Giants Fan Makes Laughable Video Accusing Patriots Of 'Cheating' On Gostkowski Game-Winning Kick
By Matt Dolloff (@mattdolloff)
BOSTON (CBS) -- Just when I thought fans outside of New England couldn't get more pathetic, there's a new contender for most embarrassing loser mentality ever. And amazingly, it apparently comes from a Giants fan!
I didn't think the obsession with catching the Patriots "cheating" infected Giants fans, but apparently it does. Even the team that has had the most success ever against Bill Belichick and Tom Brady has fans that will dig desperately looking for excuses as to why they lost the game. Congratulations are in order for Giants fans for finally joining the "Make Excuses For Why We Lost To The Patriots" club.
This fan's video (h/t Daily Snark) is just the latest of many Patriots conspiracy theories, and it's absolute nonsense.
Basically, he's accusing the Patriots of getting extra time for Stephen Gostkowski to kick his game-winning 54-yard field goal. By rule, every team gets a mandatory 25 seconds on the play clock after the ball is placed at the line of scrimmage and the ref signals for the clock to run, but the holder signaled to the referee to start that runoff with only 18 seconds left on the game clock. So in this guy's mind, the Patriots should have run out of time before making the kick. Here's his video:
But there are two problems with this argument: 1) Tom Coughlin called a timeout to ice the kicker anyway, and 2) the Giants stadium operator is the one who controls the clocks. So unless you think the Patriots have a mole inside the Giants organization fudging with the play clock, you just had to chalk this up to operator error or bad officiating at most.
Even if the Patriots ran out of time, it would have been a 5-yard delay of game penalty and Gostkowski would have had to drill a 59-yard field goal instead of 54. Obviously harder, but still makeable for a kicker that has been money for years and finally has a big-time clutch kick on his resume.
Bottom line, fans who find Patriots Nation insufferable need to take a look at themselves sometimes. To film the game on your phone, rewind, pause, slow down, pinpoint the arm motion by the holder, and try really hard to discredit the Patriots win like some daft 9/11 truther is seriously getting pathetic. This guy yelling at his TV like 'See?! See?!' just makes me feel bad for him. I'm not mad, I just pity you people.
Just admit that the Patriots won cleanly and played a hard-fought game, especially in the fourth quarter, and the Giants simply came up short. That's all it is. Both teams competed and it went the Patriots' way this time. To strap on the tinfoil hats and cry conspiracy every time the Patriots pull out a win is nothing short of embarrassing to NFL fans in general.
The Patriots won, deal with it. Especially you, Giants fans...Haven't you had enough enjoyment of New England's misery? Can't NFL fans just appreciate a great game for what it was, and not embarrass themselves with these cringe-worthy Zapruder films every time the Patriots hand someone a loss? Here's an idea: worry about your own team for once!
OK, rant over. But seriously, this is just absurd. This tops Mike Tomlin with the headsets, the coin flips, everything. The Patriots are accused of cheating on a play where the Giants' own clock operator may or may not have screwed up and would have resulted in a 5-yard penalty at worst. I'm so frustrated and disappointed with every other fanbase in the NFL it hurts.
To the guy who made this video and anyone who may agree with it: just stop. Accept that your team lost and move on.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read more from Matt here. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
