Seriously Internet?

I am a huge football fan.  At times I am too big of a football fan.  Family and friends make fun of me when they see me watch a game due to my swearing, jumping, screaming, cries of agony, and so forth.  I like to talk trash to the TV and joke with friends of mine that root for teams I despise, its all in good fun and they know that.  Sometimes I like to read stories online and check out the comments, for the most part they are filled with fun banter, dirty jokes, and excellent comebacks.  Occasionally, I will see some people get into it, but it typically doesnt last more than a few comments back and forth.

I wont lie, if I had to pick one team that I despise more than any other team, its the Patriots.  I don't need to get into why, that's a story for another day.  This doesn't sit well with most of their fans, why? I have no idea.  Yeah my team is the Rams (save it, I know they aren't good and haven't been for a while), and yeah the Patriots beat us in the Super Bowl.  If you know me I have probably baited you into my Rams VS. Patriots Super Bowl speech, if you haven't heard it I'm sure someone knows it by heart.

Before I go any further I need to explain the purpose of this post.  This isn't about me crying, or not being able to take it.  This isn't about sympathy and this isn't about every single fan out there.  This is really about how far people think they can go when disagreeing with someone.  The protection of being in their home, for whatever reason, makes some people think they are invincible.  I think in a moment some forget that we are actually talking to another person on the other side of that invisible wall.  This was a snippet of what happened today, over the span of a few hours.

Some story pops up on my new feed about Tom Brady saying "everyone fucking hates us, lets win it all next year" after getting booed at the Super Bowl.  I made this comment "Soooooo he hasn't been trying to win every other season? This shows what an idiot he is".  Thats it, yes I'm guilty, I called Tom Brady an idiot.  These were some of the responses:

You had shown how stupid you are 

You're fucking retarded

Attention Whores doing what Attention Whores do best

Brittany you really are retarded. Saying I have forgot more about football implies that my information I forget cause I know so much exceeds your small peanut brain. Not talking about the stuff I know.

 I'm tearing into this bitch

I love when women try and act like they know something about football.....it's called motivation....

 You're a cunt Brittany I bet you can't even make a sammich

Why are people like you allowed to reproduce is beyond me, Brittany

Remember, I didn't threaten to kill his family, wish him ill will, beg for something bad to happen to him, or even swear.  I called him an idiot.  I've called a lot of people idiots before. You have called people idiots before (and worse).  I started off replying sarcastically thanking people for their comments, but it really just got worse.  It made me wonder just why someone would get so incredibly offended by someone making such a small comment.  If you can believe it, there were worse ones than above.  It is a perfect example of people that can't distinguish fantasy from reality.  If someone says something you see as mean about a celebrity you adore go ahead and shake your head then move along.  I love Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, I see lots of nasty things written about both of them daily, do I sit around and defend their honor? Uh, no they are adults and I'm pretty sure they don't care what people have to say, they are too busy with their nice houses, cars, vacations, etc.  I love the Rams, do I sit around and defend them against every person that says they suck by telling them I hope their mother dies? No because that's something psycho, but people do it.  Would I call Brady an idiot to his face for sending that text? Yeah I would, it was an idiotic thing to say, almost implying that you only really want to win it all next year because everyone hates the team (but I'm pretty sure they were booing just him).  Isn't that kind of the goal in the NFL for every team? To win the Super Bowl? Yeah exactly

How do all of these people know I'm not some cyber terrorist with a fake profile that could ruin their life with a simple click of the mouse? Or that I'm not some psycho killer?  Did I expect some backlash? Kind of, I assumed someone would tell me to shut up, or my favorite "get back in the kitchen" (which I did get a lot of this one being my favorite actually, very creative)

Was it nice of me to call Brady an idiot? No it probably wasn't. Was it really that horrible to warrant the response? Not even a little.  I don't even worry about me and how I handle it, I worry about my kids getting on the internet soon and encountering things like this.  I cant imagine being a kid and reading things like that being said about me.  It honestly opened my eyes to what is possible out there, and why some kids (and even adults) cant handle it.  People have killed themselves over things like this.  Would you really want to be responsible for something like that because you just couldn't help yourself?

Like I said before, I'm not crying about it, I can handle it.  Some of the comments were actually funny.  I'm more just saying be careful before you really lay into someone on the other side of the internet, especially if you are a "fan" trying to defend a celebrity (someone you don't know).  I can guarantee that celebrity isn't at home writing thank you cards or sending you tickets in the mail for calling someone a "fucking retard" or a "cunt". Actually Tom, if you are reading this and would like the names of your truly dedicated fans let me know and I will get them to you, I left their names out, because contrary to what a lot of them think I'm not that mean.  It really is best sometimes to not even say anything.  It may seem fun (to some?) because it is the invincible internet, but you just never know.  Have fun and banter, some of the best conversations I have had have come from disagreements and sarcastic back and forth jabs. Talking to someone like that, especially on the internet, doesn't make you intimidating or a badass, it makes you look like a fool that has nothing intelligent to say so you resort to the lowest level.   We are always going to disagree, its part of being human.  Dont let someones opinion ruin your day! Take a deep breath, I promise it will be OK, but maybe think before you type

Some thoughts from Super Bowl 49 and the season

A few things from last night now that I'm sober:

1. Never throw the ball on anything less than 5 yards...especially when you have Lynch

2. Tom Brady still looked like an idiot even after he won

3. How the hell do people NOT know who Missy is?

4. Katy Perry showed me she would be a perfect employee at Hot Dog On A Stick....The more you know

5. Not even the commercials were good (what was with the "I cant do that I'm dead" kid? wtf?) Correction the Lindsay Lohan one was funny, and the glue one

I'm not a fan of either team (obviously) but my hatred runs deep for New England so its an understatement to say I was disappointed. 

The NFL has a lot to work on in the off season.  A LOT. 

Goodell needs to do a major overhaul on himself and I'm not sure why the owners even trust him to run the organization anymore.  He is not fit to run this league, and I feel like his relationships with some of the owners (*cough* Kraft *cough*) have potentially clouded his judgement.  Also his greediness to keep the NFL a money maker stooped him to a new low of hush hushing domestic violence and child abuse. 

Deflategate unsurprisingly went away days before the Super Bowl, and it will eventually be officially blamed on some nobody now that the Patriots won.  There is no way the NFL will admit, even if they did find evidence of cheating on the Patriots part, because they will catch way too much heat for allowing cheaters to play in and ultimately win the Super Bowl, the number one watched event on TV every year.  Thats sick.  The integrity of the game has been entirely compromised this year and it is very discouraging as a fan.

I'm not sad to see this football season end.  It was a bad one.  On to the next.

And I don't want to hear your "hater" comments, its obvious.

What is WRONG with the NFL?

Whether you like football or not, you have not been able to escape the disaster that is "Deflategate".  In fact, I'm pretty sure people off the grid have hear about it by now.  In case you haven't, you're weird, but I'll recap.  In the AFC Championship game the Patriots beat the Colts 45-7 and advanced to the Super Bowl.  By the end of the night it was announced through various media outlets that the Patriots were being investigated for having under inflated balls (brace yourselves, I'll be saying balls a lot).  After a preliminary investigation it was concluded that the Patriots and ONLY the Patriots had 11 of their 12 offensive balls under inflated, by as much as 2psi or more.  So why do we care so much?  We care because this isn't the first time the Patriots have been caught cheating, its the third,

The first time was back in 2002 in the Super Bowl against the St. Louis Rams.  They beat the Rams 20-17 by kicking a last minute field goal.  Not long after that game it was reported that the Patriots had filmed the Rams practice before the big game.  Even though it was investigated, and there was plenty of evidence, Goodell decided to destroy all evidence related to the incident, a movement that surprised even the players involved.  Marshall Faulk who played in that Super Bowl was quoted with saying "Am I over the loss? Yeah, I'm over the loss," Faulk told Tom Curran of CSNNE.com. “But I'll never be over being cheated out of the Super Bowl.

That's a different story. I can understand losing a Super Bowl, that's fine. But how things happened and what took place … Obviously, the commissioner gets to handle things how he wants to handle them, but if they wanted us to shut up about what happened, show us the tapes. Don't burn 'em.  I understand Bill is a great coach,” Faulk said. “But No. 13 [Kurt Warner] will tell you. Mike Martz will tell you. We had some plays in the red zone that we hadn’t ran. . . . And a couple of plays on third down that we walked through also . . . And they created a check for it. It’s just little things like that. It’s either the best coaching in the world when you come up with situations that you had never seen before. Or you’d seen it and knew what to do.”  Marshall kept quiet about his feelings regarding the Super Bowl until recently and coincidentally AFTER he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.  Kurt Warner has stayed silent, and I fully believe this is because he has yet to get one of those scary ass head statues.  It will be interesting if he ever addresses the way he felt about the loss.

The second time, and probably the most recognized was deemed Spygate in 2007.  The Patriots were caught video tape handed recording the New York Jets defensive signals.  With further investigation it was found that the Patriots had been doing it to many other teams for many years.  Goodell ordered that all tapes be handed over, where he again destroyed the tapes.  He also handed down a punishment that included the loss of a first-round draft pick, fining the team $250,000 and Bill Belicheat (sorry Belichick) $500,000.  Now you would think this would deter them from ever attempting something illegal in the game again, but alas it did not.

I believe the problem here is Tom Brady, and of course money.  The Patriots are major money makers and are of course one of the more wealthy teams.  They have a lot to lose with yet another cheating scandal.  That is why I believe they tried to settle our gains.  Just a few days ago both Belichick and Brady help separate press conferences,  Belichicks was first, and to no ones surprise he claimed to have no knowledge, and told reporters they would have to talk to Brady about how he likes his balls (stop laughing).  Did he throw Brady under the bus a bit?  Yeah I think so, but just when you thought this story couldn't get any worse, Brady took the podium.  You would think that someone involved in a MAJOR scandal just a little over a week away from the biggest sporting event of the year would be offended, outraged, confused, and hurt by such allegations (if they were innocent).  This was not the case, Brady seemed to have a permanent grin on his face, scoffing at questions, answering sarcastically, laughing, and even joking with a few reporters.  It made him look so much worse than he did initially.  

Why do I think he is guilty?  Well its simple, per the request of Peyton Manning way back in 2006, all quarterbacks are allowed to inspect and see their footballs before the game.  This is to ensure the balls are to their liking, but still within the rules of course.  Then there is the fact that only the Patriots balls were deflated.  Some people have tried to say that the cold weather caused the balls to deflate, but I'm pretty sure if that were the case all of the balls on the field would have been the same.  Then of course one of my favorite quotes from Brady at his presser was that he didn't feel a difference in the ball.  So here is a guy that has been gripping, tucking (oh yeah that rule), and throwing footballs for almost 15 years and he didn't notice a difference?  How dumb does he think we are?  Either he has been playing with under inflated balls his entire career or he thinks we are all a bunch of idiots that will fall for anything that comes out of his smug mouth.

What should the punishment be?  I'll tell you one thing, people don't want to see another stupid fine, we are out for blood this time and for good reason.  Why should they be tolerated?  Why is it OK that this happened in a championship game of all games?  When "Bountygate" came out, which was the New Orleans Saints having bounties on certain players, they were stripped of their head coach Sean Payton for an entire season even though he claimed to have no knowledge.  What did commissioner Rodger Goodell have to say about that?  "Ignorance is no excuse".  That needs to hold up in this case as well.  Everyone is playing dumb, nobody knows what happened, its like the football fairy came and deflated only the Patriots balls, and then vanished into thin air (damn you Tink!).  Its ridiculous to even try and defend them at this point, which plenty of Patriots fans are still doing.  These are repeat offenders and as fans its time to get the word out that we wont tolerate this shit anymore.  Do I think that the deflated balls made the Patriots win a slam dunk?  No not necessarily especially since the problem was reportedly corrected by halftime, BUT does it matter?  Cheating is cheating to me, no matter how small.  Saying this isn't a big deal is like your spouse saying they hooked up with someone but it didn't mean anything, IT COUNTS.  

I look forward to the Super Bowl every single year, I love it, but this year is different.  Its simple, I don't want to see a cheating team play, and I think a lot of people feel the same way.  They don't deserve to be there plain and simple.  Belichick doesn't deserve to be there either.  The NFL really needs to make an example out of this situation, because if it gets swept under the rug and they try to make it go away without any repercussions (kind of like they did with Ray Rice until TMZ got ahold of that video) they will most certainly lose credibility, and our faith that they are keeping our sacred game fair.