What if deflate gate never happened?
The report over night from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, Deflategate was a shame, no shit! Basically everything from the 2015 data has been wiped out from the NFL, everything that they found would have cleared Tom Brady’s name from the cheating scandal but the NFL and Roger Goodell are cowards. But this isn’t a blog about that, however what if Deflategate never happened. From that one incident so many things occurred that changed the NFL landscape.
Jimmy Garoppolo benefited the most from Deflategate, with Brady being suspended for 4 games the Patriots open upped the 2016 with Jimmy where he went 2-0, 4 touchdowns and zero interceptions and the nod as a starting quarterback in the NFL. From that he got traded to San Francisco for a 2nd round pick and got PAID! $137 million dollar contract and a Super Bowl appearance in 2019 where he lost to the Chiefs. This would be one of the biggest domino in the story, the Patriots would have never traded him for a 2nd round pick, the 49ers would have never gone to the Super Bowl, who would be starting behind center right now for the 49ers?
The other quarterback that benefited from the Brady suspension was Jacoby Brissett. With a 1-1 record in New England the following season they traded him for Philip Dorsett. Jacoby went on to start 15 games for the Colts the 2017 season and went 4-11. But the return we got was Phillip Dorsett who started 8 games 73 receptions, and 8 touchdowns. Not the return I think Belichick was looking for but where would Jacoby wind up? The Colts would have been in scramble mode with Andrew Luck retiring. Would they have looked at Jimmy G instead since he was still an unknown in the league, and could we have fleeced the Colts into getting a kings ransom for him.
Would we have won Super Bowl LI? Brady was a man possessed after being suspended.11-1 record with 28 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions. Would he have that spite factor to come in and want Roger to hand him the Super Bowl trophy, knowing Jimmy G was breathing down his neck after seeing him out preform his first 3 games. I know Brady has that killer mentality but would have it been enough to be down 28-3 would the team rally around the cry that this guy got suspended and we can still do this. Would we only have 5 Super Bowls right now?
Would Brady stay in New England? We all saw the circus show that was and remember how Belichick threw Brady under the bus. Saying he doesn’t have anything to do with the balls and it’s up to the quarterback, how he likes them what pressure and all that. This was the turning point in my opinion that killed the relationship between the two and had Gisele put the bug in the ear to get Tom to leave. Would he still be playing to 45?
So many dominos fell from this one “flat” football, so much of the NFL landscape changed, and funny to look back and just wonder, what if?
