Vegas Rumour: No Punishment For Patriots

Fixit said:

Unless the NFL's report makes it clear that there's no evidence that the Pats tampered with the balls or the psi drop is reasonable and common. Why on Earth would he want to punish one of his bosses for doing nothing? I can't stand Goodell, either, but that seems to be a heck of a stretch.

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But it seems pretty clear the league feels that the drop in PSI wasn't reasonable or common. Someone in the league leaked the 11 balls were deflated by 2 LBs of PSI. That means they feel the Pats cheated even if they didn't and can't find any proof. Once that story leaked and if it is confirmed, there is no way Goodell is not going to punish the Patriots in some way.

And I bet Kraft will sign off on the punishment for the betterment of the league.

Big-T said:

If he did that he would be getting sued faster than he can say sorry.

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I doubt it. My guess is that Kraft will sign off on the punishment which should be a fine and a loss of a draft pick. Kraft cares too much about the league to sue.

newenglandsports11 said:

For Christ's sake the guy who supposedly started this all doesn't even know how he is involved. This just reeks of sour grapes or something even more fishy. If I am Chris Mortensen, I am praying my source is correct, or he won't be able to report for a HS football league.

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Are you kidding me? He'll get a raise. Do you realize all the hits, clicks and viewership he has generated? And he won't so much as apologize. I bet you 10 bucks right now his only response, if proven totally wrong, will be "I stand by my sources.

Umm .....
If the Pats were trying to sneak under-inflated balls by them how were the second set verified as within spec during half-time?

Rob0729 said:

But it seems pretty clear the league feels that the drop in PSI wasn't reasonable or common. Someone in the league leaked the 11 balls were deflated by 2 LBs of PSI. That means they feel the Pats cheated even if they didn't and can't find any proof. Once that story leaked and if it is confirmed, there is no way Goodell is not going to punish the Patriots in some way.

And I bet Kraft will sign off on the punishment for the betterment of the league.

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We don't know that the leak came from the league. It hasn't been reported by anyone other than Mort in four days. BB's presser seemed to indicate that the loss was far less than 2 psi.

We still have no facts from the league's investigation. Literally none.

Seacoast Fan said:

Are you kidding me? He'll get a raise. Do you realize all the hits, clicks and viewership he has generated? And he won't so much as apologize. I bet you 10 bucks right now his only response, if proven totally wrong, will be "I stand by my sources.

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Agree completely that Mort will not be shunned by the public if proven "wrong".
Remember that 31/32nds of football fans are NOT Patriots fans.
And many are butthurt that their team has been defeated by the Pats in meaningful games.

Fixit said:

We don't know that the leak came from the league. It hasn't been reported by anyone other than Mort in four days. BB's presser seemed to indicate that the loss was far less than 2 psi.

We still have no facts from the league's investigation. Literally none.

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Well, if the facts come out that it is far less. Then it changes things, but I am guessing that it is fairly accurate.

And where else would the leak come from?

I could see something like we have no proof that anyone did this, but we are fining the patriots 25K for not properly securing the balls.

Rob0729 said:

Well, if the facts come out that it is far less. Then it changes things, but I am guessing that it is fairly accurate.

And where else would the leak come from?

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Well, there's THE NFL, then there's a schmoe that works in the NFL's accounting department.

We don't even know if it's accurate.

Rob0729 said:

I can't find it now. But there is evidence of cheating. The 11 ball is evidence. There is no evidence that that balls were tampered with, but the fact that all of the Pats' balls were deflated and the Colts balls weren't (if true) is enough for him to act.

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Plenty of scientists have come out and said the balls would deflate with a 30 degree drop, though the amount of that drop is debatable. If the Colts were planning to ambush the Pats, the fact that their balls are the same amount as the game started cannot be used as serious evidence that the Patriots' balls should have as well.

If Goodell punishes the Pats without any evidence here - as bad as we know he wants to, he's actually said as much before - the owners would flip.

If the Pats are confident no one in house did any wrong-doing, its time for Kraft to get aggressive and swing doubt upon Irsay & the Colts.

newenglandsports11 said:

For Christ's sake the guy who supposedly started this all doesn't even know how he is involved. This just reeks of sour grapes or something even more fishy. If I am Chris Mortensen, I am praying my source is correct, or he won't be able to report for a HS football league.

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Tomase still has a job.

BradyManny said:

Plenty of scientists have come out and said the balls would deflate with a 30 degree drop, though the amount of that drop is debatable. If the Colts were planning to ambush the Pats, the fact that their balls are the same amount as the game started cannot be used as serious evidence that the Patriots' balls should have as well.

If Goodell punishes the Pats without any evidence here - as bad as we know he wants to, he's actually said as much before - the owners would flip.

If the Pats are confident no one in house did any wrong-doing, its time for Kraft to get aggressive and swing doubt upon Irsay & the Colts.

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You really think the owners would flip? A lot of them want Belichick suspended from the league forever. Don't forget both Spygate and Deflategate started because other teams ratted on them. There isn't a lot of solidarity on this.

Kraft will negotiate down the punishment, but he would never sue the league. Right or wrong. Never going to happen.

Rob0729 said:

I doubt it. My guess is that Kraft will sign off on the punishment which should be a fine and a loss of a draft pick. Kraft cares too much about the league to sue.

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Why should,it be a fine and a pick when they warned,the Vikings and Panthers? And if the answer is to,protect Goodell then the Krafts should fight it with everything they have. The NFL f.cked up, the refs never checked the balls and short of true documentation that they used a gauge on each ball and logged the results the patriots should tell them they will not accept punishment without proof. People can say what they want about the league's ability to sanction at will but that doesn't mean they can do so without actual proof of wrongdoing, and in this case they have none. Imo the Patriots inflated the balls to 12.5 per requirement and the refs simply squeeze tested a few and said they were good, then when they pulled them they were under because of the weather. No harm, no foul. Case closed, come up with a better protocol.

I don't believe anyone tampered with them and the Krafts should come out and tell the world that they will challenge future claims that someone did in court.

Rob0729 said:

There is no way this ends with no punishment. Goodell will have to give the Pats something or the league will come under fire.

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I think that's ridiculous. They will have to have something , if only spitting on the sidewalk.

ausbacker said:

The further DeflateGate develops the more conniving, the more amateur and quite frankly, the more idiotic large factions of the media look.

Fancy inventing a fiasco with the potential to ruin the reputations of others to justify your existence. Pure scum.

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i have to nominate this post as one of the top five or ten ive read in the last five days

Rob, you are no better than the media by "guessing the reports are pretty accurate" so far this has looked like nothing but the Media licking their chops to "bring down the patriots dynasty!"

the most likely scenario IMO is

1. Patriots submitted some balls underinflated to the refs.

2. Refs dont "really" check 48 balls with a pressure guage before. they simply squeeze a few balls and if they dont feel a difference they clear them.

3. All the nfl can prove is that the balls were deflated. there is no way to prove if the pats tampered with them

Fixit said:

We don't know that the leak came from the league. It hasn't been reported by anyone other than Mort in four days. BB's presser seemed to indicate that the loss was far less than 2 psi.

We still have no facts from the league's investigation. Literally none.

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And the fact that they haven't even spoken to Brady would indicate that nothing is coming before the Super Bowl.

Rob0729 said:

There is no way this ends with no punishment. Goodell will have to give the Pats something or the league will come under fire.

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Deflated fotbolls aren't necessarily evidence of any wrong doing. It might have just been an equipment malfunction. If the NFL can find no proof of any crime, I don't see how they can punish the Patriots simply because the media hasn't stopped talking about it.

Hopefully they don't and ESPN just looks incredibly stupid.

Rob0729 said:

You really think the owners would flip? A lot of them want Belichick suspended from the league forever. Don't forget both Spygate and Deflategate started because other teams ratted on them. There isn't a lot of solidarity on this.

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True, but we already have a report of two teams upset about what's going on. I'm sure plenty of teams are content to see the Pats take a beating - but there's also going to be a lot of teams that will be equally annoyed by the precedent.

TomPatriot said:

Tomase still has a job.

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True, his career had really taken off since his big scoop.