florio on weei now

TommyD4207 said:

That tweet doesn't actually go far enough.

He said that he requested them "several times" from "different people" over the entire course of the five-hour pregame show.

We know now, of course, that they obviously had the actual numbers, and were perfectly fine with putting out the lie that they put out. Somewhere around that time, Florio smelled a rat and his coverage started to change. Good job outta him. I still am not a Florio fan ("Randy Moss will be cut before the season starts"), but good for him for being an actual reporter in a time where there are not that many.

Click to expand...

It's been said before, but Florio saying and posting these kind of things is more valuable than it coming from a local, who could be dismissed as a homer.

I stopped visiting PFT a couple of years ago because I was tired of the anti-Patriots agenda. I think it was the Patriots cutting a defensive lineman who had a diabetic condition and Florio claiming it was a violation of his human rights. When Jacksonville cut the same guy a month later, there was silence.

Florio knew that negative Patriots news got clicks. When you would read the comments on those articles, the trolls were always there saying "Keep it up, Mike. Expose these cheaters." Now, if you look at the articles where Florio is bringing up the NFL's lies about the Patriots, you get the same trolls saying "Of course Florio's going to say this. He's a Patriots homer."

I still think we'll see Florio make a big deal about something the Patriots do that he would ignore if it was the Chiefs, but at least he seems to realize that the NFL lying to frame a team is big deal, unlike Peter King (who wants to ignore it) and Mortensen (who doesn't think it happened.)

Here's a quote from Florio: "On Ted Wells’ dealings with Jim McNally and John Jastremski and the “deflator” text: “I think that the investigation would have lasted only two to three days if they had gotten somebody to confess. And that’s the one big flaw in the whole Beavis and Butthead text messages. Those text messages look bad. How do you not take those text messages, if you’re Ted Wells making $1,000 an hour, went to Harvard Law School, practicing law for 40 years, the go-to guy for NFL investigations, how do you not take those text messages and get in a room with John Jastremski and Jim McNally and get them to confess? All due respect, guys carrying around a bag of footballs every Sunday, I’d like to think that Ted Wells wins that battle of intellect."

I think this point has been underplayed. Ted Well interrogated McNally for over 7 hours. He's a high powered attorney and investigator with a lot of experience. If the truth was on his side, certainly he could have gotten a guy like McNally to confess or slip up. The same goes for Jastremski. Neither of these two are sophisticated, neither are criminals, there was no law broken here, they weren't even facing any serious punishment. How does Wells not win the battle of intellect against either of these two in 12+ hours of interrogations? The answer is obvious, they were telling the truth.

Watch this video from the 31 minute mark. A former police officer is explaining how easy it is to get someone to confess when being interrogated.

OK so I swallowed my own vomit and gave D&C a click to listen to Florio. Here a couple of thoughts that came out of that 16minutes:

1. Florio completely believes that there is plenty of proof that NO ONE tampered with any footballs the night of the AFCCG. That is not an issue any more.

2. However, at Tanguay's lead, there was a point where for some reason they both agreed that McNally had something bad to say and THAT's why the Pats didn't let him speak to Welles for a FIFTH time. In other words in that 5th interview McNally was somehow going to spill the beans, even though scientifically as well as the pressure measurements prove beyond a reasonable doubt NOTHING happened.

So the obvious question becomes, if nothing happened, WTF is McNally going to spill? Of course it was a question that never gets answered. Still Tanguay managed to get that into the conversation, along with his point that Bill pushed Brady under the bus because he was the first to connect his name to the controversy, when BOTH were under the impression that Mort's numbers were real.

3. I have often wondered why the on field officials comments and observations never made a big deal in this. The line judge (IIRC) handles the ball on every play. Wouldn't he have noticed if the balls were "deflated" at some point. Also (IIRC) weren't the game officials in the room when McNally took the balls into the bathroom for less than 90 seconds. How come no one objected?

4. All in all the interview was mixed. Florio at the beginning confirms his belief that the Pats have been railroaded by the league right from the start. That THEY gave the leak to Mort, and THEY did what they had to to keep the truth from coming out. He also stated that its happened before and the players and owners should understand that THEY may be next. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Then it devolved into the McNally crap and blaming BB for pushing Brady under the bus, and over all leaving the impression that despite being railroaded the Pats are guilty of something. Thank you Gary Tanguay.

At least that was my impression of the interview.

ivanvamp said:

.................


(1) Didn't talk to the Patriots about it before the AFCCG and say, look, no funny stuff, and
(2) When they discovered McNally and the footballs were missing (and Anderson was "distraught"), still used those footballs instead of immediately removing them for retesting, and using the backup balls.
......................
.

Click to expand...

And retesting and/or using backup balls would not caused any disruptions in the game. Keep in mind, they already delayed the start by 10 minutes because the NFCCG ran late and they didn't want the games competing w each other....

patfanken said:

So the obvious question becomes, if nothing happened, WTF is McNally going to spill? Of course it was a question that never gets answered. Still Tanguay managed to get that into the conversation, along with his point that Bill pushed Brady under the bus because he was the first to connect his name to the controversy, when BOTH were under the impression that Mort's numbers were real.

Click to expand...

This idea is such a load of crap and another log on the "Brady has a problem with coaching and/or ownership or vice versa" fire that the media has been trying to build for a while.

Do Tanguay and others who subscribe to this believe that if Belichick never mentions Brady's name in that interview, Brady never gets connected to this? Would they be thinking, "Stork snaps the ball on every play, maybe he did it. Or maybe it was Blount or Edelman."

9 years ago, the league began allowing QBs to prep the footballs to their satisfaction. They take every snap, are involved in every handoff and every pass. If there's a question about the ball on offense, it's always going to go back to the QB. For Mortensen to claim he didn't bring Brady into this is complete BS. He didn't name him specifically, but the QB would have to be involved if there was any sort of organized tampering going on. To imply otherwise is insulting to anyone who has a minimal understanding of football and an IQ over 50.

patfanken said:

2. However, at Tanguay's lead, there was a point where for some reason they both agreed that McNally had something bad to say and THAT's why the Pats didn't let him speak to Welles for a FIFTH time. In other words in that 5th interview McNally was somehow going to spill the beans, even though scientifically as well as the pressure measurements prove beyond a reasonable doubt NOTHING happened.

Click to expand...

That hypothesis is a long reach.

Occam razors principle applies here, they denied a 5th interview to cut the crap. Wells had enough interviews, if they conceded the 5th, he would request a 6th interview, a 7th, an 8th, until confuse them enough to get a contradiction and say AHA.

4 interviews of hours each one to discuss football and pre-game procedures, if Wells wanted they could cover all the subjects in 1 hour interview. Give 2 to be more than reasonable. 4 Interviews per see should be an indicator that this process was smelly to say the least.

varjao said:

That hypothesis is a long reach.

Occam razors principle applies here, they denied a 5th interview to cut the crap. Wells had enough interviews, if they conceded the 5th, he would request a 6th interview, a 7th, an 8th, until confuse them enough to get a contradiction and say AHA.

4 interviews of hours each one to discuss football and pre-game procedures, if Wells wanted they could cover all the subjects in 1 hour interview. Give 2 to be more than reasonable. 4 Interviews per see should be an indicator that this process was smelly to say the least.

Click to expand...

I don't disagree at all with your position. The point I was making was that Tanguay led the discussion to that illogical conclusion that a 5th interview would have made a difference, resulting in McNally saying something negative to the Pats.

What made the whole thing so infuriating was, if everybody agreed that none of footballs were deflated more than science would expect. Then NOTHING happened in the first place. So what possible information could McNally offer if nothing happened?????!!!!! It make no sense on just SO many levels it hurts my brain.

It just shows how far these mediots will go to CREATE a controversy, even if it damages some player or organization, just for the "drama", the "entertainment" the "click".

In a couple of weeks Florio will be back on Sunday night football. I'm sure he'll go over this and he'll have millions watching and listening. the truth will start to come out to the average football fan in general, and it won't lookk good for goody and his crew of former jest employees.

reflexblue said:

In a couple of weeks Florio will be back on Sunday night football. I'm sure he'll go over this and he'll have millions watching and listening. the truth will start to come out to the average football fan in general, and it won't lookk good for goody and his crew of former jest employees.

Click to expand...

Thats what I'm afraid of. NBC pays the NFL big bucks for that telecast. Florio has been sniping thus far. Getting in front of 10 million viewers and telling the world 345 park Ave and Goody are a bunch of corrupt, lying, egotistical frauds needs to messaged very delicately thus losing the punch it deserves.

robertweathers said:

Thats what I'm afraid of. NBC pays the NFL big bucks for that telecast. Florio has been sniping thus far. Getting in front of 10 million viewers and telling the world 345 park Ave and Goody are a bunch of corrupt, lying, egotistical frauds needs to messaged very delicately thus losing the punch it deserves.

Click to expand...

As i was typing that post i thought of the same thing, pressure on NBC to gag florio. We can only hope if they try Florio has enough integrity not to bow to it. But he IS a lawyer and i usually don't put lawyer and integrity in the same sentence.

robertweathers said:

Thats what I'm afraid of. NBC pays the NFL big bucks for that telecast. Florio has been sniping thus far. Getting in front of 10 million viewers and telling the world 345 park Ave and Goody are a bunch of corrupt, lying, egotistical frauds needs to messaged very delicately thus losing the punch it deserves.

Click to expand...

They do. But note that NBC and CBS haven't been shy throughout all this when negative things come out toward the NFL.

FOX not so much, because FOX doesn't have much else going for it other than cartoons - but NBC and CBS have each muddled through without the NFL before, and certainly aren't all that afraid that they couldn't do it again - besides the fact that the NFL is under contract with these networks to broadcast the games there.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. NBC isn't ESPN.

TommyD4207 said:

They do. But note that NBC and CBS haven't been shy throughout all this when negative things come out toward the NFL.

FOX not so much, because FOX doesn't have much else going for it other than cartoons - but NBC and CBS have each muddled through without the NFL before, and certainly aren't all that afraid that they couldn't do it again - besides the fact that the NFL is under contract with these networks to broadcast the games there.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. NBC isn't ESPN.

Click to expand...

I have the same observation. I think this issue is a bit more sensitive as there has been a lot of publicity surrounding it and the investigation has focused on it's most recognizable player and its premier team.

Who knows. We shall see.

ivanvamp said:

Florio indeed made the point that he requested the actual numbers from the NFL for the Super Bowl pregame show, but the NFL wouldn't give them in order to keep the Patriots in the dark.

Now that raises an interesting point. Hold onto that thought while I reintroduce something we've all talked about ad nauseous. Namely, that the NFL knew about the rumblings that the Patriots tamper with footballs, but:

(1) Didn't talk to the Patriots about it before the AFCCG and say, look, no funny stuff, and
(2) When they discovered McNally and the footballs were missing (and Anderson was "distraught"), still used those footballs instead of immediately removing them for retesting, and using the backup balls.

If the NFL is so concerned about the "integrity of the game", why weren't they concerned about *GETTING THESE THINGS RIGHT*? Why would they let the Patriots play the first half of the AFCCG with footballs that they had reason to believe might have been tampered with? And why would they let the Patriots swing in the wind leading up to the Super Bowl, which would have given the Seahawks an advantage, at least in terms of time and energy spent on game prep?

These things speak directly to the "integrity of the game", and in both cases the NFL chose courses of action that clearly went against it.

Click to expand...

A sting operation requires that the Patriots not be notified and that the Patriots use under inflated balls during the game. That's your anawer to (1) and (2)

There is no integrity with Goodell as commissioner. It's just hollow words with no meaning. Goodell uses propaganda ( information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. the deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc. the particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or movement) In this case Goodell is using propaganda to cause harm to the Patriots and Brady without the need of proof. The Wells report was just more propaganda similar to the leaflets used in wartime. Goodell's name has been mentioned in the same sentence as Stalin, Hitler, Putin, Saddam and there is a reason for that. They too thought they had the absolute right and power to do what they did and they abused it.