Gregg Easterbrook, fatuous moralizer

Gregg Easterbrook sunk to a new low this week with a scurrilous diatribe on the Patriots, equating the hometown eleven with evil and ascribing the forces of good to the Colts:

“Argument for the New England Patriots as scoundrels in the service of that which is baleful: Dishonesty, cheating, arrogance, hubris, endless complaining even in success. The Patriots have three Super Bowl rings, but that jewelry is tarnished by their cheating scandal. They run up the score to humiliate opponents — more on that below — thus mocking sportsmanship. Their coach snaps and snarls in public, seeming to feel contempt for the American public that has brought him wealth and celebrity. Victory seems to give Bill Belichick no joy, and defeat throws him into fury. Belichick and the rest of the top of the Patriots’ organization continue to refuse to answer questions about what was in the cheating tapes — and generally, you refuse to answer questions if you have something to hide. The team has three Super Bowl triumphs, yet its players regularly whine about not being revered enough. The team’s star, Tom Brady, is a smirking sybarite who dates actresses and supermodels but whose public charity appearances are infrequent. That constant smirk on Brady’s face reminds one of Dick Cheney; people who smirk are fairly broadcasting the message, ‘I’m hiding something.’ The Patriots seem especially creepy at this point because we still don’t know whether they have told the full truth about the cheating scandal — or even whether they really have stopped cheating. They say they have, but their word is not exactly gold at this juncture. Ladies and gentlemen, representing Evil, the New England Patriots.”

Hard to know where to begin. We know where to end, though: we’re never reading another word by this fatuous, pseudo-moralizing, pasty-faced chump.

Behold the true face of evil. What does this smirk broadcast, Easterbrook, you smarmy schoolmarm schmuck?

– Perry Ellis