Sunday, 17 May 2015

A Cricket Fan's View of the 'Deflategate' Melodrama




As someone who’s been, for most parts of her life, away from the realm of American football, the past few months have been a rich learning experience. First, I learnt the game – in fact, am still learning the subtleties and nuances; and now, I have had the chance to follow the developments on a controversy that had gripped not just the sport’s fans in the US, but also across the world. 

In all honesty, I have to admit the ‘Deflategate’ incident, as it had started to be called, left me amused and bemused in equal parts. Amused because I have a background of watching a sport – cricket – where players have been known to use special kind of chewing gum to affect the ball so as to impact the play in their team’s favour. And bemused because I really didn’t understand what the fuss actually was about. 

It was said that New England Patriots deflated the balls used in their game against Indianapolis Colts, but the team was primarily cleared – with Tom Brady’s claims that he had had no idea about the balls being deflated – and allowed to contest the Super Bowl. To top it off, in the Super Bowl, Brady ended up putting one of the most brilliant performances of his lengthily productive career that saw him being lauded and fêted in most parts, across the length and breadth of the country. Brady and Co.’s efforts not only saw them take the team through to victory in the dying seconds over Seattle Seahawks, but Brady was also awarded with the MVP to acknowledge his contribution in that game.

Now, close to four months that the Super Bowl was played and NEP won it, is where facts blur with expectations for me. In the past one week, there seems to have been a sudden conflagration in the ‘Deflategate’ story with such sharp revelations and turnabouts that they look partly surreal as they are agitating. 

As it’s pouring out about Brady’s first-hand knowledge about deflated balls being used in the game, he’s become a pariah. I don’t understand why, as I don’t understand why the hullaballoo about the mire that’s come to be unearthed? Brady’s been given a four match ban in the new season – a season that’s yet to start – even as there calls about him being a player who’s accustomed to serially bending the rules and getting away with it. 

All of this look quite hypocritical. 

To me, what he chose to do – I don’t want to get into the specifics of why he chose to do such a thing – is a decision that’s already been taken. Nothing, not even a four match ban can bring about restitution to this antecedent. If he indeed has a past of coasting the line of expected sportsmanship; why such ballyhoo now, as if his behaviour was extremely surprising? 

Also, if Brady’s committed one act against the realms of all that’s sacred in NFL, it’s not as if he’s the only man who’s done such an underhanded deed. The sport’s dotted with players in the past, who have set worse examples of gamesmanship as there are bound to be players in the future, who wouldn’t hesitate to bend the line as they see fit to suit the needs of the team, over everything else.

Condemning Brady isn’t exactly the answer to what the NFL management, at its heart, left open to exploitation in the first place.

This isn’t to say that I believe Brady wasn’t wrong. Rather, I would term it as being ‘not right.’ Not because he was a known party to the balls being tampered, but rather because he chose to hide his involvement instead of accepting it. 

The staunch cricketer follower that I am, having experienced and heard about many-a sly tactics used by cricketers, I believe that Brady should have accepted his role in the ‘Deflategate’ saga, before it mushroomed to such proportions. To correlate from the cricketing world, there have been examples of captains and leading players opting for manoeuvres best suited for the team, but which were equally detrimental to the other side. When the backlashes followed, none of these players tried to shy away from their role in effectuating such strategy. And much as it made them villains, they are still considered to be legends in the sport’s history, going down in its pages for the same reasons that cast them out of the mould of the ‘gentlemanly cricketer.’

In his lack of acceptance firsthand, Brady looked to be lacking something vital. Often times it’s not just about taking a decision, it’s also about how one presents oneself in its aftermath. Unfortunately for Brady, he’s come out to be less-than appeasing in this inferno when he could have well been the grey-shaded hero in the whole showdown to further add to his existing fandom.

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