Dear NFL: Clean your own house- you are an embarrassment

Before the NFL decides to punish anyone for this stupid air pressure fiasco, they should take a good hard look in the mirror.
1. The NFL office has more leaks than the Titanic. How does this help anything they are trying to "investigate"? Why would anyone voluntarily turn over their cell phones to the NFL when the history is that things get leaked allover the place? Why not investigate leaks and fire those people who are leaking?

2. If the integrity of the game and fair competition is so important to the NFL, why do they allow competing teams personnel to have control of the game balls? After the NFL game officials have control shouldn't they stay in control of some NFL official? A billion+ $ organization too cheap to pony up a few thousand $ to have a ball official?

3. If the game ball pressure is so important why not send a memo to all teams, stating the some teams have sent concerns about the pressure and that it's going to monitored? How does playing a game of "got ya" help out the NFL?

4. If the pressure of the balls and the rules pertaining to the game balls are so important, why did you let teams heat the balls on the sidelines, in full camera view, and do nothing about that?

The NFL needs to clean up their own house before punishing teams and players for these kind of "infractions". And if they want full cooperation from people during an investigation, they need to stop leaks and fire leakers.

All those things that I mentioned can and probably will be used as a defense for Brady if a suspension is given. And you in the media, why don't you go on a full court press with the NFL about those things, instead of always harping on the low hanging fruit?

Now that I got that off my chest, I'll go do yard work.

PATSNUTme said:

Before the NFL decides to punish anyone for this stupid air pressure fiasco, they should take a good hard look in the mirror.
1. The NFL office has more leaks than the Titanic. How does this help anything they are trying to "investigate"? Why would anyone voluntarily turn over their cell phones to the NFL when the history is that things get leaked allover the place? Why not investigate leaks and fire those people who are leaking?

2. If the integrity of the game and fair competition is so important to the NFL, why do they allow competing teams personnel to have control of the game balls? After the NFL game officials have control shouldn't they stay in control of some NFL official? A billion+ $ organization too cheap to pony up a few thousand $ to have a ball official?

3. If the game ball pressure is so important why not send a memo to all teams, stating the some teams have sent concerns about the pressure and that it's going to monitored? How does playing a game of "got ya" help out the NFL?

4. If the pressure of the balls and the rules pertaining to the game balls are so important, why did you let teams heat the balls on the sidelines, in full camera view, and do nothing about that?

The NFL needs to clean up their own house before punishing teams and players for these kind of "infractions". And if they want full cooperation from people during an investigation, they need to stop leaks and fire leakers.

All those things that I mentioned can and probably will be used as a defense for Brady if a suspension is given. And you in the media, why don't you go on a full court press with the NFL about those things, instead of always harping on the low hanging fruit?

Now that I got that off my chest, I'll go do yard work.

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The most embarrassing part is yet to even come. That will be when Goodell hands down a larger suspension to Tom Brady for "probably" knowing about a ball being deflated by under 1 PSI than he gave to Ray Rice initially for cold ****ing his wife in the elevator at a public location and then dragged her limp body out of it. Now that will be ****ing disgusting.

I agree with everything you wrote here, this entire situation is pathetic and disgusting. I actually spent the morning thinking about what other sport to follow instead of the NFL.

There's no way football can recover from this.

Sadly, while Goodell is a tyrant who cares more about his own authority more than anything else and has the mindset of a bureaucrat, he certainly hasn't driven away any of the customers even if his ridiculous policies and decisions have made the game less enjoyable.

This is the new normal now, instead of just enjoying the game, we're obsessing over trivial nonsense like camera placement and psi (at least when the Patriots are involved). To make matters worse, all the "superfans" of the rival teams (you know, the unemployed guys whose wife left them and whose kid don't respect him who just deals with it by developing an unhealthy fixation on his sports team) have his full support.

Not to mention all the other silly crap we have to put up in an attempt to market the game to women:
"Breast cancer awareness" (gee whiz, I've never heard of breast cancer before! Thank you NFL!)
"Domestic Violence Awareness/No More" (parade of brain damaged athletes trotted out in front of the camera to declare "domestic violence is all da menz fault") ;
The first female referee (I DARE any NFL coach to criticize her for making a bad call- ask Chris Paul how that worked out in the NBA).

Let's face it. There's a tyrant running the show now. He's not going anywhere. He can be as stupid and arbitrary as he wants without repercussions as we are just going to keep watching like the pathetic flock of sheep we are.

F*ck this!

Of course it will still keep making money but it's going windup looking like a cross between professional wrestling, Jerry Springer, and some stupid soap opera.

There was no reason for this or CameraGate to even become public issues. The fact that both of these non-issues could have been cleared up with a quick phone call to the Patriots ("If you're doing <this>, stop it, or else there will be consequences") is what irks me the most. And not just the Pats, I mean all of the teams who might be violating minor rules, either intentionally or unintentionally. Mature organizations handle these types of things quietly in-house (think how the Pats handled Welker's 'foot' comments).

Because there's now a history of overreaction by the league, every ESPN talking head, every team, and every fanbase is jumping up and down, waving the rulebook, whenever the least rule is bent or broken. We're doing the same here talking about Aaron Rodger's ball comments, when really none of us cared a whit about it when it was originally said. We're all like kids screaming at the top of our lungs when a sibling is bothering them, because they know they can get that sibling in trouble from past experience because Mom or Dad will overreact.

Now that the genie has been let out of the bottle, so to speak, I'm not sure how the NFL can get back to a place where teams trust the league to do the right thing, and allow minor stuff like this to just be handled quietly behind the scenes. I'm sure ESPN would not be pleased, and Borges would be writing conspiracy columns twice a week (probably copied from somewhere). I certainly don't have any faith that the current NFL execs who have gotten us to this point are willing or capable of changing things anytime soon, and I expect these types of situations will just keep on escalating in the near future.

Maybe the embarrassment of the Seahawks drafting Frank Clark in the second round!, who was arrested over the objections of his girlfriend last November, for a clear instance of drunken domestic abuse, is an underlying motive for this tempest in a teapot of psi in game balls. If you haven't read about what occurred, which got Clark kicked of Michigan's football team, it's extremely damaging. A criminal punk taken in the second round by an NFL team, which is unconscionable.

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/c...11/17/frank-clark-michigan-football/19157491/

Here's ESPN talking about the Frank Clark situation:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...y-seattle-seahawks-gave-chance-redeem-himself

The scandal is that the issue is still taken so lightly, like priest abuse in the Catholic church for decades, that Seattle apparently didn't even do their due diligence in learning everything about this troubling situation.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...y-seattle-seahawks-gave-chance-redeem-himself

This is going to come full circle and Goodell and his lackeys are going to reap what they sow.

The most amazing aspect of this for me is that one NFL team was able to order up a sting operation on another NFL team the way you or I would order up a cup of coffee.

There's a very simple solution to this problem. If the psi of a football is so important, then just have the NFL itself provide ALL of the game balls. Have an NFL employee, responsible only to the refs and league, keep an eye on them and check the air pressure, etc.

He brings them to the refs, who bring them onto the field and hand them out as needed. After the game, the refs collect the balls, bring them to the NFL ball guy, and he cleans them up, etc, and does whatever needs to be done with them afterward.

Alternately, the refs can just give the balls to the two teams and let them do what they want to with them.

Seems like a simple fix, you know?

Mr. Plow said:

The most amazing aspect of this for me is that one NFL team was able to order up a sting operation on another NFL team the way you or I would order up a cup of coffee.

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Supposedly the Colts did not want a sting just wanted the NFL to make sure our balls were in compliance which if this fiasco is accurate the NFL failed to do. And by gas laws may not have been able to do so.

Gwedd said:

There's a very simple solution to this problem. If the psi of a football is so important, then just have the NFL itself provide ALL of the game balls. Have an NFL employee, responsible only to the refs and league, keep an eye on them and check the air pressure, etc.

He brings them to the refs, who bring them onto the field and hand them out as needed. After the game, the refs collect the balls, bring them to the NFL ball guy, and he cleans them up, etc, and does whatever needs to be done with them afterward.

Alternately, the refs can just give the balls to the two teams and let them do what they want to with them.

Seems like a simple fix, you know?

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Well, we all know the NFL will have some version of this going forward. It will however, not be enacted because it's needed. It will be there simply because they will have come down hard on the Pats / Brady and they need to show how the "Integrity" of the league was protected.

I'd like to plant this seed. Is it feasible to create and develop an alternative professional football league that doesn't suck?

The XFL obviously didn't work out so well but McMahon was never really the man for that job. But with Bob Kraft's resources and Belichick's football mind, could they come up with a version of professional football that doesn't suck ass? Doesn't pander to women and overgrown children? Takes player safety seriously? Doesn't mind spending a few extra bucks for cameras to help referees get calls right? Carefully screens it commissioners so we get people who legitimately care about the integrity of the sport instead of some piss ant tyrant whose idea of "integrity of the game" is selectively enforcing rules to help his old club and embarrassing their rival?

Is it just a crazy pipe dream or could it happen?

The Colts alerted the league that there may be a issue with the Patriots game balls.

Did the league alert the teams or send a memo?
....... NO

Did the league check the balls on the sideline just prior to kickoff
........ NO

Was the league more interested in catching & punishing the Patriots than playing the first half of the AFC
Championship game with a proper inflated football.
........ YES !!!!!!!

How have we gotten here? Who is to blame? The answer is clear. The NFL is to blame plain and simple. This was a smear campaign from the word go. This is what they wanted. Listen everybody in the league knows this isn’t a big issue. It was something that could have been avoided with a simple phone call to the Patriots. Instead the NFL set up a sting operation. They tried to embarrass the Patriots. That’s what Mike Kensil wanted. That’s why Roger Goodell openly lied about whether the league knew about the complaints before the game. That’s why “league sources” confirmed that they were launching an investigation instantly after the game was over. That’s why they continued to leak information throughout the investigation. They wanted to fuel the media’s fire and that’s exactly what they did.

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http://www.barstoolsports.com/bosto...the-nfl-is-corrupt-and-wanted-this-to-happen/

cupofjoe1962 said:

The Colts alerted the league that there may be a issue with the Patriots game balls.

Did the league alert the teams or send a memo?
....... NO

Did the league check the balls on the sideline just prior to kickoff
........ NO

Was the league more interested in catching & punishing the Patriots than playing the first half of the AFC
Championship game with a proper inflated football.
........ YES !!!!!!!

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Yes, exactly.

This whole thing wasn't about upholding the integrity of the game. It was about responding to a complaint from a specific team, (the Colts) and making that team happy. The precedent this sets is horrible.

Mack Herron said:

http://www.barstoolsports.com/bosto...the-nfl-is-corrupt-and-wanted-this-to-happen/

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Excellent article, its sums it all up nicely. Its more likely than not that Roder Goodell set out to embarrass the Patriots.

I also got a laugh out of this. ....
'Teams like the Browns who just got fined for cheating are chiming in saying they’ve lost respect for Brady.' LOL,LOL,LOL

Another detail that shows how ridiculous the entire PSI saga is, is the fact that seemingly the refs never refill the balls at halftime - no matter the weather conditions. If keeping everything within range is such an important detail then one would think the refs would make sure that the balls stay within the range for the entire game. But in reality nobody actually gives a **** about any of this, unless a ball has so low PSI that it starts to look funny.