There’s nothing left to say regarding the “integrity” of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, the NFL itself and the New England Patriots. Everybody is talking about this today on every channel, and this time, they’re right. As much as the DeflateGate hullabaloo was much ado about nothing, the ESPN report breaking today is extremely relevant, to all of us.
Among the findings published by ESPN:
-Deflategate is seen by some owners as a “makeup call” over Spygate.
-From 2000 to 2007, the Patriots videotaped the signals of opposing coaches in 40 games.
-Goodell’s handling of Deflategate turned around owners still simmering over Spygate; some say he is now more secure in his job.
So again, nothing to say, other than to take the angry Howard Beale rant from “Network” and sub “NFL” for “television.”
Paraphrasing Beale:
The NFL is not the truth. The NFL’s a god-damned amusement park. The NFL is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We’re in the boredom-killing business.
So if you want the Truth, go to God! Go to your gurus. Go to yourselves! Because that’s the only place you’re ever gonna find any real truth. But, man, you’re never gonna get any truth from the NFL.
The NFL will tell you anything you wanna hear. We lie like hell. We’ll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer and that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker’s house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don’t worry. Just look at your watch. At the end of the hour, he’s gonna win. The NFL will tell you any shit you want to hear.
The NFL deals in illusions, man. None of it is true!
But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds. We’re all you know.
You’re beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here. You’re beginning to think that the NFL is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the NFL tells you. You dress like the NFL, you eat like the NFL, you raise your children like the NFL. You even think like the NFL. This is mass madness.
You maniacs. In God’s name, you people are the real thing. The NFL is the illusion. So turn off your NFL.
Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I am speaking to you now. Turn them off!
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.