I’m shocked! Shocked to hear that the football was deflated at the Super Bowl! The National Football League, an upright and noble institution, may choose to take drastic action against the allegedly misbehaving athlete who perpetuated the offense.
Tom Brady is all over the headlines now. If you’re not a pro-football fan, you may mistake him for other Bradys. There was Matthew, who took all those Civil War photos; Diamond Jim, the 1890s chow hound and, of course, TV’s “Brady Bunch.” For your information, Tom Brady, until the scandal broke, was revered as the upstanding quarterback of the New England Patriots NFL football team.
Can’t you just imagine the heartbreaking scene of the cheating Tom Brady’s punishment by the righteous NFL officials? “Now, Tom, for your blatant dishonesty when you deflated the football, hold out your wrist. Slap!”
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If guilty, Tom is certainly not the first pro athlete to fudge the rules. Weren’t Lance Armstrong’s fast bike rides speeded up with performance-enhancing drugs? How about the big-deal boxing match last week in Las Vegas that turned out to be a dance contest? Next, we’ll all be shocked when pro wrestling is accused of being faked.
Isn’t it about time the whole truth is finally exposed about the underworld of pro athletics? Start with the accepted corruption of the entire system at its roots. It begins early in the lives of the athletes.
Talented high-school sports stars are scouted and then enrolled in big-budget universities with attractive athletic scholarships. Does anyone still believe they’re real students, expected to carry viable class schedules and earn a college degree? Don’t ask the college officials. They’re too busy counting the enormous flow of money that pours in from ticket sales at the big games. When any of the favored athletes misbehave, those upstanding administrators practice the pro-sports religion of protecting their sacred cows. They’re also happy to pay their sports coaches considerably more than Ph.D. department heads.
As the pseudo students play their way through two or three years of college-level basketball, baseball or football, pro talent scouts follow their every game. Then, during the athletes’ final year, the lucrative, multi-million-dollar signing bonus and salary offers begin arriving.
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If Tom Brady’s football deflation accusation proves true, it could force the NFL to punish him by banning him from playing next season, something NFL Commissioner Roger Godell is expected to announce next week. If that happens, it may bring back sad memories of a football movie starring Ronald Reagan as Notre Dame star George Gipp.
As he lay dying, Gipp told Coach Knute Rockne that, when the Fighting Irish aren’t playing well, to tell them to “go out there and win one for the Gipper.” Picture the New England Patriots locker room just before the big game. At that dramatic moment, the players are urged to go out there and win one … for the gypper.
Ted Sherman is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine. He will turn 90 on Aug. 8. He’s a U.S. Navy vet who served in World War II and the Korean War, and after a lifetime of writing for other people, he’s now sharing his opinions with the world at large for various publications and on his blog 90 Is The New Black. It’s a daily rant on current news, sports, health, travel, careers, entertainment, sports, relationships and, of course, problems of advanced age.
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