Colin Kaepernick. Photograph by Mike Morbeck.

Yet another country heard from in Deflategate. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has tweeted this: “No football in the world is going to help you win by 38! Let it go and let Tom be great! On to the 2015 season #7tormsComing‬”

Notice the rhyme – 8 and great. He’s a poet and doesn’t know it.

As for the comment, uhuh. Yeah, it’s true that it takes a lot more than squishy balls to win football games. But if you have what it takes, then squishy balls or steroids or whatever cheating poison you pick might give you an advantage against a close rival (the Baltimore Ravens) or help you annihilate a much weaker one (the Indianapolis Colts, who lost by the poetic 38).

That, as Mr. Darcy would say, is the material point. And here’s another: In the end, it’s not about what deflated footballs can do, it’s about what Tom Brady thought they could do. No one cheats without thinking there’s an advantage in it. Else why make the effort? But it doesn’t always work, because nothing in life is certain.

So, sorry, Colin, I love you, you’re a real beauty, and perhaps you are merely trying to be compassionate to a QB brother-in-arms, but your argument is specious.

I’m going to have to give you an incomplete pass on this one.