^^ lol
anyway... (from reddit)
Let's talk for a second about the word "cheating" and how the media affects perceptions.
Last year, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl with more players on their roster caught using performance enhancing drugs than any team in the league (Denver was second).
On the spectrum of cheating, it simply doesn't get much worse than this. But did the media call it Steroid-Gate? Did they once use the word "cheaters" to refer to the Seahawks? Of course not. Because that wasn't the storyline they chose.
Now let's look at what the Patriots are being accused of and why everyone has labeled them cheaters and undeserving of the Super Bowl: They might have let a tiny amount of air out of some footballs - an amount so small that even the refs couldn't notice when handling them. An advantage so negligible, that when the balls were taken out of play, the patriots actually performed better.
At worst, using slightly under-inflated balls without the refs noticing is akin to getting away with a pass interference call.
Ask yourself this - Is it possible for a team to do something any less serious and any more insignificant and still be labelled cheaters? (if you can think of something, let me know, I'm honestly curious)
While it's very unfortunate that the media has chosen this as their storyline, as a Patriots fan, please don't allow yourself to be manipulated. Add the word "gate" to the most mundane act and it will sound like a scandal. But that doesn't make it a scandal, that's manipulation. And if it were any other team, this wouldn't make a single headline.
