I don't get involved in players' personal lives and politics associated. I don't read pages and pages of transcripts to try to decide whether or not Greg Hardy did it. Why? Because I'm not an idiot and I know not to look up to professional athletes for moral advice. The same way I knew not to shoot up my high school because I liked Tupac and Eminem.
I don't care what Big Ben did. That's for the courts and the NFL to decide. Some players go to prison, some players get off, some get punished by the NFL, and some don't. I don't really care what they do off the field. But I do care what players do on the field. The only thing I take exception with is cheating. I consider cheating to be anything that gives you an unfair advantage, e.g. steroids and other PEDs (during the season), intentionally injuring opposing players, and systematic cheating like deflating balls and recording practices.
I know you can't catch all the cheaters. You can argue that everyone does it. But you just hope it doesn't compromise the integrity of the game. Baseball has been compromised, in my opinion. Some teams have more money to spend than others, teams and players bet on games, and some of the all-time greats have been caught red handed. I just hope the same doesn't happen to football.
One of the worst things possible is to see a cheater go down in history. You hope you catch them before they can have too big an impact on the game. Shawn Merriman was a monster when he entered the league. Way ahead of Ware. But when he got busted, he immediately become irrelevant. Fortunately he didn't single-handedly lead his team to glory like L.T. did the Giants.
The Saints were trying to hurt players. I believe Greg Williams became the DC the year they won the Super Bowl. They've never been nearly as good since. Hopefully their success wasn't due to cheating. Fortunately, they only won one and not anymore. I like Drew Brees and he deserves to go into the Hall of Fame. I just hope his one win wasn't due to cheating.
And the very fact that Tom Brady's integrity is called into question (whether he did it or not) is tragic. This is a guy I could tell my grandkids that I was proud to watch the greatest QB of all-time for the entirety of his career. I was young at the tail end of Montana's career, but I still remember being enamored by him. And I had the pleasure of being around for all of Manning and Brady. I'm a Cowboys fan but I'm an NFL fan first. I respect Hall of Fame players and well-built organizations that seem to be contenders every year. As much as people hate the Steelers for surpassing us, I have to admit that I respect them a lot more than I do these yearly bottom-feeders like the Browns and Lions. It's good for the sport and it creates a rich history. I just don't want the history of one of the greatest players and teams ever to have an asterisk next to it.
It's a shame. You can argue all you want and try to throw out all the evidence and transcripts that you want. But the simple fact that people are even talking about Brady's and the Patriots' integrity is not good for the game.
