CNN anchor (and lifelong Eagles fan) Jake Tapper is already trash-talking the Patriots
"The Patriots cheat,” Tapper said. "I mean, this is just a fact."
Jake Tapper is one of the most critically acclaimed journalists in cable news. However, when it comes to Super Bowl LII, even the famously middle-of-the-road CNN anchor may be a bit biased — even if he says the “facts” are on his side.
“The Patriots are cheaters,” Tapper, a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan, told his CNN colleague Brooke Baldwin during an appearance Monday.
Once we got past politics — I asked @jaketapper the hard hitting question: how was the @Eagles game in his hometown of Philly??? Standby for some shade (ATTN @JohnBerman): https://t.co/ABGNRvXlpM
— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBaldwin) January 22, 2018
The subject came up when Baldwin mentioned that Tapper and his father had attended the NFC Championship game Sunday. She confided that, as an Atlanta Falcons fan scorned by last year’s Super Bowl, she might also be rooting to Tapper’s hometown team in their Feb. 4 matchup against New England.
“The Patriots cheat,” Tapper wryly continued as Baldwin laughed. “I mean, this is just a fact, as established by investigations. They’re a cheating team.”
The comments resulted in some blowback from Tapper’s Patriots fan colleagues and Twitter followers.
But he didn’t back down from the assertion, referring Patriots fans to a 2015 ESPN article by Don Van Natta and Seth Wickersham on how the NFL’s hasty investigation of the 2007 Spygate scandal influenced the league’s handling of the more recent Deflategate debacle.
“I’m just stating a fact,” Tapper replied to one Twitter user.
The Patriots are notorious cheaters beyond Delfate-gate; at some point there will be a reckoning. Probably post-Brady and -Belichick. https://t.co/8At5EPBm8H
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 21, 2018
1. We’re not mean. We’re passionate. And gritty.
2. The Patriots cheat.— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 22, 2018
That’s the best ya got, Mr. Hasty Pudding Club? You leave your fellow Patriots fans deflated.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 22, 2018
If you cover sports then you should I’m just stating a fact. It would be like you saying “On budgetary issues Congress is not doing the job it is supposed to be.” Just a fact.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 23, 2018
Tapper did eventually make one concession Tuesday morning, with still more than 12 days left until kickoff.
“I will try to subscribe to ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it’ through the Super Bowl” he tweeted, which seems a lofty aspiration for an Eagles fan.
