It continues to amaze me how envy can abolish one’s ability to think level headed these days. I mean really, though, we can all think of a few scenarios to which this applies.

The eyes and ears of the NFL have all been on New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady for allegedly deflating footballs before or during their AFC championship game versus the Colts, which they dominated 45-7. Critics dubbed this crisis “deflategate.”

There are two things to address here: 1) The use of “deflated” footballs having impact on the final score of the game and 2) The sheer ethical implications to be examined as a result of these allegations. These have been the main themes in the media regarding this situation.

If you didn’t tune into Sunday’s massacre of the Colts, long story short, the Pats could’ve played with “soap” instead of a football that game and it wouldn’t have impacted the deciding winner or loser, according to Colts tight end Dwayne Allen.

Brady finished 23 of 35 for 226 yards passing, accompanied by three touchdowns and an interception; not a bad day for the three time Super Bowl winner.

However, it was the ground game that made the difference for New England. LeGarrette Blount ran for 148 yards on 30 carries (with a key offensive lineman out due to knee injury). For a defense that could barely stop a nose bleed in the Colts all regular season, it was to no one’s surprise New England ran past them convincingly.

Sure you can say Brady had a fantastic game because they had an advantage with deflated footballs, but anyone who has an inkling of football knowledge understands the relief a quarterback gets for the passing game when there is an established run game (Blount’s 148-yard performance). Basically you could have thrown in Tony Romo or Andy Dalton and they probably couldn’t have even screwed that one up.

Deflated or not, Blount could have held cinderblocks as footballs and still had time to get to through the hole and gain a handful of yards each attempt. The only real advantage of the deflated balls was to the passer and receivers, but more so for receivers as catching is made easier.

So we know it wouldn’t have mattered if the pats used soap as footballs in impacting the final result of the game, but I suppose we should look at the “ethical implications” of this whole mess.

The NFL’s ethical policies have been nothing short of sketchy. From the use of performance enhancing drugs by players, numerous assault and even murder allegations, point shaving, players given poor financial advice leading to debt, and so on and so on and so on. And now the cameras have decided to focus all attention on deflated footballs.

Regardless of anything that happens from all of this, what is most sad is the opportunity lost. The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots are playing in the biggest game for arguably this country’s most coveted sport.

The Seahawks have been talked about as having possibly the best defense of all time while the Pats have remained the winningest team in the NFL since 2001. We have a chance to be part of history in appreciating this game for what it could be or waste our time being over analytical about a few footballs.