Are These 5 Patriots Championship Rings Now Tarnished?

[pgellis]

Originally Posted by sports-rings

Pictured below are the five Championship rings Belichick and Brady have been awarded. Suddenly, the next championship ring that will be awarded to the Patriots after Super Bowl XLIX, and the rings shown below don’t seem so special.

“Deflate-Gate is the main subject on sports-talk radio this week. The latest breaking news is that the Ravens suspected the balls were deflated and warned the Colts before the championship game played last Sunday.

This whole mess raises some important questions:

1) If Bill Belichick knew the balls were deflated, then Tom Brady knew too? Is Brady a cheater too?.

2) While it’s a valid argument that the Colts were beaten so badly in the Championship game that deflated balls didn’t affect the outcome of the game, what about the close playoff game against the Ravens? Did New England cheat in that game too? If they did, could the Ravens have won had the game been played without deflated balls?

3) What if the Championship game had been a close game instead of a blow out? Would the talk and anger been more intense?

4) Has this whole matter tainted the upcoming Super Bowl game?

5) What will Media Day be like (in fact how about the stories for the next 10 days) if Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are not suspended for the game?

6) Since this is the second time Belichick has cheated (remember Spy-gate), how should he be punished? And when?

7) And finally, are these five New England Patriot Champion Rings now tarnished?

If you don’t think the championship rings above are tarnished, then ask yourself this question: The Rams were favored in Super Bowl XXXVI (Brady and Belichick’s first Super Bowl Championship). Back then, it seemed uncanny how prepared New England’s defense was during that game. How much did Spy Gate help the underdog Patriots in that game?

Any thoughts on this topic?

ANSWERS:
1. Both Belicheat and Shady Brady knew. I'm sure it was Brady who led this and Belicheat put his stamp on it. It's also easier for the running backs to hold onto the ball. I don't think the Pats RBs lost a fumble all season.

2. Probably

3. Yes

4. Yes. Either outcome will be tainted. If the Pats lose, then people will be saying that they can't win without cheating. If they win, they will say that they cheated to get there.

5. Belicheat and Brady will just dodge the questions like they usually do.

6. Much like Sean Payton with Bounty-Gate, he should be suspended for the entire 2015-16 season. He has already said that he didn't know anything about it.....highly unlikely, so he is either a liar or Tom Brady did it on his own and he should face suspension. Either way, the buck stops with the Coach/GM Belicheat.....he needs to face a suspension.

7. Absolutely

[vthobby]

Patriots Rule!

Nuf said.

Peace, Mike

[sports-rings]

5. Belicheat and Brady will just dodge the questions like they usually do.

Phil - Great answers!

To expand on #5, while I agree those two will try to downplay and doge the questions, in similar fashion to the Rice incident, I see this story continue to grow because of fan outrage and media attention.

This story will be a big deal up until kickoff of the Super Bowl game. The main stream media is reporting on this, it even was showcased very early on the NBC nightly news last night (they show the biggest stories first).

Now I see petitions are popping up on Facebook and the internet and local sports talk radio is mentioning that the other owners, especially the Ravens ownership is outraged and will be putting pressure on Goodell to do something strong and harsh.

[vthobby]

The only thing the the other teams and owners will do is to continue to lose games to the Patriots.

I am quite enjoying the extra storylines associated with the Super Bowl (I mean the big game).

Defalte gate. Seriously......too funny!

Peace, Mike

[pgellis]

Hi Michael,

I think further information needs to come out before a penalty can be assessed. What's being talked about on Boston sports radio this morning is that there is a very high probability that the Patriots were warned of this since the Colts brought it to the attention of the NFL back after they played in November........and then they still did this.

Another issue is that if the balls were checked prior to the game (which has been reported) and then the Patriots let air out of the balls between that pre-game check and half-time, then they are guilty of tampering with the balls after they were checked.

After the Ray Rice incident and Adrian Peterson incident, Goodell now has an itchy trigger finger. So, if they were warned and still did it, Goodell should hand down suspensions..........not necessarily for the Super Bowl, but at least for part of next season.

Also, Belicheat is a past offender so that should weigh into the punishment.

Do you really think that this was the first time they decided to do this?

[gregr2]

I believe Belichik knew. I also think they will distance themselves from it by saying some ballboy did it without their knowledge and they have now fired him.

[btcarfagno]

I heard an interesting thought as to the punishment that would stop all of this BS really fast.

A fine of the team won't do diddly. What will the fine be? $500,000? Maybe $1 million? The Pats made that back and 10x more by winning the Ravens game, being able to host another playoff game, and getting to the Super Bowl. That sounds like pretty good risk/reward to me. A suspension of the head coach during a game is meaningless. If he can have no contact with the team for however many weeks I suppose that would be somewhat interesting, although knowing Belichick he would just find a way around that too.

What would absolutely stop this and any other inane shenanigans in the future is to hit the team with a salary cap hit. $15 million for 2015, $10 million for 2016 and $5 million for 2017. If the union bitches about it then disperse the amounts among the other teams, thus the total league wide figures would not change. now THAT would put an immediate stop to all of this REALLY quickly.

Tom C

[pgellis]

AH HAHAHA!

Belicheat just threw Shady Brady under the bus!