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

JMC00 · Jun 15, 2015

KontradictioN said:
My God, when will you people ever get it?

HE..
IS....
A.....
TROLL

And he's laughing all the way to the bank.

My god when will people realize that Felger isn't trolling on this one.

Kontradiction · Jun 15, 2015

JMC00 said:
My god when will people realize that Felger isn't trolling on this one.

Sure he is. That's his schtick. He isn't all that knowledgable about the game so people aren't going to listen to him break down X's and O's. The only thing he has in order to get people to listen is his obnoxious troll personality. Homeboy is always trolling and people like yourself listen to it then post his tripe over here.

ThatllMoveTheChains!!! · Jun 15, 2015

Patsfanin Philly said:
Yup, go into law. Wells allegedly got 50 times that for the piece of crap he put together... Put another way, Wells allegedly charged $5 million for 100 days of work or $50,000 per day ( assuming they worked weekends) or $6000 per hour the entire time.. That is a lot of money paid to high priced lawyers who don't know jack about science...
They could have paid an undergraduate physics major $400 and a couple of pizzas ( or the promise of getting him a date w a real live girl) and gotten a better report....

It costs more to create the truth than it does to report the facts.

Calhoun44 · Jun 15, 2015

So, I know that they plan on having the appeal on the 23rd of June, but how long does it usually take to hear the results of the appeal? I hope this doesn't drag on too long.

SVN · Jun 15, 2015

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.

Well he was confronted. His response was the science is not as conclusive but the facts that pats push the liimits, dont make people avaiable for interviews ,always operate in this gray area means they deserve all this. Those were his words and he was much more condescending than that.

SVN · Jun 15, 2015

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

3. After reading the American Enterprise Institute’s analysis of the Wells report(released Friday), the first thought that came to mind is that attorney Ted Wells might soon be holding another fiery conference call to defend his report, which cost the NFL around $5 million. AEI is a credible, independent entity whose analysis was tapped in arbitrator Paul Tagliabue’s ruling in the Saints’ “Bountygate” scandal when suspensions ultimately were overturned. The final line of the AEI analysis of the Wells report: “It is therefore unlikely that the Patriots deflated the footballs.” If I'm an NFL owner and read that, I'm asking myself how my league could spend so much money for such a non-definitive final result.

4. The AEI analysis of the Wells report successfully pokes holes in the science and how the report interpreted data, but notably didn’t reference anything about text messages between equipment assistant John Jastremski and locker-room attendant Jim McNally. So for those who view the text messages as the smoking gun, the AEI analysis likely won’t change minds. However, from this viewpoint, it does support those who believe Wells' report delivered what the client wanted because of how he interpreted and manipulated the data.

5. When Wells was defending his report and findings that Tom Brady was at least “generally aware” of wrongdoing in a May conference call, he said, “All of this discussion that people in the league office wanted to put some type of hit on the most iconic player of the league, the real face of the league, doesn’t make any sense.” But here’s the counterpoint to Wells: It makes sense if the alternative was that the league would look like it didn’t know what it was doing in the first place by calling for a full-scale, $5 million investigation on something easily explained by science. So essentially it was bury Brady or bury themselves. Which brings me back to my original point from early May: “I’ve digested the 243-page Wells report multiple times, and with its bias and lack of fairness in certain areas, I truly can’t believe what the commissioner has done to the legacy and reputation of one of the greatest quarterbacks and ambassadors in the history of the game -- all over air pressure in a football and without definitive proof he had anything to do with it.”

For those with the idea that nfl wouldnt want to find its iconic QB at fault.

Jack Handy · Jun 15, 2015

who paid for the AEI report?

Palm Beach Pats Fan · Jun 15, 2015

Jack Handy said:
who paid for the AEI report?

Exact quote: "Neither side is paying us"

at 7 minutes, 43 seconds,
Stan Veuger of AEI Economics" podcast

http://boston.cbslocal.com/audio/the-adam-jones-show/

cmasspatsfan · Jun 15, 2015

SVN said:
Well he was confronted. His response was the science is not as conclusive but the facts that pats push the liimits, dont make people avaiable for interviews ,always operate in this gray area means they deserve all this. Those were his words and he was much more condescending than that.

The science is conclusive, that's what these meat heads can't wrap their tiny brains around. Felger said on csnne that the science was always faulty in the Wells report but you cant ignore the text messages blah blah. They're all doubling down on stupid, I would expect Goody to do the same. Mike Reiss is the only one with a brain that I can think of off the top of my head.
Its like these morons are still accusing someone of being a murderer even though the supposed murdered person is alive and well, because in the text messages he mentioned kill.

Ivan · Jun 15, 2015

Palm Beach Pats Fan said:
Exact quote: "Neither side is paying us"

at 7 minutes, 43 seconds,
Stan Veuger of AEI Economics" podcast

http://boston.cbslocal.com/audio/the-adam-jones-show/

I don't think that was the answer jack was looking for. He was hoping you could provide a copy of the check from Giselle.

RobertWeathers · Jun 15, 2015

Calhoun44 said:
So, I know that they plan on having the appeal on the 23rd of June, but how long does it usually take to hear the results of the appeal? I hope this doesn't drag on too long.

I've been wondering the same thing. I've tried to nail down the "Bountygate" timeline but can't find the date of the appeal and when the decision was made and to overturn the suspensions.

The NFL Appeals process also is missing that information.

I'll keep digging into it.

PatsWickedPissah · Jun 15, 2015

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

AEI has gotten lots of advertisement & recognition for this. It could have been approved as a PR project.

As to the cost $100K bogus claim. No. It was just many man hours of effort. It may have been BILLED at $100K were someone to have requested it, but AEI's "costs" of staff members' time were a fraction. Opportunity cost is yet another matter but we're getting far afield.

RobertWeathers · Jun 15, 2015

PatsWickedPissah said:
AEI has gotten lots of advertisement & recognition for this. It could have been approved as a PR project.

As to the cost $100K bogus claim. No. It was just many man hours of effort. It may have been BILLED at $100K were someone to have requested it, but AEI's "costs" of staff members' time were a fraction. Opportunity cost is yet another matter but we're getting far afield.

I agree. Since my post AEI admitted that this project was a self-funded effort.

I still does seem odd that AEI - a highly respectable think tank that does heavy research in economics, politics, etc does research on NFL issues just for PR purposes. Oh well.

Palm Beach Pats Fan · Jun 15, 2015

robertweathers said:
I agree. Since my post AEI admitted that this project was a self-funded effort.

I still does seem odd that AEI - a highly respectable think tank that does heavy research in economics, politics, etc does research on NFL issues just for PR purposes. Oh well.

They said it sprung out of lunch room discussions, so at first it wasn't as much about seizing on a PR opportunity as identifying a topic that was big in the popular press and the lunchroom, but that was sorely in need of a hard-core statistical analysis.

Once done, though, it's great that they can make some PR hay.

In research we call that a submarine project. You do a little unfunded work on the side until you know something good can come of it, then sell the rest of the team on what can be done with it.

A lot of really good scientific discoveries were at one time a submarine project.

SVN · Jun 15, 2015

People should see if they can debunk what AEI says instead of saying its wrong because it was paid by xyz and they wont debunk it because they are talking all science stuff which we will not accept to be true because it was paid by xyz.

obgod3 · Jun 15, 2015

BradyFTW! said:
Although I can't stress enough to anyone who's actually considering going into law that the job market sucks right now. My sister graduated from law school this year, and she was very lucky to get a job. A huge chunk of her graduating class has been unsuccessful in finding a job (It's purely a supply-and-demand issue, significantly more people pass the bar each year than there are job openings or just generally need for lawyers). Apparently it's pretty much the worst job market for someone who's just passed the bar in memory.

I would just become "Saul"...easier and more fun.

tuckeverlasting · Jun 15, 2015

has this thing got any traction outside of this board ? i haven't watched espn in 25 years.

BigPeteG · Jun 15, 2015

Law schools have no morals - they will gladly take your money to train you - even when they know full well there are limited numbers of jobs available. They are also well aware that one lawyer can do the work of a few with the help of technology nowadays.. Whether its automating discovering or using boilerplate to type up contracts - automation has really helped lawyers boost their productivity..

blackglass3 · Jun 15, 2015

tuckeverlasting said:
has this thing got any traction outside of this board ? i haven't watched espn in 25 years.

Very very little if at all. CBS Sports and Fox Sports had small blurbs on it. I've been tweeting it around all day. I am hoping Florio gets on it...he was big in banging the drum on ESPN's gag order on the Roethlisberger sexual assault cases. If we keep pinging him I think he'll pick it up, since his only loyalty is to clicks.

TheBostonStraggler · Jun 15, 2015

blackglass3 said:
Very very little if at all. CBS Sports and Fox Sports had small blurbs on it. I've been tweeting it around all day. I am hoping Florio gets on it...he was big in banging the drum on ESPN's gag order on the Roethlisberger sexual assault cases. If we keep pinging him I think he'll pick it up, since his only loyalty is to clicks.

It's true that the AEI report has received little attention. That, however, shouldn't be a surprise. The media* ran with and became invested in the Deflategate story and Brady/Patriots "cheating". It would be unprecedented for them to start reporting on stories that would call into question their own ethics and competence. That's just not how media operates.

Yet even without wide mention of it, the AEI report definitely has meaning. If the hornet's nest gets stirred up again -- I assume it could be when the appeal process begins or the legal process comes to a head -- this time around things like the AEI report mean idiot media will be forced, unwillingly, to temper their 'Brady cheated' sales pitch. It may even force them to spend time speaking about the multi billion dollar corporation's behavior, it's actual case against Brady, and that Brady may actually be 'innocent'(gasp!).

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

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