2/18/2015: Schefter Blows Up ESPN's Earlier Story

Ross12 said:

So, is "Deflategate" now complete moot? How can you investigate the Patriots for underinflating footballs if the footballs were switched out by a League Official in the midst of the game? And is selling footballs on the side not a drastically higher integrity issue than footballs being slightly low on PSI would be?

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Adam Shefter on ESPN's Outside the Lines (OTL) said:

There are a few different league officials, according to people I spoke with today, at the game who handled the footballs -league employees. League employee one, league employee two and league employee three, we'll call them for a lack of better phrases whose jobs are to handle the balls on game days. League official one is also supposed to take the balls out of play and send them off to a charitable endeavor and raise money... but on this day and since that day the league has fired that employee for allegedly selling some of those footballs on the side. So that employee, official one, has been fired since the AFC championship game. Employee two noticed that one of the balls is missing from the league official one and he went to get a different one. So when league official two came, he tried to replace that football. League official one noticed that the ball was missing and people knew, he brought the ball back into the game. So there were then two different league officials handing footballs to Jim McNally for use of the game. So this sounds like a very unique, murky, cloudy situations. All of this information is captured on video tape that has been turned over to the NFL and will be documented in the Wells report, according to the people I've spoken with. Essentially Jim McNally was given these footballs by the league officials who were assigned to work the game that day.

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Adam Shefter when asked about the fired official said:

That extended beyond the AFC Championship game. That was part of a pattern of behavior that exists in this particular individual that culminated in him working that game and trying to get another football.

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Source:
Ben Volin ‏@BenVolin 10m10 minutes ago
What a mess RT @MarkDanielsPJ: Here's what @AdamSchefter said today about the fired official on Outside the Lines

EDIT:

shmessy said:

Ken, it sheds light on how the NFL OFFICIALS were handling the footballs during the game in general. If they were that lax (or "entrepeneurial") with the K- Balls, how careful could they have been with the other footballs? Who was the "compliance officer" in charge? Could it have been Mr. Kensil?

It has become painfully obvious that league officials were doing some pretty crazy things on the sidelines.

And the Patriots really are the only party at this point who have kept their mouths closed and seem completely innocent.

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shmessy said:

Tight ship that NFL runs.........

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BradyManny said:

No, it's not moot - the Patriots balls still registered as under inflated at half-time, and the league hasn't caught onto PV = nRT yet.

The league will want to spin these as two separate issues, but they are intertwined. Especially if the oddity with the officials & the ball exchange launched Kensil's half-time probe into the Patriots.

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BobDigital said:

Question cause there is 1 thing I am unsure about and don't know if it is clear yet.

Where these balls stolen before the game started or during half time?

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chasa said:

You see that right there? That's the part of this "investigation" where the league goes public and says We ****ed up, the patriots did nothing wrong, and we should have never let this get as out of control as it did.

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patfanken said:

Well you just took the bloom off the rose for me with that explanation, Shmess. This is what I feared the most.....if I understand correctly the impact of what you said.

What all this means is that because of Schecter's report, there is no chance that any investigation could come up with any evidence of Patriot wrongdoing amid the cluster**** of their own officials. HOWEVER this will STILL leave the haters will plenty of evidence to claim, "well they can't prove anything, but we know they did it", or that this is just another example of Goodell protecting the Pats by "destroying the evidence".

Here's what I want!. I don't want to be found "not guilty" I want to be found INNOCENT. I want Kensil fired for pursuing his own agenda at the expense of the league's. I want the Colts, Irsay, and Grigson punished for their willing role as accomplices to Kensil. I want a Heartfelt apology by both Goodell and ESPN for their roles in this sordid attempt to tarnish the Pats legacy.

.... AND then I want Goodell to give the public a full explanation of "cameraplacementgate". What the Pats where actually punished for. How it was NOT cheating, because no unfair advantage was gained. How the Pats did NOT break any rules, just a league memo/policy, and the stealing signals was NEVER against the rules. Then I want him to apologize for not making this clear at the outset and for the damage to the Pats legacy that has occurred because he hadn't done it sooner. Then I want him to step down and name Bob Kraft the interim Commissioner.

......AND then I am going to hold my breath until all that is done.

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BradyManny said:

This league's F up might have to do with the K-balls though, which would not have to do with the offensive balls.

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shmessy said:

So where is Kelly Naqui waiting tables tomorrow?

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juny said:

Can anybody really trust the league after this though?

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shmessy said:

No, Ken.

It means that the "reported measurements" by the "league officials" are as credible as Joe Isuzu's commercials in the first place.

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