Super Bowl XLIX: Deflated Balls, Painful Press Conferences, and A Lost Game?


"I feel like I've always played within the rules. ... I would never do anything outside the rules of play." — Tom Brady

The hype for Super Bowl XLIX began at the end of the third quarter of the AFC Championship Game. The Patriots are up big, so it was logical to look ahead. The hype began — the vaunted Seattle defense versus Tom Brady and the Patriots' offense. Would the Patriots succeed where the Broncos and Peyton Manning failed a year earlier.

Most people felt like it was two equal teams that would be meeting on the field. People were excited for a great and competitive game. We went to sleep on January 18 thinking about that matchup, and how it would dominate the next two weeks.

Then Monday morning came, and Deflategate began. As the information has come out — that the Patriots were found to have 11 under inflated balls in the first half of the AFC title game — the spiral has continued. And it won't go away.

Some have called for the Patriots to be ruled ineligible for the Super Bowl — something that seems a bit extreme and is extremely unlikely to happen at this point. There have been calls for suspensions, which also seems unlikely at this point. But the NFL can't do nothing, right? So far the league has been silent, but you feel like the hammer might come down at any point.

The other question is whether this is the end of the Patriots? After coach Bill Belichick essentially threw Tom Brady under the bus in Thursday's press conference, many are wondering if Sunday might be Brady's last game as a Patriot. Might it also be Belichicks last game? Might nothing change? Everything is in play.

The other question is what happens to this great matchup? After more than a week of allegations and scrutiny, it's hard to imagine that the Patriots have been preparing well for this game. With all this going on, it's east to imagine this could be another uncompetitive game — one in which all borderline calls go against the Patriots thanks to the NFL. (Don't believe that happens, ask some Dallas Cowboys fans).

Either way, what once looked like a great matchup has become a nightmare for Patriots fans and, arguably, the NFL. A season that begun under a dark cloud seems to be ending much the same way.

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