Jan. 24, 2015: Belichick addresses the media in a quickly organized press conference, and says he was 100 percent sure the Patriots met all NFL rules.
Jan. 26, 2015: Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer reports the NFL has a “person of interest” and will be focusing its investigation on a Patriots’ locker room attendant.
Jan. 27, 2015: NBC’s Pro Football Talk reports the Patriots’ locker room attendant brought two bags of game footballs into the bathroom for 90 seconds before the Pats-Colts game.
Jan. 27, 2015: Upon arriving to Phoenix for the Super Bowl, Robert Kraft echoes his head coach’s statements of no wrongdoing, and wants an apology if the Patriots are absolved.
Feb. 18, 2015: ESPN reports that a Patriots locker room attendant attempted to put an unapproved special teams football into play during the Patriots-Colts game.
Feb. 18, 2015: NFL fires one of its employees for selling some of the footballs that were used in the controversial Patriots-Colts AFC Championship game.
April 25, 2015: With the NFL Draft coming up, Roger Goodell states there is still no timeline in the release of the “Wells Report.”
May 6, 2015: The “Wells Report” finally comes out in a 243-page document, stating the Patriots probably underinflated balls, and Brady probably knew.
May 11, 2015: Tom Brady is suspended four games for his role Deflategate, while the Patriots are fined $1 million and lose two draft picks.
