2/17 Rumor: Pats' locker room attendant tried to put unapproved kicking ball in AFCCG

The "intergrity"of the NFL marches on, proudly. Once again they release snippets of information on this situation so the follow alongs can follow along.

Roger "No Goodell" continues to bring about the demise of the NFL...

Florio has two stories on this, so it has to be true and quite serious..

So guy hands game ball to guy in charge of balls. Guy in charge of K-balls goes "Hey, this goes to the other guy with balls, not me."

Definitely sounds like a scandal, BB been planning that for months. And they would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for those darn kids.

BradyFTW! said:

So the best that they could come up with is that someone accidentally handed a k-ball to the officials when a Patriots offensive ball was called for? ****, the whole reason why they separate the balls is because QBs hate k-balls, so it would actually hurt Brady. A k-ball is way, way harder to throw than a broken-in football. That's the entire reason why QBs lobbied for separate balls.

Seriously, three seconds of critical thought entirely debunks this being anything more than an accident that actually hurt the Patriots if it even happened. Needless to say, the media at large will completely miss this fact and somehow declare it as proof that the Pats cheated.

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Bingo!!
See d. Shaugnessy.

hwc said:

That's the real news. Why was a league executive tampering with footballs during an AFC Championship game? The rulebook is very clear: the referee has the sole authority over the footballs used in an NFL game. There's no provision that allows a league exec to tamper with the footballs during a game.

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That's not the real news, that's the real reason this article was written. ESPN is trying to cover their ass because it has been disputed that 11 of the 12 footballs were "one to two" pounds below the minimum PSI. Rappaport already made ESPN look like idiots by reporting that 11 of the 12 footballs were just a tick below the minimum. Now ESPN wanted to make sure they "substantiate" their earlier claim with "evidence" provided by a league official....who apperantly, for some reason, tested the pressure of the footballs...even thought that wasn't even what Kensil was notified about...he was notified about an attempt to introduce an unapproved football!

You're Mike Kensil and you launched a fishing trip to embarrass the Patriots, based on B.S. fed to you by the Mike Westhoff's of the world about what Belichick and Kraft and the Pats have allegedly pulled on the league over the years. You figured you'd get them on "something." You didn't figure your name would be outed, your long-time friends in the media would protect you. Now it's blowing up, this investigation you started has come up with bupkis, and your name is out there. The wolves are coming for your cushy job and Daddy isn't around any more to fix things for you. You need something with the façade of plausibility to explain what you were actually up to in all of this. So, "abracadabra," you concoct this scenario where you were "obliged" to personally measure the air pressure of the footballs at halftime. You need a couple of weeks to line up some lackeys to help cover your butt and then drop a dime to some third-rater at ESPN. Nice try, Mike, but no one is buying this and your pal Roger ain't taking the fall for you. Maybe Mike Florio will have a job for you after you walk out the door of the league offices with your personal items in a box.

RxJock1120 said:

That's not the real news, that's the real reason this article was written. ESPN is trying to cover their ass because it has been disputed that 11 of the 12 footballs were "one to two" pounds below the minimum PSI. Rappaport already made ESPN look like idiots by reporting that 11 of the 12 footballs were just a tick below the minimum. Now ESPN wanted to make sure they "substantiate" their earlier claim with "evidence" provided by a league official....who apperantly, for some reason, tested the pressure of the footballs...even thought that wasn't even what Kensil was notified about...he was notified about an attempt to introduce an unapproved football!

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And just to add to my initial skepticism, why did Kensil test the regular 12 footballs but not the special teams footballs he was notified about???

The "Hot Take" from this latest revelation will be....Patriots tampered with both the offensive game balls AND the kicking balls as well. .....in other words....shenanigans on a grander scale. If this guy turns out to be the same person that took the "approved" game balls from the officials before the game and into the bathroom for 93 seconds.....and then later tries to introduce an illegal kicking ball into the game.......then my initial lack of concern regarding deflategate must now be readjusted to a more suspicious level.
Local fandom will likely use terms like "coincidence" or "accident" in order to justify this "mistake" / "screwup". But given the supposed length of his Patriot employment as officials locker room attendant, I hope no one is going to argue that this guy is completely unaware of "ball rules."
When a "person of interest" happens to be holding the smoking gun.....
The news cycle about to take hold is going to be all over Kraft. A special Kraft Group employee smack in the middle of this scandal. Given Bob's public defense of his team, mediots will be vicious toward him now. You'll see

borg said:

The "Hot Take" from this latest revelation will be....Patriots tampered with both the offensive game balls AND the kicking balls as well. .....in other words....shenanigans on a grander scale. If this guy turns out to be the same person that took the "approved" game balls from the officials before the game and into the bathroom for 93 seconds.....and then later tries to introduce an illegal kicking ball into the game.......then my initial lack of concern regarding deflategate must now be readjusted to a more suspicious level.
Local fandom will likely use terms like "coincidence" or "accident" in order to justify this "mistake" / "screwup". But given the supposed length of his Patriot employment as officials locker room attendant, I hope no one is going to argue that this guy is completely unaware of "ball rules."
When a "person of interest" happens to be holding the smoking gun.....
The news cycle about to take hold is going to be all over Kraft. A special Kraft Group employee smack in the middle of this scandal. Given Bob's public defense of his team, mediots will be vicious toward him now. You'll see

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You're a ****ing troll.

borg said:

The "Hot Take" from this latest revelation will be....Patriots tampered with both the offensive game balls AND the kicking balls as well. .....in other words....shenanigans on a grander scale. If this guy turns out to be the same person that took the "approved" game balls from the officials before the game and into the bathroom for 93 seconds.....and then later tries to introduce an illegal kicking ball into the game.......then my initial lack of concern regarding deflategate must now be readjusted to a more suspicious level.
Local fandom will likely use terms like "coincidence" or "accident" in order to justify this "mistake" / "screwup". But given the supposed length of his Patriot employment as officials locker room attendant, I hope no one is going to argue that this guy is completely unaware of "ball rules."
When a "person of interest" happens to be holding the smoking gun.....
The news cycle about to take hold is going to be all over Kraft. A special Kraft Group employee smack in the middle of this scandal. Given Bob's public defense of his team, mediots will be vicious toward him now. You'll see

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This is news? Please tell me when the mediots have not "been vicious toward him?". The details of this story really make no sense on a football level. This leak is not going to change anyone's opinion of the NE Patriots. No one is in the middle with this team. If Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft discovered a cure for every cancer this afternoon, not one person who hated them this morning would think differently of them tomorrow. Not one. In the court of public opinion, none of this matters one iota.

ESPN dragging a poor mans name through the mud to push an agenda? That's the only story here.

This is getting ridiculous. There should be lawsuits.

Clonamery said:

You're a ****ing troll.

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Bury your head in the sand if that gets you through the day.
The reality here is a Pats employee attempted to introduce an illegal ball into the game and got busted. And because he got busted on the sidelines, the official IMMEDIATELY notified NFL executives who IMMEDIATELY launched an investigation which IMMEDIATELY uncovered 11 irregular PATRIOTS game balls. Given these facts and the emphatic denial by the owner, I dare speculate that the media will be foaming at the mouth. Guess that's trolling. Sorry I'm not adhering to the local fanboy party line right now. I was all on board prior to this article...a "few ticks off" was I'll I needed to poo poo this controversy. This new info changes my stance. Sorry this displeases you.

borg said:

Bury your head in the sand if that gets you through the day.
The reality here is a Pats employee attempted to introduce an illegal ball into the game and got busted. And because he got busted on the sidelines, the official IMMEDIATELY notified NFL executives who IMMEDIATELY launched an investigation which IMMEDIATELY uncovered 11 irregular PATRIOTS game balls. Given these facts and the emphatic denial by the owner, I dare speculate that the media will be foaming at the mouth. Guess that's trolling. Sorry I'm not adhering to the local fanboy party line right now. I was all on board prior to this article...a "few ticks off" was I'll I needed to poo poo this controversy. This new info changes my stance. Sorry this displeases you.

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Write a story about it, you gawddamn plagiarist.

RxJock1120 said:

What is an "unapproved special teams football"??? I thought all special teams footballs were approved by the NFL???

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Balls used by the kicker to practice kicking on the sideline before a field goal or KO.

borg said:

Bury your head in the sand if that gets you through the day.
The reality here is a Pats employee attempted to introduce an illegal ball into the game and got busted. And because he got busted on the sidelines, the official IMMEDIATELY notified NFL executives who IMMEDIATELY launched an investigation which IMMEDIATELY uncovered 11 irregular PATRIOTS game balls. Given these facts and the emphatic denial by the owner, I dare speculate that the media will be foaming at the mouth. Guess that's trolling. Sorry I'm not adhering to the local fanboy party line right now. I was all on board prior to this article...a "few ticks off" was I'll I needed to poo poo this controversy. This new info changes my stance. Sorry this displeases you.

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The timelines don't match up with what was reported in the other leaks. First it was leaked that it all started with the intercepted ball, right?

McNally winking at Brady
Brady attempts high five

PatsWSB47 said:

The timelines don't match up with what was reported in the other leaks. First it was leaked that it all started with the intercepted ball, right?

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ESPN references 4 sources

Anyone else catch Florio on WEEI this morning?

I got a chuckle out of hearing him say this new wrinkle is just ESPN trying to milk this story. This coming from the guy who runs one of the most blatant click bait "news" sites out there in the industry...oh the irony

borg said:

Bury your head in the sand if that gets you through the day.
The reality here is a Pats employee attempted to introduce an illegal ball into the game and got busted. And because he got busted on the sidelines, the official IMMEDIATELY notified NFL executives who IMMEDIATELY launched an investigation which IMMEDIATELY uncovered 11 irregular PATRIOTS game balls. Given these facts and the emphatic denial by the owner, I dare speculate that the media will be foaming at the mouth. Guess that's trolling. Sorry I'm not adhering to the local fanboy party line right now. I was all on board prior to this article...a "few ticks off" was I'll I needed to poo poo this controversy. This new info changes my stance. Sorry this displeases you.

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Nothing has changed in regards to the balls the Patriots were playing with on offense: the science predicts a 1-2 PSI drop, the rumors are of a 1-2 PSI drop. Last I checked, the laws of physics have not changed since this article came out.

All we needed was information as to what spear-headed the Colts/NFLs decision to unwarrantedly take the unprecedented action of measuring the balls at half-time, for which they had no expectation for what to expect upon measurement.

This new leak is just the NFL greasing the wheels for what is surely to be an anti-climactic end to this investigation. Any dispersions cast toward the Patriots will help justify what I will call the @rlcarr hypothesis - that the NFL has no evidence supporting a claim of cheating, but will not let the Patriots off the hook in the court of public opinion.

Consider the NFL has had this information from day zero. If true, it is what precipitated the entire chain of events. Yet, here we are today, and the NFL has nothing. This is no smoking gun. All this does is explain why some meathead ex-Jets employee from the NFL office, who didn't understand the most basic thermodynamics, made a measurement he was too dumb to be making, and spear-headed an unwarranted investigation into our team out of sheer paranoia that we must've been cheating.

Curran with some gold here:

Is this how the Patriots have run their illegal ball scam all these years? Some schmoe (and I say that as a fellow schmoe) named Jim McNally wanders out in the first half and starts trying to get unapproved balls into NFL games like a guy trying to sell hot watches on a New York streetcorner? The original ESPN story has a picture of Jim. He does not look like a mastermind. In fact, if he was a mastermind, you’d think McNally might have forged some official-looking markings onto the ball instead of sending it out there nude.

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Curran FTW:

http://www.csnne.com/blog/patriots-talk/curran-latest-deflategate-nugget-isnt-very-weighty