The Tom Brady roast entailed plenty of jokes targeting low-hanging fruit. For Brady, one of the easiest items is #Deflategate.
Near the end of the event that literally was as long as a football game (and, like a football game, had maybe four or five moments that mattered), Brady made a joke about his punishment for his involvement in the scam to take the air out of footballs.
“The NFL spent $20 million and found it was ‘more probable than not’ that I was ‘generally aware’ that someone may have deflated my footballs,” Brady said. “You could have just given me the $20 million and I would just told you I fucking did it.”
It got a big laugh, in part because it felt like a confession.
While Brady could plausibly say he was joking and it wasn’t an admission, it sure felt like one. Really, at this point, who cares? He won three Super Bowls with properly inflated footballs. It’s a footnote to an illustrious career.
And, ultimately, who cares if the balls were in the magical range of 12.5 to 13.5 psi. No one even knows where that rule came from or why it exists. Overinflate, underinflate, who cares how much air is in the bladder of the football?
Maybe that was the mindset at the heart of the joke. At the end of the day, who really gives a shit?
The NFL did, reportedly because some thought the Patriots didn’t get hammered sufficiently for Spygate. It seemed ridiculous at the time. It seems even more ridiculous now.
