We’re Due for a Patriots Scandal

Let me just get this out of the way right now: I have nothing to base anything I’m about to say on.

I haven’t heard anything, I don’t know anything, and even if I did, I wouldn’t care enough to look to deeply into it. I’m enjoying my offseason and the beginning of summer. But that said, based on what has been happening in the NFL, I wouldn’t be in the slightest bit surprised if we all got to witness another Patriots non-story that blew up into a scandal.

I’m not talking about the Edelman suspension; yeah, that sucks, but this league is lousy with players who get busted for PEDs. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that every player in the league is using something they shouldn’t in order to maximize the few years they have in which they can earn a lot of money for playing a violent sport. I’m talking about something bigger here, and I have no idea what it could possibly be. Maybe something financial. Maybe something related to TB12. Maybe Bill Belichick has been running an underground torture ring. Who knows. But the NFL has been an afterthought this offseason as we’ve enjoyed an amazing series of playoffs in other sports. Ratings and interest remain down. The biggest NFL storylines have been about Colin Kaepernick and the number of NFL owners who are being deposed for collusion and a cancelled White House visit. There hasn’t been much to drive interest, make the league money, and put eyes on the NFL in a way that suits them.

There’s a very easy cure for that.

I hope I’m wrong - I usually am. But if something Patriots-related breaks right around the time the NFL usually goes dead for a few weeks as players and coaches gear up for training camp, don’t be surprised. And don’t take it as anything other than what the NFL does every time it has looked bad, lost money, or fought for ratings in the past: paint the Patriots in a negative light and watch the media frenzy catapult the league to the front of the line where it wants to be.

It’s been a quiet and negative offseason for the league as a whole. Luckily for them, the Patriots are a ratings monster. And no matter how bad anything league-related is, you can always make whatever the Patriots do or don’t do come across as a whole lot worse.