Yet another leak from the radio silent league: They didn't set up a sting operation

For an organization that says they don't want to talk about this until their investigation is done, they sure say a lot to the media off the record. Now they are claiming the whole thing wasn't a sting and Kensil not only wasn't involved, but he was probably happy the Pats videotaped the Jets' signals:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/footb...gate-was-not-an-nfl-sting-operation-1.9849751

The League has been really pathetic about this entire thing. Leak damaging information about the Pats and chastize people for leaking things. The Pats have addressed issue heads on and newly "transparent" Goodell regime won't say a single thing on the record.

I saw that too. I question the timing

On the bright side, it was Glazer who reported that it was a sting, which makes him factually 0 for 3 so far. Which means that his latest report about the "smoking gun" video... yeah, super credible.

I see what the NFL is trying to do here. They are going to say the balls were out of sight for 10 minutes but they can't prove this guy did anything but the balls were deflated. This is what they are setting this up for. Only problem with this story is SCIENCE PROVES THE BALLS MUST DEFLATE IN THE TEMPERATURE CHANGE FROM INSIDE AND OUT WHEN THEY ARE WET. The reason they have not released the PSI change is that when they do that, this issue is over. It is science dam it.

NFL must be punished.

OK, well then why was the ball tested exactly? JAckson gives it to his equipment manager and the Colts equipment manager is apparently some kind of PSI wizard and immediately suspects something amiss so then ALL the Pats footballs are tested? Where is the precedent for this? This is such bull. All of this is SUCH bull. Someone planned this, whether in the league or the colts, or whoever.

Fox Sports reported Monday that the league has focused its investigation on a Patriots locker room attendant who was seen on video removing the game-day footballs from the officials' room before the game. NFL Network confirmed the story.

Click to expand...

Perfect example of bias. Anyone who doesn't understand this process- which is almost everyone is going to read that and think some Patriots employee snuck into the refs office and took the balls out. That is caught on camera, and it is CONFIRMED true.

When it really means the ball attendant, who's job it is to take the balls is on camera taking the balls as expected. But even that is a rumor, and NOT confirmed.

Bella*chick said:

OK, well then why was the ball tested exactly? JAckson gives it to his equipment manager and the Colts equipment manager is apparently some kind of PSI wizard and immediately suspects something amiss so then ALL the Pats footballs are tested? Where is the precedent for this? This is such bull. All of this is SUCH bull. Someone planned this, whether in the league or the colts, or whoever.

Click to expand...

Here's the thing. I can envision a scenario where it wasn't a sting, and one where it was.

Disclaimer: I am not taking a stand one way or the other here.

How it might not have been:

Someone notices a problem.
Someone tests the caught ball.
Someone then gets a replacement, and that one "feels funny" too, or figures that, hey, since we just took one underinflated ball out of the game, maybe we should check this one, too.
At that point, or maybe after one more, they wonder if there's a problem with all of the footballs.

How it might have been:

Someone "notices" a problem with the caught ball.
Someone then immediately collects all of the Patriots' footballs.
They are all tested.

The major obstacle to the not-a-sting scenario, of course, is that it is not at all clear that anyone would have felt a difference in the football. Hell, we still don't even know how the decision came to be made to test the footballs in any case.

Bobsyouruncle said:

Perfect example of bias. Anyone who doesn't understand this process- which is almost everyone is going to read that and think some Patriots employee snuck into the refs office and took the balls out. That is caught on camera, and it is CONFIRMED true.

When it really means the ball attendant, who's job it is to take the balls is on camera taking the balls as expected. But even that is a rumor, and NOT confirmed.

Click to expand...

If the "other room" in question is the hallway that leads to the field, I won't even be able to be mad anymore. Just have to laugh after a certain point. People are so stupid.

Bella*chick said:

OK, well then why was the ball tested exactly? JAckson gives it to his equipment manager and the Colts equipment manager is apparently some kind of PSI wizard and immediately suspects something amiss so then ALL the Pats footballs are tested? Where is the precedent for this? This is such bull. All of this is SUCH bull. Someone planned this, whether in the league or the colts, or whoever.

Click to expand...

Before I buy anything from this "investigation," I want to see VIDEO EVIDENCE of the refs testing each ball with an official pressure gauge, plus WRITTEN DOCUMENTATION from the head referee containing complete detail of how each ball measured, including ambient room temperature at the time of measurement, etc., etc.

This thing is so moronic. It's like a Congressional inquiry into whether someone may or may not have jaywalked.

Bella*chick said:

OK, well then why was the ball tested exactly? JAckson gives it to his equipment manager and the Colts equipment manager is apparently some kind of PSI wizard and immediately suspects something amiss so then ALL the Pats footballs are tested? Where is the precedent for this? This is such bull. All of this is SUCH bull. Someone planned this, whether in the league or the colts, or whoever.

Click to expand...

Exactly,

Manager: Hey this feels like 11psi or whatever.

Ref: Yeah well it's cold

The end

I mean if it was something egregious like a sponge, but come on. The refs couldn't even tell. The difference between 10.5 and 12.5 is barely detectable. I guarantee every cold wet game has balls that are just as low or lower. Has the NFL ever ran tests on those balls mid game? Why not?

And what did they expect to find? We're they so ignorant they thought the balls would remain the same pressure as the locker room? What were they going to use as a reference? In these conditions the ball should be at what? Nobody has any idea, no conclusions can be drawn about if it's where it should be or not.

I'm sorry, but if they decided to start this witch hunt because some equipment manager thought they felt a nearly imperceptible lack of pressure in a cold weather ball they are still bafoons who owe the Patriots an apology.

If they could not foresee that embarking on this unprecedented spectacle at halftime of one of the biggest television events of the year on only the flimsiest of evidence would lead to a ****storm then they are doubly stupid.

Yeah, the league didn't set the sting up - Kensil did. The source of that article IS Kensil, he knows the smoking gun tying him to the situation is out there.

ctpatsfan77 said:

Here's the thing. I can envision a scenario where it wasn't a sting, and one where it was.

Disclaimer: I am not taking a stand one way or the other here.

How it might not have been:

Someone notices a problem.
Someone tests the caught ball.
Someone then gets a replacement, and that one "feels funny" too, or figures that, hey, since we just took one underinflated ball out of the game, maybe we should check this one, too.
At that point, or maybe after one more, they wonder if there's a problem with all of the footballs.

How it might have been:

Someone "notices" a problem with the caught ball.
Someone then immediately collects all of the Patriots' footballs.
They are all tested.

The major obstacle to the not-a-sting scenario, of course, is that it is not at all clear that anyone would have felt a difference in the football. Hell, we still don't even know how the decision came to be made to test the footballs in any case.

Click to expand...

Then they should have noticed the same problem in every cold weather game this year.

If I'm Kraft I want a much better excuse than the ball felt like every other ball in every other cold weather game. Unless they also checked those.

They need to explain why
Every other teams balls in cold weather (which I would bet are near identical to what the Pats were)= no halftime check for low pressure

Patriots balls in cold weather = let's do halftime check for low pressure

Same evidence should require same scrutiny. They need a better excuse, I wouldn't buy that one.

OH MY GOD

It's unfortunate that every tv, radio, or internet media company is part of a conglomerate that is somehow in bed with the NFL one way or another, because if not they'd be in a great position to blow open a massively ridiculous FAIL by the most popular sports league in the western world with this story.

Is it supposed to be transparent? Then findings should be announced/issued by the NFL. Otherwise they might have the appearance of being incomplete. Or lies.
Is it supposed to be confidential? Then someone needs to get fired. Or at least given a dictionary and suspended.

Bobsyouruncle said:

Exactly,

Manager: Hey this feels like 11psi or whatever.

Ref: Yeah well it's cold

The end

I mean if it was something egregious like a sponge, but come on. The refs couldn't even tell. The difference between 10.5 and 12.5 is barely detectable. I guarantee every cold wet game has balls that are just as low or lower. Has the NFL ever ran tests on those balls mid game? Why not?

And what did they expect to find? We're they so ignorant they thought the balls would remain the same pressure as the locker room? What were they going to use as a reference? In these conditions the ball should be at what? Nobody has any idea, no conclusions can be drawn about if it's where it should be or not.

Click to expand...

Yup. You know what I find not at all credible? That this equipment manager could feel the difference. I don;t find that credible at all, come to think of it. He tested the ball because he wanted to test the ball or he was told to. You know….footballs have been pulled from games before….it's pretty common. So when that has happened in the past, do you mean to tell me its procedure to test the pulled ball and then all the others? Is that was normally happens? Because if not, why did it happen this time?

Bella*chick said:

Yup. You know what I find not at all credible? That this equipment manager could feel the difference. I don;t find that credible at all, come to think of it. He tested the ball because he wanted to test the ball or he was told to. You know….footballs have been pulled from games before….it's pretty common. So when that has happened in the past, do you mean to tell me its procedure to test the pulled ball and then all the others? Is that was normally happens? Because if not, why did it happen this time?

Click to expand...

I agree, that some underling equipment manager could come out with a ball at a nearly imperceptible difference and the NFL starts jumping through hoops in the middle of the game strains credibility. It's possible, but then it just means the NFL is incompetent. Highly doubt any team would be allowed the same latitude to all of a sudden do mid game pressure checks on every ball unless they played against the Patriots, or had some powerful friends.

Neither excuse is fair or transparent, both are stupid.

There's more than a couple of people on this forum who said a similar thing. This whole thing is about a lot more than just PSI.

I can't believe it took me this long to come up with that thought (but in my defense I have been trying not to think too much about this and I typically loathe conspiracy theories).

No one else could feel the difference. Not D'Quell Jackson (although someone tried to pin it conveniently on him), not the refs who touch the ball on every play. Not Brady.

Perhaps Mark Brunell is moonlighting as the Colts equipment manager?

If it didn't cause a dark cloud to hang over the 2 weeks leading to the Super Bowl, I'd almost admire the way the league operates.

This afternoon, Jay Glazer has a leak that could be potentially bad news for the Patriots. Then the league's investigator releases a statement asking for a cessation of comments and leaks on the matter.

This evening, Kraft speaks out about the handling of the case in the media and the leaks. Then one more leak comes out, addressing 2 negative stories about the league office, the sting operation and the former Jets employee having some sort of grudge.

I guess we can expect a new negative leak about the Patriots tomorrow.