Despite the media smear campaign waged against them, the New England Patriots managed to win Tom Brady his fourth Super Bowl title on Sunday and cemented their status as one of the greatest dynasties in the history of the NFL.
The more the media tried to go on the offensive over the past two weeks, the more the originally damning Deflate-Gate case against the Patriots began to be seen for what it really was: a conspiracy to discredit the most successful quarterback, coach and team of their era, waged by the very people New England had beaten down over the past decade and a half. (RELATED: NFL Lied Multiple Times About How Deflated The Patriots’ Balls Were)
As it became clear over the weekend, Deflate-Gate couldn’t turn the nation against Brady, so the NFL and ESPN pumped the brakes on their accusations. Still, New England’s victory over Seattle caused all the Pats hatred to rear its ugly head once again.
We all know that Julian Edelman scored the go-ahead touchdown for the Patriots, but ESPN’s Kevin Seifert dared to ask if he should have been on the field at all?
Julian Edelman scored the winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLIX. In light of the NFL’s current climate, however, it’s fair to wonder if he should have been on the field for the 3-yard score that accounted for the final margin in the New England Patriots’ 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
This night will be forever remembered, of course, for an interception that stymied the Seahawks at the goal line with 20 seconds remaining. But earlier in the fourth quarter, Edelman had been staggered by a crushing hit from Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor. He appeared unsteady on multiple occasions, crawling after one tackle and slow to rise after another. Was he tested for a concussion? Was he simply responding to an aggravated hip injury? No one from the Patriots would say…
Players suspected of having suffered concussions are prohibited from speaking to the media, but Edelman answered questions for more than 20 minutes Sunday night. He also performed the “I’m going to Disneyland” postgame commercial and is scheduled to appear there Tuesday. Asked whether he was woozy or had submitted to a concussion test on the sideline, Edelman twice invoked the Patriots’ steely in-house rules.
“We’re not allowed to speak about injuries right now,” he said.
One reporter asked Edelman if he remembered the remainder of the possession after the Chancellor hit.
“Yes, I do,” he said with a smile. “I remember that we scored.”
There were no doctors in the audience, and concussions are far from an exact science. Symptoms can ebb and flow and present themselves days after the hit. What looks like a concussion can, in fact, be a reaction to pain in another part of the body. (Edelman dealt with a hip injury this season.)
But we know this: A wild NFL season concluded with a key player lurching around the field after taking a big hit. Stay tuned on this one.
In case any of that went over you head, the article is basically saying, “we don’t know if Julian Edelman was checked for a concussion, so we’re going to insinuate that even though New England won the Super Bowl, they had to cheat and ignore the league’s medical protocols for player safety to get there.”
At this point, the media’s disdain for the Pats is to be expected, and I almost admire them for sticking to their guns. Unfortunately for ESPN, Monday’s AP report totally skewered their most recent attempt to take down the Super Bowl champs.
According to the AP, doctors cleared Julian Edelman to play after a concussion test http://t.co/eYJMno6aQh pic.twitter.com/1tuifBRvD8
— SB Nation NFL (@SBNationNFL) February 2, 2015
Shoddy journalism strikes again.