Driving home from Children’s the other day, I passed 15 men and women with cups in their hands asking for coin. Wearing signs that they were homeless and please, anyone help them. Before I hit the expressway I passed a bridge where 9 men were sitting in the shade all of their worldly possessions in the carts surrounding them. This led to my recent Facebook rant post:

I love the Patriots. But am I the only one who wishes as much research, money and attention were spent on rare syndromes, autism and mental health issues as have been spent on the amount of air in a football?

Here’s the thing. I love the Patriots. My husband used to be a season ticket holder. We went all the time, before they were champions. Before the Snow Bowl. Before Bledsoe’s injured finger gave rise to the Brady Bunch. You know, before you have children and actually have extra cash to spend on a Sunday tailgating.

One Sunday back on January 18, 2015 the Patriots began the game with deflated balls. The second half of the game when the balls had the right amount of air in them, they continued to trounce the Colts 45-7. Since then time, money and effort has been spent to “prove” the Patriots cheated. As a sport’s fan I have to ask:

Who the FREAK cares?

Does it matter if a sports team (even my own) cheats? Of course. Should they be penalized? Definitely (I guess even if the cheating did not impact the results of the game, they scored more points with the correct air versus the deflated). Should it be a nightly item on not only my local news but the national news? Um….no.  Yes, I want my children to know that cheating is wrong if your are famous or working at Wal-Mart. This is going to sound preachy, but I wish the public and media would be just a little more concerned with maybe a few more important issues, for example:

• Homelessness
• Poverty
• Mental Health services
• Services for those with intellectual disabilities after they turn 21
• World Peace

Okay, World Peace is probably not something that can be solved in the just under four months of investigation and a million dollar fine. If just a tenth of the amount of media coverage and money spent on “Deflategate” was spent on homelessness maybe there would be more people at home watching the game.

Rather than sleeping under a bridge.