Koma
In the Starting Line-Up
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2008
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Here's an alternative scenario:
1) Harbaugh tips off the Pagano about underinflated footballs, either because he doesn't understand weather or they want to intentionally make a bad situation for the Patriots.
2) Grigson reports it to the NFL. The NFL says, "Not a big deal, but we'll keep an eye on it."
3) The craziness with the league employee happens, he's caught stealing a football, there's some confusion about the kicking balls, and an investigation begins into THAT situation.
4) Grigson, assuming this investigation is about the underinflated footballs, tells Bob Kravitz that the Patriots are being investigated.
5) The media hysteria ensues, which forces the NFL to actually look into that or they appear to be ignoring what the masses has made into a big deal.
Unfortunately for the NFL, they never intended to look into the inflation of the footballs because for 8 years no one has ever cared. So they have no pre-game data, no halftime data, and have to hire Ted Wells to come up with SOMETHING so they don't look like idiots. Too late.
To me, this also puts part of Mortensen's original report in a better context. His source was allegedly "angry" and "distraught" about an issue with the footballs in that game. I always thought it was odd that someone could be distraught about the air pressure in a football. It would make more sense if the source was talking about the league employee who had been stealing charitable items and was going to be fired in the near future.
Maybe Mortensen wasn't aware that there were 2 different issues or maybe his source was speaking in general about both events.