There are a few things that tend to bother me when it comes to the media’s coverage of sports. One of them happens to be the idea that whenever there is a controversy, the media must turn it into a “-gate”. Like we have mentioned previously, the term comes from the original Watergate scandal that involved former President Richard Nixon. Lets keep in mind that the term “Watergate scandal” came from the fact that Watergate was the name of the hotel. So tacking on “-gate” to the end of any scandal that comes up really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to begin with.

Calling this whole Patriots spying on other teams stuff a “Spygate” or “Patriotgate” is dumb. Belichick didn’t have guys wire tapping the democratic party’s phone lines. Belichick wasn’t stealing financial records. The Patriots weren’t rigging an election. They were “allegedly” video taping defensive coordinators and stealing plays. For some reason, that doesn’t sound like a federal offense. It doesn’t sound like something that might get you impeached from the Presidency. It sounds to me like it’s a case of the Patriots trying to gain the extra leg up on the competition.

Look, what the Pats did was wrong. They’ve apologized already and they’ll get their punishment soon enough. Cheating is wrong and they’ll have to wear it and the black cloud of suspicion that rolled in about those Super Bowl victories for a while. What they shouldn’t have to deal with is some stupid ass name that ESPN wants to give them that sounds like they were committing felonies at a hotel. It’s not Watergate. Stop trying to make people believe it is.