By Chris Linvill

 By Chris Linvill

The New England Patriots are the 2014 NFL Champions. Let’s stop trying to downplay it.

They beat the defending champions, which ended up being one of the better Super Bowl games to watch in a few years. The Seattle Seahawks may have made a bad call that ended the game and lost it for themselves but the Patriots still won nonetheless.

Critics are saying that the Patriots are cheaters and they shouldn’t have been in the Super Bowl due to the deflated football issue, known as Deflategate, in the AFC Championship game. Underinflated footballs are easier to grip and so it gives the offensive team the advantage over the defense.

However, the score was 45 – 7, so even if the balls did give the Patriots the advantage it would have been a win anyway because of how little the Indianapolis Colts scored.

The quarterbacks of the league took to Twitter and spoke out and some were upset this was made into a big deal.

“Every team tampers with the footballs. Ask any Qb in the league, this is ridiculous!!” tweeted former Arizona Cardinals quarterback, Matt Leinart, shortly after the issue went public.

“I’ve played with some balls that are under-inflated at times, and sometimes, there’s too much give to them that it can cause you to have some bad throws as well,” said former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner on NFL Network. So it is a lot about preference, but I think in certain weather conditions, it could give you a bit of an advantage”

This is something that has happened before and there is knowledge of it and to say it affected the outcome of the game is not accurate.

The Patriots are a good team and they have been a good team since Tom Brady took over as the starting quarterback in 2001. They went on to win their first Super Bowl that season.

The Patriots were plagued by critics after they got caught cheating by taping opponents’ defensive signals in 2007, which was known as “Spygate.” Since Spygate, the Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl.

Does this mean that they need to cheat to win? No one wants to root for a cheater and many saw them as just that.

Let’s face it, the Patriots have been competing every year since then and were always in contention to get to the Super Bowl, even after they got punished for the spygate issue.

Twice they got to the Super Bowl after the spygate issue but both times they lost to the New York Giants led by quarterback Eli Manning.

This year the Patriots started out 2 – 2 and there was speculation that quarterback Tom Brady wasn’t looking like himself and this could be the year they wouldn’t even make the playoffs. But that was only two games in and assumptions shouldn’t be made that early on.

The Patriots ended up going 12 – 4 for the season and earning the number one seed in the AFC.

The two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl were full of questions about whether the Patriots did this on purpose or something else caused it. This calls into question the greatness of Brady and head coach Bill Belichick.

This is where the problem lies. Today we live in an era where everything is noticed and it’s a lot easier to get caught doing the wrong thing, because everyone is watching due to the media coverage.

To say that Belichick and Brady won’t be considered two of the best of all time because they got caught cheating is ridiculous. Brady is being compared to Joe Montana, one of only two quarterbacks before Brady to win four Super Bowls.

You are only labeled a cheater if you get caught and the Patriots caught on two different occasions. This is not a big deal to some because the things they did weren’t that big of a deal.

Taping defensive signals is a bigger deal than the second case but at the same time the defensive coaches should be more wary. It’s not like there isn’t cameras watching every game because of television broadcasts.

The underinflated footballs is not as big as an issue as some may make it out to be. While the Patriots had no good explanation as to how the balls got tampered with, it’s still something that many quarterbacks probably did and just never got caught.

So please stop trying to downplay a great team and just accept how good they are. No team is that good for that long and cheating, if you want to call it that, affects only the short term.

“Do you all really think a deflated ball determined the outcome of the game?” tweeted Leinart. “Get over it!”

The New England Patriots are the 2014 NFL Champions. Let’s stop trying to downplay it.

They beat the defending champions, which ended up being one of the better Super Bowl games to watch in a few years. The Seattle Seahawks may have made a bad call that ended the game and lost it for themselves but the Patriots still won nonetheless.

Critics are saying that the Patriots are cheaters and they shouldn’t have been in the Super Bowl due to the deflated football issue, known as Deflategate, in the AFC Championship game. Underinflated footballs are easier to grip and so it gives the offensive team the advantage over the defense.

However, the score was 45 – 7, so even if the balls did give the Patriots the advantage it would have been a win anyway because of how little the Indianapolis Colts scored.

The quarterbacks of the league took to Twitter and spoke out and some were upset this was made into a big deal.

“Every team tampers with the footballs. Ask any Qb in the league, this is ridiculous!!” tweeted former Arizona Cardinals quarterback, Matt Leinart, shortly after the issue went public.

“I’ve played with some balls that are under-inflated at times, and sometimes, there’s too much give to them that it can cause you to have some bad throws as well,” said former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner on NFL Network. So it is a lot about preference, but I think in certain weather conditions, it could give you a bit of an advantage”

This is something that has happened before and there is knowledge of it and to say it affected the outcome of the game is not accurate.

The Patriots are a good team and they have been a good team since Tom Brady took over as the starting quarterback in 2001. They went on to win their first Super Bowl that season.

The Patriots were plagued by critics after they got caught cheating by taping opponents’ defensive signals in 2007, which was known as “Spygate.” Since Spygate, the Patriots haven’t won a Super Bowl.

Does this mean that they need to cheat to win? No one wants to root for a cheater and many saw them as just that.

Let’s face it, the Patriots have been competing every year since then and were always in contention to get to the Super Bowl, even after they got punished for the spygate issue.

Twice they got to the Super Bowl after the spygate issue but both times they lost to the New York Giants led by quarterback Eli Manning.

This year the Patriots started out 2 – 2 and there was speculation that quarterback Tom Brady wasn’t looking like himself and this could be the year they wouldn’t even make the playoffs. But that was only two games in and assumptions shouldn’t be made that early on.

The Patriots ended up going 12 – 4 for the season and earning the number one seed in the AFC.

The two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl were full of questions about whether the Patriots did this on purpose or something else caused it. This calls into question the greatness of Brady and head coach Bill Belichick.

This is where the problem lies. Today we live in an era where everything is noticed and it’s a lot easier to get caught doing the wrong thing, because everyone is watching due to the media coverage.

To say that Belichick and Brady won’t be considered two of the best of all time because they got caught cheating is ridiculous. Brady is being compared to Joe Montana, one of only two quarterbacks before Brady to win four Super Bowls.

You are only labeled a cheater if you get caught and the Patriots caught on two different occasions. This is not a big deal to some because the things they did weren’t that big of a deal.

Taping defensive signals is a bigger deal than the second case but at the same time the defensive coaches should be more wary. It’s not like there isn’t cameras watching every game because of television broadcasts.

The underinflated footballs is not as big as an issue as some may make it out to be. While the Patriots had no good explanation as to how the balls got tampered with, it’s still something that many quarterbacks probably did and just never got caught.

So please stop trying to downplay a great team and just accept how good they are. No team is that good for that long and cheating, if you want to call it that, affects only the short term.

“Do you all really think a deflated ball determined the outcome of the game?” tweeted Leinart. “Get over it!”