Volin's Sunday Football Column

The statistician is not debunking all of the many enormous problems that AEI found with the Wells Report.

He is merely quibbling with AEI's contention that a certain set of data could not be modeled by standard methods. He claims that it can be. I'm not a statistician, so I won't comment .

But he is NOT disputing:
-the ridiculous assumption that the ref can't remember which gauge he used
-the fact that this convenient "mis-remembering" serves only to make the data look slightly more suspicious
-that the Patriots football's measured pressure agrees with the ideal gas law
-that the statistical difference between Colts and Patriots footballs can be easily and simply explained by the difference in the time of measurement
-that the intercepted football's measured pressure also agrees with the ideal gas law

The reason he is hearing crickets is because many people have tuned him out...and that's not just in the New England area.

eom said:

Why is there never a mike Reiss thread around here?

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I also posted this a little while ago

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england...ll-working-out-with-revis-in-arizona.1121203/

Dr Pain said:

No one replys to him because he has no credibility. He makes crazy mistakes (like AEI and Kraft) and has basically shown himself to be completely unwilling to even look at anything which does not fit his narrative. Compare him and Florio and Florio's willingness to consider things. If Florio did this he would not have heard crickets but reasoned responses. Volin is now the man who got the false narrative between Kraft and AEI and how did he handle correcting his mistake. If you want to talk integrity, see how a man handles mistakes. Everyone makes them, men of integrity acknowledge them and try and correct the damage their mistakes cause. Also recall Exponent themselves in the report conclude they can't conclude that this was not nature and the entire premise is based on believing Anderson for everything except his remembrance of which gauge he used for the Pats balls.

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Not a Volin fan, but in all fairness, he did retract and apologize for the Kraft-AEI tweet.

Palm Beach Pats Fan said:

The statistician is not debunking all of the many enormous problems that AEI found with the Wells Report.

He is merely quibbling with AEI's contention that a certain set of data could not be modeled by standard methods. He claims that it can be. I'm not a statistician, so I won't comment .

But he is NOT disputing:
-the ridiculous assumption that the ref can't remember which gauge he used
-the fact that this convenient "mis-remembering" serves only to make the data look slightly more suspicious
-that the Patriots football's measured pressure agrees with the ideal gas law
-that the statistical difference between Colts and Patriots footballs can be easily and simply explained by the difference in the time of measurement
-that the intercepted football's measured pressure also agrees with the ideal gas law

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Thats the problem with Trollin' Volin. He completely avoids putting a spotlight on those important points.

Why? Because he has already established his position that the Patriots cheated and is too insecure in his career and profession to admit that he jumped to conclusions and made a mistake.

Just like the NFL did.

raduray said:

Not a Volin fan, but in all fairness, he did retract and apologize the Kraft-AEI tweet.

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How vigorously? And this bell cannot be easily unrung and has become part of the narrative.

Let me just say this Ian. I understand the implications just fine of the accusations brought against the Pats. I honestly feel if there was wrongdoing a lot of fans would take their lumps and move on. However, the way this has all been presented is just the most ludicrous bunch of hoopla I've ever seen.

How can anyone expect to admit guilt and turn the blinders off if

Brett Favre can be uncooperative and get a 50,000 dollar fine for not turning over his phone after he allegedly texting his junk to a female reporter.

The Minnesota/Carolina game in which balls are plainly heated during a game

The sting that wasn't? They just haven't admitted to it yet.

The disregard for all the science and then having Exponent being the say all while other reknown agencies have debunked it.

The whole way the Wells report was presented and investigated. From the people they chose to interview to the ones they didn't. The omissions that were clearly left out.

If any other large fan base such as say the Steelers,49ers, Cowboys, Giants etc had this happen to their team in such unfair fashion you can bet the outcry would be somewhat equal.

The accusation that Brady somehow wanted the balls below the legal limit bothers me the most. Especially when there are texts related to overinflated balls as far as 16psi that are conviently not highlighted in the Wells report. So even if there was wrongdoing that hasn't been proven, the main issue for me is the whole process of the way the balls were handled by the refs in the first place. If the balls were pumped to the specification of 12.5-13.5 then this wouldn't have allegedly happened and there would be no need to deflate in the first place. Of course these refs are going to protect themselves even though the rumors of how the balls have been handled in the past have been put out there.

It shouldn't have gone this far and the I think the NFL should of corrected this and moved on. They could of corrected or improved their process behind closed doors by making sure the refs strictly adhere to the new process.

How Volin and others can possibly think the fans of New England can take this sitting is beyond me. Either he is deranged or he just likes pushing buttons and getting clicks. He is a lost cause for me but he hasn't received a click from me in a while until this article.cand that's only because it had Ian's name on the post.

raduray said:

Not a Volin fan, but in all fairness, he did retract and apologize for the Kraft-AEI tweet.

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Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between an idiot who's lying and a liar who's acting like an idiot.

Patriot Missile said:

Let me just say this Ian. I understand the implications just fine of the accusations brought against the Pats. I honestly feel if there was wrongdoing a lot of fans would take their lumps and move on. However, the way this has all been presented is just the most ludicrous bunch of hoopla I've ever seen.

How can anyone expect to admit guilt and turn the blinders off if

Brett Favre can be uncooperative and get a 50,000 dollar fine for not turning over his phone after he allegedly texting his junk to a female reporter.

The Minnesota/Carolina game in which balls are plainly heated during a game

The sting that wasn't? They just haven't admitted to it yet.

The disregard for all the science and then having Exponent being the say all while other reknown agencies have debunked it.

The whole way the Wells report was presented and investigated. From the people they chose to interview to the ones they didn't. The omissions that were clearly left out.

If any other large fan base such as say the Steelers,49ers, Cowboys, Giants etc had this happen to their team in such unfair fashion you can bet the outcry would be somewhat equal.

The accusation that Brady somehow wanted the balls below the legal limit bothers me the most. Especially when there are texts related to overinflated balls as far as 16psi that are conviently not highlighted in the Wells report. So even if there was wrongdoing that hasn't been proven, the main issue for me is the whole process of the way the balls were handled by the refs in the first place. If the balls were pumped to the specification of 12.5-13.5 then this wouldn't have allegedly happened and there would be no need to deflate in the first place. Of course these refs are going to protect themselves even though the rumors of how the balls have been handled in the past have been put out there.

It shouldn't have gone this far and the I think the NFL should of corrected this and moved on. They could of corrected or improved their process behind closed doors by making sure the refs strictly adhere to the new process.

How Volin and others can possibly think the fans of New England can take this sitting is beyond me. Either he is deranged or he just likes pushing buttons and getting clicks. He is a lost cause for me but he hasn't received a click from me in a while until this article.cand that's only because it had Ian's name on the post.

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What he said, @Ian. Since you have a rapport with Mr. Volin, maybe you should voice this post to him. I'm curious if he'd capitulate to going out of his way to antagonize Patriot fans.

Patriot Missile said:

How Volin and others can possibly think the fans of New England can take this sitting is beyond me. Either he is deranged or he just likes pushing buttons and getting clicks. He is a lost cause for me but he hasn't received a click from me in a while until this article.cand that's only because it had Ian's name on the post.

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I think this is Ben's concern, he is trying to push buttons and he is NOT getting clicks.

I took stats in college -- two semesters as an undergrad, and another in graduate school. I can read and sort of follow all of the reports, but I'm lost if I have to argue one way or another. So, if I'm confused, I assume 99% of readers are also...but I'll say this:

1) Volin's reporting is lazy. Science is not a "he said/she said". It's facts. Get an intern who had some stats in college, download R (a free statistical software package) and try to crunch the numbers. This reporting that someone says they can match Wells' numbers, but post no numbers with it is just lazy reporting. It's like saying a scientist says the sky is green and reporting it without even looking out the window. Even if Volin's source's statement is true, it still reflects poorly on Volin.

2) It is possible Volin's source and AEI do not contradict each other at all. My best reading (and I don't claim to be perfect) was that AEI said the Wells Report's text implied more variables and more error terms in the calculation. AEI had to remove error terms and variables to match Wells' results. If Volin's source also matched Wells' numbers exactly, he assumed Wells meant to use an equation with fewer error terms and variables. So, they used the same equation. The difference is what model each determined Wells meant to use.

AEI was a little light on details (I wish they'd attached an appendix with all the calculations including "R-squared" (which measures who closely the answer fits the data)), but at least AEI explained why it is important to use more variables and error terms. Volin's source did none of that. He just said he got the same answer as Wells -- he didn't say whether or why that formula was the right one.

This is a very complicated post -- and sometimes complication can confuse people into accepting a result. Rather than focus on the statistics, we need to step back and view the data with common sense -- if the logo gauge was used, there was no deflation. We know the Colt's balls' PSI was too high because they were in a warm locker room longer. The fact that people are arguing about the stats and making different assumptions to reach their conclusions shows the there is no way to reach a definitive answer because there was a rush to judgment and inadequate controls on the collection of data.

ctpatsfan77 said:

In part, because Reiss doesn't generally write crap like Volin's.

But I do post stuff from Reiss when he has interesting/useful things to say (e.g., how Morris was calling defenses).

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Also, if Mike Reiss wrote something we disagreed with, we could email him and he'd respond with why he felt that way. We might not still agree with him, but at least we'd respect him.

Simple........this moron never actually did any work......love the idea that he's a pats fan

But it will be fun when feller tries to run with it

Dr Pain said:

I think this is Ben's concern, he is trying to push buttons and he is NOT getting clicks.

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I had mentioned this earlier. The old snake that feeds on himself starting from the tail until their is nothing left. He and others ran with the wrong story or at least didn't report it in a objective way. It was one of the many guilty before all the facts inquisitions many of us read from the get go. Being on the New England beat, you would think one would choose their words/articles carefully. Yes the clicks will be many at first, but now that some cooler heads have prevailed and more evidence has been presented it doesn't bode well for some columnists/bloggers who put the guilty stamp out there right away.

People don't forget and I've basically taken names and notes of some of these people and decided to take a stand against bad reporting. Yes, the media still has it's power and so do the fans that read them.

Jackson 2 said:

Ian, I realize that every media member who criticizes the Patriots isn't necessarily the enemy. Sometimes (not often!) that criticism is warranted. But, in my opinion, Vollin has evolved from someone who liked to be edgy in pushing our buttons to an outright troll. I believe he, like Felger, Shaughnessy, Borges, Benz, et al is genuinely contemptuous of Patriots fans. I read today's column and its intent was crystal clear.

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Benz is on record that he literally despises Patriot fans.

I know he despises me. He's a punk, a coward, a liar and a troll.

MagicMarker said:

I took stats in college -- two semesters as an undergrad, and another in graduate school. I can read and sort of follow all of the reports, but I'm lost if I have to argue one way or another. So, if I'm confused, I assume 99% of readers are also...

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Because if it managed to confuse you surely everyone in the world must be baffled

raduray said:

Not a Volin fan, but in all fairness, he did retract and apologize for the Kraft-AEI tweet.

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Except he didn't really. He said some words that he had to say because he looked like an utter moron and then he went and continued his quest to discredit AEI, which then he continued to look like a moron claiming how a "professor" debunked AEI. Yet guy wasn't a professor, nor did he debunk it.

are we allowed to eliminate volen from the patriots fan base?

Ivan said:

Benz is on record that he literally despises Patriot fans.

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Lol were you typing benzan?