Vegas Rumour: No Punishment For Patriots

From what I've read / heard they always say the balls were checked with a pressure gauge at half time and at the end of the game. No where have I read or heard that the balls were checked with a pressure gauge before the game. Speculating but to me this says that the refs screwed up and the league now has nothing.

They now have egg on their face since they won't blame the refs and have nothing on the Pats. Like Rob, I expect Goddell to say screw fairness I'll just hammer the Pats because that's what the public wants. Hope I'm wrong.

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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If that's the game then they are trying to play gotcha.

The killer in all this is that it's almost unfathomable that Brady would lie.

And get caught? Over what? Deflating a football? Please.

Brady would lie over this? He'd be that stupid?

Yes I know we have seen that in the past. It would be shocking in this instance.

That is a potential problem. If the NFL comes out and says we screwed up and did not check the balls at the start of the game then we have the NFL with a huge egg on its face and rumors forever that the Pats did in fact cheat but the NFL did not catch them. That is not a good scenario.

The only way the Pats come out of this clean is if the NFL goes on record and said there is no evidence that the balls were under a certain allowed limit. Meaning there was no way the pats could be accused of cheating.

Unfortunately, I dont see that happening. It will be something like we couldn't find any proof that the balls were tampered with i.e the Pats cheated and got away with it.

Whatever. My solution is to just not talk football with people.

upstater1 said:

If that's the game then they are trying to play gotcha.

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Of course they are. That's what investigators DO!
(I don't mean that sarcastically.)

I can see either side of the argument but feel if any of the league or Pats are to take the fall on this one, I believe it will be the Pats.

If it is the Pats then the penalty, however sized, will be the final nail in the coffin on this cheating matter. It will cement the Pats legacy and they will be forever known as much as cheaters as multiple SB winners. Surely Kraft must realize this and my hope is that he goes all in to prevent this from happening and doesn't turtle up like he did back in '07. If he does then we'll know who really has the deflated balls around here.

We don't even have an official release on this matter condemning the Pats for cheating but the damage has already been done. Much of the public already have made up their minds. The proof is secondary at this stage. One need only look at the public outrage along with the ridiculous questions asked during the press conferences yesterday to clearly see that it matters not in their eyes that two possibly innocent people are essentially being asked to prove that they didn't cheat; something neither of them can possibly do.

upstater1 said:

If that's the game then they are trying to play gotcha.

The killer in all this is that it's almost unfathomable that Brady would lie.

And get caught? Over what? Deflating a football? Please.

Brady would lie over this? He'd be that stupid?

Yes I know we have seen that in the past. It would be shocking in this instance.

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If they are hanging their haters in Brady being a liar then they are sh.t out of luck.

Bobs My Uncle said:

I can see either side of the argument but feel if any of the league or Pats are to take the fall on this one, I believe it will be the Pats.

If it is the Pats then the penalty, however sized, will be the final nail in the coffin on this cheating matter. It will cement the Pats legacy and they will be forever known as much as cheaters as multiple SB winners. Surely Kraft must realize this and my hope is that he goes all in to prevent this from happening and doesn't turtle up like he did back in '07. If he does then we'll know who really has the deflated balls around here.

We don't even have an official release on this matter condemning the Pats for cheating but the damage has already been done. Much of the public already have made up their minds. The proof is secondary at this stage. One need only look at the public outrage along with the ridiculous questions asked during the press conferences yesterday to clearly see that it matters not in their eyes that two possibly innocent people are essentially being asked to prove that they didn't cheat; something neither of them can possibly do.

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My feelings exactly. Kraft simply can't do it

At the very least expect a fine around $50k for "failing to maintain equipment" or something equally vague.

The NFL cannot, from a PR standpoint, make a ruling that would be viewed by the rest of the world as a shrug of the shoulders.

If there is no PROOF of wrongdoing there should be NO fine or punishment. And I think that's the main problem for the NFL right now. Why they are taking so long. They talked to everybody and they just don't have any direct evidence of tampering. Everything's circumstantial and that's just not good enough.

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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upstater1 said:

If Kraft accepts a punishment without evidence and without fighting it, he will have totally lost me

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KontradictioN said:

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...

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Although I have long been critical of how Kraft failed to handle the violation of camera placement rules, I am currently open to the idea that Kraft is behind the scenes pushing the league to conclude their investigation in a timely manner and announce the results forthwith. I'm good with that, if so.

However if there is no detailed explanation(s) issued by the league and a punishment follows, I am done with all things Bobby if he just takes it with nothing but public platitudes of no consequence. It will be proof of what some of us fear that he views his world as that of the billionaire boys club and burned his fan roots. Let's all hope that this is proven to be unfair speculation.

fnordcircle said:

At the very least expect a fine around $50k for "failing to maintain equipment" or something equally vague.

The NFL cannot, from a PR standpoint, make a ruling that would be viewed by the rest of the world as a shrug of the shoulders.

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People would see right through that instantly since the chain of custody goes from the refs to the NFL attendants. Failure to maintain falls on whom?

I'm not saying you're wrong but it's a ploy that would cause huge confusion. Remember, when Brady said he has no idea of what happens for the ball to get to line of scrimmage, no one followed up or called him on it, because they knew it was a ref/attendant thing at that point.

Pats-Phan said:

From what I've read / heard they always say the balls were checked with a pressure gauge at half time and at the end of the game. No where have I read or heard that the balls were checked with a pressure gauge before the game. Speculating but to me this says that the refs screwed up and the league now has nothing.

They now have egg on their face since they won't blame the refs and have nothing on the Pats. Like Rob, I expect Goddell to say screw fairness I'll just hammer the Pats because that's what the public wants. Hope I'm wrong.

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Peter King reported the following:

The 12 footballs used in the first half for New England, and the 12 footballs used by the Colts, all left the officials’ locker room before the game at the prescribed pressure level of between 12.5 pounds per square inch and 13.5 PSI.

Mv1029 said:

Peter King reported the following:

The 12 footballs used in the first half for New England, and the 12 footballs used by the Colts, all left the officials’ locker room before the game at the prescribed pressure level of between 12.5 pounds per square inch and 13.5 PSI.

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But we still don't know how much the footballs deflated by - all we have is the mort report

To me, the worst possible outcome is if the NFL doesn't make a statement at all and tries to pretend it never happened with only a tweet or something saying they couldn't find evidence. But this is obviously so much more important. And I expect an official announcement anyways just because Brady and Belichick already have had to go in front of the media.

On the positive side of things, I think the best possible outcome is where the NFL comes out and says they weren't even investigating if the Pats cheated and were just checking into a simple claim and found nothing; and then follows with an apology toward Kraft, the organisation, and the players & coaches saying the NFL in no way sees the Patriots as cheaters--or any other way to say the same thing--and then he shoots down all questions by the media.

I can dream, can't I?

VJCPatriot said:

If there is no PROOF of wrongdoing there should be NO fine or punishment. And I think that's the main problem for the NFL right now. Why they are taking so long. They talked to everybody and they just don't have any direct evidence of tampering. Everything's circumstantial and that's just not good enough.

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Short of video footage or a confession the NFL will never get any proof.

Proof will have very little to do with the outcome of all of this.

TommyBrady12 said:

But we still don't know how much the footballs deflated by - all we have is the mort report

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True, but what is being said is that because the Colts' balls did not deflate at all and ours did then there must have been human intervention.

fnordcircle said:

Short of video footage or a confession the NFL will never get any proof.

Proof will have very little to do with the outcome of all of this.

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You can't be thrown in jail for a crime they have absolutely no proof you committed. But oh yeah, the media says we should, so we will anyway... It doesn't work like that.

Same goes for this. I think Kraft will be damned if his team gets another black eye for nonsense, especially when there's no proof to begin with.

You want to slap the team with a fine, show what was done wrong and it'll gladly be paid. If you can't find proof, then absolutely no dice.

Mv1029 said:

True, but what is being said is that because the Colts' balls did not deflate at all and ours did then there must have been human intervention.

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Not necessarily true. If the colts balls started at 13.5 PSI then it still could have been in allotted range by halftime. If the pats started at 12.5, any deflation would cause it to go below the legal minimum.

Hmmmm.... I've been thinking about the 2 pressers yesturday, and "why" they would come out and basically say "we have no idea what happened", which in effect says to the rest the the world = PROVE IT.

If this really was a deliberate act of "active deflation"........ they would BOTH know it, and there is NO WAY they would have taken the tones they did. They would have said nothing, but "we're onto Seattle", which was essentually what they did on Spygate. The only way they do those pressors, and open themselves up the scrutiny they are receiving, is that they know that the NFL cannot prove anything, and they know it. The most logical conclussion would be that the refs didn't follow league policy to the tee. The NFL would be LOATHE to admit that, as that would be a huge "hit" on the brand. After these pressors, there is NO WAY that the media will accept "No evididence of tampering, move along now" at this point. BB and TB are forcing the league's hand, which is why they are dragging their feet. They have NO IDEA how to proceed.

Once again, BB and TB playing chess (high stakes this time), while the rest are playing checkers.

Mv1029 said:

True, but what is being said is that because the Colts' balls did not deflate at all and ours did then there must have been human intervention.

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It is physically impossible for the Colts balls not to deflate at all unless they were filled with 45-50 degree air.