Point: The deflation of the Patriots’ footballs does not matter in the long run.

By Grant Weaver

The biggest story surrounding Super Bowl XLIX is “Deflate Gate,” a scandal revolving around the New England Patriots and the deflation of 11 of their 12 footballs either before or during their American Football Conference (AFC) Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts on Jan. 18.  While I do believe that the Patriots are responsible for this misdemeanor, simply on the basis of their history with cheating, it is hard to say how much this would have affected the game if the footballs were all inflated according to the proper NFL standards. The Patriots won the game 45-7.

Colts tight end Dwayne Allen said in a tweet that this is not a story and that, “[The Patriots] could have played with soap for balls and [beaten] us.”

The fact of the matter is that the Patriots are simply the better team, and the Colts lost their shot at a Super Bowl appearance very quickly. Whatever equipment manager or personnel from the Patriots manipulated the footballs obviously did not do anything that would have greatly affected this game. As a society, we should forget about this controversy and remember overall what a thrilling  NFL regular season, playoffs, and Super Bowl we were treated to.  If the media wanted more interesting stories, they could write about the happenings on Media Day (Tuesday, Jan. 27), when Marshawn Lynch may have barely avoided a fine and Rob Gronkowski had to read from a fictional book about him.

Counterpoint: The Patriots cheated and should be punished.

By Zack Shapiro

Ever since the Patriots’ blow out win over Colts, the NFL has been consumed by controversy. It was reported that 11 of the 12 game balls provided by the New England Patriots were under-inflated, which could have provided a better grip in the rain. After an NFL year defined by scandals, it is important for the league to finally make a statement. In my opinion, the New England Patriots should face a severe punishment, one of the most severe in the league’s history, in order to send the message that cheating is unacceptable.

While it seems likely that a ballboy or equipment manager will take the fall for the under-inflated footballs, it is extremely unlikely that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Patriots QB Tom Brady were unaware of the deflation of the footballs. This is a team that has been caught cheating before, when they were found recording private football practices in 2007.

Many argue that tampering with the footballs had nothing to do with the outcome of the game, and while they are correct, this should not mean that the league should simply dismiss the scandal or levy less of a punishment. The fact that the Patriots were so much better than their opponents and still cheated makes this whole fiasco even more disturbing. They cheated simply because they could. They were willing to break the rules to have an edge that they didn’t even need. If a statement isn’t made now, what is to stop the Patriots from cheating again? Hopefully the Patriots will spend a long time regretting this as their team suffers from many fines and confiscated draft picks.