Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Dunce Cap Award: Dave Portnoy, John Feitelberg, Hank Lockwood, and Paul Gulczynski

The above named quartet of morons are New England Patriots fans who descended upon NFL HQ in New York on Tuesday to protest the suspension of star QB and professional crybaby Tom Brady, plus the hefty fines imposed on the team for "Deflate-gate". Brady is appealing his suspension, as expected.

Brady was hit with a 4 game ban, which would mean he wouldn't be able to play in the season opener vs. Pittsburgh on September 9. The reason? It wasn't just "Deflate-gate", or Brady's refusal to fully cooperate with investigators. It was, as some have noted, an accumulation of sins, including, I believe, a post-game temper tantrum in Charlotte after a loss to Carolina in November 2013. That game, a Monday Night Football broadcast, ended with Brady berating a game official in the tunnel, complete with expletives that were barely censored by ESPN. I'm not even sure Brady realized that there was a camera present recording the entire incident. At the time, the NFL did nothing to discipline Brady, which by itself spoke volumes of the conflict of interest involving the team and commissioner Roger Goodell.

The Patriots were fined a million dollars, and forfeited a first round pick in the 2016 draft, and a 4th round pick in 2017. There was static on one message board I frequent because the ruling came nearly 2 weeks after this year's draft. Why? Because the NFL, needing to protect its brand, didn't want the last marquee event before training camp to be turned into a media circus. The fall guys have essentially been banned for life. No surprise there.

Portnoy & friends staged their protest in front of NFL HQ first, then went inside and handcuffed themselves together, which saved the police a little time when they were arrested later on. Unfortunately, they certified their moron stamps and earned Dunce Caps when one of them said they needed to start a Gofundme.com account to post their bail. Talk about cheap! They probably spent what little change they had between them on gas to get from Boston to New York. Worse, someone else started a fund to pay the Patriots' fine, as if they thought Robert Kraft didn't have enough in his expense account to cover it. Please. Are the Patriots fans that blind?

What I get from this is that the Pats' fans have a sense of artificial entitlement that makes them no different than any other team's fan base. However, being willing to waste their own money so that Kraft doesn't have to pay the fine himself speaks volumes of these fans closing themselves off to reality. Heh, I'd not be surprised if some of these folks are also fans of another franchise that trades off ignoring reality, and is also based in New England. You know who I mean. The WWE. Wouldn't surprise me at all if Kraft & Vince McMahon belong to some of the same country clubs.........!

Oh, and as for Portnoy? I'm not sure if he's related to singer-songwriter Gary Portnoy, who wrote the theme to the iconic 80's sitcom, Cheers. Tuesday, Dave Portnoy went into New York, where no one knew his name, but 24 hours later, like the Cheers song says, "Everybody knows your name", and in his case, it's mud. Enjoy your dunce caps, fellas. Wear them well.

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