.....And Now Florio Trying To CYA On Possibility It Was The Colts

You know things have gotten crazy when Florio is occasionally making sense.

A little too much is being made of the Colts purposeful deflation angle - that's going a little too far for me. And much like I say when somebody says the Patriots could've still deflated their balls - we know weather is bringing it down at least 1 PSI, why would the Colts purposefully deflate some trivial amount more? What needs to be determined is if the Colts MEASURED the ball before Kensil did. Because, then they did deflate it, and about the amount that makes sense if we are to believe Rap's report on the difference between the balls that went thru Indy's sideline and the others.

upstater1 said:

While Wells has to consider that, his actual employer is NFL ownership, and not Goodell.

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Also which is more likely to be there next year, Goodell or the billionaire owners?

shmessy said:

Yes, but the tenor has changed over his last several articles on the matter.

The way to read a guy like that is to see his patterns - - it's obvious that he sees where this is heading, because his direction has most definitely changed over the past 3 weeks. He will toggle back and forth to get hits and create discussion, but (like a stock market chart) you can tell a general direction even if there is toggling.

He has good sources and, despite his obvious biases as a Steeler fan, wants to be ahead of the story correctly more than he wants to root for his team. He's a narcissist who worries about his reputation more than anything - - he doesn't want to come out of this on the wrong side. That's why his CYA's that have gotten stronger and stronger on the Pats side each couple of days is interesting.

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I will agree that he does seem to have taken the position that the Pats were set up in recent weeks. I don't know if that is what he is hearing or if he feels that will get him the most clicks. He is an opportunist over all else.

I don't think he wants to be ahead of the story correctly, he just wants to be ahead of the story. He gets a lot wrong (remember when he announced cutdown day in 2007 that Randy Moss was being cut from the Pats?). Although his burden of proof is much lower than Chris Mortensen or Kelly Naqi because he posts his news on a page called "The Rumor Mill".

The one thing I didn't get is he missed the opportunity to slam ESPN on the Kelly Naqi screw up. He did blast them for not getting the Schefter story up on the site, but not that Schefter blew Naqi's story out of the water. Florio hates ESPN above all and never misses an opportunity to slam them when they commit (as he likes to call them) ESPN on ESPN crimes like that. He must like Naqi personally and didn't want to slam her.

Chris Mortensen @mortreport · Jan 20
NFL has found that 11 of the Patriots footballs used in Sunday’s AFC title game were under-inflated by 2 lbs each, per league sources.

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This seems to be the thing that set all the wheels in motion.

This is before Wells got involved, and NFL/Kensil were still in charge of the evidence and investigation. Since none of the pressures were recorded, someone (Kensil) was confident enough to put this out in public thinking it would never be challenged.

Mortensen was confident/familar enough with this source to put himself out there in a big way, and to this day not back away from it.

The Wells investigation doesn't need to stray too far away from this tweet to figure out who was behind all of this.

Rusty Coupe said:

This seems to be the thing that set all the wheels in motion.

This is before Wells got involved, and NFL/Kensil were still in charge of the evidence and investigation. Since none of the pressures were recorded, someone (Kensil) was confident enough to put this out in public thinking it would never be challenged.

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Technically it was not before Wells got involved - per the NFL's only real statement on the whole thing, the investigation began that Sunday night.

The investigation is being led jointly by NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Pash and Ted Wells of the law firm of Paul Weiss. Mr. Wells and his firm bring additional expertise and a valuable independent perspective. The investigation began promptly on Sunday night.

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BradyManny said:

You know things have gotten crazy when Florio is occasionally making sense.

A little too much is being made of the Colts purposeful deflation angle - that's going a little too far for me. And much like I say when somebody says the Patriots could've still deflated their balls - we know weather is bringing it down at least 1 PSI, why would the Colts purposefully deflate some trivial amount more? What needs to be determined is if the Colts MEASURED the ball before Kensil did. Because, then they did deflate it, and about the amount that makes sense if we are to believe Rap's report on the difference between the balls that went thru Indy's sideline and the others.

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If the Colts stuck a gauge in the ball to "measure" it without the supervision of a league official, they need to be punished. The rules clearly state that only the refs are to be responsible for the condition of the balls. If they stuck a gauge in the ball even if it was only to check the pressure, they violated the rules. Only the refs can put a pressure gauge into the football.

I am sorry, but whether the balls were deflated on purpose or accident in a scenario where the Colts checked the pressure of the football, they are guilty of violating the rules and should be punished. Same thing if the Pats were checking the pressure on the footballs. There is absolutely no reason for a team to have a pressure gauge on the field because it is illegal for them to check the pressure of the football after the balls have been approved by the refs.

BTW, they could have deflated it more because of any number of reasons. They may not have gauged it and decided to let more air out to make it more deflated without knowing how much they were deflating (they would have to air on the side of caution in this scenario in not to deflate too much that the ball would be too deflated). Trying to deflate a ball with tons of cameras around is not something where they could do it with exact precession.

I don't know if they did anything wrong, but there are a number of reasons why they might only deflate it a little more than it actually is.

Dr Pain said:

The Colts GM Grigson said the Colts noticed a problem with Pats balls in November at Indy.

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"The Colts noticed". Again, we have this unattributed noticing. Who on the Colts noticed? What attracted that person's notice? Was that noticing person primed by someone (cough, cough...Harbaugh) to be on the lookout? Why? What was the impetus for such a heads-up? What was the problem with the November Pats balls that was noticed? What was the mechanism of this noticing? Feel? Measurement? If measurement, what prompted the impulse to measure? There's a lot of newsmaking to be had if only a reporter would dig beyond "the Colts noticed".

Rob0729 said:

I am sorry, but whether the balls were deflated on purpose or accident in a scenario where the Colts checked the pressure of the football, they are guilty of violating the rules and should be punished. Same thing if the Pats were checking the pressure on the footballs.

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I agree completely.

Heck, IIRC - and forgive me for not getting a link to confirm this - there was an example earlier in the playoffs or year where a kicker asked a ref to pump a ball because it had gone soft in the cold, and the ref told him he was not allowed to. That's a little reported detail that adds some perspective on the whole thing.

I'd love to get my hands on an all-22 for the Pats-Colts and track the comings and goings of balls as much as possible, but I haven't found it yet.

Rusty Coupe said:

This seems to be the thing that set all the wheels in motion.

This is before Wells got involved, and NFL/Kensil were still in charge of the evidence and investigation. Since none of the pressures were recorded, someone (Kensil) was confident enough to put this out in public thinking it would never be challenged.

Mortensen was confident/familar enough with this source to put himself out there in a big way, and to this day not back away from it.

The Wells investigation doesn't need to stray too far away from this tweet to figure out who was behind all of this.

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While I would argue that the Kravtiz report is what set everything off, the Mortenson report caused it to explode and prompted the judgements and press conferences and the reports that contradicted Mortenson's were not met with revised judgements from those already determining guilt.

As far as which ball was 2 psi under, given what has been reported as very sloppy and undefined procedures for measuring and handling footballs, I would wonder if the football the Colts obtained was even isolated from the others that were tested whether that be intentional or not. If it was indeed Kensil that measured them at halftime and questioning his motives, would he even distinguish this ball if it stood out as lower than the others?

The league must have all the information they are going to get at this point and the timing of releasing their findings may be contingent on preparing themselves for the onslaught of scrutiny that their story will surely receive. I also believe they will be discussing or have already discussed this with the Patriots before the public release to make sure they are on board with findings and presentation.

FWIW. I do not see any comments from Grigson pertaining to November. In fact:

Grigson was asked when exactly his team became concerned about New England supposedly using underinflated footballs, as some reports indicated it dated back to the teams’ meeting during the regular season in November.

“I’m not going into specifics,” Grigson said. “Like I said the report should have all that information for everybody. But I just did my job and here we are, hopefully everything will come out and everyone will be able to have a clear look at the situation.”

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http://www.patriots.com/news/blog/a...d-my-job/088366b7-d7cc-4c37-a200-02ac0067cdef

However, Schefter did report the November thing, and he has been the most reliable thus far. We'll see.

SacPete1 said:

While I would argue that the Kravtiz report is what set everything off, the Mortenson report caused it to explode and prompted the judgements and press conferences and the reports that contradicted Mortenson's were not met with revised judgements from those already determining guilt.

As far as which ball was 2 psi under, given what has been reported as very sloppy and undefined procedures for measuring and handling footballs, I would wonder if the football the Colts obtained was even isolated from the others that were tested whether that be intentional or not. If it was indeed Kensil that measured them at halftime and questioning his motives, would he even distinguish this ball if it stood out as lower than the others?

The league must have all the information they are going to get at this point and the timing of releasing their findings may be contingent on preparing themselves for the onslaught of scrutiny that their story will surely receive. I also believe they will be discussing or have already discussed this with the Patriots before the public release to make sure they are on board with findings and presentation.

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Your well thought out post assumes we are dealing with logic, common sense, fair play and league responsibility to get it right......that's where I am quite troubled.

Way too many implications for a lot of league people and league leadership for this to be treated any other way than " cover my ass, protect my job and what's left of our reputation" no matter what it means.

Goodell, Kensil, Blandino, Pash and Wells from the league along with the hate driven agendas of ESPN and much of the media and finally, the easily swayed bored public that has already found us guilty will ALL WIN with a simple verdict of guilt or suspected wrong doing but cannot prove type of finding.

If the "league" thinks that framing the Patriots is the best way to accomplish integrity - they will throw our team under the bus faster than they did following Morts initial report.

There may just be too much working against us for truth, which means a favorable outcome for the Patriots, to see the light of day.

BradyManny said:

FWIW. I do not see any comments from Grigson pertaining to November. In fact:



http://www.patriots.com/news/blog/a...d-my-job/088366b7-d7cc-4c37-a200-02ac0067cdef

However, Schefter did report the November thing, and he has been the most reliable thus far. We'll see.

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Over a month later history still records that the Colts lost badly to the Pats as the Pats were marching to their 4th Superbowl win.

Now back to the present Grigson is squirming and evasive in his answers about Deflategate.

Given the chance you gotta think if he could take it all back he'd just take his team's butt-kicking like a man.

WEEI said there is a twist to the deflategate story that Patriots fans won't like. Any ideas?

karguy85 said:

WEEI said there is a twist to the deflategate story that Patriots fans won't like. Any ideas?

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I came on Patsfans assuming there would be something when I heard that.

karguy85 said:

WEEI said there is a twist to the deflategate story that Patriots fans won't like. Any ideas?

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A twist would be that WEEI actually had something new to contribute. I'm not holding my breath.

Rob0729 said:

(they would have to air on the side of caution in this scenario in not to deflate too much that the ball would be too deflated). .

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Ah, I see what you did there!

Okay it is just rehashing the Colts may have deflated the one football, Florio story. Don't understand how this is bad for the Patriots/Patriots fans.

karguy85 said:

Okay it is just rehashing the Colts may have deflated the one football, Florio story. Don't understand how this is bad for the Patriots/Patriots fans.

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They probably mean it would upset Patriots fans in that the Colts set us up in that scenario. What WEEI didn't realize is that Patriot fans had thought through all the scenarios weeks ago, while WEEI was probably talking drivel.

karguy85 said:

Okay it is just rehashing the Colts may have deflated the one football, Florio story. Don't understand how this is bad for the Patriots/Patriots fans.

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That Tim Benz guy probably was spinning it that if the Colts deflated the football, Belichick should be fired, the Pats should be stripped of a first round pick, and fined a million dollars for forcing the Colts' to cheat. That guy is so awful that he makes me miss Mike Salk.

On a side note, I just tuned in and they have Steve from Fall River on who is just spouting his fake anti-Belichick the GM rhetoric.

shmessy said:

"It doesn’t mean the Colts deflated the football. It also doesn’t mean the Colts didn’t. It means that the NFL must rule out that the ball was deflated by the Colts if the NFL plans to conclude that the Patriots did."

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How do you "plan" to conclude something, unless you've already made a conclusion? Florio still injecting his own personal bias in there.