Aaron Rodgers over inflating balls - double standard

[TBR]

I'm sure we all know of this by now... But it needs to be brought up again...

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/20/aaron-rodgers-likes-his-footballs-overinflated/

Excerpt: “‘I like to push the limit to how much air we can put in the football, even go over what they allow you to do and see if the officials take air out of it,'” Simms said Rodgers told them before the game.

On his weekly radio show with ESPN Milwaukee, Rodgers confirmed that he prefers the balls to be overinflated, and that he doesn’t think there should be a maximum air pressure.

“It’s not an advantage when you have a football that’s inflated more than average air pressure. We’re not kicking these footballs,” Rodgers said, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com.

If the integrity of the league and PSI levels are so important, why the hell hasn't ANYTHING been done about Rodgers' situation? Not a single care in the world despite breaking the exact set of rules!

How can you even THINK about suspending Brady for a game or more, without acknowledging or investigating a nearly identical situation within the league!?

It's made clear by Rodgers himself, who casually admits without any shame, that he deliberately circumvents the rules set in place for football PSI levels by over-inflating the balls beyond the legal limit.

Meanwhile, a bunch ignorant, hypocritical slandering f*cks around the world are acting as if Brady payed off the refs/or paid off opponents/or conspired to steal opponent playbooks/or hacked into opponents headsets/or took performance enhancing drugs/or spiked the opponents water/or killed someone/or hit a kid/or hit his wife.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Rogers admitted to submitting extra-hard footballs to the refs in the hopes the refs would miss it and some/all would get through. That's not illegal.

NE/Brady is accused of letting air out of the balls after the refs approved. That's illegal.

Those aren't comparable things. One is breaking the rule and one isn't.

 

[borg]

Rogers admitted to submitting extra-hard footballs to the refs in the hopes the refs would miss it and some/all would get through. That's not illegal.

NE/Brady is accused of letting air out of the balls after the refs approved. That's illegal.

Those aren't comparable things. One is breaking the rule and one isn't.

What happened to critical thinking. The OP's inability to identify the substantial differences between his two examples has me perplexed. Parochial school education??? Just memorizing lists??

 

[emoney_33]

What happened to critical thinking. The OP's inability to identify the substantial differences between his two examples has me perplexed. Parochial school education??? Just memorizing lists??

Critical thinking does not mean recognizing a difference, assuming that someone didn't recognize that difference and criticizing them... The comparison serves a purpose to help think critically about the magnitude of the alleged rule violation. Whether you sneak it by the officials attention or you change it after the fact, the end result is playing with a ball that starts outside of the official parameters set forth in NFL policy.

This introduces a simple dichotomy:

If it is a big deal to play with a ball that is outside of the official PSI parameters, then Aaron Rodgers deserves a lot of flack for intentionally trying to get that big competitive advantage. If it is not a bid deal to play with a ball that is outside of the official PSI parameters, then the Patriots at MOST are guilty of a minor rule violation and don't deserve to be taken over the coals for it.

Furthermore, the former case would show that the NFL itself does not value the integrity of the game enough to ensure that such a big advantage is never given to anyone.

 

[Mack Herron]

There you go again. Too much logic and reason on this site. This is not a system of justice. It is a system of Goodell.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

If it is a big deal to play with a ball that is outside of the official PSI parameters, then Aaron Rodgers deserves a lot of flack for intentionally trying to get that big competitive advantage. If it is not a bid deal to play with a ball that is outside of the official PSI parameters, then the Patriots at MOST are guilty of a minor rule violation and don't deserve to be taken over the coals for it.

That's true with respect to attacks based on "he's tainted because he played with an illegal ball and got an advantage from it".

However, the point remains that one of those actions involves breaking a rule and the other does not and that is a significant difference between the two. Especially in the context of a sport, as sports are things that are essentially created and defined by their rules.

I think it is correct to treat differently someone who steps right up to the line and doesn't cross it and someone who goes ahead and crosses the line.

 

[TBR]

Rogers admitted to submitting extra-hard footballs to the refs in the hopes the refs would miss it and some/all would get through. That's not illegal.

NE/Brady is accused of letting air out of the balls after the refs approved. That's illegal.

Those aren't comparable things. One is breaking the rule and one isn't.

So you're saying it's ok for Rodgers to do, only because the refs don't notice? That makes it legal?

Bottom line: Both balls used by Brady and Rodgers are supposedly outside of the legal PSI range. Below the minimum or above the maximum. Same difference. It's the same rule being broken here.

In regards to the process of how it happens - obviously that will be different.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

So you're saying it's ok for Rodgers to do, only because the refs don't notice? That makes it legal?

What makes it legal is that there is no rule making submitting too-hard balls illegal.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Guys, I am as staunch as anyone about his investigation being a sham, but IF the allegations are true, there is a difference between Rodgers submitting a ball over and hoping it passes and basically breaking into a room and illegally tampering with footballs which have already been prepared for the game.

I am just not convinced anything of that nature actually happened.

Come on now.

 

[TBR]

What makes it legal is that there is no rule making submitting too-hard balls illegal.

Therefore it's legal to deliberately submit illegal balls?

Got it......

 

[PatsWSB47]

So if I steel a hundred bucks out of the cash drawer and no one counts it at closing so they don't know its gone that's OK?....or if they do count it and they found out I took it its OK if they replace the hundred bucks? How on earth are those better than if I took out a hundred bucks after it was counted?

 

[crafty213]

You can hand the ball in under or over the requirement. Tampering with an approved ball is the issue. Not an apples to apples comparison.

 

[DaBronxPats14]

If Rodgers is playing in an NFL Regular Season or Playoff game and football is at 16 PSIs, he deserves and any other QB who heats up footballs (see Vikings) in extreme cold weather or tries to benefit in any way they see fit to alter footballs that clearly state in rules is in violation then THEY ALL should get same treatment as Brady is going through. It's easy to pick on Brady as a target, jealosy, bein a winner etc.
This just fuels Brady's fire, GO GET NO.5 Tom!

 

[ChoWZa]

What if Rodgers submitted a ball that was inflated in a cold environment and handed it to the refs knowing it would expand when acclimated to the outdoors in warmer weather? Still legal?

 

[Ring 6]

Guys, I am as staunch as anyone about his investigation being a sham, but IF the allegations are true, there is a difference between Rodgers submitting a ball over and hoping it passes and basically breaking into a room and illegally tampering with footballs which have already been prepared for the game.

I am just not convinced anything of that nature actually happened.

Come on now.

I dont see a difference. Both would be deliberate attempts to use an unacceptable ball. Just because one attempt is done with the hope no one looks when they are supposed to the other is done with the hope no one looks when they aren't supposed to, its still both an attempt to do the same thing.

 

[luuked]

NE/Brady is accused of letting air out of the balls after the refs approved. That's illegal.

Where the hell does anyone claim that Brady let air out of any football ? He stated his preference to the equipment guys for the balls to be around the lower threshold and this is it. This is the extent of his involvement into this entire matter.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

So if I steel a hundred bucks out of the cash drawer and no one counts it at closing so they don't know its gone that's OK?....or if they do count it and they found out I took it its OK if they replace the hundred bucks? How on earth are those better than if I took out a hundred bucks after it was counted?

The law makes it illegal to steal whether or not anyone knows about it and whether or not you put the money back later.

Now you people are being silly.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

What if Rodgers submitted a ball that was inflated in a cold environment and handed it to the refs knowing it would expand when acclimated to the outdoors in warmer weather? Still legal?

Depends. If the 12.5-13.5 PSI rule only applied at checkin and not also during the game I'd say it was shrewd gamesmanship and totally legal - no rule was being violated. And I'd tip my hat to it.

However, since the 12.5-13.5 PSI rule also applies during the game I'd say it's illegal because he would be taking an action designed to get the refs to approve a ball he knows will be in violation of the rule by game time. And there would be no way for the refs to realize it.

What he actually did was different because there was no trick -- the whole point of the refs measuring the balls is to fix any that are out of line. If the refs do their jobs they'd notice the discrepancy and fix it. But in your hypothetical the refs would be unable to know there was a problem even if they did their job perfectly. I don't see taking advantage of refs being too lazy to do their jobs re: the balls is any different from playing tight coverage because refs won't throw a flag on every play.

 

[Big Bucks]

But the rules states that all balls need to be 12.5-13.5 psi.

Therefore him admitting to submitting balls at 16psi is the illegal part. Doesn't matter what the referees are doing, or whether they notice... Rodgers is making an illegal act by submitting balls that are not 12.5 - 13.5.

http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/5_2013_Ball.pdf

 

[PatsWSB47]

The law makes it illegal to steal whether or not anyone knows about it and whether or not you put the money back later.

Now you people are being silly.

You miss the point. Of course I know getting non regulation balls into a game because the officials were asleep at the wheel is not breaking a rule but the country is losing its mind over one being an advantage and the other being not an advantage.