Let me begin by saying I don’t like the New England Patriots.  Nothing against the people of the city or the city in general I’m just tired of them winning.  Their quarterback may be the best of all time and he’s married to a super model.  I’m a die-hard Cleveland Browns fan so perhaps I’m just naturally bitter but the country is consumed with the footballs they used in this past weekend’s AFC Championship Game.

ESPN is reporting that eleven of the twelve balls that the Patriots supplied for the game were under inflated.  This is a big deal because only the Patriots use the balls that they supplied for the game, it was raining, and under inflated balls are easier  to catch.  If you weren’t aware of the final score it was Patriots 45 Colts 7.   If the final score was 45-41 I might see the cause for concern but let’s not lose focus of “the rules.”  IF New England is guilty of under inflating their balls then they deserve to be reprimanded regardless of the fact the Colts were blown out like a mobile home during a tornado.

What really concerns me about this story is the media.  This deserves to be a big story for ESPN and other sports programs but this was the second story this morning on network news after the President’s State of the Union Address.  The fourth story was another showing of the video of that policeman lip-synching to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.”  I’m surprised there wasn’t a live shot of Bruce Jenner shaving his legs.

The bottom line with network news is winning the ratings war.  If these stories mirror what is on the meter of interest of the average American then we really have become a tabloid society and that’s scary to me.  In the meantime I will continue to educate myself by surfing the internet and exposing myself to a variety of sources and opinions while I chuckle like a fifth grader listening to network anchors saying “deflated balls.”