- By Marc Sandalow | Special to The Examiner
- Feb 8, 2026 (SFExaminer.com)
The only way the New England Patriots can win Sunday’s Super Bowl is if they cheat, and everyone knows it.
The Patriots cheat like hell. They claim they won the 2015 Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks. But everyone knows that game was rigged. It was a rigged game. And the fake news never reports it. The way the NFL runs games is a disgrace.
The Seahawks should take over the officiating. No more challenges or replays. It’s the only way to conduct a fair game. If the NFL can’t run games legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.
Sound idiotic? Insane? In a nutshell, this is President Donald Trump’s argument for why the federal government and Republican Party should take over U.S. elections.
Democrats, he insists, only win elections when they cheat. Joe Biden might claim he won in 2020, but everyone knows that Trump was the winner — and the media never report it. That’s why, as he said on a podcast last week, the federal government and the GOP should take over U.S. elections, at least in places where he doesn’t win. Otherwise, we’ll never have honest elections.
The analogy has limits. Unlike the Democrats, the Patriots have actually been punished for cheating — first for stealing opponents’ signals in 2007, then for using under-inflated footballs in 2015. There is no evidence to support any of Trump’s allegations of Democratic election fraud.
Nevertheless, five years after losing to Biden by 7 million votes, Trump continues to shout to the world that he has never lost, spewing “facts” that are demonstrably false.
It hardly matters who he is addressing. He tells supporters at rallies that Democrats brought in millions of immigrants to illegally vote. He told business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland, last month that “[everyone] now knows” that he won in 2020. He told a kid from Pennsylvania who phoned in on Christmas Eve that he’d won the state three times (he lost in 2020). He told faith leaders at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., last week that Democrats only win when they “cheat.”
There is nothing in the real world to support any of those claims. And virtually everyone knows it.
Some speculate he does it to sow doubts about American democracy in case the 2026 midterms don’t work out the way he wants. Perhaps like The Fonz on TV’s “Happy Days” — who was physically unable to utter the words “I’m wrong” — Trump’s mouth is incapable of saying “I lost.” Or perhaps he actually believes he won.
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It’s hard to say which explanation is more scary.
Unlike football, the outcome has real-life consequences. A week ago, the FBI confiscated thousands of 2020 ballots in Fulton County, Ga. — where Atlanta is located — and Trump has vowed that people will be prosecuted. Twice last week, he suggested the federal government and the FBI nationalize the elections to oversee ballot counting and prevent cheating, by which he presumably means to prevent Republicans from losing.
It must be fun to live in a world where you cannot lose. So, on this Super Bowl Sunday, I urge everyone to take a cue from the president — and by that, I mean celebrate the San Francisco 49ers winning yet another championship.
The NFL claims the Seahawks are NFC champions after beating the 49ers 41-6 two weeks ago. I refuse to accept that.
Why? First, it is statistically impossible. The Niners beat Seattle 17-13 in September. No one, not football analysts, the gambling sites, or even Seattleites predicted the Seahawks could win a playoff game by 35 points.
And then there was the rigged NFC Divisional Round. Remember the hoax timeout that erased a 49ers first-down and the fake defensive holding call on Jordan Elliott? What about the holding penalties that went uncalled in the fourth quarter?
It turns out the Patriots aren’t football’s only cheaters. The fake news won’t write it, but the Seahawks stole the game. The 49ers are NFC champions. Christian McCaffrey ran for 1,202 yards, and Brock Purdy threw for 2,167 yards this season. No one has ever seen anything like it.
Which is why no matter who wins Sunday, I say, go Niners! I’m predicting back-to-back 49ers championships. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Marc Sandalow is a senior faculty member at the University of California’s Washington Program. He has been writing about California politics from Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years.
Trump’s ‘rigged’ election claims as idiotic as saying Super Bowl fixed
- By Marc Sandalow | Special to The Examiner
- Feb 8, 2026
The only way the New England Patriots can win Sunday’s Super Bowl is if they cheat, and everyone knows it.
The Patriots cheat like hell. They claim they won the 2015 Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks. But everyone knows that game was rigged. It was a rigged game. And the fake news never reports it. The way the NFL runs games is a disgrace.
The Seahawks should take over the officiating. No more challenges or replays. It’s the only way to conduct a fair game. If the NFL can’t run games legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.
Sound idiotic? Insane? In a nutshell, this is President Donald Trump’s argument for why the federal government and Republican Party should take over U.S. elections.
Democrats, he insists, only win elections when they cheat. Joe Biden might claim he won in 2020, but everyone knows that Trump was the winner — and the media never report it. That’s why, as he said on a podcast last week, the federal government and the GOP should take over U.S. elections, at least in places where he doesn’t win. Otherwise, we’ll never have honest elections.
The analogy has limits. Unlike the Democrats, the Patriots have actually been punished for cheating — first for stealing opponents’ signals in 2007, then for using under-inflated footballs in 2015. There is no evidence to support any of Trump’s allegations of Democratic election fraud.
Nevertheless, five years after losing to Biden by 7 million votes, Trump continues to shout to the world that he has never lost, spewing “facts” that are demonstrably false.
It hardly matters who he is addressing. He tells supporters at rallies that Democrats brought in millions of immigrants to illegally vote. He told business and political leaders in Davos, Switzerland, last month that “[everyone] now knows” that he won in 2020. He told a kid from Pennsylvania who phoned in on Christmas Eve that he’d won the state three times (he lost in 2020). He told faith leaders at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., last week that Democrats only win when they “cheat.”
There is nothing in the real world to support any of those claims. And virtually everyone knows it.
Some speculate he does it to sow doubts about American democracy in case the 2026 midterms don’t work out the way he wants. Perhaps like The Fonz on TV’s “Happy Days” — who was physically unable to utter the words “I’m wrong” — Trump’s mouth is incapable of saying “I lost.” Or perhaps he actually believes he won.
It’s hard to say which explanation is more scary.
Unlike football, the outcome has real-life consequences. A week ago, the FBI confiscated thousands of 2020 ballots in Fulton County, Ga. — where Atlanta is located — and Trump has vowed that people will be prosecuted. Twice last week, he suggested the federal government and the FBI nationalize the elections to oversee ballot counting and prevent cheating, by which he presumably means to prevent Republicans from losing.
It must be fun to live in a world where you cannot lose. So, on this Super Bowl Sunday, I urge everyone to take a cue from the president — and by that, I mean celebrate the San Francisco 49ers winning yet another championship.
The NFL claims the Seahawks are NFC champions after beating the 49ers 41-6 two weeks ago. I refuse to accept that.
Why? First, it is statistically impossible. The Niners beat Seattle 17-13 in September. No one, not football analysts, the gambling sites, or even Seattleites predicted the Seahawks could win a playoff game by 35 points.
And then there was the rigged NFC Divisional Round. Remember the hoax timeout that erased a 49ers first-down and the fake defensive holding call on Jordan Elliott? What about the holding penalties that went uncalled in the fourth quarter?
It turns out the Patriots aren’t football’s only cheaters. The fake news won’t write it, but the Seahawks stole the game. The 49ers are NFC champions. Christian McCaffrey ran for 1,202 yards, and Brock Purdy threw for 2,167 yards this season. No one has ever seen anything like it.
Which is why no matter who wins Sunday, I say, go Niners! I’m predicting back-to-back 49ers championships. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Marc Sandalow is a senior faculty member at the University of California’s Washington Program. He has been writing about California politics from Washington, D.C., for more than 30 years.
