Schefter: Has Heard Speculation Colts might have deflated the footballs

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

Granted, it isn't that odd for people to believe that reporters who are quoting unnamed sources are correct, at least during the time frame when those reports were unchallenged.

But after Belichick, Brady, and Belichick again emphatically said that no wrongdoing had occurred, you'd think that they might be less sure about it, unless they had already made up their minds, facts be damned.

Then when other reporters quoted different unnamed sources that contradicted the earlier unnamed sources, I'd think they would be downright skeptical of reaching any conclusions, unless they had already made up their minds, facts be damned.

 

[Ring 6]

Granted, it isn't that odd for people to believe that reporters who are quoting unnamed sources are correct, at least during the time frame when those reports were unchallenged.

But after Belichick, Brady, and Belichick again emphatically said that no wrongdoing had occurred, you'd think that they might be less sure about it, unless they had already made up their minds, facts be damned.

Then when other reporters quoted different unnamed sources that contradicted the earlier unnamed sources, I'd think they would be downright skeptical of reaching any conclusions, unless they had already made up their minds, facts be damned.

agree but in the context of this discussion Rice's cheating tweet came the night of mortensens 11 of 12 report.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

Granted, it isn't that odd for people to believe that reporters who are quoting unnamed sources are correct, at least during the time frame when those reports were unchallenged.

But after Belichick, Brady, and Belichick again emphatically said that no wrongdoing had occurred, you'd think that they might be less sure about it, unless they had already made up their minds, facts be damned.

Then when other reporters quoted different unnamed sources that contradicted the earlier unnamed sources, I'd think they would be downright skeptical of reaching any conclusions, unless they had already made up their minds, facts be damned.

I don't think its the case that everyone, or most people believe unsourced reports. Maybe those unfamiliar with sports rumors. Terry Bradshaw is dead, Revis to the Jets, Carroll ran a pass to make Wilson a star, Fitzgerald to Patriots, Aikman is gay, the Patriots hate their coach. On and on, I bet they hit less than 50%. So maybe someone not familiar with the general methods in sports that aren't maybe as rigorous for rumors as the nightly news might be duped. But Rice? The guy has probably been the subject of plenty of false rumors himself.

Yet he bought THIS rumor hook line and sinker? Why? Why didn't he buy the Rapoport rumor? Why is he so selective about those he believes. He somehow can differentiate rumors from truth when they don't involve the Patriots- amazing.

But there's not much reason to get wrapped around what he knew at the time of the tweet. He hasn't backed off his statement AFAIK.

Good point about Brady and Belichick. Both are primary sources, and effectively witness testimony. The fact that people have chosen to ignore those named sources with knowledge for unnamed ones who may have no knowledge tells you where they're starting from, and it's not objectivity.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

An NFL referee has a winter home in my neighborhood in Palm Beach County. These are some of the things that I learned from him today, though he would not speak at all about this specific case.

1) It happens all of the time (virtually weekly, or at least a couple of times a month) that the NFL is contacted by a team who is concerned that their opponent is not playing by the rules.

2)* These complaints are always handled quietly by the league, with no comment until/unless they have made at least a preliminary finding that someone has done something very bad (see point 5 later).

3) Most often, the NFL finds that the complaint was just paranoia and does nothing.

4) Much less often, the NFL finds that the complaint has some merit, but that it is also "no big deal" and thus they tell the team doing something wrong to "just cut it out, right now"

5) Almost never, the NFL finds something bad enough to issue public sanctions (Atlanta crowd noise, Browns texting as examples)


------------
(my suppositions):

*Point #2 is where deflate-gate went totally off the rails. A loose-lipped Colts person blabbed to Kravitz before the NFL even spent one minute on reviewing this. Thus, we never got to see if this was a #3, #4, or #5-type scenario, because procedures were simply not followed.

Most likely this would have been in the category of "something that happens all of the time" and was probably near 99% Colts paranoia, and in any event was no big deal and would have in the 1% scenario stopped with a stern lecture to always abide by the rules.

 

[Fencer]

An NFL referee has a winter home in my neighborhood in Palm Beach County. These are some of the things that I learned from him today, though he would not speak at all about this specific case.

1) It happens all of the time (virtually weekly, or at least a couple of times a month) that the NFL is contacted by a team who is concerned that their opponent is not playing by the rules.

2)* These complaints are always handled quietly by the league, with no comment until/unless they have made at least a preliminary finding that someone has done something very bad (see point 5 later).

3) Most often, the NFL finds that the complaint was just paranoia and does nothing.

4) Much less often, the NFL finds that the complaint has some merit, but that it is also "no big deal" and thus they tell the team doing something wrong to "just cut it out, right now"

5) Almost never, the NFL finds something bad enough to issue public sanctions (Atlanta crowd noise, Browns texting as examples)


------------
(my suppositions):

*Point #2 is where deflate-gate went totally off the rails. A loose-lipped Colts person blabbed to Kravitz before the NFL even spent one minute on reviewing this. Thus, we never got to see if this was a #3, #4, or #5-type scenario, because procedures were simply not followed.

Most likely this would have been in the category of "something that happens all of the time" and was probably near 99% Colts paranoia, and in any event was no big deal and would have in the 1% scenario stopped with a stern lecture to always abide by the rules.

So CameraPlacementGate was a #4 in the NFL's eyes, but BB disagreed and didn't cut it out? That would fit what we know ...

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

So CameraPlacementGate was a #4 in the NFL's eyes, but BB disagreed and didn't cut it out? That would fit what we know ...

The Jets also bypassed the process and complained to the press (ESPN, IIRC?) It probably would also have been a #4, but the media spotlight/opportunity for Goodell to make a splash as the new sheriff in town made #5 the only remaining option

 

[Koma]

An NFL referee has a winter home in my neighborhood in Palm Beach County. These are some of the things that I learned from him today, though he would not speak at all about this specific case.

1) It happens all of the time (virtually weekly, or at least a couple of times a month) that the NFL is contacted by a team who is concerned that their opponent is not playing by the rules.

2)* These complaints are always handled quietly by the league, with no comment until/unless they have made at least a preliminary finding that someone has done something very bad (see point 5 later).

3) Most often, the NFL finds that the complaint was just paranoia and does nothing.

4) Much less often, the NFL finds that the complaint has some merit, but that it is also "no big deal" and thus they tell the team doing something wrong to "just cut it out, right now"

5) Almost never, the NFL finds something bad enough to issue public sanctions (Atlanta crowd noise, Browns texting as examples)


------------
(my suppositions):

*Point #2 is where deflate-gate went totally off the rails. A loose-lipped Colts person blabbed to Kravitz before the NFL even spent one minute on reviewing this. Thus, we never got to see if this was a #3, #4, or #5-type scenario, because procedures were simply not followed.

Most likely this would have been in the category of "something that happens all of the time" and was probably near 99% Colts paranoia, and in any event was no big deal and would have in the 1% scenario stopped with a stern lecture to always abide by the rules.

I look at those five points and that point of view makes sense to me. I also think back to Boomer Esiason's comments last week about how there's a lot of "backstabbing" in the NFL ("You want to call me out? I’m going to call you out. You want to embarrass me? Guess what I’m going to embarrass you.")

When you combine these two, I wonder, how do the majority of the media and former players not know this? If there is a level of unfounded paranoia in organizations and teams will retaliate for perceived slights, why did everyone lose their minds about the PSI of some footballs?

 

[Gumby]

So CameraPlacementGate was a #4 in the NFL's eyes, but BB disagreed and didn't cut it out? That would fit what we know ...

An NFL referee has a winter home in my neighborhood in Palm Beach County. ...

4) Much less often, the NFL finds that the complaint has some merit, but that it is also "no big deal" and thus they tell the team doing something wrong to "just cut it out, right now"
......

EXCUUUUSE ME, exactly WHAT do WE know that anything in 4 would fit with?

 

[Fencer]

EXCUUUUSE ME, exactly WHAT do WE know that anything in 4 would fit with?

The league circulated a memo. BB disobeyed the memo, his excuse being a rather reasonable reading of the rulebook in which the memo was unjustified. The Pats were severely punished for the disobedience.

 

[Jackson 2]

EXCUUUUSE ME, exactly WHAT do WE know that anything in 4 would fit with?

 

[Jackson 2]

Do you write in sanscrit?

 

[BTTA]

The league circulated a memo. BB disobeyed the memo, his excuse being a rather reasonable reading of the rulebook in which the memo was unjustified. The Pats were severely punished for the disobedience.

Actually, when asked the Patriots will acknowledge that in this case, BB stretched the logic a bit beyond reasonable. Which is neither here nor there, really, because the punishment was totally out of proportion regardless.

 

[Gumby]

Let me fix this for you:

The league circulated a memo. 14 months later, after two other teams violated the rule while playing against patriots (without any action or notice by the league..) ... BB disobeyed the memo, his excuse being a rather reasonable reading of the rulebook in which the memo was unjustified. The Pats were severely punished for the disobedience.[/B]

Both location-gate and colt-deflation-gate appear to be examples of what we know, that the go-to-hell league treats NEP different than the other 31teams, and not as it seemed you were implying (intentionally or unintentionally ?) that bb is a repeat offender rules violator.

 

[Ivan]

I didn't know about Bradshaw #RIPwillsmith

 

[TBR]

Why is this taking so long. It's been 4 weeks

 

[rochrist]

Why is this taking so long. It's been 4 weeks

Because why resolve it when the NFL can string it out for months and leave NE twisting in the wind, so that when, in three months on a Friday night, they can say 'Oops, sorry, nothing there.' and it won't matter, it will be accepted truth the the Pats deflated the balls.

 

[Joker]

An NFL referee has a winter home in my neighborhood in Palm Beach County. These are some of the things that I learned from him today, though he would not speak at all about this specific case.

1) It happens all of the time (virtually weekly, or at least a couple of times a month) that the NFL is contacted by a team who is concerned that their opponent is not playing by the rules.

2)* These complaints are always handled quietly by the league, with no comment until/unless they have made at least a preliminary finding that someone has done something very bad (see point 5 later).

3) Most often, the NFL finds that the complaint was just paranoia and does nothing.

4) Much less often, the NFL finds that the complaint has some merit, but that it is also "no big deal" and thus they tell the team doing something wrong to "just cut it out, right now"

5) Almost never, the NFL finds something bad enough to issue public sanctions (Atlanta crowd noise, Browns texting as examples)


------------
(my suppositions):

*Point #2 is where deflate-gate went totally off the rails. A loose-lipped Colts person blabbed to Kravitz before the NFL even spent one minute on reviewing this. Thus, we never got to see if this was a #3, #4, or #5-type scenario, because procedures were simply not followed.

Most likely this would have been in the category of "something that happens all of the time" and was probably near 99% Colts paranoia, and in any event was no big deal and would have in the 1% scenario stopped with a stern lecture to always abide by the rules.

6) http://boston.barstoolsports.com/ra...ike-kensil-aka-the-ringleader-of-deflategate/

So as the clouds part over Foxboro and it becomes obvious Deflategate was just a witch hunt conducted by sore losers one name has come to the forefront. The ringleader if you will. His name Mike Kensil. Who is that you ask? Well that’s exactly the same question I asked when I first heard his name mentioned to me 2 days ago from a source close to the Pats. They said look this guy up. Well it turns out he is the former President of the Jets. He was there when Belichick turned in his resignation to come to the Pats. He was there during Spygate. His friends will tell you that he obsesses over his hatred of the Patriots. That he swore 1 day he’s get back at Belichick for leaving him the lurch and sending the Jets into a downward spiral of ineptitude and ruining his career.

Yes it is this Mike Kensil who is now Dir. of Football Operations at National Football League who was prowling the Colts sidelines last week. Yes it is this Mike Kensil, the former Jet with a longstanding grudge against the Patriots who was proactively looking for deflated footballs last week. It is the same Mike Kensil who whispered to Bob Kravitz in a dark tunnel of Gillette about deflated footballs. I’ve even heard rumors that he and the Colts equipment manager conspired to actually deflate the one football that came in at 10.5 PSI. The rest were closer to 11.5 PSI. It is this Mike Kensil who called Chris Mortensen to leak the story about Deflategate.

This of course explains why the league never said anything to the Patriots beforehand about deflated footballs. Why the Colts would risk playing the first half at a disadvantage. Because this was never about fair play. This was never about the integrity of the game. This was simply about revenge plain and simple. It was Mike Kensil trying to set a trap and embarrass the Patriots. Unfortunately what Mike Kensil and the rest of the world found out the hard way is that you don’t trap Bill Belichick, Bill Belhick traps you. Now the NFL is sitting with their **** in their hands. Belichick has all the answers and NFL looks like incompetent buffoons once again. And once again the NFL is going to have to take a hard look in the mirror and investigate itself over wrong doing. All because Mike Kensil had a grudge. For shame. For shame.

 

[The Gr8est]

6) http://boston.barstoolsports.com/ra...ike-kensil-aka-the-ringleader-of-deflategate/

So as the clouds part over Foxboro and it becomes obvious Deflategate was just a witch hunt conducted by sore losers one name has come to the forefront. The ringleader if you will. His name Mike Kensil. Who is that you ask? Well that’s exactly the same question I asked when I first heard his name mentioned to me 2 days ago from a source close to the Pats. They said look this guy up. Well it turns out he is the former President of the Jets. He was there when Belichick turned in his resignation to come to the Pats. He was there during Spygate. His friends will tell you that he obsesses over his hatred of the Patriots. That he swore 1 day he’s get back at Belichick for leaving him the lurch and sending the Jets into a downward spiral of ineptitude and ruining his career.

Yes it is this Mike Kensil who is now Dir. of Football Operations at National Football League who was prowling the Colts sidelines last week. Yes it is this Mike Kensil, the former Jet with a longstanding grudge against the Patriots who was proactively looking for deflated footballs last week. It is the same Mike Kensil who whispered to Bob Kravitz in a dark tunnel of Gillette about deflated footballs. I’ve even heard rumors that he and the Colts equipment manager conspired to actually deflate the one football that came in at 10.5 PSI. The rest were closer to 11.5 PSI. It is this Mike Kensil who called Chris Mortensen to leak the story about Deflategate.

This of course explains why the league never said anything to the Patriots beforehand about deflated footballs. Why the Colts would risk playing the first half at a disadvantage. Because this was never about fair play. This was never about the integrity of the game. This was simply about revenge plain and simple. It was Mike Kensil trying to set a trap and embarrass the Patriots. Unfortunately what Mike Kensil and the rest of the world found out the hard way is that you don’t trap Bill Belichick, Bill Belhick traps you. Now the NFL is sitting with their **** in their hands. Belichick has all the answers and NFL looks like incompetent buffoons once again. And once again the NFL is going to have to take a hard look in the mirror and investigate itself over wrong doing. All because Mike Kensil had a grudge. For shame. For shame.

Now let's have an independent investigator determine if Kensil was involved in determining the Pats' punishment in Spygate.

 

[The Gr8est]

And another thing about Kensil, since he was with the Rats in 1997 when they tampered with and stole Bill Parcells, he is being very selective about his butthurtedness.

Bill Belichick had been Bill Parcells' long time defensive coordinator, so when Parcells went to the Rats BB followed him.

So essentially the Rats stole BB as well, and then get all butt hurt because BB rejected them and went to the Pats.

I guess Kensil felt that they had stolen BB fair and square.

 

[Dr Pain]

They can't do anything to New England without hitting Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Rodgers is the only active QB who admitted he intentionally plays with PSI and breaks the rules to get the balls the way he likes them. Granted this is done before the inspection but it is still an admission of intentionally breaking the rules and is an affront to the sacrosanct "Integrity of the Game"