Deflate-Gate receives inflated media coverage—the Monday Morning Realist

Every Monday morning, Section 215’s Akiem Bailum gives an in-depth and unfiltered look at all of the latest sports news in The Monday Morning Realist. You can follow Akiem on Twitter @AkiemBailum.

Jan 24, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Deflated footballs with Super Bowl XLIX logo at the NFL Experience at Phoenix Convention Center in advance of the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Realists, have you been watching CNN lately? In fact, have you been watching any of the major cable news networks as of late?

As I have mentioned in previous Realist pieces, my schedule these days is kind of hectic. So any time that I actually obtain to sit myself in front of a tube is precious.

But, I have taken a glance at what has been on the TV networks that show news as of late. Seemingly, every single time I have turned on one of the news channels this week, they were talking about one thing:

“Deflate-Gate.”

This was something that was talked about so heavily, I thought it was going to be shoehorned somehow, someway into MSNBC’s coverage of President Obama’s State of the Union Address.

Of course, we all know how this has happened by now. After the New England Patriots’ blowout 45-7 victory in Foxboro in the AFC Championship Game over the Indianapolis Colts, someone told Bob Kravitz of WTHR-TV Channel 13 (the NBC Indianapolis affiliate) that the Pats were being investigated for the deflation of footballs.

Such an act would certainly give a team that were to have done that a better advantage in terms of being able to hold on to the football as well as throwing it.

On top of what has happened on the Colts’ side of things, the Baltimore Ravens shortly followed that up with allegations in which they claimed New England did something similar in the AFC Divisional game the previous week in which the Ravens nearly pulled off an upset in Gillette Stadium.

Ever since, New England has become much maligned for being involved in yet another scandal. Between the controversial Tuck Rule and Spygate, New England’s dynasty has arguably become one of the most controversial in sports history.

Was it something to at least look at? Yes. If a team is trying to cheat in order to gain an unfair advantage over another team, it is a notable topic for the sports channels.

But, the news channels? Honestly?

Has the 24-hour news cycle become so tepid at certain points where it has got to a point where we are now talking about a purely sports issue ad nauseum on the major news channels?

I have dear friends who say they do not even watch sports, outside of maybe soccer. They told me that the only reason they even know what in the name of Bobby Thompson this Deflate-Gate deal is was because they heard about it either on CNN or E! Entertainment Television.

Wow! Floored!

Is there any doubt that any of the air that may have been siphoned from those footballs was repackaged and re-used so news and sports channels can fill up a 24-hour news cycle.

Not that the Patriots helped their cause at all. Most likely, this was something that was going to blow over. After all, the AFC Championship game was a rout. The Patriots and Colts could have been playing with hockey pucks, volleyballs, or soccer balls instead of the pigskin and Pats would have still owned Indy by 38 points.

Why didn’t New England help its cause? Instead of simply letting the controversy live and die through the media, they called a pair of press conferences this past week featuring head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.

On top of that, an unscientific ESPN poll indicated that everyone around the country (except in the six states that comprise New England, of course) felt that Belichick and Brady did have knowledge of who deflated the footballs—despite what Belichick and Brady claim.

Part of it, it was another chance to pile on a Patriots team that has not exactly won its share of friends in the Belichick and Brady era.

But, what was with the media coverage? Even in the sports media, was there any reason to believe that the sports media was doing anything but milking the Deflate-Gate controversy as a bridge to Super Bowl week itself?

Last season, this same press drummed up a manufactured controversy when the Seattle Seahawks’ Richard Sherman made impassioned comments to Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews after contributing to the game-winning interception in last year’s NFC Championship Game in Seattle against the San Francisco 49ers.

Despite his resume saying otherwise, some even went as far as to say Sherman’s comments set back African Americans in the NFL and that it showed that he is a “thug.”

While this controversy involving Belichick and Brady certainly seems to be more real than the idiocy that was the micromanaging re: Sherman’s comments, the theme that is developing is that the press needs a story to bridge that week between the championship games and Super Bowl week.

Covering controversies is important because sports is honeycombed with them from financial controversies to cheating infractions. But, a solution to this problem of finding stuff to cover that week can be found by simply, you know, covering other sports.

After all, it has been known to inflate people’s brains.