Man who started petition to ban Patriots from Super Bowl: 'This is the Black Sox all over again'

Dane Carbaugh

Man who started petition to ban Patriots from Super Bowl: 'This is the Black Sox all over again' image

On Tuesday, Sporting News called attention to a petition at Change.org that had gathered 38,000 signatures in six days. The goal of the petition was to ban the Patriots from the Super Bowl because of Deflate-gate, making way for Baltimore and Indianapolis to replay the 2015 AFC Championship.

The lobby now has 54,000 signatures. Scott Latshaw, a Ravens fan and the creator of the petition, has set a goal of 75,000.

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"It had 25,000 (signees) in the first 24 hours," Latshaw tells Sporting News. "It went viral immediately."

Latshaw, who lives in Baltimore and who says he has grandfathers who played for the Orioles (ed. note: One of them appeared to play for the minor league O's), had never used Change.org before and was surprised at the response. It began quickly, and at one point Latshaw says there were 10,000 signatures in just two hours.

At the beginning, the petition was shared on Facebook by Latshaw to just five friends through the creation process. It went deep into the Ravens fan base from there and became for many an issue of fairness vs. losers and sour grapes.

"I think what’s going on right now, the heroes we have and are presenting to the world, they’re sort of getting a free pass when it comes to all this stuff," says Latshaw. "It’s absolutely horrible. We have an opportunity here to do something right, get this right, whether it means postponing the Super Bowl so we can get this investigation done to see if they were cheating for both the games.

"Maybe there’s a money trail or something like that. (Brad Johnson) down in Tampa Bay paid the ball boy all the time. I’m pretty sure the exact same thing was happening up in New England."

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Latshaw believes that not only should the Patriots be kicked from the Super Bowl, but the AFC Championship as well. The petition maintains that New England cheated in its 35-31 divisional round victory over Baltimore.

When asked how he thought the deflated balls played into the fact that the Colts had three turnovers and New England's ground game was dominant, Latshaw pointed to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

"You need to immediately look at the fumble percentage of that team versus the rest of the NFL," says Latshaw. "This cheating didn’t just start and that's why we need to halt everything, go through the investigation and find the connection that takes Tom Brady, puts him in the same room with the attendant that they’re focusing on now, and follow the money.

"I guarantee there’s a money trail. At that point, you disqualify them."

The Linemakers on Sporting News pointed out that the Patriots had a statistical shift in their fumble rate after 2007, the season after Brady and Peyton Manning helped lobby the NFL to allow each team to pick their own game balls. In prior seasons balls were provided by the home team.

Still, a statistical shift in fumble percentage without physical evidence of underinflated balls remains just that — a shift. For Latshaw, that's not good enough even as the NFL approaches Super Bowl XLIX.

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"They can’t go through with this multibillion-dollar event and have it tainted like that," says Latshaw. "This is the (Chicago) Black Sox all over again."

Despite the fervor and cries of cheating from fan bases in Baltimore and Indianapolis, the reality is there are just four days left before the morning of the Super Bowl. Nothing is expected to come of the petition despite a few fans being angry come Sunday.

Latshaw says he and and those around him be doing something else that morning as a boycott in solidarity.

"I’m definitely going to be one of those people who is just not going to watch the game," says Latshaw. "I just want them to know that the fans want to see not only the most viewable game, they want to see the fairest game."

New England and Seattle will square off at 6:30 p.m. ET on Feb. 1 in Glendale, Ariz.

Dane Carbaugh