RunAmok
On the Game Day Roster
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2015
- Messages
- 305
- Reaction score
- 516
But that was different IMO since there was some guilt. The evidence we now have shows that NOTHING HAPPENED either from a player level or a team level. That being said, the NFL is the master of inconsistency and arbitrariness and would allow the team penalty to stand regardless of the ruling in Brady's case.
I expect an unbiased arbitrator (if we ever get one) to rule rather definitively that not only is Tom innocent but that the evidence shows that there was no deflation of the footballs - I'm just not certain of the strength of this assertion (likely, highly likely, beyond a reasonable doubt, etc.)
The fascinating part of this will be the case for an NFL sting operation. When you consider factors such as:
- the decision to not notify the Patriots before the game of ball pressure concerns
- the statement at halftime by an NFL official that the NFL is going to get the Patriots
- the leak to Chris Mortensen of the incorrect PSI information along with the refusal of the NFL to correct this or allow the Patriots to correct this. The report says that this was not an much of an issue while many of us believes that this is a huge issue in terms of damaging the Patriots' reputation and convincing the masses that the Patriots are guilty when the actual evidence of PSI measurements strongly indicates innocence
- in general, the extreme bias of the Wells Report
- in particular in the Wells Report:
+ the October text string sequence after the Jets game which is discussed 4 times in the report. We now know specific texts that were not included in the report which totally rebut the reports conclusion of what the text sequence means. The report claims that they couldn't find these other texts - but a reporter claims to have found the missing texts with a 10-minute internet search. It strains credibility that the investigators did not have access to the full text sequence and then intentionally decided to use the specific texts used in order to bolster their guilt finding. This is a smoking gun in terms not only of bias but of a sting.
+ the decision to ignore Walt Andersen's memory of which gauge he used for the pre-game measurement of the Patriots footballs while accepting every other memory he had. Note that accepting Walt's recollection on this point shows that there was no deflation of footballs at (at least) a high confidence level and totally undermines the rest of the report findings.
+ the amazing inability of the investigators to find either the Patriots or Colts gauges - either one of which could be used to reasonably prove that Walt Andersen used the logo gauge for pre-game measurements.
+ the inability (refusal?) to use the actual report data of the intercepted ball measurements to, once again, likely prove that Walt Andersen used the logo gauge for pre-game measurements.
+ the report leaving out extremely significant context around the Patriots refusal to grant a 2nd interview while painting a very negative picture of the Patriots 5 (or was it 7) times in the report based on this "refusal to cooperate". The full context shows conclusively that the failure was on the Wells team to abide by their own rules and that the Patriots were blameless in this issue and perhaps should even be commended for protecting their employees from investigator abuse. The investigators broke their own rules and lied about this to the Patriots.
+ the investigators refusal to investigate the NFL's role in this despite this being part of the mandate
+ essentially ignoring all other rule breaking (such as the Colts measuring the intercepted football; this evidence ultimately helps to prove the footballs were not deflated)
+ ignoring the exploration into a motive by Tom Brady. (Aren't motives generally a critical piece of proving a crime - or has my 50+ years of reading/watching crime mysteries been wasted?) Best evidence is that neither Tom Brady nor Jimmy Garappolo can tell the difference between footballs within 1 PSI of each other in the ordinary use of the football. This is likely true of most everyone. And yet, the average deflation assuming worst case is well below 1 PSI. In other words, there is no motive to deflate footballs less than 1 PSI. How can this be ignored?
There are many other specific points of bias; these are just some of the more egregious.
- the NFL accepting the report conclusions uncritically despite the many flaws
- the unprecedented penalties for an equipment violation that is barely proven according to the report ("generally aware"?, "more likely than not"?) while having a history of practically ignoring similar pressurization issues (putting balls in front of heaters).
IMO, there is a strong case that the NFL conducted a sting operation when all the facts are considered. The NFL better be very careful about how this is handled. Personally, I don't ascribe that much malice to the NFL, but the evidence says (to me) that a sting was "more probable than not".
I would love to see the NFL decision making process that had Mike Kensil, Vice President of Football Operations, Akil Coad - Director of Football Operations and Compliance and Troy Vincent Executive VP of Football Operations all at the same game.
