Deflate-Gate: Here We Go Again

FrodoBagginz said:

GB is obviously team 1. I am going to say team 2 are the Giants. robbomango posted this earlier in the thread:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/s...-are-months-in-making.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&

Seems like a good guess on the second team. And, while Pats fans despise the Giants, the Pats organization and the Giants organization don't seem to hate each other at all. After all, they constantly choose to play each other at the 4th preseason game.

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That is pretty funny. I bet if the NFL looked closely at the balls, they would vary, with many over and many under pressure. Some teams, like Indy would have zero balls...

I have to say I have a lot of respect for the NFL Network coverage I've seen. They've only stated known facts and 0 opinions outside of asking "Do you think it helps?"

Meanwhile, ESPN has already banned BB from the NFL for life before the investigation has concluded.

Edit: I'll admit I haven't been glued to NFLN nor do I care to be, just that what I've seen has been very professional.

Mark12 said:

I never thought I would hate a team more than a hate the Jest or a team QB by fivehead.

Colts have proven that wrong! All the blowouts in recent years are exponentially more satisfying now. Can't wait for next years!

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Not me. When someone posted on this site what team we still hate, I think I was one of the only people to still say Indy. They are scum. Irsay is a little drug dealing, drug taking, daddies boy that has never had a job in his life. He learned a lesson of how to be a man from his alcoholic father who snuck out of Baltimore in the dead of night.

strngplyr said:

I have to say I have a lot of respect for the NFL Network coverage I've seen. They've only stated known facts and 0 opinions outside of asking "Do you think it helps?"

Meanwhile, ESPN has already banned BB from the NFL for life before the investigation has concluded.

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I agree. The NFL network seems very balanced and is not letting this get out of control. Everywhere else, from ESPN to CNN to the local news, it is nuts with tons of sht being made up.

If someone working for the team was involved in deflating footballs below regulation guidelines during the game and got caught, then yes we should get punished. It's against the rules and that's that.

It really doesn't matter what Aaron Rodgers said in an interview. His case was never investigated, same with brad Johnson and every other qb who said it's common practice. It's still against the rules.

I think that's how the NFL will see this. I think the holdup is the fact that we're playing in the super bowl in 10 days and they have to know how to properly respond without ruining the final game. If that's even possible now.

deters said:

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We need someone to print up a bunch of Patriot Fan themed versions of this on a t-shirt. Can you imagine a sea of that at the Superbowl?

josh24 said:

Some people in this thread already suggested some sort of whistleblowing occurred for this to happen.

I wouldn't be surprised if that were true.

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A "story" says it was Harbaugh (take "story" for what it is worth - which is not much). However, for conversational purposes it fits Harbaugh perfectly IMHO. He absolutely hated that he got outcoached by the Patriots' gimmick formations and intimated it was cheating. Not too big of a stretch to see him inform the NFL or Indy on a regulation out of spite/to get back at the Patriots for executing their gimmicks.

I have no idea if any of that is true -- but it fits the whiny Harbaugh profile.

BadMoFo said:

If someone working for the team was involved in deflating footballs below regulation guidelines during the game and got caught, then yes we should get punished. It's against the rules and that's that.

It really doesn't matter what Aaron Rodgers said in an interview. His case was never investigated, same with brad Johnson and every other qb who said it's common practice. It's still against the rules.

I think that's how the NFL will see this. I think the holdup is the fact that we're playing in the super bowl in 10 days and they have to know how to properly respond without ruining the final game. If that's even possible now.

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Oh, I agree. If we are actually guilty of doctoring the ball there should be punishment. But anything beyond a small fine, or 7th rd pick + fine and were reaching into oh hell the f no kiss my ass territory.

Jlaff said:

We need someone to print up a bunch of Patriot Fan themed versions of this on a t-shirt. Can you imagine a sea of that at the Superbowl?

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Barstool came out with one-
http://store.barstoolsports.com/products/they-hate-us-navy-tee

RE: teams being livid

Welp, I think the days of wink and nod **** are over and everyone should know that. Nobody should expect that because 'everyone else' does it they won't be the ones to get raked over the coals over it someday.

And this is absolutely a godsend for the NFL and likely why they did a ****ing sting operation instead of discretely telling the Pats to layoff.

Now Goodell, a guy who did the see no evil/hear no evil/speak no evil bit about a dude bashing his wife's ****ing skull in gets to play the hero for the millions of fans who find it convenient to act like this is worse than cheating the cap, paying players to injure other players, coaches tripping players in the field of play or tanking a season so your drug addict owner can get on his high horse about ****ing football inflation levels.

If the Patriots did monkey with the balls they're idiots who deserve to be punished but the larger lesson is that in today's NFL butthurt millionaire coke fiends will absolutely go against the rules of the 'good old boys' club because their pee pee doesn't feel big enough after spending most of the last decade and a half watching their team get ushered out of the playoffs courtesy of one Mr. Bill Belichick.

I think the Patriots need to take a completely different approach to this matter. Rather than accept any sanctions from the league office I think they,need to call it out for what it really is, a league wide problem. We now know that a number of QBs are on the record as saying they engage in the practice and a couple of teams have already been caught manipulating game balls. The league's established sanction for the infraction is a pittance and that reflects how minimal an offense they consider it to be
Given these factors there i's only one reason this has been made into a big issue and that is because it's the Patriots, and while that's a good enough reason for the haters it's not. Good enough for any kind of official sanctions. The Krafts should demand that no sanctions be handed down until the league has investigated the practices of every team and questioned everyone who handled game balls for them the past couple of seasons. Once that's accomplished they should agree that they will pay the same sanction as every other team found to have engaged in the practice. They should stick to these demands unless the league slaps their wrists and keeps it to a fine and warning. If the v league goes ahead and sanctions them,then they need b to go public with it and force the issue.

deters said:

Oh, I agree. If we are actually guilty of doctoring the ball there should be punishment. But anything beyond a small fine, or 7th rd pick + fine and were reaching into oh hell the f no kiss my ass territory.

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I agree. I don't know what a just punishment would even be here. Obviously the deflated ball had no impact and actually hurt us. I'm just afraid we'll get punished harsher because this is our second offense. If we even did anything here.

**** barstool

They gave us that pathetic thinks he's so funny with all his pop culture references that aren't even relevant jerry thorton

BadMoFo said:

I agree. I don't know what a just punishment would even be here. Obviously the deflated ball had no impact and actually hurt us. I'm just afraid we'll get punished harsher because this is our second offense. If we even did anything here.

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2nd offense my ass

BadMoFo said:

If someone working for the team was involved in deflating footballs below regulation guidelines during the game and got caught, then yes we should get punished. It's against the rules and that's that.

It really doesn't matter what Aaron Rodgers said in an interview. His case was never investigated, same with brad Johnson and every other qb who said it's common practice. It's still against the rules.

I think that's how the NFL will see this. I think the holdup is the fact that we're playing in the super bowl in 10 days and they have to know how to properly respond without ruining the final game. If that's even possible now.

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Im not buying this. If someone got caught, there'd be absolutely no need for the refs to test the balls at halftime, and the 11 balls thing would be irrelevant too.

The only thing that makes both of us correct at the same time is a confession.

But if someone got caught, the rest of the story we've heard would not have happened at all.

BadMoFo said:

I agree. I don't know what a just punishment would even be here. Obviously the deflated ball had no impact and actually hurt us. I'm just afraid we'll get punished harsher because this is our second offense. If we even did anything here.

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Screw that ****. If donkey kong suh can get off for stomping on a player because he played so many games without incident, then the Patriots shouldn't be charged worse because they got busted for Spygate nearly a ****ing decade ago.

upstater1 said:

Im not buying this. If someone got caught, there'd be absolutely no need for the refs to test the balls at halftime, and the 11 balls thing would be irrelevant too.

The only thing that makes both of us correct at the same time is a confession.

But if someone got caught, the rest of the story we've heard would not have happened at all.

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All of this makes the league's words on Tuesday of "2 to 3 days" even stranger, in my opinion.

mosi said:

I agree. The NFL network seems very balanced and is not letting this get out of control. Everywhere else, from ESPN to CNN to the local news, it is nuts with tons of sht being made up.

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To that point, this afternoon ESPN aired an embarrassing dog-and-pony show with Jerome Bettis and Mark Brunell taking to their on-set "field" and throwing and catching balls inflated to 3 different levels of psi (11, 13, and 15 if I recall). Both were "able to tell immediately" which ball was which and this was taken as evidence that it provided an inherent advantage to the Patriots and therefore they should be punished.

Of course, had Aaron Rodgers been on the set he would have wanted to throw the ball more than 6 feet and disagreed with them on which ball he wanted to use. Besides which, if 11 psi is the preferred psi for "maximum" performance for all football players (this was basically the Bettis/Brunell claim - that QBs, RBs, WRs, and defensive players catching or picking up the ball would all benefit), then why isn't that the NFL demand for air pressure? It's a QB preference thing that the league was complicit in allowing to get out of control because it, ostensibly, also allowed offenses and their superstar QBs to flourish while not being a serious problem to competitive balance because everyone was allowed to manipulate the rule to a certain extent. By "out of control", I simply mean willfully ignored by the league despite being outside their stated rules vis-a-vis the ball. The Colts (probably beginning with the owner and ending at anyone who does anything on the field) used the PR arm of their operation to submarine this idea because they were tired of getting their asses kicked by a team that, even by admission of their own players, is just flat-out superior. So because it's not really his fault I'll feel a little bit bad for Andrew Luck as the Patriots scrape him off the soles of the cleats for another half-decade or so, but not too bad. He's good and he'll get his.

God I'm tired of wanting to comment on this. I just can't stop until someone with an actual job for the NFL (or even the Patriots) does so. Then I'll **** on whatever stupid response and ruling they come up with and move on. What's the record for scoring? Super Bowl XLIX, Pats 73 - Seahawks 0. No comment from anyone on NE on the NFL's center-stage trophy presentation. Not a verbal "no comment" mind you, just a blank stare while they walk off an celebrate with their teammates and families. Perfect resolution.

Ivan said:

I think the Patriots need to take a completely different approach to this matter. Rather than accept any sanctions from the league office I think they,need to call it out for what it really is, a league wide problem. We now know that a number of QBs are on the record as saying they engage in the practice and a couple of teams have already been caught manipulating game balls.

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Doesn't your above paragraph remind you of anything? Maybe something that occurred, say, in 2007?

Ivan said:

The Krafts should demand that no sanctions be handed down until the league has investigated the practices of every team and questioned everyone who handled game balls for them the past couple of seasons.

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While that would be great, that's not really the way that things work in life. If I get caught for a DUI, I can't refuse sanctions because I believe that other people may have potentially driven drunk--even if they have openly admitted to it. Those who get caught, get punished. We've seen this all play out before.

I'm just hoping that it doesn't happen that way for the 2nd time. It's bad for the NFL brand as well, particularly the week prior to their biggest game. It's absolutely devastating to the Patriots, though.