Deflate-Gate: Here We Go Again

Galeb said:

The worst part of this is that scumbags like Mark Brunell are making money off it.

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I am still completely baffled as to where Brunell came from and why we should care what he has to say.

obgod3 said:

Heard this morning that the equipment manager for the Colts tested the one ball himself, well to me that breaks the chain of custody and of this was court of law it would be thrown out.

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Wouldn't it be "funny" if that football was the 12th football that measured up as almost within range. You might get me to start thinking conspiracy theory at that point and it would be the NFL that I'd be looking at.

Colts Equipment Manager: We did our own test on this football. It came up 12.3 psi, 12.3! That's below specifications!!!

Referee (looking askance): Thats weird, all these others I just got done testing came out at 11..

JackBauer said:

I am still completely baffled as to where Brunell came from and why we should care what he has to say.

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After the BB press conference, the number of ESPN employees that were willing to humiliate themselves for this decreased dramatically.

So what's the over-under the NFL league office comes out with a statement of any kind by the end of the day? Are they going to remain silent and watch the world burn for the weekend? Can't wait to see the insanity that ensues Monday if they allow this continue.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/f...l?hootPostID=6420e3ac25c2e09d65709fd5dca04129

lol, so much for a "massive noticeable difference" couple can tell but only just.

OhExaulted1 said:

So what's the over-under the NFL league office comes out with a statement of any kind by the end of the day? Are they going to remain silent and watch the world burn for the weekend? Can't wait to see the insanity that ensues Monday if they allow this continue.

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My guess is they come out with something toward the end of the workday (5 p.m. EST). They have to get this out of the way before SB week, right? This is getting crazy. People going insane over the air pressure in footballs for five days now. The NFL has to release their findings.

Danger Zone said:

Wouldn't it be "funny" if that football was the 12th football that measured up as almost within range. You might get me to start thinking conspiracy theory at that point and it would be the NFL that I'd be looking at.

Colts Equipment Manager: We did our own test on this football. It came up 12.3 psi, 12.3! That's below specifications!!!

Referee (looking askance): Thats weird, all these others I just got done testing came out at 11..

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Me and my dog are trying to look at this as rationally as possible.

I think the NFL will come out with "The Colts complained, we checked, the balls were low, we are instituting better controls gameday to ensure the balls are within spec." No more. They can lay blame for the entire blowup on Kravitz and the press as the NFL hasn't come out with anything yet.

dales804 said:

My guess is they come out with something toward the end of the workday (5 p.m. EST). They have to get this out of the way before SB week, right? This is getting crazy. People going insane over the air pressure in footballs for five days now. The NFL has to release their findings.

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Big-T said:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/f...l?hootPostID=6420e3ac25c2e09d65709fd5dca04129

lol, so much for a "massive noticeable difference" couple can tell but only just.

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Very nice find.

And those Boston Globe people. Such a schizophrenic organization. Choose to be a respectable news agency or pick an agenda and stick with it

Big-T said:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/f...l?hootPostID=6420e3ac25c2e09d65709fd5dca04129

lol, so much for a "massive noticeable difference" couple can tell but only just.

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Anyone who has every thrown a football could've told you that even a 10.5 PSI one is still rock hard and barely noticeable. Could you tell the difference easily? Sure, if you took the time to inspect the ball for a bit, but not in 3 seconds worrying about a 300 lb 6'4 lineman trying to murder you.

Wow...this thing has just totally gone off the rails! Here is my issue...every reporter, every column written with these "sources" all have so much conflicting stuff...square block into round hole kinda thing. Jackson thought it was under inflated, no he didn't he gave it to equipment guy. There were 11 balls under inflated, no it might have been all 12. The balls were re inflated at half, no they were confiscated, no the pats kept them and introduced 12 new balls. Refs check 2 hours before fame and give them right back to the teams, no they keep in the refs locker room and give them to the teams 5 mins prior. Blah blah blah. All the radio guys and news outlets reporting different crap ....like the question posed to TB that went something like "you're telling us you can't tell the difference in footballs but Jackson could?" Even though it's been reported that he never mentioned the ball felt different. This is at best irresponsible journalism. With that said here are my 2 likely (least nefarious scenarios for both teams) scenarios... I know everyone's posted their list but I just need to say mine.

Scenario 1. Weather

1. Pats balls at 12.5. Colts at 13.5. As we saw in that youtube video it's hard to keep the ball at that exact number in a controlled environment...even after trying to hit 13 lbs on the video it was splitting hairs from going back and forth from 13-13.5...seemed like even a little nudge triggered that .5 difference. So some balls could have teetered 12-12.5 when and IF measured.

2. Pats played and when checked at half, due to the 35-40 degree temp change the pressure dropped 1-1.5 lbs psi. It's been proven that this is all very plausible. Pats register 11-11.5. IF they tested colts balls at that temp as we'll theirs are around 12-12.5. Pats are under and colts are within range.

3. Here is where it gets tricky depending on which version of magical balls you want to believe. 11 of 12 under? One ball went into the stands and a new ball was introduced and when tested that ball hadn't dropped yet. All 12 dropped? Self explanatory. Now the interesting bit is...some reports that say the balls were re inflated at half and then measured under. I don't believe this. No team would be that stupid to try it. Now if the reports are that all 24 balls...12 from the first half and the 12 alternate balls were under than duh....weather...unless the refs never checked the air pressure of the 12 alternates which then...shame on them for not doing their job. And the newest is that after the game all 24 were within range then that proves to me at least that the balls were indeed affected by weather and they were probably tested indoors some time after the game and maybe even later back at nfl HQ.

Scenario 2

1. Balls are handed into refs at appropriate time the way TB or any other QB likes theirs prepped. Let's hypothetically say TB's footballs the way he likes them come out at 11.5psi. Every game they turn them in and these refs did the look and feel test without really checking with the gauge...or maybe even with the gauge and they still turn a blind eye as long as it's within 1 psi either way (much like traffic cops might allow people to drive 75 in a 65). TB whether he knows the exact psi or not doesn't matter...it's on the league once they are turned in. Aaron Rogers helps support this theory along with an article on NBC that interviewed a former NFL ball boy who said the refs often just do the feel test. Rogers has stated he likes his over inflated and would submit balls the way he likes and sometimes they come back with air let out which means sometimes they're left alone.

2. Everyone hitching their wagons on the "I didn't notice a difference when playing" quote...well, it's not that crazy at all...first it's cold out and rainy...your hands, I don't care who you are lose some feeling...1psi difference with numb hands...totally plausible, totally likely. Then the fact that TB has played in so many cold weather games that the way the ball felt (a little lower psi) during the game is consistent with how they always feel during cold weather games...therefore he answered "didn't feel different".

4. "I like me at 12.5". People are grasping on to this as the smoking gun showing TB is lying. This is easy...the entire world now knows what the approved psi levels are for an NFL football, 12.5-13.5. As TB has stated, he prefers a softer football...lowest allowed is 12.5 so he states it because that's the softest it could be.

3. And THIS is why the NFL is taking forever....they have to figure out how to cover for the officials. The officials came out and stated they checked, but how did they check. Under further investigating, they are finding out a lot of refs use the feel test over the gauge test, why, who knows...maybe it take forever to check 48 balls with a needle and gauge. The NFL has to figure out how to exonerate the Pats, preserve the look of integrity of the refs and the game and convince the fans that BB and TB are completely innocent.

There it is folks...that's my take. It's so annoying listening here to sports radio in AZ...everyone is convinced that the balls were tampered with...they totally gloss over the weather possibility and the refs not doing their jobs. It's amazing how little these so called sports guys know.

Danger Zone said:

Very nice find.

And those Boston Globe people. Such a schizophrenic organization. Choose to be a respectable news agency or pick an agenda and stick with it

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There's no such thing.

The more I think about this... the less of a problem I have with it.

What the Pats are accused of doing is cheating on the scale of a pitcher doctoring a baseball or using pine tar. Certainly not something worth public execution or whatever else the frothing-at-the-mouth masses are calling for.

I would have a much bigger problem with it if they doctored the Colts footballs. Or if that Rams SB walkthrough tape existed. This...meh. Give them a slap on the wrist if they are guilty but that's it.

http://nesn.com/2015/01/boston-college-professor-weather-had-to-play-role-in-deflategate/

A natural decrease in temperature would have caused the New England Patriots’ footballs to become under-inflated Sunday, a Boston College physics professor says. Michael Naughton, chair of the physics department at BC, said in a press release “it’s not possible for weather not to have played a role” in the DeflateGate controversy. He claimed footballs always lose or gain pressure depending on the conditions. “Say you inflate the ball to 12.5 PSI — the NFL minimum — in a room at 70 degrees, and then used the ball outside where it was 50 degrees. That 12.5 PSI would eventually become 11.5 PSI,” Naughton said. “If you inflate the ball to 12.5 PSI in an even warmer room where it was, say, 80 degrees, and then played outdoors at 40 degrees, that 12.5 PSI would become 10.5 PSI — a drop of two PSIs.”

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Didn't a BC professor also say the opposite? This guy is the chair of the dept though, so I think he's credible. He's also not a Pats fan but a Bills fan. No agenda or bias here.

Thats it? We are going to have to hear about this for the rest of time. Great.

There is no way around this. This will stain the Pats legacy and give people something else to hold over the Patriots success. The only way this is not a problem for the Pats is if the NFL comes out and reports that they have definitive proof that the Pats did no wrong here and are innocent.

Are they going to do that? I hope so but how can they and why would they?

Anything else (and that is what we are going to get) will leave it open to the Pats cheated and got away with it. That is it. The solution will be to just not discuss football with anyone. You cant win and Pats cant win here.

We are still without any facts whatsoever, there has not yet been a single official confirmation of anything by the league aside from saying that there's an ongoing investigation concerning something to do with game balls. ESPN has made it their business to speculate wildly about something as has every reporter in the country. That's it.
The NFL has shown an almost unimaginable level of incompetence in their failure to manage something, whatever it might be.

@Bill_Laffey IMO both the public outage AND NFL investigation are deeper for footballs than Ray Rice, and that is truly sad!

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Yay, NFL.

Well that's the thing, 'possible' doesn't warrant any kind of penalty. It is 'possible' that I slept with Kate Upton last night. Unless I had confirmed proof, nobody would believe me and nobody could prosecute me, if sleeping with Kate Upton was an offense.

The same thing with this so called Deflate-gate. The problem is that the proof is all circumstantial. Unless they can finger a culprit or say with definitive proof that somebody sabotaged the footballs in the first half, then the NFL has no firm leg to stand on as far as giving out a punishment goes.

The other thing we don't even know is if the refs actually measured the balls before the game started, and documented the measuring. I doubt that kind of thing even happens. I feel that the NFL knows that it has nothing, and drawing this out just feeds the media frenzy. If you know nothing because the referee crew didn't do a proper job of inspecting and monitoring the game balls, just admit it, and say you will revise the rules concerning the ball in the offseason to properly 'prevent' such a reoccurrence.

hambone1818 said:

Huge dog and pony show. It is 100% possible that someone on the Pats sideline did something to the footballs, and per the NFL rulebook that person and the team should be penalized accordingly. But this turning into a BIG DEAL is entirely a media creation.

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Danger Zone said:

Wouldn't it be "funny" if that football was the 12th football that measured up as almost within range. You might get me to start thinking conspiracy theory at that point and it would be the NFL that I'd be looking at.

Colts Equipment Manager: We did our own test on this football. It came up 12.3 psi, 12.3! That's below specifications!!!

Referee (looking askance): Thats weird, all these others I just got done testing came out at 11..

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Well I guess having the opposing teams equipment manager test it at least for me is something that would break the chain of custody, and why did he test it and not hand it to the ref? Did he test correctly, did he let air out of it? I Dont know and I dont think anyone on the press knows but the whole idea is sketch to me.

I do think Brady did himself a disservice yesterday, I dont think he was prepared and I think he is going to get hammered on this.