Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman Chris Canty said that deflating football is equivalent to a player taking performance-enhancing drugs.
While many around the league have minced words and hem and haw over the latest round of cheating by the New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman Chris Canty is doing no such thing. Cheating in one form is as bad as cheating in another for him, which is why he quickly compared Tom Brady throwing deflated footballs to Tom Brady juicing up for his workout routine.
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“The Patriots are habitual line-steppers,” Canty told Pro Football Talk. “If the allegations are true, then you are talking about attacking the integrity of our game and I have an issue with that. . . . [W]hat I’m going to say about the deflating of the balls, to me there is no difference than performance-enhancing drugs. You are cheating at that point. You are getting a competitive advantage outside of the rule book and there has to be some sort of consequences for that.”
While the comparison won’t hold weight if you happen to be wearing a Tom Brady jersey, it at least bears some thought otherwise. Instead of juicing your arm, you’re just juicing the ball your arm’s throwing. We’ll soon find out if the league agrees.
One point of contention that is emerging around this controversy is the matter of who is really guilty of wanting those footballs to have a little less air in them. Talk has surfaced that instead of looking to the coach, Bill Belichick, as many have, that it’s actually quarterback Tom Brady who could have called down the order.
It doesn’t really matter to Canty though. Whoever did it needs to be punished as would any other cheater.
“To me, the integrity of the game is the most important thing,” Canty said. “You want to be successful as a player but you want to think that you are doing things that are within the rules and that you are out there competing and it’s not, whether it is performance-enhancing drugs or deflated footballs that is out there aiding in your performance.”
The NFL hasn’t released any word on a punishment, and they may delay such an announcement until after the Super Bowl so as to avoid further controversy.
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