Schefter: Has Heard Speculation Colts might have deflated the footballs

JJDChE said:

The only semi-credible report said that the balls were below league minimum, and the one turned in by the Colts was significantly below. So, what rumor did the Colts start? Has there been any linking to any of the information to the Colts or has it been leaked by NFL sources. My impression was that these things were coming from NFL sources, but I haven't really followed it all that closely.

EDIT: Actually, did the NFL announce that the balls were below the minimum?

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The NFL hasn't announced a single thing other than that they were setting up an investigation.

Again, this story is all rumor started by a Colts beat writer, who presumably got his source from Grigson or Irsay, which was then turned into a bias witch hunt by the media, who still has no credible evidence.

What's not to understand here?

Todd Bradley said:

The NFL hasn't announced a single thing other than that they were setting up an investigation.

Again, this story is all rumor started by a Colts beat writer, who presumably got his source from Grigson or Irsay.

What's not to understand here?

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The NFL brought in an external team of investigators to follow up on a rumor of a Colts beat writer? Yeah, no.

I think it's pretty clear here that the Colts made a complaint to the NFL, the balls were measured, found to be low, re-inflated and put back into play. That's information directly from the NFL. Not a rumor.

JJDChE said:

The NFL brought in an external team of investigators to follow up on a rumor of a Colts beat writer? Yeah, no.

I think it's pretty clear here that the Colts made a complaint to the NFL, the balls were measured, found to be low, re-inflated and put back into play. That's information directly from the NFL. Not a rumor.

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The facts are clearly in front of you, yet you chose to ignore them to support your own theory.

Either you're a Colts troll in disguise or you yourself have an agenda against the Pats.

Either way, I choose not to continue this conversation with you, as you've clearly made up your mind and no other post here is going to change it.

This became personal bc the media, sports talk people, and fans got personal

Well, you had your shot

But I can get personal too, and I'll have my shot in return

I'll call out every single hypocrisy I see, I'll exxagerate as much as I please, and I'll throw around wild accusations as I like...

They ****ed with us before in spygate, and we as fans had to defend the team bc it itself decided not to

Well this time the team is defending itself, I'll be damned if I don't defend it as well

I wanted this last time around, but late is better than never

JJDChE said:

The NFL brought in an external team of investigators to follow up on a rumor of a Colts beat writer? Yeah, no.

I think it's pretty clear here that the Colts made a complaint to the NFL, the balls were measured, found to be low, re-inflated and put back into play. That's information directly from the NFL. Not a rumor.

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The NFL brought,in Wells because they have no credibility and they know it. That alone should be reason enough to fire Goodell.

And the lie that 11-12 balls were 2 lbs under also came directly from the NFL and went straight to Mortenson

This has been a smear Job from the start and the NFL had been completely complicit in it.

JJDChE said:

Wasn't that virtually immediately after the game? This didn't start as a local story and blow up, it was in the national sports media from step one.

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Wrong. Druggie Irsay leaked it to an Indy beat writer who tweeted about it just after Midnight. National media wasn't on it til long after Kravitz reported it.

Clonamery said:

Yeah but I always ask what the history of cheating is.....

Yeah, silence. They have nothing but envy. Sad (pathetic if you like) for them because it's just a game.

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Taping walkthroughs of course. Especially St. Louis. Thank you John Thomase.

Todd Bradley said:

The facts are clearly in front of you, yet you chose to ignore them to support your own theory.

Either you're a Colts troll in disguise or you yourself have an agenda against the Pats.

Either way, I choose not to continue this conversation with you, as you've clearly made up your mind and no other post here is going to change it.

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It would be hard to continue the conversation anyway since you are 100% wrong and have nothing else to go on.

The NFL VP of Officiating provided the information in my post. Do you really want to argue that information coming directly from the NFL regarding an NFL investigation is rumor?

Just man up and admit you are wrong.

Joker said:

The Goon must swing.

Joe Kerr has spoken...so let it be written...so let it be done.

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What happened to that guy who was so hot to defend Goodell back during the Rice fiasco?

JMC00 said:

Wrong. Druggie Irsay leaked it to an Indy beat writer who tweeted about it just after Midnight. National media wasn't on it til long after Kravitz reported it.

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Kravitz isn't part of the Boston media. It was never a local story. It was in the national media the day after the game.

Ivan said:

The NFL brought,in Wells because they have no credibility and they know it. That alone should be reason enough to fire Goodell.

And the lie that 11-12 balls were 2 lbs under also came directly from the NFL and went straight to Mortenson

This has been a smear Job from the start and the NFL had been completely complicit in it.

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One thing we have to be careful about is saying the damning evidence is a lie when there are 2 conflicting reports.
No one has said anything about what the real true measurements were.
If we run around saying Mortensen is a liar because the balls were not deflated the way he said, what are we basing this on? Someone else saying something different that hasn't been confirmed.

Its not a position of strength to be saying that every rumor in our favor is true and every one against us is a lie.
Also, if the facts come out and all of the balls were 1-2 psi low, then we already know why because BB did an actual replication of the circumstances.
If you stick to 'my rumor is true, yours is a lie' what happened when these facts come out? Mortensen says suck it, and Pats fans look wrong because they have been harping on the Rapaport rumor as if it were fact.

The Colts lodged a complaint to the NFL, as teams do fairly often, I'd imagine.

What was different here was a Colts team executive was in cahoots with a Indy media person ,who immediately spun the true story of

"the Colts have filed a complaint with the NFL"

to his imagined spin that

"the NFL thinks the Patriots cheated and will be looking to verify the facts of just how they cheated and determining who it was who ordered the cheating. That person will/ should be immediately fired or suspended."


Only THEN was it a national story, after it already had a spin attached to it that nobody ever challenged, with is a disgrace on behalf of the NFL.

AndyJohnson said:

One thing we have to be careful about is saying the damning evidence is a lie when there are 2 conflicting reports.
No one has said anything about what the real true measurements were.
If we run around saying Mortensen is a liar because the balls were not deflated the way he said, what are we basing this on? Someone else saying something different that hasn't been confirmed.

Its not a position of strength to be saying that every rumor in our favor is true and every one against us is a lie.
Also, if the facts come out and all of the balls were 1-2 psi low, then we already know why because BB did an actual replication of the circumstances.
If you stick to 'my rumor is true, yours is a lie' what happened when these facts come out? Mortensen says suck it, and Pats fans look wrong because they have been harping on the Rapaport rumor as if it were fact.

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A good point, I took the lack of a rebuttal as a concession by Mortenson.

AndyJohnson said:

One thing we have to be careful about is saying the damning evidence is a lie when there are 2 conflicting reports.
No one has said anything about what the real true measurements were.
If we run around saying Mortensen is a liar because the balls were not deflated the way he said, what are we basing this on? Someone else saying something different that hasn't been confirmed.

Its not a position of strength to be saying that every rumor in our favor is true and every one against us is a lie.
Also, if the facts come out and all of the balls were 1-2 psi low, then we already know why because BB did an actual replication of the circumstances.
If you stick to 'my rumor is true, yours is a lie' what happened when these facts come out? Mortensen says suck it, and Pats fans look wrong because they have been harping on the Rapaport rumor as if it were fact.

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And, since we don't know if they were ever measured with a gauge before the game, we don't even know that they weren't simply underinflated to begin with, which would put the onus on the refs, not the team.

AndyJohnson said:

One thing we have to be careful about is saying the damning evidence is a lie when there are 2 conflicting reports.
No one has said anything about what the real true measurements were.
If we run around saying Mortensen is a liar because the balls were not deflated the way he said, what are we basing this on? Someone else saying something different that hasn't been confirmed.

Its not a position of strength to be saying that every rumor in our favor is true and every one against us is a lie.
Also, if the facts come out and all of the balls were 1-2 psi low, then we already know why because BB did an actual replication of the circumstances.
If you stick to 'my rumor is true, yours is a lie' what happened when these facts come out? Mortensen says suck it, and Pats fans look wrong because they have been harping on the Rapaport rumor as if it were fact.

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Yes. Sure.

Of course, it's fun to speculate about how there's a conspiracy against the Pats, but the people we're dealing with are a bunch of nitwits quite capable of stirring up a firestorm by sheer bluster and hysteria.

And, of course, it's still possible that someone was engaged in a dastardly scheme to deflate footballs to give Tom Brady an unfair advantage.

But, as the latter becomes less and less credible -- not only is there no supporting evidence, the opportunity to do so was extremely limited and there is a quite plausible alternative explanation -- it's only right we focus on the way that this story developed and how it was handled -- the leaks, the suppositions, the jumping to conclusions.

I think every Pats fan has the right to be furious. By what right did those twerps in the League Office and the media turn what should have been two weeks of pride and enjoyment into a witch hunt?

Mike the Brit said:

Yes. Sure.

Of course, it's fun to speculate about how there's a conspiracy against the Pats, but the people we're dealing with are a bunch of nitwits quite capable of stirring up a firestorm by sheer bluster and hysteria.

And, of course, it's still possible that someone was engaged in a dastardly scheme to deflate footballs to give Tom Brady an unfair advantage.

But, as the latter becomes less and less credible -- not only is there no supporting evidence, the opportunity to do so was extremely limited and there is a quite plausible alternative explanation -- it's only right we focus on the way that this story developed and how it was handled -- the leaks, the suppositions, the jumping to conclusions.

I think every Pats fan has the right to be furious. By what right did those twerps in the League Office and the media turn what should have been two weeks of pride and enjoyment into a witch hunt?

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Totally agree, just saying our argument shouldn't be "My rumor is better than yours".
Rapaport could be totally full of crap, and it still means nothing was done wrong by the Pats. If we hitch the argument to his wagon, its only as good as how correct he was, where the real argument should be that the facts will prove nothing was done. (IMO already have because BB did an actual reenactment)

Ivan said:

A good point, I took the lack of a rebuttal as a concession by Mortenson.

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I believe Mortensen's last comment was he checked with his sources who said that he did not say anything that is wrong.

Again, believing Rapaport because its positive info is falling into the same trap as people who trusted Mort.

Wait for the facts, they will exonerate the Pats.

Mort's source could've legitimately heard that all the balls were 2psi under. There's no guarantee Mort's source had first hand info, just as there isn't that Rappaport's did.

I think the only certainties, correct me if I'm wrong, are that there was a complaint, the balls were checked during the game, found to be low (to an unknown degree), re-inflated and put back into play.

JJDChE said:

It would be hard to continue the conversation anyway since you are 100% wrong and have nothing else to go on.

The NFL VP of Officiating provided the information in my post. Do you really want to argue that information coming directly from the NFL regarding an NFL investigation is rumor?

Just man up and admit you are wrong.

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How does that information from the NFL prove that this isn't a rumor? You're kidding right?

Brady likes his balls at the lowest possible PSI, of course they will dip under due to weather change.

Still doesn't prove that the Pats illegally deflated any ball, so again my friend: It's a rumor and nothing more.

To the ignore list you go.

AndyJohnson said:

Wait for the facts, they will exonerate the Pats.

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Those facts will need to be carefully described in the Wells report and well-summarized in accompanying press conferences, or else a large number of people will pay no attention whatsoever and will believe whatever their predispositions tell them to believe.

Even that may not even be enough.

The "taping of a Rams Super Bowl practice" false allegation could not have been more clearly refuted than with a front page retraction and on camera interviews with Walsh who confirmed it never happened. Yet it comes up over and over again, even by card-carrying media people, on the supposed list of our past misdeeds.

Only another controversy, such as the Colts getting nailed for staging a setup, would convince a lot of haters otherwise. That's my dream resolution to this, as much of a long shot as it may be. Even if the NFL were convinced that the Colts did it, without them captured on video or without a direct confession, I don't think they'd take the Colts down. They will want it to just go away ASAP and just live with the "we don't know what happened but we have no reason to suspect Patriots wrongdoing" verdict.