So many unanswered questions

[ivanvamp]

Such as:

1. Schefter reported on May 19, "For those asking why Patriots suspended two employees if those two did nothing wrong, as New England claims: NFL asked Pats to suspend them prior to discipline being handed down, per a league source in New York. New England obliged with the NFL's request." Goodall denies, and denied again in an ESPN radio interview this week, that the NFL had anything to do with their suspension, and that it was all the Patriots' choice. But if that's so, why do the Patriots need to have the NFL's permission (specifically Troy Vincent's) to reinstate them? (see Reiss, May 11 - "John Jastremski & Jim McNally can not be reinstated without prior approval of NFL Executive Vice President Troy Vincent.") This makes no sense unless the NFL was involved in the suspension in the first place.

2. Goodell said on ESPN radio that there was no connection between Spygate and Deflategate. “I have not seen this report, Mike (Greenberg), in any way, but I can just tell you I’m not aware of any connection between the Spygate procedures and the procedures we went through here. We obviously learn from every time we go through any kind of a process, try to improve it, get better at it, but there’s no connection in my mind to the two incidents." If that's so, why did the league's statement on the Deflategate penalty explicitly say that there WAS a clear connection to the two? From the league's statement: “Here, there are several factors that merit strong consideration in assessing discipline,” the league’s statement says. “The first is the club’s prior record. In 2007 the club and several individuals were sanctioned for videotaping signals of opposing defensive coaches in violation of the Constitution and Bylaws. Under the Integrity of the Game Policy, this prior violation of competitive rules was properly considered in determining the discipline in this case.”

3. If the NFL really cared about ball inflation or ball tampering, why would they NOT look into the Colts' tampering of footballs both in the week leading up to the AFCCG (Andrew Luck practiced with the game balls, in violation of the NFL rules), and during the first half of the AFCCG (when they inserted a needle into the Patriots' football they intercepted)? Why wasn't any penalty handed out (only a warning) when the Panthers were caught on television tampering with footballs during their game vs. the Vikings last year?

I am going to stop here and let others add their own. The list will be....gigantic.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

• Thesis: If the patriots had the plays from another team, then they would have more success against other teams earlier in the game and less success in the 2nd half as the other team adapted or recognized their plays were compromised. Or, is it too much to assume that other teams make adjustments at the half? This can be researched on a data level, and they can Patriot halves compared and we'd expect a serious dropoff in the 2nd half.

• Why not ask coaches how often they change their signals? Would it be a moot point if a low number of teams didn’t change signals?

• Ask other coaches and executives what other types of “gamesmanship” goes on with other teams? All the media indicates that one and only the Patriots team does these type of “things” – slanted biased reporting

• Can there be some type of expose on the media’s strategic formula to drive up ratings? Seems this would be breaking the “code” among media companies. There must be someone who is dissatisfied with the executives at media companies that can tell us something or even nothing, but the questions not being asked. Naturally, it would have to involve a team not associated to major outlets supported by the NFL (so no ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN,…)