It’s been quite the anti-Pats week, as the investigation of Deflategate is about to carry on into a third month, the Jets lobbing their own tampering charge, and the NFL passing rules seemingly directly aimed at the Patriots while ignoring the team’s rule suggestions.
Yes, the Pats got their fourth Super Bowl just a little over two months ago and never has the anti-New England climate felt stronger, unless you count the immediate days following Spygate or Deflategate.
First, Deflategate. Most thought the investigation would wrap up by the March coaches meetings. Well those have come and passed and instead we now have Goodell saying there is no time frame on it. How can the NFL continue to botch the handling of each controversy worse and worse? Seems like they keep trying to overcorrect and the results are never better.
And how long does it take to investigate this? Seems like Belichick and the Pats put together a pretty good internal investigation of their own in the week immediately afterward. You’ve got a crack team assigned to this and it takes over two months?
Next comes the Jets’ reprisal tampering charge which is so Jets it hurts. Look, I think the whole tampering thing for the most part is pretty silly to begin with. I didn’t even see Woody Johnson’s original comments as some horrible transgression. However, his comments were clearly against the tampering rules, and anyone who doesn’t think the Pats wouldn’t try to go after them for it and potentially take draft picks from their divisional rival is asleep at the wheel.
If the Jets’ responding charge has any merit, just about the entire league is guilty of tampering this past week, when just about every coach answered questions about former players who had signed with new teams.
The funny thing is that they were probably hoping Belichick would say something about Revis, but instead he stonewalled everyone about everything. So they went after Kraft. Nice job, Jets, but you’re still probably going to be handing a pick to the Patriots.
Finally come the rule changes – having concussion spotters who can stop games (being called the “Edelman” rule) and the outlawing of the kind of substitutions that the Pats ran on the Ravens and Colts in the playoffs.
Of course, this isn’t the first time the league has changed the rules because of something the Patriots did. The first and best example was in 2003 when the Pats’ manhandling of the Colts’ receivers prompted the league to make the “no contact after five yards” a point of emphasis.
It’s laughable and really it doesn’t even matter. The Pats weren’t going to be using these kind of substitutions as a consistent part of their attack. They were novel ways to catch teams off guard and it helped save the Pats’ season.
As for the “spotters” I’m not sure what will be worse – players faking concussions to stop play just like they fake injuries, or when a player who thinks he’s fine gets yanked from the game in a key moment.
In conclusion, I really just love all this stuff stacking up against New England like this. We’re all used to being on top of the hill and everyone hating us and trying everything they can to knock us off.
This offseason only adds to that narrative and if Belichick’s demeanor at the coaches meetings is any indication, he’s as frustrated with the NFL as a whole as I am.
As this all continues to be dragged out, it should only serve as fuel for New England’s fire to repeat. It’s already them against the world and training camp is still four months away.