Deflate-gate: Interests Versus Ideas

Since the Patriots were discovered to have partially deflated the footballs their team used during their win in the semifinals, a nationwide debate has broken out that pits interests against ideas.  The debate gains nuance when looked at through the lens of “symbolic technologies” as described by Laffy and Weldes; ideas in this case are more than just tools in argument, they are influential in shaping individuals’ perspectives in particular cases. It is interesting to speculate, nonetheless, as to the degree to which pre-existing feelings about the Patriots affect people’s stances toward the incident.

A little background: After the Patriots won their semifinal game against the Colts 7 to 45 two weeks ago, 11 of the 12 balls that the Patriots used were found to have been slightly deflated. This makes the football easier to handle in the rain (it was raining during the game). Though an investigation is ongoing, the action has not affected the Patriots’ season.

But the controversy is strong: opponents of the action have said that the Patriots cheated, and should be sanctioned in some way. Patriots supporters maintain that the team displayed creativity in their tactics, and even applaud the team’s do-what-it-takes attitude. In a Keohane and Goldstein framing, we could see the Patriots as choosing to act in accordance with their interest (winning) rather than in accordance with ideas of fair play and sportsmanship.

“Ideas,” in this instance, play a potentially controversial role. On the one hand, the idea of fair play seen from the perspective of Laffy and Weldes could genuinely play a constitutive role in the way viewers conceptualize actions like deflating footballs. On the other hand, another factor may be contributing a significant role: pre-existing feelings toward the Patriots (or any team in question). Thus individuals’ commitment to ideas might fluctuate according to whether it is a team they support or a team they detest that has carried out the questionable action. The fact that Patriots fans seem so much more disposed to defend their action while non-Patriots fans vehemently condemn it provides support for the hypothesis that interests here are playing a role in constituting ideas more than the other way around.