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

PatriotsReign · Feb 18, 2015

Brady2Moss said:
BSPN can #InflateThis

What a joke

If ESPN keeps it up, someone that works there is going to get hurt.

PatriotsReign · Feb 18, 2015

Danger Zone said:
During ESPN's OTL, Adam Shefter called into the program with more details. Mike Loyko gives his Twitter accounting of what he saw on OTL.

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 6m6 minutes ago
.@AdamSchefter report on OTL just DESTROYED ALL THE OTL reporting and basically points the finger at the OFFICIALs

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 6m6 minutes ago
League Official was supposed to handle balls and send one off to a charitible enterprise. League Official stole balls and was fired from NFL

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 6m6 minutes ago
League Officials 2 Noticed that Balls were missing went back to the locker room got different balls and gave them to Jim MacNally..

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 5m5 minutes ago
All this is on tape according to @AdamSchefter .. basically the League Officials are going to come out F'D in all this

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 4m4 minutes ago
Per @AdamSchefter after the game balls are checked Official 1 takes the balls and brings them around for "charitible endevores for the NFL

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 4m4 minutes ago
Turns out that Official 1 took some of those balls for himself before AFC Championship Game.. Official 2 then notices that there are balls..

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 4m4 minutes ago
Missing so he goes back to the LR to get new game balls and gives those to Jim McNally.. NFL Has fired League Official #1 already.. and all

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 4m4 minutes ago
this is caught on tape.

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 3m3 minutes ago
@AdamSchefter just poured gasoline all over OTL, @bkravitz , ESPN, @mortreport and lit the match himself.

Mike Loyko ‏@NEPD_Loyko 3m3 minutes ago
.@AdamSchefter has stayed so quiet on DeflateGate, it's like he finally said F it.

Now hopefully all the girly-men in here will stop feeling anxiety over such an insignificant incident!

Time to man-up and just let it go.

QuantumMechanic · Feb 18, 2015

SI's Michael McCann makes an interesting point:

Michael McCann‏@McCannSportsLaw
If a rogue NFL official sold alleged Deflategate ball, Patriots can argue that's spoliation of evidence and investigation should be dropped.

and

Michael McCann ‏@McCannSportsLaw 9m9 minutes ago
@bobbyslots4 @AaronNagler Even in arbitration, if it ever got there, NFL would have to satisfy a fiduciary duty to safeguard evidence.

and

Michael McCann ‏@McCannSportsLaw 5m5 minutes ago
@bobbyslots4 @AaronNagler If an NFL official sold football that's at issue in investigation of NFL team, investigation has been compromised.

Danger Zone · Feb 18, 2015

PatriotsReign said:
Now hopefully all the girly-men in here will stop feeling anxiety over such an insignificant incident!

Time to man-up and just let it go.

Sauce for the goose my friend, sauce for the goose.

Bella*chick · Feb 18, 2015

Who sold a football?

You know, I have been following this reasonably closely since it happened but it has all gone off the rails for me. I am at a total loss to understand how this incident is part of Deflategate other than as some flimsy reason for Kensil to test a bunch of balls for psi, which is unprecedented and seems ridiculously suspicious in its own right. What psi has to do with the handing off of an unofficial K ball is beyond me.

I just really don't care what the NFL does anymore. Winning the Superbowl used up all the craps I had to give.

QuantumMechanic · Feb 18, 2015

Well, assuming the Pulpit is understanding Schefter correctly, a "League Official" stole the balls and gave McNally other balls to give to the refs:

Pats Pulpit said:
ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting that the NFL has fired an official from the AFC Championship Game for stealing one of the footballs and attempting to sell it. A second ref noticed this during the game.

Schefter also reports that Jim McNally, the attendant supposedly tagged for "trying to introduce an unapproved football", was provided the footballs by two league employees. One of these employees was fired.

http://www.patspulpit.com/2015/2/18...res-official-for-selling-deflategate-football

BradyManny · Feb 18, 2015

rlcarr said:
SI's Michael McCann makes an interesting point:

Michael McCann ‏@McCannSportsLaw 5m5 minutes ago
@bobbyslots4 @AaronNagler If an NFL official sold football that's at issue in investigation of NFL team, investigation has been compromised.

Interesting point - but I think we're talking about two sets of balls here, right? Offense and K-balls?

However, it really undermines the NFL entirely either way.

PatsSox363804 · Feb 18, 2015

If the genesis of this entire thing is a ref stealing balls and the NFL let the Pats twist in the wind like this with no proof then I don't know how anyone can take the NFL seriously.

blackglass3 · Feb 18, 2015

Bella*chick said:
I just really don't care what the NFL does anymore. Winning the Superbowl used up all the craps I had to give.

Quoted for truth, +1, LIKE, What she said^. However many ways I can agree with Bellachick, I do. We won the f'ing Super Bowl while this ****storm was swirling. Time for Goodell and his lackey's to put up or shut up. And as I have said since Belichick and Brady's first presser about it, THE NFL HAS NOTHING ON THEM.

In a few weeks, Ted Wells report will be dumped on a Friday at about 4:15 EST so it gets as little press as possible. I look forward to reading it, seeing my team vindicated in writing, and PRAY that Robert Kraft goes after that stuffed suit *******. I don't know who would be on a short list for new NFL Commish, but I am pretty sure no one can do the job worse then the current asshat.

smurfalarm · Feb 18, 2015

Man this is totally off the rails now. I give up.

Fixit · Feb 18, 2015

Bella*chick · Feb 18, 2015

Wait, so an official was FIRED?! For attempted to sell a ball…..what on ebay or something?

In how many different ways can this bizarre story go? I can't even keep up and I'm trying to!

This is what happens when you let something like this drag on and on and on with salacious leaks and innuendo. Roger Goodell has no control over anything. He looks like an absolute stooge in all this.

Bella*chick · Feb 18, 2015

OK, so the leak about the league official being fired….was that one of the guys on our side? Is that our counter-leak?

rochrist · Feb 18, 2015

PatsSox363804 said:
If the genesis of this entire thing is a ref stealing balls and the NFL let the Pats twist in the wind like this with no proof then I don't know how anyone can take the NFL seriously.

What gets me is that apparently, the big deal about this latest story is shenanigans by the officials, yet ESPN spun it as some sort of smoking gun about the Dirty Lying Liar Pats. **** em. **** em all.

Hoodie · Feb 18, 2015

Hoodie said:
It does make it seem as though what goes on on the sidelines is total chaos, and that's on the NFL.

juny said:
It appears that the marking of the footballs served its purpose. Errant footballs were not introduced

with reports that officials are stealing game balls to sell them, officials stepping outside the bounds of their authority to check the psi, etc I'll say it again, it seems as though the sidelines are chaos.

smurfalarm · Feb 18, 2015

Bella*chick said:
OK, so the leak about the league official being fired….was that one of the guys on our side? Is that our counter-leak?

It seems like that, doesn't it? It's remarkable how quickly these leaks that undermine the premise of the previous likes are happening. You get, "BALL BOY TAKES BALLS TO UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, LEAGUE ZEROES IN ON HIM AS CULPRIT" then an hour later, "IT WAS A BATHROOM AND HE WAS IN THERE FOR 90 SECONDS." Same deal here. Little leaks that make the Patriots look bad followed by more leaks that contain, if not exonerating information, at least information that should make us very skeptical of the original leakers, their motivations, and the context with which they frame their leaks.

Hoodie · Feb 18, 2015

1. Toucher and Rich ‏@Toucherandrich 7m7 minutes ago
1. HAHAHA RT @MarkDanielsPJ: Here's what @AdamSchefter said today about the fired official on Outside the Lines

QuantumMechanic · Feb 18, 2015

Curran's summary:

Tom E. Curran‏@tomecurran
In short, lg official swiped game ball to sell for own gain. Another lg official gave replacement ball to McNally to get count back to 12.

smurfalarm · Feb 18, 2015

I don't even...

How was the fact that an NFL league official, completely unaffiliated with the Patriots, was messing with the balls not the first thing that was leaked? That would have completely changed that first week of discourse when people's minds were already decided. If it comes out that the NFL knew about this from the beginning and decided to withhold this information from the public even while selective and likely inaccurate leaks seemed to incriminate the Patriots, this is beyond the pale.

QuantumMechanic · Feb 18, 2015

I would love love love to know what prompted Schefter's call into OTL. Surely it's not commonplace for ESPN employee B to completely blow up ESPN employee A's report --- on A's own show!

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

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