Fox' "The Simpsons" last night aired a football-themed episode, which pokes fun at the Patriots and QB TOM BRADY as he comes off his Deflategate suspension. The episode opens with Homer at Moe's Bar watching the hometown Springfield Atoms play the Boston Americans, losing 10-7 at halftime. At the bar, Homer's friend Carl says, "Come on, we cannot lose again to those no-good Boston cheaters!" Moe adds of the Americans' QB, a clear reference to Brady, "I can’t stand that pretty-boy quarterback. He thinks he’s so handsome just ‘cuz he’s drop dead gorgeous." Another friend, Lenny, says, "The only reason Boston wins is because they cheat. Listening in on our team’s headsets, fattening our cheerleaders. You know for three games last year Boston used a volleyball painted brown." To Homer’s chagrin, his son, Bart, turns out to be a Boston fan. Homer tries to sway his allegiance to the Atoms, saying, "The Springfield Atoms are your hometown team since 2003 when we stole them in the middle of the night from Portland." After Bart refuses to switch allegiances, Homer takes the family on a "hatecation" to Boston.
CHANGE OF HEART? As the family is walking around Quincy Market in Boston, Homer tries to provoke some “hooligans” by saying disparaging things about Fenway Park. Homer says to the crowd, “Listen up you clam-gargling tea tossers, Fenway is a terrible ballpark. The seats at Fenway Park are too narrow and many of them face centerfield. It’s not charming, it’s a teardown.” But Homer has a change of heart while in Boston and relocates to the city only to be confronted by a parade featuring the Boston Americans. Bart says of why there is a parade, “It’s a state holiday because the league overturned the coach’s suspension for using magnets to affect the coin toss.” Homer was happy living in Boston until he was confronted with the Americans parade and asked to wear a team hat, which he could not do. He yells to the parade crowd, “Stupid cheaters, you cheat. You flip out when people say you cheat and everybody knows you’re nothing but a big bunch of cheaters!” (“The Simpsons,” Fox, 10/9).
