Deflategate scenario out of left field

I just started to suppose a scenario and felt it was worth throwing out there in the form of a question......There are elements of the entire process that are so incredibly absurd that I've always had the notion that we still don't have the biggest part of this story that would connect all the dots...so here goes

How would you respond if deflategate was nothing more than a contrived wag-the-dog situation invented in order to repair the image of the commissioners office and goodell and the patriots were complicit?

The only reason this popped into my head is the blurb in PFT about Brady possibly having given up his phone to goodell........if this is the case, and goodell stands up and says brady is exonerated but will be fined 25-50k for not giving up the phone initially, the entire circle of incompetence will be complete, and this will be the first situation of its kind where everything that wound up happening from beginning to end was completely preventable with the smallest amount of common sense. but in the end, goodell will be able to lean on the notion of 'getting it right' in spite of the stupidity during the AFCC, in spite of the stupidity known as the wells report, inspite of the stupidity of the degree of punishment........hell, the team will probably get its draft picks back and everyone will pat themselves in the end when they got it right

I mean everything about this thing is so ridiculously absurd that it is not possible for something to take this sort of path strictly on its own........its just not possible

So, the pats kicked in 2 picks and a mil so it would make goodell look competent?

Ok

I think it's pretty evident that Goodell has been trying to repair his holier-than-thou image on the Pats' backs but I don't think they're complicit, well not Brady anyway.

Incompetence paired with stupidity, paranoia, and an agenda can lead people down some bizarre pathways. No need for any elaborate conspiracy IMO. Just a bizarre gotcha plot hatched by Kensil, Pash, and/or Vincent.

REgarding the phone, I believe the NFLPA negotiated a clause in the CBA that no player could be required to turn over to anyone in the league his personal phone. If it was a team-issued phone, then yes, but a personal phone was off-limits unless the player, for whatever reason agreed to it.

So if Goodell is using the phone issue as grounds for any portion of his decision, he's at odds with the NFLPA and the CBA

IllegalContact said:

I just started to suppose a scenario and felt it was worth throwing out there in the form of a question......There are elements of the entire process that are so incredibly absurd that I've always had the notion that we still don't have the biggest part of this story that would connect all the dots...so here goes

How would you respond if deflategate was nothing more than a contrived wag-the-dog situation invented in order to repair the image of the commissioners office and goodell and the patriots were complicit?

The only reason this popped into my head is the blurb in PFT about Brady possibly having given up his phone to goodell........if this is the case, and goodell stands up and says brady is exonerated but will be fined 25-50k for not giving up the phone initially, the entire circle of incompetence will be complete, and this will be the first situation of its kind where everything that wound up happening from beginning to end was completely preventable with the smallest amount of common sense. but in the end, goodell will be able to lean on the notion of 'getting it right' in spite of the stupidity during the AFCC, in spite of the stupidity known as the wells report, inspite of the stupidity of the degree of punishment........hell, the team will probably get its draft picks back and everyone will pat themselves in the end when they got it right

I mean everything about this thing is so ridiculously absurd that it is not possible for something to take this sort of path strictly on its own........its just not possible

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From a timeline standpoint when do you suppose Bob became complicit with the "Goody Career Rehab Project"? Before the owners meeting? Before the Well's report was made public?

It would not surprise me in the least that Goody and Bob hatched some kind of scheme to have this end with everyone saving face somehow. However, I don't have a lot of confidence that the NFL has the capacity to carry out such a complex, synchronized plan.

robertweathers said:

From a timeline standpoint when do you suppose Bob become complicit with the "Goody Career Rehab Project"? Before the owners meeting? Before the Well's report was made public?

It would not surprise me in the least that Goody and Bob hatched some kind of scheme to have this end with everyone saving face somehow. However, I don't have a lot of confidence that the NFL has the capacity to carry out such a complex, synchronized plan.

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you're probably right, but you have to admit..........with so much incompetence, krafts reversals, and bizarre dog and pony shows............the most bizarre thing is that this thing is still on its rails

your confidence in the NFL abilities may be accurate though.....maybe the whole thing is real and they're just stumbling over themselves

eom said:

So, the pats kicked in 2 picks and a mil so it would make goodell look competent?

Ok

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well......wait until this whole thing is over.......I have a strange feeling that we are not done with the absurdities.......this thing can go anywhere including the pats getting the picks back in the name of goodell 'getting it right'

IllegalContact said:

The only reason this popped into my head is the blurb in PFT about Brady possibly having given up his phone to goodell........if this is the case, and goodell stands up and says brady is exonerated but will be fined 25-50k for not giving up the phone initially, the entire circle of incompetence will be complete, and this will be the first situation of its kind where everything that wound up happening from beginning to end was completely preventable with the smallest amount of common sense. but in the end, goodell will be able to lean on the notion of 'getting it right' in spite of the stupidity during the AFCC, in spite of the stupidity known as the wells report, inspite of the stupidity of the degree of punishment........hell, the team will probably get its draft picks back and everyone will pat themselves in the end when they got it right

Click to expand...

I saw that headline too but that was just PFT being PFT with their click bait headlines.

It's like the day before there was a headline speculating that Brady and the NFL made a deal but the article was just fluff....

Personally I don't think Goodell is out to get the Patriots, he's just someone who is awful at his job as commissioner.

Clonamery said:

I think it's pretty evident that Goodell has been trying to repair his holier-than-thou image on the Pats' backs but I don't think they're complicit, well not Brady anyway.

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Agreed, Brady would not have knowingly participated in such nonsense. Without Brady's buy-in, the NFL couldn't know Brady wouldn't give up his phone to Wells, but would at the appeal.

@IllegalContact It is very likely that the improving the commissioners image was part of the motivation, but it is pretty easy to connect the dots without supposing such unlikely scenarios.

Motive - The NFL front office has a heavy anti-Pats agenda (and pro Jets) with a sprinkling of repairing the commissioners image among fans and owners added for good measure.

Opportunity - There are a number of head coaches and front office folks who dislike BB and Pats, that occasionally complain about potential cheating. Someone likely heard a complaint about air pressure and realized that PSI would reduce on a cold January day in NE.

Timing - It was right before the Superbowl appearance of the hated Patriots, and could be drawn out for months into the off-season for "free" publicity.

Owner buy-in - Parity. Other owners are tired of the Pats "hogging" spots in AFCCG and SuperBowls. They are petty, greedy billionaires shaped by the deluded upbringing that wealth and privilege too often bestow.

Fan buy-in - The sad truth is that our society intentionally produces greedy, desensitized people who immediately believe anything that supports the agenda to which they subscribe while completely dismiss anything that contradicts it.

Brady was not targeted until the only "evidence" found was a guy taking a piss and another one texting with the word deflator.

As much as I love the Pats, in the grand scheme of things, Deflgate is unimportant. It is the underlying causes and acceptance of things like Deflategate that are the real tragedies.

If Kraft was complicit in this he's a bigger idiot than he's looked like for the past 6 months. He's gone from the most popular owner in the history of the region to a worse popularity rating than Jeremy Jacobs had during the worst of times for the Bruins. Are you really going to save your buddy Roger at that price? Sorry I can't buy this conspiracy theory.

Part of me wants to say Kraft could've done something like this, but my gut tells me it's not the case.

My gut also says no way in hell did Brady ever agree to any such nonsense. I can't imagine Giselle allowing Brady to voluntarily tank his public image just to do Roger Goodell a solid.

IllegalContact said:

you're probably right, but you have to admit..........with so much incompetence, krafts reversals, and bizarre dog and pony shows............the most bizarre thing is that this thing is still on its rails

your confidence in the NFL abilities may be accurate though.....maybe the whole thing is real and they're just stumbling over themselves

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Maybe. My personal take is that once the ball started rolling with the press and Wells started digging in, I do think that Goody and his handlers made a conscience decision to capitalize on this opportunity as a way of re-establishing his authority and credibility as the Grand-Poobah of the NFL.

Was it a full-blown, wag-the-dog scenario, not sure but it is certainly not unreasonable to suppose the Goody and Bob have orchestrated "something" to help Goody's standing with the players and other owners.

Gwedd said:

REgarding the phone, I believe the NFLPA negotiated a clause in the CBA that no player could be required to turn over to anyone in the league his personal phone. If it was a team-issued phone, then yes, but a personal phone was off-limits unless the player, for whatever reason agreed to it.

So if Goodell is using the phone issue as grounds for any portion of his decision, he's at odds with the NFLPA and the CBA

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i don't think the CBA explicitly says this. what the cba does not give the NFL is subpoena power. that is, goodell cannot force a player to turn over a personal cell phone but the league can always view this as "non cooperation." someone please correct me if I am wrong.

This is why conspiracy theories are so hard to kill. They strike a good mix between extremely plausible ("Goodell came down hard on a team disliked by the majority of fans to win some brownie points after a tumultuous season.") and batshit crazy ("THE PATRIOTS WERE IN ON IT, MANNNNNN!")

Galeb said:

Opportunity - There are a number of head coaches and front office folks who dislike BB and Pats, that occasionally complain about potential cheating. Someone likely heard a complaint about air pressure and realized that PSI would reduce on a cold January day in NE.

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You're giving too much credit to Kensil and the other NFL execs that carried this nonsense forward.

I think the truth is probably much simpler than that. Kensil wanted to catch the Pats, and was given a good opportunity with the deflating allegations, but just too dumb to do any research first and wasn't aware the balls would drop PSI in January in Foxboro.

He went to the game, and confirmed the 'cheating' at halftime. He leaked the information to either the Colts GM or directly to the Colts beat reporter, because the allegations were posted on the internet by the Colts reporter during the 3rd quarter. Since only the NFL execs and the referees were in the room when they checked the PSI at halftime, and since the information was leaked during the 3rd quarter, the source of the leak has to be the NFL.

By the end of the game the story had already been blown out of proportion. By then, it was already too late for the NFL to acknowledge they didn't know about the ideal gas law, they would have looked stupid. So to cover Kensil's behind, they had to create this whole investigation nonsense.

Pure incompetence, nothing more, nothing less. But like any other big corporate entities, they will never admit to any mistake, since they have the funds to cover their errors.

Uh, no.

Sicilian said:

This is why conspiracy theories are so hard to kill. They strike a good mix between extremely plausible ("Goodell came down hard on a team disliked by the majority of fans to win some brownie points after a tumultuous season.") and batshit crazy ("THE PATRIOTS WERE IN ON IT, MANNNNNN!")

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yes....because ulterior motives do not exist

IllegalContact said:

yes....because ulterior motives do not exist

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Not even remotely what I said.

IllegalContact said:

I just started to suppose a scenario and felt it was worth throwing out there in the form of a question......There are elements of the entire process that are so incredibly absurd that I've always had the notion that we still don't have the biggest part of this story that would connect all the dots...so here goes

How would you respond if deflategate was nothing more than a contrived wag-the-dog situation invented in order to repair the image of the commissioners office and goodell and the patriots were complicit?

The only reason this popped into my head is the blurb in PFT about Brady possibly having given up his phone to goodell........if this is the case, and goodell stands up and says brady is exonerated but will be fined 25-50k for not giving up the phone initially, the entire circle of incompetence will be complete, and this will be the first situation of its kind where everything that wound up happening from beginning to end was completely preventable with the smallest amount of common sense. but in the end, goodell will be able to lean on the notion of 'getting it right' in spite of the stupidity during the AFCC, in spite of the stupidity known as the wells report, inspite of the stupidity of the degree of punishment........hell, the team will probably get its draft picks back and everyone will pat themselves in the end when they got it right

I mean everything about this thing is so ridiculously absurd that it is not possible for something to take this sort of path strictly on its own........its just not possible

Click to expand...

All i will say here is this: didn't Brady say that he would give it over to Goodell but not to Wells?