Everyone ready for the big game this Sunday?

I have to tell you, after watching this season and especially that amazing NFC Championship comeback, I don’t know how anyone in the country could not love this team.

And given that the Patriots were literally caught breaking the rules during their championship game, I am not sure how anyone in the country not born and raised in Boston could be rooting for anyone but the Seahawks.

Let’s clear the air: I’ve admitted it here before, but I am not actually a Seahawks fan. My family hails from Philadelphia and because of that, all my sports loyalties lay solidly with the City of Brotherly Love.

(By the way, it was that Seahawks game that crushed the Eagles’ spirit this year. After Seattle stomped them a new one, the Igs seemed to give up. It was like they saw the best, realized they were not going to beat them and figured they might as well hit the links after 16 instead of just losing in the playoffs. …)

That said, it’s been hard not to get on the Seahawks bandwagon these past few years. The team is not only good, but likable and filled with fun personalities.

From the way Richard Sherman openly challenges the NFL and the media to Russell Wilson’s humble but intense presence to Marshawn Lynch’s just-here-so-I-don’t-get-fined (he said that 29 times on Monday) appearances to the way every single player and coach speaks about and treats the fans, this team is hard not to like.

Meanwhile, the Patriots come off like corporate football at its finest. They’re like a machine. It’s like rooting for IBM.

Then this whole “Deflategate” thing happened.

Again, I am not a Colts fan, nor am I a Seahawks fan. However, I am a sports fan and a football fan and man who appreciates a decent wager (by the way, the Captain America – Starlord bet over Twitter is the best thing I’ve heard in a while…) and as all of those things, I cannot tolerate a team trying to break the rules to get an unfair advantage.

That’s cheating. Period. It can’t be allowed to stand.

As a journalist with a history degree, however, I am not opposed to the name “Deflategate.” In fact, I think it’s kind of perfect.

In the past, I have complained about the use of the “-gate” suffix as a catch-all for scandals. I have also complained a lot about people comparing nothing scandals to Watergate. I have always said that if you are comparing, say, Benghazi to Watergate, you probably have no idea what actually happened at Watergate or why it was important.

But in this case, the comparison works better than any usage since, well, the original.

Hear me out:

“Watergate” was about a president who was going to win anyway (by a lot) breaking the law to try and get a competitive advantage over his opponent.

“Deflategate” is about a team that was probably going to win anyway (by a lot) breaking the rules of fair competition to try and gain an advantage over their opponent.

I mean, if the shoe fits…

But no matter, like Watergate, any punishment will come after the Super Bowl/election is already decided and even if the Pats win, you can bet that all the scores, stats and records will still stand.

Nixon still gets to say he won two terms as president, after all.

But the NFL needs to address this in a similar way. This scandal gets directly to the heart of competition in the NFL, right at the idea that each team gets a fair shot and the best team will win.

And again, the better team did win. Shoot, with properly inflated balls they still outscored the Colts 28-0. Which is why this is so infuriating.

Cheating is bad enough, but cheating when you don’t have to? That’s being a bully too.

And I don’t suffer bullies and cheaters. Or Nixon.

GO HAWKS.