Posted on 01/21/2015 7:44:52 PM PST by randita
The Patriots’ run to the Super Bowl has turned into an episode of “Law & Order.” And three days into Deflategate, it is becoming increasingly clear that the “law” was broken.
Now the tricky part: Figuring out the appropriate punishment.
The NFL’s investigation into the Patriots using under-inflated footballs in Sunday night’s AFC Championship is still ongoing. The league has said very little about the investigation or the timetable for its conclusion. The NFL sent a letter to the Patriots on Monday informing them that the league concluded that under-inflated footballs were used on Sunday. The investigation is now centered on how this could have happened.
We don’t need official word from the NFL to know it’s not looking good for the Patriots right now.
We know the Patriots’ footballs weren’t fully inflated when tested by officials at halftime. We know it wasn’t cold enough (51 degrees at kickoff) for the balls to deflate by almost 20 percent on their own. Pro Football Talk reported Tuesday that the officials tested the balls properly before the game. WEEI reported that the officials removed the faulty footballs at halftime and replaced them with properly inflated backup footballs. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that the Colts noticed the under-inflation in the teams’ Nov. 16 matchup and alerted the officials to it before Sunday’s game.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
Wouldn’t each team have their own balls? I thought I heard that on TV. Advantage Patriots.
Regardless of the outcome, compared to Belachick—the Colts have big footballs.
And their balls are always bouncing ... their big, plump balls.
Bouncy big balls!
Bouncing to the left and right—the horses have the biggest balls of all, y’all.
Oooooooohhh!
In theory it might, as each team supposedly has its own balls checked and used only by their team during the game.
In actuality, before they found out at the end of the first half, the Patriots were winning 17-7.
In the second half, when the balls were returned to the correct PSI, the Patriots scored 28 unanswered points, so clearly they were the ones hurt by underinflation and NOT the Colts.
My solution for the NFL: Only count the second half score.........
:-)
Kam and Earl advise that the Seahawk hangover will probably be punishment enough.
Nope. Each team brings 12 balls and use their own.
Please see post # 23.
They use different balls. Each team has it’s own 12 balls.
That's like bringing your own dice to a craps game.
“Simple. Make them forfeit the Superbowl, and award the trophy to the Seahawks. NBC could run the movie Heidi instead.”
They asked Richard Sherman about this whole thing. He said something to the effect of “It gives you guys (the media something to talk about. They won’t suspend anybody or do anything at the Super Bowl, it doesn’t change anything.”
Somebody mentioned to Wilson that Aaron Rodger had said he had a preference for the ball condition, and if he had any. “Yeah - they have to have laces.”
I’m guessing that this ball thing might affect the Patriots mind set a little bit, but I doubt it. It doesn’t seem to be bothering the Seahawks at all.
“Nationally, they are loathed and branded as cheaters,”
Rated #8 favorite team nationally.
Then if you want to underinflate the balls, all you need to do is to bring them up to the minimum inflation level in a 120 degree room before taking them onto the 50 degree field.
Frankly the whole idea of bringing your own balls is stupid. The refs should bring the balls. That would solve this problem immediately.
There is no way on God’s green earth that I could possibly care any less about this stupid bowl game. Or any footsball game for that matter.
The world is very close to exploding and we get this as the news story of the week?
God Help Us.
No, each offensive team brings their own. They just have to meet regulatory specs, size, weight, etc.
Granted, this seems like a petty offense, but if you are on parole, the smallest offense has pretty serious consequences. I think this should be viewed in the same manner. The Patriots are rotten, cheating bastards, and repeat offenders.
There is an easy and cheap way to fix this though. Officials should bring the balls from now on and they should be picked randomly from the same bucket... everyone forced to use the same exact ball. QB's will just have to train and get comfortable with the style chosen.
No worries. The Seahawks will strip the Pats naked during the game, and everyone will have the chance to see.
> the league concluded that under-inflated footballs were used on Sunday. The investigation is now centered on how this could have happened.
Misleading headline.
The refs checked the balls 5 minutes before game time and they were all properly inflated. They then gave the balls to the Pats when the game started. By halftime 11 of 12 were underinflated. Somebody was letting air out of the Patriots’ footballs. All the Colts balls were checked and were regulation.
Just do it like baseball. Have a couple of hundred balls all fresh from the factory and inflated to specs and then replace the football after every down. Then sell the footballs after the game for double what they cost.
What was the temperature WHEN THE BALLS WERE FINALLY CHECKED.
the 51 deg was at the start of the game, not when they were checked.
I heard Colts players were complaining that the Minutemen in the end zone were firing real bullets out of their muskets at them after every touchdown the Pats scored!!
lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.