NFL probing Patriots' possible use of deflated balls during AFC Championship

No s**t the Ravens should be pissed. And they should also be pissed because it probably should have been a Giants vs Ravens super bowl and not the Patriots a few years back.

 

(Source) "The NFL also needs to answer whether or not they ran a ball pressure “sting” operation in a Conference Championship game. Wednesday night, FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer reported that the league planned during the week to check the ball pressure of the Patriots footballs at halftime of the win over the Colts. The league, according to Glazer, had been tipped off to the Patriots using under-inflated balls. That raises two questions. First, why didn’t the league reach out to the Patriots and let them know there were concerns and they needed to be aware they were being monitored? Second, if the league suspected the Patriots were using underinflated footballs and thought that would impact the game, why would even allow a chance that the game would be compromised? If the answer is that the NFL wanted to “catch” the Patriots – Belichick in particular – red-handed, then they risked the Patriots gaining a first-half advantage over Indianapolis in the AFC Championship to do so. Which, to me, would show just how deep the enmity for Belichick and the Patriots run at the league level. They would rather set him up than ensure the game isn’t compromised. To say nothing of the fact the league itself would have known this circus of controversy and accusation would have been the result of the “sting” they ran Belichick is never going to be a sympathetic figure, but he was very clearly shaken as he made his remarks Thursday. He truly appears to have been blindsided."

 

I once compared the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick tandem to the Tim Duncan/Popovich tandem. Turns out one tandem is the bizarro mirror version of the other, ala Elaine finding the other group.

 

Why not just say "b**** set me up!"

 

Poppy wouldnt dare get caught being a little sloppy.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Colts LB D'Qwell Jackson: &quot;The deal about me saying that I noticed anything about it (the football), that's totally false&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wcvb?src=hash">#wcvb</a></p>&mdash; Scott Isaacs (@ScottIsaacs) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottIsaacs/status/558416903879004161">January 23, 2015</a></blockquote>
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After listening to Belichick, I believe him...
After listening to Brady, I dont...

Its just that simple. A coach, would totally and completely trust his QB, especially his veteran HOF QB to ensure that the game balls used fit his needs. Belichick isnt going to second guess Brady. This is exactly why I felt that Belichick put Brady out to roast with media and let Brady answer questions in regards to this by himself. This one is totally on Brady.

The irony in all of this, after the NFL confiscated the footballs from the first half, Brady was on fire in the 2nd half...

Perhaps there is some truth that if a football is filled at or within a warm room, and then set on a cold field...the pressure of the football might decrease a slight amount. (physics/chemistry majors probably could attest to PV=nRT) BUT I dont buy that it dropped 2 PSI...These footballs were clearly altered, and I do believe that Brady had something to do with it.

But what does the punishment have to be??? Think a suspension for the superbowl is way too harsh, but the Patroits should lose some cash and draft picks.

 

How do you believe that a coach who pays enough attention to detail to ensure the team practices with poor quality footballs to simulate bad conditions wouldn't pay any attention to the status of the footballs they play with in games? Sorry it just doesn't get past my BS detector.

 

I love Sherman's latest comments on this.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...action-patriots-underinflated-balls/22128205/

Sherman

 

I like him sticking up for his guy

Rocket River

 

ESPN reaction to Brady

Mark Brunell: "I did not believe what Tom had to say. Those balls were deflated. Somebody had to do it. I don't believe there's an equipment manager in the NFL that would, on his own initiative, deflate a ball without the starting QB's approval ... That football is our livelihood. If you don't feel good about throwing that ball? Your success on the football field can suffer from that."

Jerome Bettis: "I'm so disappointed because I thought this was a perfect opportunity for Tom Brady to go and say 'You know what? I made a mistake. I blew it. It's on me. I'll take the blame here, and this will go away.' He didn't do that ... I'm disappointed in you, Tom Brady."

Brian Dawkins: "This is unbelievable. For you not to know what you touch every play? ... The equipment manager is being thrown under the bus now. Now he's the guy. Now he's the one responsible. He took it upon himself to doctor up the balls when nobody else knew about it? That hard [to believe]."

 

Just fine Brady 25k for the deflated football like it says in the rule book and be done with this story already. Not a Patriots fan but this is not a big deal.

 

Sure, for the outcome of this game. But things like this should tell you that this team most likely does other things to "help" themselves to win other games (that we just don't know about b/c they haven't been caught). They have been caught once before. Now they're caught again.

You simply can't trust this team, nor its character.

They're cheaters. And they still don't admit it. It's pathetic.

The Patriots literally need to have an outside inspector to inspect every single thing about this team every single day.

 

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Spoiler

 

A fitting title to this thread seeing how the Patriots have been "probing" the NFL and its fans for years.

 

Yes it does... He purposely scuffs the balls and gets them slick so that they can practice not losing the ball in game conditions. The balls for the game he and other coaches have nothing to do with. The QB's and ball attendant deal with the 12-24 balls that are inflated by the team, inspected and marked by the head official and put in a bag on the sideline.

Seemed to me that BB didn't seem to know anything, but said that the QB and attendant would know. With spy gate BB immediately admitted what the Pats were doing. There is no way that Brady didn't know. Even if he didn't directly tell the attendant to do it, Brady knew the balls were flat like he liked them. He has several times commented that he likes a flat ball.

My guess is Brady at some point figured out he liked a ball a little flatter than the rules and asked the attendant to deflate them while holding the game ball on the sideline. Brady probably figured it wasn't a big deal (common in HS and even happens in college). When he first heard about it being cheating he laughed about it.

 

This is the biggest load of BS.

Do you trust the Broncos? They have gotten in trouble for cheating more than the Pats. What about the Cowboys and Niners both purposely lying about signing bonuses to circumvent the cap.

It is a good story, but this is not unique to the Pats. Are they the most ethical team? No, but to act like they are some hellish unique offender is simply not accurate.

 

BTW the Seahawks and Pete Carrol were fined, lost a draft pick and mini camp days 3 months ago for "repeat offending" by cheating.

Just a lot of hypocrisy.

 

This is "in game" cheating stuff. Recording other teams' practices and altering balls? Who think of these stuff? You gotta be pretty damn twisted to think of these stuff.

Circumventing salary caps? Lying about bonuses? That's like a lot of people when they file their taxes.

Getting fined for talking to players when they're not supposed to? LOL.