Deflating deflategate --[Mod Edit] AEI Opinion Piece in NY Times

blackglass3 said:

Jeff Wells confirmed its not Robert Kraft's company. Therefore I expect tomorrow to wake up to ESPN: Kraft's company sponsors Deflategate Rebuttal

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I'm going to wait for Volin to get out of work tomorrow so we can have a talk....

from Volin's twitter just now...........

they did not produce a pro patriots report.... they produced a report.

and now I've been blocked from Volin's account...within 5 minutes of posting the above link.

This little pimp MUST be a reader of our board...and much more voraciously than we ever knew. Here's a big tip you little pinhead....spend your time playing in the shallow end of the NFL reporting pool.

BTW, attaching any kind of significance to anything written by "Rutgers" Bedard is a fool's errand. He's a useless, hate filled egomaniac.

Rob0729 said:

Didn't want to start a new thread, but Mike Reiss has brought up what I have been saying for months. Once this turned into a huge thing, Goodell decided he needed to make the Pats a fall guy and someone significant:

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-england...-carroll-university-and-nfls-continue-to-grow

Once this became the lead story on every news broadcast, either Goodell was going to do a fair investigation and make the League look bad (even if they didn't show that it was a sting) or he was going to do a bag job investigation to find the Pats' guilty. He obviously did the latter.

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Knowing that Reiss, like most reporters, doesn't get to write his own headlines, it's interesting that his post is 90% about the AEI Report and NOT about John Carroll U (though Reiss did lead with that - perhaps to appease his editors?)

But to your overall point, this is par for the course with Goodell. In Spygate Goodell correctly perceived that most NFL fans were unaware that signal stealing is not only common, but legal under the NFL rules.

Rather than explain that point Goodell went with the wave of public opinion and he too postured as if signal stealing were bad, and he too expressed outrage (in part because Belichick had easily found a loophole in the NFL's rule)

In the case of Deflategate, while making a post-official change in ball PSI would indeed have been wrong (assuming the officials didn't themselves cheat going to 16 PSI as hey did in - coincidentally, the Jets game) at the very least his underling, Kensil, demonstrated anti-Patriot bias, and someone in the NFL offices continued to do so with leaks of false and twisted information

Thus, rather than allow Wells to investigate internal NFL operations as we were originally told, Wells went no where near addressing the false/biased NFL source and instead ignored science and presumed the OPPOSITE of the "best recollection" of the officials to reach a conclusion that was more consistent with the biased internal NFL source, while also taking attention away from an entire season of Goodell's botched discipline with Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson among other lapses of judgment

IF this failed sting scandal is ever truly revealed there's no way Goodell can keep his job

I'm having a tough time seeing how Goodell can save face about this entire affair, which is necessary if Goodell himself is to end this silly dog and pony show... the time to disassociate himself with Kensil was LONG ago. He's in too deep now. Don't expect him to exonerate Brady and the Pats based on this "new information"

In fact, look for Goodell to have Wells call another press conference to explain why he was justified in taking 100 plus days, over 200 pages and $5 million to "investigate" something even after the lead official's "best recollection" confirmed it didn't happen

In fact, look for Goodell to have Wells call another press conference to explain why he was justified in taking 100 plus days, over 200 pages and $5 million to "investigate" something even after the lead official's "best recollection" confirmed it didn't happen

I am and have been in agreement with this exact stance since the start. It hurts me to read the posts of our members here attempt to guess what he MAY do of the 23rd. He is not going to do anything except reinforce the decision by his catspaw.

This has always been about federal court from the start. Kessler and the NFLPA have far ,far more than enough to eviscerate this supremely megalomaniacal moron in a REAL court of law.

Joker said:

from Volin's twitter just now...........

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Wow, that's just atrocious he would tweet that without knowing. It's not like Kraft is an unusual name.

blackglass3 said:

Jeff Wells confirmed its not Robert Kraft's company. Therefore I expect tomorrow to wake up to ESPN: Kraft's company sponsors Deflategate Rebuttal

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I think you mean Jeff Howe. Howe and Volin hate each other. Howe must have had great pleasure in making Volin look foolish. Mike Loyko (another local writer for his own blog) took joy in calling out Volin too.

https://twitter.com/jeffphowe/status/610161690131464193

I heard someone on the radio talking saying that Volin is not well liked by many people in the local media. Sounds like he is as much of a Dorito Dink as he comes off in public.

aluminum seats said:

Wow, that's just atrocious he would tweet that without knowing. It's not like Kraft is an unusual name.

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I love this response to Jeff Howe blowing Volin out of the water:

@jeffphowe @BenVolin In other news, Tom Brady's parents are not Mike and Carol, and he's never met Davey Jones.

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https://twitter.com/NeilAxelrod/status/610162257914404864

I think all this political talk is silly. I do not believe at all that this report was influenced by the political leanings of the writers, by the political leanings of the Krafts, or by the political leanings of anyone else.

I like this report because it got attention in a major newspaper and did a great job of explaining things in a formal manner. However, there is nothing in this report that the people in this forum did not already know, so I do not consider it politically biased at all. We all knew the Patriots' balls fell within the range of where they were predicted to be, and that's a fact no matter whom you vote for.

Joker said:

from Volin's twitter just now...........

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Man, Volin sucks so hard. He's just the worst, and I honestly wonder how he manages to stay employed.

NashuaPats said:

I would love to see Greg Bedard confronted with this report. In his MMQB article, he made a rather stupid comment about the science and how it supports that the balls were tampered with. In the follow up mailbag, someone pointed out the flaw in his logic which is what this report largely addressed. Bedard responded by smacking the guy down with more of his own stupidity. Bedard needs to be called out on this.

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Bedard is good for analyzing stuff that happens on the field, but every time he offers an opinion on anything else he comes off as both ignorant and aggressively opinionated. Bad combination.

Palm Beach Pats Fan said:

The first time NdGT got it wrong by making a sophomore mistake: not using absolute pressure.

After he fixed this, he actually did the calculation completely correctly. He fell victim, however, to believing the Chris Mortensen lie (that 11 of 12 footballs were deflated by at least 2 psi).

NdGT declared that there was no way that the ideal gas law alone could account for a 2 psi pressure drop because it only gets a little over half of that (about 1.15). Of course, the actual drop was not 2 psi, it was 1.01 psi (logo gauge) or 1.39 psi (non-logo gauge).

So his second attempt was only in error due to a misplaced trust in the validity of the Chris Mortensen lie.

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Is Mort still alive? Employed? That's a big meatball he left out there....

Rob0729 said:

I think you mean Jeff Howe. Howe and Volin hate each other. Howe must have had great pleasure in making Volin look foolish. Mike Loyko (another local writer for his own blog) took joy in calling out Volin too.

https://twitter.com/jeffphowe/status/610161690131464193

I heard someone on the radio talking saying that Volin is not well liked by many people in the local media. Sounds like he is as much of a Dorito Dink as he comes off in public.

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I did mean Howe, thanks for the catch. Sorry I was out at the time of typing it.

Anyone ripping Volin apart is of great amusement to me.

The Gr8est said:

Not worth a new thread and it is DeflateGate related so I'll stick this note, from a Herald article today, in here:

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/...triots/2015/06/red_alert_to_all_patriots_foes

'Rodgers lets the air out

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers did a Q & A with the Press-Gazette and naturally was asked a few Deflategate-related questions. One dealt with whether he felt deflating the balls below the prescribed limit affected the integrity of the game. In a roundabout way, Rodgers said it did.

“Peyton (Manning) a few years back, I believe he was one of the guys that talked to the rules committee about being able to use footballs we use in practice. That’s important,” he said. “But I think there should be a minimum level of inflation and maybe not a maximum level. A ball that’s under-inflated you’d think would be easier to catch.

“I’ve heard some people say it’s easier to hold when you’re running with the football. I like a ball that’s inflated to the high range of the legal limit, because I have big hands and a strong grip. I’ve voiced my frustrations about . . . obviously when we submit a ball it’s within the range, and when we get the ball back on gameday, you can tell air has been taken out. That’s frustrating. Why would we practice with footballs that aren’t at the proper levels you’re going to use in the game? That’s my issue with that.”'

Wow! Did Rodgers just say that it is cheating to deflate a football but not if you over inflate it?

Self-serving douchebag much Rodgers?

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Rodgers comes across as a jerk there - "My cheating should be legal. That other type of cheating is the real problem."

I do think his comments about the actions of the officials is noteworthy, though. If the Packers are submitting overinflated balls to be checked by the officials, how much air are the officials taking out? Are they bringing them down to the top of the acceptable range? Or lower than that? Even if he means that they are submitting balls at 13.5 PSI, why are the officials taking any air out?

That's something that has escaped any scrutiny, what exactly are the officials doing when they are checking the footballs pre-game and why? Wells pretty much glossed over the actions by Anderson's crew, saying they always do everything right and do a great job. What about the overinflated balls in the Jets game? What about Rodgers saying they let too much air out? I understand why the league doesn't want it getting out that the officials might not always be super diligent about that activity, but that's another reason why they shouldn't have made a huge deal about this.

Jackson 2 said:

How hard is it to understand that 31 NFL owners, the fanbases of 31 NFL teams and about 90% of the American public now think Roger Goodell is doing a great job lately? No longer commissioner before next year's draft? Is he terminally ill and only you know this? Holy ****, you must also believe in the freaking tooth fairy...

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How they think he is doing "lately" is immaterial. If he is the face of the losing end of a high profile court case it may have repercussions for him. I do not consider this likely but it is possible. Calm down, buddy.

TBR said:

Can we get this irresponsible **** off the sidebar feed, please?

https://twitter.com/BenVolin/status/610140926208557057

Trying to claim one of AEI's corporate sponsors is the Kraft Foundation.

First off, it's NOT even related to Robert Kraft whatsoever. It's the food-related corporation.

Secondly, as a "reporter/journalist" you better make damn sure you're 100% correct before putting anything out there. Instead, he puts it out there first and THEN tries to find out if true or not: https://twitter.com/BenVolin/status/610147402771746817

Lastly, even if it was related to Robert Kraft - it's not like he paid for the report the way the NFL paid millions to Ted Wells.

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The best part is that Volin took over an hour to actually research it and realize he was dead wrong, and then apologized...

... Yet, 2 hours later, his original tweet is still up slamming Kraft.

JoeSixPat said:

This is just a PR ploy for AEI - which only needed 16 pages and common sense to debunk a Wells Report which has a conclusion hinged on the "assumption" that the "best recollection" of the lead official is that he used the gauge that showed that NO DEFLATION OCCURRED

Any costs associated with this were more than enough in terms of good PR which will keep them top of mind for future studies.

They knew that the last thing Goodell was going to do is engage Tagliabue to contract with them again - so they weren't getting this business anyways - but now have reminded readers that they debunked Goodell in Bountygate and this is an even more simple, clear cut case of a Commissioner who appears more incompetent each year.

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It possible that AEI self-funded this but to commit research resources without being "billable" doesn't totally addup for me.

Joker said:

In fact, look for Goodell to have Wells call another press conference to explain why he was justified in taking 100 plus days, over 200 pages and $5 million to "investigate" something even after the lead official's "best recollection" confirmed it didn't happen

I am and have been in agreement with this exact stance since the start. It hurts me to read the posts of our members here attempt to guess what he MAY do of the 23rd. He is not going to do anything except reinforce the decision by his catspaw.

This has always been about federal court from the start. Kessler and the NFLPA have far ,far more than enough to eviscerate this supremely megalomaniacal moron in a REAL court of law.

Click to expand...

Absolutely correct sir. The same people that think Goodell is going to do anything to under cut his henchmen are the ones that think Kraft gives a crap about his team or fans. Brady and the NFLPA are going to rip apart the whole sham and make the POS and Kraft and his partners look like fools.