When Does Too Much Cheating Mean Too Much To Bear With the Patriots?

On the rare instances when my four-year-old son hasn’t snuck into bed with his mother and me during the middle of the night, he’s usually bounding downstairs from his bedroom in the early-morning glow we’ve become accustomed to as parents, excitable and crackling with a prevalent query on his mind.

“Who won?”

Yes, he’s taken into sleeping in the Patrice Bergeron jersey I got him for Christmas, even if he’s a little put off that the “insistent” (as he’s deemed the Bruins’ “assistant” captain’s “A”) isn’t prevalent on his version. He also told his Mom the other day that the “Slippers” (Clippers) beat the Celtics.

He was still dormant on Wednesday morning when I debriefed my wife on the ongoing deflation affair marring the New England Patriots’ run to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., one that developed in the early hours of the morning.

And yet, there was my older son, all of seven, the one normally content to huddle in Mom and Dad’s room with a well-worn DVD while sports play on the TV downstairs, left with a lingering question as I poured him a bowl of Cocoa Puffs.

“Dad. Why would you say the Patriots cheated?”

His eyes looked at me in inquisition. Even as a dubious observer, I was taken aback.

Yet, there it was, from a kid, one who was all of five months old the last time the Pats played – and lost – in Glendale, who has little knowledge of the facts other than some inflated reports, making the definitive mantra on the New England Patriots’ run to the Lombardi Trophy.

To be fair, he’s also a young man blinded by the “Terrible Towels” of the Pittsburgh Steelers that pepper the family room. Yes, my wife is a die-hard Steelers fan, a trait that has not succumbed fully to our offspring, but there is a clear denial of history in that regard. Especially when I recounted the incident to my wife but an hour later, long after my son had asked me about what people generally think about the Ravens, Colts, 49ers, et. al.

“He’s like me,” she said, “ we don’t condone cheating.”

Oh?

Let’s face the facts of the situation involved here. Everybody in professional sports cheats in some way.

Everybody.

Whether it be Bullfrog sun tan lotion on the baseball, deflating the football for the most-favorable throwing conditions known in the NFL, or the the blatant use of performance-enhancing drugs that defined the Pittsburgh Super Bowl teams of the ’70’s. Everybody cheats.

Are we really that naive in believing it’s the Patriots and everybody else?

Please.

Still, when it comes to the spirit of the sports we all follow, where does the negative sheen begin and end in the realm of what we choose to root for or not? In other words, are we OK with professional sports as we know and love them becoming fixed to the likes of boxing?

Nobody is suggesting that that the Patriots’ 45-7 win over the Indianapolis Colts is in any way indicative of real, honest-to-goodness cheating, despite the hue and cry from the desperate, “look at me” contingent in Indy, where “deflategate” arose with a stumped, breathless gasp. But all the same, it is indicative of an athletic culture that most of us want to denounce.

Like the famous quote, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough.” Cheating is part of sports.

We deal with it. If you’re of a certain age, you scoff at the steroid era in baseball. You roll your eyes any time a pitcher is busted for scuffing a baseball, or the equivalent in the NFL, doctoring a football. It’s pretty much the same deal, right?

This isn’t made to be some Maude Flanders “What about the children,” easy cry of escape, merely a question of whether or not we’re teaching our kids the better parts of the games we’re passing down to them. In my estimation, “deflategate” is on par with “spygate” in the realm of overblown nonsense. In other words, the Pats got caught doing nothing more egregious than their over-smarted NFL colleagues.

But the fact that I had to make an excuse to a child, well that gave me pause about the reason.

Why?

It’s a principle we’re taught from the very first swing of tee-ball, one from the very first time we put on cleats or skates; the game is just that…a game, a competition that is fueled by a drip-down from the elders.

In the grand scheme, there’s nothing truly damning when it come to “deflategate.” Really, there isn’t.

But then there are the questions your kids ask, and they’re damning than the rest.

“Why?”

“How?”

I’m not going to sit try to preach to the levels that Patriots owner Bob Kraft is ready to fire his longtime coach, but let’s be real, this whole ordeal has to have him livid, the same way it did eight years ago when it meant a Super Bowl marred by Spygate. That, like this latest tour de farce, was a New York media creation, forever short on reality, and long for the revenge factor, now joined by some yuks from Middle America.

But please, winning in professional sports requires some semblance of cheating, doesn’t it?

Be honest. Look down the line of history.

Do you have a problem with that?

Cheat all you want. You’ll eventually get your comeuppance.

Even as a legion of Brady and Gronkowski jerseys filter though grade schools with Super Bowl fever.

Go, Pats?