Vegas Rumour: No Punishment For Patriots

Galeb said:

Witness testimony that balls usually aren't checked with a pressure gauge is a helluva lot more evidence than what the NFL has on the Pats.

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Well, if the rumors are true that the league planned to check the pressure of the balls at half time because of prior complaints by either the Colts or Ravens, it is safe to assume they checked them before the game.

Granted one part that isn't talked about is that since the Colts knew this, they might have inflated the balls during the game to make sure their's passed because they knew they would be inspected. But that is speculation.

BradyManny said:

I'd be very disappointed in Kraft if that were the case. This is not like Spygate where we willingly broke an NFL rule. This is a very nebulous situation.

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Unfortunately, Kraft's history suggest is that he will put the league ahead of all else.

Rob0729 said:

But that is speculation.

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You're right, it is all speculation at this point.

Rob0729 said:

Unfortunately, Kraft's history suggest is that he will put the league ahead of all else.

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Perhaps - but I will reiterate that we can't use Spygate as a precedence for this.

Galeb said:

You're right, it is all speculation at this point.

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Yes, but that is what I have been saying.

The only way I see the Pats getting off is if Mort's report is wrong (which some in the media think including Tom E Curran) and not all the balls were deflated 2 LBs PSI and only one or two and the rest were less than the required amount but only by a little. Otherwise, the Patriots are getting the book thrown at them.

BradyManny said:

You're missing the point. Nobody should be punished without evidence, refs or Pats. But as long as there is no evidence the Patriots tampered, and there are plausible explanations out there that don't involve Patriot tampering, the accusations hold no weight.

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Gents, I am a Bills fan, and this is where I am at the moment.

1) NFL has not confirmed, or denied, any of this. Weird to me, But Brady and BIll both seemed to confirm that the balls were deflated more than normal,but will not make conclusions until the NFL confirms that.

2) I want to know the PSI of both the Colts Balls and the Pats balls when the refs measured them pregame. Even if this is just the refs verbalizing what they remembered...seems like all the balls should be at the same PSI, as even Tom said yesterday he likes a ball at 12.5 PSI..so i am assuming all Pats balls were there, and all Colts balls would be at a PSI Luck likes.

3) If the Pats balls then dropped a disproportionate amount of PSI over the Colts balls, we would then know that someone tampered with the balls.It would no longer be a question of weather etc. If Pats dropped 2, and Colts dropped 1.8, no worries. Pats dropped 2, Colts drop .2, issue. Again, all depends on the start.

4) if there is an issue as noted above, Pats need to disciplined in some manner, even if definitive proof of who actually deflated the balls is never discovered. I feel for you guys though, as the cheating thing will then be permanently entrenched in the psyche of all NFL outside of Pats fans, and i think that unfortunate. Not a doubt in my mind Brady and Belichick the two best ever, and as much as i hate them for kicking our teeth in year after year, i wish we had em in WNY. If any of this is true, they just did not need to do it.

Again, i know I am in the minority outside of NE, but i am making no judgements at this point, but need some info from the NFL soon. Tom saying they have not talked to him yet was not a good look, at least for me.

BradyManny said:

Perhaps - but I will reiterate that we can't use Spygate as a precedence for this.

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I am talking about all his actions from defending Goodell on the Ray Rice thing to how he handled the lockout.

We are a nation OBSESSED with news and gossip. People flock to their televisions and the internet once a story breaks and remained focused for weeks and days on end.

Showing interest in the news is ok, but allowing ourselves to get emotionally affected by it constantly is a sickness. Whether it's Ferguson, Newtown or the Boston Bombings, we do not need to allow ourselves to constantly allow the news to affect our emotions.

Otherwise, we'll be emotional roller-coasters at the mercy of the media. HOw my day goes has nothing to do with news stories.

Personally, I try to watch the news from an intellectual perspective. My heart does not need to break everytime there is a tragedy....and deflated footballs aren't a tragedy.

Ill be pissed if Pats get fined even one cent.

Rob0729 said:

It is taking this long because the league wants to make the public believe no matter what their ruling is that they did an in depth investigation and left no stone unturned so it doesn't look like the Ray Rice case where they never aggressively tried to get information or the video from the police.

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If the NFL really wanted to do that, it would have talked to Brady.

It had plenty of forewarning that Brady was going to a press conference. The whole world knew it for 10 hours.

Rob0729 said:

Well, if the rumors are true that the league planned to check the pressure of the balls at half time because of prior complaints by either the Colts or Ravens, it is safe to assume they checked them before the game.

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And I don't believe that rumor because it makes absolutely no sense all. What it suggests its that the league had complaints that the Patriots were tampering with balls, never told them of the complaints, and then alloWed them too tamper with them in a championship game so that they could catch them and by doing so compromise the championship and potentially deny the Colts a trip to the Support Bowl simply so they could catch the Patriots, and by doing so start a major sh.tstorm.

If true the real story would not be deflation it would be the NFL compromising its own championship game, and that would be a much greater threat to the integrity of the game than an underinflated football.

It's basically the most idiotic thing I have ever heard of.

By the way, the ball boy for the Bears was formerly employed by the Kraft group.

This is obviously a conflict in what he's saying, even if Aaron Rodgers said the same thing, but...

I think it's telling if the Krafts somehow put him up to saying that. It means the Krafts are either dissembling or they believe it really was the refs, and this is their way of putting it out there.

TomPatriot said:

You can understand it though at the time. The punishment was stupid, but Kraft agreed with the League on the infraction. A memo went out clarifying the rule and BB broke the rule anyway to gain no competitive advantage. He acted like a stubborn mule. Kraft was right; BB was being a schmuck, but everybody makes mistakes, even the great ones.

The worst thing about Spygate is that after paying the fine, losing the draft pick, accepting the blame, receiving the punishment and saying the mea culpas, it is raised time and time again, by the mediocre, the stupid and the dishonest.

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The punishment for Spygate was ridiculous and absolutely did not fit the crime. Kraft also stood idly by and let his team and fans take it in the ass from all comers in the media. He absolutely should have met that head-on like the Saints did but he didn't. The result is that, a shade under a decade later, you still hear Spygate references seemingly every single week. Tell me, when is the last time you heard a Bountygate reference? I'll wait...

Rob0729 said:

Well, if the rumors are true that the league planned to check the pressure of the balls at half time because of prior complaints by either the Colts or Ravens, it is safe to assume they checked them before the game.

Granted one part that isn't talked about is that since the Colts knew this, they might have inflated the balls during the game to make sure their's passed because they knew they would be inspected. But that is speculation.

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It doesn't even need to get to this level.

If the rumors are true, keep an eye on the balls.

You don't need to measure them at all.

Catch the Patriots redhanded.

The scenario you're painting here is of an FBI sting in which everyone is recording/listening in on a crime about to take place, and just as the bait is offered to the criminal, everyone walks away, turns off the devices, and then returns to the scene of the crime to take fingerprints off the dead body.

Implausible.

How often do the Patriots get chastised in the court of public opinion??? Due process goes out the window all of the time.......Haters will be haters...

GO PATS!!! Crush the Hawks

upstater1 said:

If the NFL really wanted to do that, it would have talked to Brady.

It had plenty of forewarning that Brady was going to a press conference. The whole world knew it for 10 hours.

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According to Ian Rappaport, his sources say that they want to interview Brady last. The fact that they haven't interviewed him tells me this Twitter rumor is wrong.

SONS_OF_BELICHICK said:

How often do the Patriots get chastised in the court of public opinion??? Due process goes out the window all of the time.......Haters will be haters...

GO PATS!!! Crush the Hawks

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Due process goes out the window in every fanbase when it comes to other teams. This fanbase is no different.

Rob0729 said:

According to Ian Rappaport, his sources say that they want to interview Brady last. The fact that they haven't interviewed him tells me this Twitter rumor is wrong.

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That makes sense. One would think investigators will want to interview the person they believe to be the key man last, so they have as much info as possible on hand to try to crack him or trip him up.

You know, this makes the game even more of a must win. If Brady has a great game and wins MVP, that puts the league in a bind because punishing him harshly casts a cloud on the game (I.e. "If you punished him that bad why did you let him play - cost Seattle the title"). But if they lose, Goodell has a free hand.

ausbacker said:

That's the thing. The presumption of innocence is a myth.

The media should be ashamed with their coverage of this. Freedom of Speech is wonderful right but these bastards have flatly abused their position when they should be getting to the bottom of the matter with good, investigative journalism. Instead, what does the industry collective do? They tie the noose and walk the Patriots onto the plank despite no evidence of impropriety to date.

I have said from the outset if the Patriots are guilty, they should be punished. The further this develops, the more convinced I become that money, clicks and PR is all that matters, not integrity and professionalism.

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You are absolutely right, there is no presumption of innocence, but then again we are not in a real court where a presumption of innocence would actually apply. The court of public opinion is almost always to assume guilt.

rlcarr said:

That makes sense. One would think investigators will want to interview the person they believe to be the key man last, so they have as much info as possible on hand to try to crack him or trip him up.

You know, this makes the game even more of a must win. If Brady has a great game and wins MVP, that puts the league in a bind because punishing him harshly casts a cloud on the game (I.e. "If you punished him that bad why did you let him play - cost Seattle the title"). But if they lose, Goodell has a free hand.

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The sad part about it is that this makes it seem that the league believes it is Brady who was behind all of this. Hopefully, it isn't true.