Book claims that Brady was furious with Kraft after Deflategate.

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

I’m in the camp that no intentional deflation took place and that any measurements below the limit were due to the ideal gas law.

That's called "the facts camp".

The NFL and 90% of the media (and thus 99% of non-Patriots fans) were in fantasy camp. Many of them are still there.

 

[Tony2046]

That makes sense, but it makes so much sense you have to wonder why they didn't use it as an explanation, if it was the truth.

The officials over-inflate the footballs for the Jets game. Brady is mad and lets McNally and Jastremski know he's upset. Those two are mad that the officials screwed up the balls they prepared and that they had to hear about from Brady. Between the two of them, they decide to double check the footballs after the officials approve them to make sure they aren't over-inflated. Brady didn't know and the coaches didn't know. It was just two equipment guys who got burned once and decided independently to make sure it didn't happen again. They're "doing their job." After the controversy in the 2014 AFCCG, they confess and get in trouble, most likely losing their jobs. The team gets fined and everyone moves on. No suspension for Brady, no lingering questions, and no lost draft pick, at least not a first rounder.

If that's the way it went down and J & M didn't come clean when they saw how serious this was getting and what the stakes could be, then they are as much villains in this story as Goodell and his henchmen. If someone was faced with losing their job if they told the truth, I could potentially see them lying to save themselves. Not everyone is going to be honorable in that situation. Or maybe they didn't do anything except tell dumb jokes about their job. It really would be great to hear directly from Jastremski and McNally as some point.

It's because it was a witch hunt. The NFL knew the balls weren't deflated but because they had already opened up a huge can of Cheatriot worms they continued down the path of no return.

Which included lying about Brady's appeal testimony, editing the Wells report for public consumption, paying off the "honorable " justice Chinny chin chin (restoring our faith in the justice system) and anything else that would stop the truth from prevailing.

What makes you think anything the ball boys said would have stopped that ? The Patriots were going to take the hit one way or another.

 

[MagicMarker]

Interesting question. Where did the numbers showing the balls were 2 Psi low come from? It was 23 degrees in the Baltimore game. Did the Ravens illegally measure the balls there? At roughly 1 psi lost per 25 degree drop in temperature, that’s exactly what the Ravens would have found.

 

[TB_Helmet]

That's called "the facts camp".

The NFL and 90% of the media (and thus 99% of non-Patriots fans) were in fantasy camp. Many of them are still there.

One thing I know for sure:

Facts Camp > Fat Camp

 

[RobertWeathers]

Interesting question. Where did the numbers showing the balls were 2 Psi low come from? It was 23 degrees in the Baltimore game. Did the Ravens illegally measure the balls there? At roughly 1 psi lost per 25 degree drop in temperature, that’s exactly what the Ravens would have found.

I don't think the Ravens measured anything. It was all boys club chatter based on ignorance and bitterness

 

[Tony2046]

Interesting question. Where did the numbers showing the balls were 2 Psi low come from? It was 23 degrees in the Baltimore game. Did the Ravens illegally measure the balls there? At roughly 1 psi lost per 25 degree drop in temperature, that’s exactly what the Ravens would have found.

The original 2psi came from the halftime measurements made on the sideline during the AFCCG. Later measurements were made in the referee locker in a totally controlled scientific environment.

It didn't account for the natural deflation predicted by the ideal gas law, Walt's two inaccurate gauges and any timelines. It was basically a raw number pulled out of someone's ass.

 

[TB_Helmet]

The original 2psi came from the halftime measurements made on the sideline during the AFCCG. Later measurements were made in the referee locker in a totally controlled scientific environment.

It didn't account for the natural deflation predicted by the ideal gas law, Walt's two inaccurate gauges and any timelines. It was basically a raw number pulled out of someone's ass.

I actually thought that the 2 PSI under was a blatant lie made up by Kensil and fed to Mort who dutifully reported it without fact checking and didn't remove the tweet for months.

It turned the public tide of opinion against Brady and also was the reason he was caught so off guard at his press conference, because if the footballs were that far underinflated it would indeed have been suspicious (but in the end they averaged slightly more than 1 PSI under which was right where they should have been given the temperature drop).

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

That makes sense, but it makes so much sense you have to wonder why they didn't use it as an explanation, if it was the truth.

The officials over-inflate the footballs for the Jets game. Brady is mad and lets McNally and Jastremski know he's upset. Those two are mad that the officials screwed up the balls they prepared and that they had to hear about from Brady. Between the two of them, they decide to double check the footballs after the officials approve them to make sure they aren't over-inflated. Brady didn't know and the coaches didn't know. It was just two equipment guys who got burned once and decided independently to make sure it didn't happen again. They're "doing their job." After the controversy in the 2014 AFCCG, they confess and get in trouble, most likely losing their jobs. The team gets fined and everyone moves on. No suspension for Brady, no lingering questions, and no lost draft pick, at least not a first rounder.

If that's the way it went down and J & M didn't come clean when they saw how serious this was getting and what the stakes could be, then they are as much villains in this story as Goodell and his henchmen. If someone was faced with losing their job if they told the truth, I could potentially see them lying to save themselves. Not everyone is going to be honorable in that situation. Or maybe they didn't do anything except tell dumb jokes about their job. It really would be great to hear directly from Jastremski and McNally as some point.

Because it is a VIOLATION for them to do this. Yes, even insuring that the pressure is correct. Can't mess with the balls.

In a rational league, if this was admitted, the Pats would simply get a cease & desist letter from the league office. Post SPYGATE, well we all know that the 31 were gunning for anything Patriots. You all saw the result.

 

[Joker]

BTW..where the hell IS Kensil. huh?? "I GOTCHA!!!" he bellowed in the national sports press...and then...GONE!...deader than disco. Nowhere to be found. Mr 2nd In Command Blubbermouthboy for that rotten despicable Crudbagdell. El Disappearo. No answering for his goddamned LIES. No questions raised by the "media". Right. There's something fishy about "deflator" spoken NINE MONTHS EARLIER. THAT'S the story. Right.

Jeezus...use your heads...WHO ever disappears when they hold the high moral ground??? WHO? NO ONE! Kensil holds the key to this rotten cabal and EVERYONE with a functioning cerebrum knows this. It is staring you all right in the face. Kensil uses Grigson? A flop GM since in the weeds so deep he's blended in with the smallmouth bass? A TRUE confederacy of dunces.

 

[Joker]

New Book Spills How Tom Brady and the Patriots Made Their Super Bowl Comeback

an excerpt to prove my point..

They learned that the Baltimore Ravens had tipped off the Colts to allegations that the Patriots mishandled game balls during their win over the Ravens in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson brought it to the attention of league officials.

Normally, the league would notify a team that was accused of a rules violation, especially if the infraction was minor. The proper inflation of a football had never been an issue in the long history of the NFL as teams and quarterbacks often deflated or over inflated balls for personal preference. This custom was universally viewed as having no effect on a player’s performance or the outcome of a game.

“The league should have simply called the Patriots and put them on notice, but instead they stayed quiet,” Smith observed out loud. “Why?”

“Maybe they wanted to catch them in the act,” replied McPhee. “Like a sting operation.”

“Sting operations don’t happen in the spur of the moment,” Smith added. “This one took careful planning.”

The NFLPA attorneys continued to pore over their notes. Smith and McPhee noticed that Goodell had sent his Director of Football Operations, Mike Kensil to the Patriots-Colts game to spy on New England’s equipment guys. At halftime, he approached equipment manager Dave Shoenfield, who supervised both Jastremski and McNally.

“We weighed the balls,” Kensil told him. “You are in big ******* trouble.”

Smith could hardly believe what he was reading. The league was aggressively crafting its own narrative that the Patriots were cheaters from the get-go.


Roger Goodell had orchestrated an elaborate set-up to quash a rule violation that few players including Brady knew even existed.

The NFL had never tested footballs at halftime before.

Once again, the NFLPA’s top lawyer asked himself the question – why?

He called the meeting, grabbed his jacket and took a walk around the block. Smith needed to think. He believed that he understood Goodell, his primary adversary, better than most but still – this was bizarre. As Smith strolled down K Street, another narrative began to form in his mind. The other NFL owners had been breathing down the commissioner’s neck to punish the Patriots in some way to make up for his egregious behavior during the Spygate scandal in 2007. No one had forgiven Goodell for destroying the videotaped evidence to protect his mentor Robert Kraft. The Commissioner needed to do something to protect his salary, an estimated $42 million per year, and to reassert himself and salvage the power that he had recently lost.

“In order to regain control of the league, he must kill his father,” Smith surmised metaphorically. “He must tear down Robert Kraft.”

The saga had a Shakespearean ring to it.

For decades, Roger Goodell had quietly built a base of power through relationships with team owners, most importantly, Patriots owner Robert Kraft. In Kraft, Goodell not only found a professional mentor, but a true father figure. The benevolent owner took Goodell under his wing and tutored him on the finer points of running a business as large and as powerful as the National Football League. Goodell proved to be an apt and loyal pupil. When then commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, announced his retirement in 2006, Goodell was just one of several candidates being discussed to replace him. Robert Kraft campaigned vigorously on Goodell’s behalf and through a savvy combination of hand holding and arm twisting, convinced his fellow owners to appoint his young protégé as the new commissioner of the most lucrative and important professional sports league in America.

But why go after somebody like Tom Brady, who has had an unblemished hall of fame career?

Smith came back to the one word he often used when describing Goodell – Power.

“If he can assert his power over Brady, the league’s number one attraction, he can make all other players will bend to his will,” Smith thought.

Rotten rotten evil scumbag of the highest order. Greedy little ****in' rich punk grown up into THE proto rich scumbag archetype. Do anything to continue his money stream and treasure bath. THIS azzole needs to see Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary for 20 years.[/I]

 

[Joker]

Mike Kensil, public enemy No. 1 among New England Patriots fans, has been transferred out of his position as NFL vice president of football operations. Kensil, the alleged source of the erroneous report that helped turn Deflategate into the behemoth it became, now operates under the title “vice president of game operations — international,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed Thursday in an interview with ProFootballTalk. “We needed a senior executive to work exclusively in this priority area,” McCarthy told PFT. “He’s been in Mexico City and China the last few weeks.” CSNNE.com and Sports Illustrated previously reported that Kensil, a former New York Jets employee, was the primary instigator of the underinflated footballs controversy that has yet to be resolved 15 months after the initial story broke. CSNNE.com called Kensil the “driving force” behind the investigation “Patriots sources are steadfast — and their belief was conveyed to the league, according to a source — that Mike Kensil, the NFL’s VP of game operations, walked up to Patriots equipment manager Dave Schoenfeld on the sideline after halftime and said, ‘We weighed the balls. You are in big f—— trouble,’ ” SI’s Greg Bedard wrote last May. “New England and Kraft thought this incident, and others, showed bias by the league and would be explored in the Wells report.” Deflategate is back in the news after the U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday reinstated Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s four-game suspension.

Read more at: Mike Kensil, Reported Deflategate Instigator, No Longer In NFL Football Ops

2016...THIS is the last thing ever heard that anyone can find on the WWW about Mike Kensil. READ IT!! See it? "FORMER NY JETS EMPLOYEE"? Employee????? Odd term for VICE PRESIDENT OF FOOTBALL OPERATIONS isn't it?

But yeah...Jastremski is the key...got it. Maybe we can wait a few more years to get Kensil to tell us all about it since he's INCOMMUNICADO for the past three years.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

play nice with Wells

Because Wells disproved all of this guy's equations:

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Deflategate was from the beginning about owner politics and Roger Goodell keeping his job.

We have to remember 2014 was the season of the Ray Rice fiasco. Goodell’s mishandling of that situation left Goodell in jeopardy of being fired.

The NFL requires a super majority of 75% of the teams to take such an action. Having the support of just 9 of the 32 teams would keep Goodell his job. Among NFL owners, the 3 biggest motivations are maximizing revenue, minimizing the revenue they share with the players and fear and loathing of the New England Patriots. Goodell saw the third as the way to solidify his base support and keep his job.

It was a set up from the beginning. Goodell’s cronies in NY in cahoots with the Ravens and Colts two of Goodell’s most loyal franchises put the plan in motion. They knew about the Ideal Gas Law. They knew the balls would lose air pressure in the cold and rainy conditions. They were the ones who promulgated false information and created the narrative of guilt from which the Patriots never had a chance to defend themselves.

The Patriots were confused and befuddled by the situation as most would be if accused of something they had not done. I think lots of bad things about Bill Belichick these days, but I don’t think he intentionally threw Brady under the bus. He was just trying to make sense of it all and unintentionally gave Goodell and his jack-booted thugs a clear path at Brady.

NFL owners had ceded too much power to the Commissioner in wake of the Al Davis lawsuits and labor strife. Men like Pete Rozell and Paul Tagliabue could be trusted with the power, but despotic Goodell used it to favor supportive franchises and punish unsupportive ones.

As much as we hated seeing it, Kraft had no choice but to capitulate to that power. Our football team would have suffered even more if he had chosen to make a frontal attack on the Commissioner’s authority.

When Roger Goodell got his contract extension last fall, it was portrayed as an act of approval for Goodell’s leadership by owners in the media. But, when you look at the details of the contract, you see it really wasn’t as it appeared.

For starters, Goodell’s $ 40 million a year salary is not fully guaranteed. Only 10% is guaranteed. The rest is made up of bonuses earned at the discretion of the owners. Goodell must also meet with the owners to answer their question and hear their complaints at every league meeting. Plus, Goodell’s Madison Avenue mafia have mostly been removed from their positions in the league office including his PR apparatus. By giving Goodell this extension, the owners started taking back some of the authority previously given to the Commissioner’s office.

How did this happen? Bob Kraft and other owners formed their own firm group of 9 clubs or more which could have prevented the other owners from offering Goodell whose contract was expiring an extension without a compromise. The compromise was making Goodell more accountable to all the owners and a lame duck Commissioner who most likely will be sacrificed to the players in the next CBA negotiations. Kraft’s long game strategy is working.

Interesting.

Now tell me Kraft will seek approval from the league to reinstate our real logo and uniforms for the 2019 season prior to next month's deadline and I'll start to consider the possibility of the man having a brain.

 

[1960Pats]

Super Bowl LI was goat, will never forget that.

I still get a huge grin across my face when I think about that game.

The timing was perfect.

Brady staring down Goody afterward was great too.

 

[1960Pats]

I've skimmed through most of this thread and come to the following conclusions.

1. Kraft made a huge mistake in capitulating to Goodell and accepting the suspension.

2. Kraft recognized that mistake and, while too late, publically stated that very clearly.

3. Brady had every right to be pissed at Kraft. That didn't take any "investigative reporting" to figure out. Just a keen sense of the obvious.

4. The other ridiculous "hot take" from this OP's press release was that shipping JG out of town was Kraft's way of kissing up to Brady after his gaff.

That is just RIDICULOUS. While it's great media fodder it fails on SO many levels of facts.

a. JG was NOT coming back to the Pats for the 2018 season. There was absolutely no way he would have signed an extension, and despite what the "cap is crap" crowd would like you to believe, there was no way the Pats could franchise him to be Brady's backup and still be viable.

b. Now if you want to complain about the deal that the Pats wound up with in the end, I'll understand. Lots of rumors that the Browns offered more, but there were also lots of rumors that there were great deals offered by teams at the draft that turned out to be nothing more than draft day rumors NOT actual offers.

c. say what you will about the SF deal, but the Pat got at least something for a guy who was going out the door in 2 more months for nothing.

d. Bottom line: JG's trade had nothing to do with some Brady/Kraft conspiracy to "get rid of the competition. (I mean is there anyone here that believes that JG was the best QB on the Pats for any of his 3+ years here, I'd like him to stand up an be counted). Time simply ran out for the Pats with JG and Brady's was and still is the better QB. So nothing earthshattering here.....UNLESS of course, you are trying to sell books.

BB knew that JG had to go and wanted to send him to a place where he would stay. SF is the perfect spot for him and his small sample of success there also helped him stay.

The only negative for us was how many games he won when they gave him the job as the starter. Those wins dropped our draft pick like a lead balloon.

 

[1960Pats]

Red Herring...Goodell spent 20 million for "Article 46!". Deflator, deflating, dedoinking , de-anything had nothing to do with it. The intent was to diminish Brady, build up Eli and keep Moonhead as the de facto face of the league. Are you seriously going to tell me that ,even if true, what Brady did and the sanctions against him are anywhere NEAR the planet where STEROID HGH is shipped to YOUR wife while YOU are recovering from MAJOR SURGERY, and ...."CRICKETS"? It was his wife's HGH?? Goodell actually innocently believed this horseshyt? Yet that is exactly what they want YOU to believe.

No. Why can't you just SEE what the **** really happened using your own goddamned common sense. It was a deliberate, planned, slanderous attack on a completely innocent man, a man that SHOULD be held as the paragon, the beacon of what is RIGHT in the NFL. These are human beings. Men with MONEY. More money than any of us(I presume) could even envision in a hundred lifetimes. You actually think men like these have acquired a pure sense of fairness, of right and wrong in their lives? Hell no. John Mara is as vicious a ****in' scumbag elitist old money Brahmin as there is in any sport. I'm not Jewish but I know blatant racism when I see it and Mara's attempts from the start in 2006 aimed at Robert Kraft cannot be explained away. Not after repeated lies and attempts to destroy a competitor whose only failing is "he's one of the new blood". How many times has THIS dichotomy been shoved down our throats since 2006? No, he's Bob Kraft...the guy that saved our franchise and built one of the preeminent business models in ANY sport. THAT should have been embraced by the other owners but, even though they all are engaged in a non stop treasure bath, the jealous, twisted, vindictve hate of these modern day Salieri's are still focused on the Mozart of the NFL.

This league is rotten at the core.

That's the best damn thing that's ever been written here.

Screw the NYFL.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

I actually thought that the 2 PSI under was a blatant lie made up by Kensil and fed to Mort who dutifully reported it without fact checking and didn't remove the tweet for months.

It turned the public tide of opinion against Brady and also was the reason he was caught so off guard at his press conference

Agreed. It was a blatant lie concocted by the NFL.

And never forget that in February or March the NFL sent NE a memo with the correct numbers, but forbade NE to tell the true numbers to anyone. There is no justification whatsoever for that other than the NFL wanting to make sure that the "2 psi low" lie was well established. The public didn't find out the real numbers until the Wells Report was released.

I think not allowing NE to release the real PSI numbers was the most damning thing the NFL did in the whole fiasco because it makes exceedingly clear what it was all about -- burning NE in the court of public opinion.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

Agreed. It was a blatant lie concocted by the NFL.

And never forget that in February or March the NFL sent NE a memo with the correct numbers, but forbade NE to tell the true numbers to anyone. There is no justification whatsoever for than other than the NFL wanting to make sure that the "2 psi low" lie was well established. The public didn't find out the real numbers until the Wells Report was released.

I think not allowing NE to release the real PSI numbers was the most damning thing the NFL did in the whole fiasco because it makes exceedingly clear what it was all about -- burning NE in the court of public opinion.

This is what I don't get about Kraft. His team is being raked over the coals and he just sits there like "sure, I won't release the numbers to the public." What's the worst that Goodell could have done to him or the team?

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

Red Herring...Goodell spent 20 million for "Article 46!". Deflator, deflating, dedoinking , de-anything had nothing to do with it. The intent was to diminish Brady, build up Eli and keep Moonhead as the de facto face of the league. Are you seriously going to tell me that ,even if true, what Brady did and the sanctions against him are anywhere NEAR the planet where STEROID HGH is shipped to YOUR wife while YOU are recovering from MAJOR SURGERY, and ...."CRICKETS"? It was his wife's HGH?? Goodell actually innocently believed this horseshyt? Yet that is exactly what they want YOU to believe.

No. Why can't you just SEE what the **** really happened using your own goddamned common sense. It was a deliberate, planned, slanderous attack on a completely innocent man, a man that SHOULD be held as the paragon, the beacon of what is RIGHT in the NFL. These are human beings. Men with MONEY. More money than any of us(I presume) could even envision in a hundred lifetimes. You actually think men like these have acquired a pure sense of fairness, of right and wrong in their lives? Hell no. John Mara is as vicious a ****in' scumbag elitist old money Brahmin as there is in any sport. I'm not Jewish but I know blatant racism when I see it and Mara's attempts from the start in 2006 aimed at Robert Kraft cannot be explained away. Not after repeated lies and attempts to destroy a competitor whose only failing is "he's one of the new blood". How many times has THIS dichotomy been shoved down our throats since 2006? No, he's Bob Kraft...the guy that saved our franchise and built one of the preeminent business models in ANY sport. THAT should have been embraced by the other owners but, even though they all are engaged in a non stop treasure bath, the jealous, twisted, vindictve hate of these modern day Salieri's are still focused on the Mozart of the NFL.

This league is rotten at the core.

I appreciate Will McDonough setting up the interview with Parcells and Orthwein, along with all the other good things he did and wrote, but his love for and loyalty to the Giants was misplaced.

The Giants, on and off the field, are worthy of all the derision and denigration and corrupt bias that's been heaped upon the New England Patriots since the merger in 1970.

So we're supposed to be appreciative that the Giants were so prejudiced and bigoted that Brooklyn home town boy Vince Lombardi was never getting the head coaching job due to his Italian extraction, and he had to pack up his family and haul them across the country to the Siberia of the NFL, Green Bay and start a dynasty there?

And we're supposed to ignore the fact that the Giants were the unchallenged laughingstock of football in the 70's.

And they classily dressed in black for the Patriots' "funeral" for their flight to Arizona prior to Super Bowl 42, the last game of a Patriots season dedicated to Marquise Hill, who lost his life after saving a young woman's (not a secret, his number was on our helmets), mere weeks after mourning gangsta Sean Taylor like he was a head of state.

Pete Rozelle let these sh*theads totally off the hook for their scum, illegal, corrupt crimes in the 60's against the AFL, and they continue to grow and thrive today.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

I will not be surprised to find out one day that J&M were deflating balls

They weren't.

But if they had, it might have merited a fine. Maybe.