So, today is Super Bowl Sunday. For the past three weeks, we have heard about “Deflategate.” Lots of people have weighed in with their opinions on the events of the AFC Championship Game. The biggest issue that I have with the discussion is how it magnifies our country’s relative morality.
The arguments that have been made are related to thing like:
- They didn’t know there was such a rule.
- Are you saying no other team in the league used under deflated footballs at all this season?
- The only reason why people are upset is that they got caught.
- Once the footballs were inflated to regulation PSI, the Patriots played better. Imagine what the score would have been if they had used regulation footballs the entire game.
- They might have broken this rule, but so many other teams use drugs. So many other players beat their wives. This is a non-issue really.
- If you aren’t cheating, you’re not trying.
These arguments are extremely immature – I feel like I’m listening to a bunch of 7-year-olds talking about their neighborhood flag-football game. These are adult professional football players. They knew what they were doing – they may not have known the regulation PSI, but even I as one of the world least knowledgeable about the game knows there are rules about every aspect of the game.
Why have we not heard anybody say, “We’re sorry we played dishonestly.” “We will work on our teams checks-and-balances and make sure this sort of oversight doesn’t happen again.” “We’ll take a long hard look at our motivations.”
When our morality is based on the actions of people around us, we will always be able to find people who are worse than us. And perhaps our own immorality will justify somebody else’s bad behavior somewhere else. It is a downward spiral if we don’t acknowledge our faults and try to be better.
I think it’s sad that this isn’t just an issue with football. It is an issue our whole nation deals with. Politics. Business. Marriage. Personal morality. It seems that being immoral might just be what it means to be a Patriot – are we going to change that?