Free Republic

....the mayor of Glendale, Arizona - home to Super Bowl XLIX - is questioning the money-making potential of this year's big game, CBS News' David Begnaud reports. "I think if you looked in the till at the end of the day, I think you'll have less money in it than came in," said Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers. Weiers suspects that when the sun sets on Super Bowl XLIX, the only real loser may be his city. "I'm sure that we're going to spend $3 million," Weiers said. "I would hope, in tax revenues, that we can actually account for well...

But what has the NFL really found? As one league source has explained it to PFT, the football intercepted by Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson was roughly two pounds under the 12.5 PSI minimum. The other 10 balls that reportedly were two pounds under may have been, as the source explained it, closer to one pound below 12.5 PSI.

Saturday Night Live got its hands on Bill Belichick’s and Tom Brady’s balls Saturday night, spoofing the prickly pair with a mock press conference that transitioned into a raucous scene from “A Few Good Men.”

Full title: TV News Priorities: 68 Minutes for Under-Inflated Footballs, Mere Seconds for Obama's Release of Terrorists The three major networks have, so far, devoted a staggering 67 minutes and 49 seconds to obsessing over every aspect of whether the New England Patriots cheated in their AFC championship win on Sunday. Yet, only ABC allowed a scant 34 seconds to the Obama administration's release of five terrorists out of Guantanamo Bay and back to areas connected with extremist violence. The contrast is 120-to-1. NBC was, by far, the most lopsided in terms of journalistic priorities. From Monday through early Thursday,...

In the year of Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy, they've somehow managed to trump serious cases of domestic abuse by blowing a silly, inane, moronic controversy over the inflation of game balls into a national story that gets more sublime and ridiculous by the day. The league didn't take their time and do due diligence on what really mattered in the Ray Rice case, and delivered a hasty judgment that Commissioner Roger Goodell admitted was ill-conceived. Now, they're taking their sweet time to decide who may have taken too much air out of the balls, a violation that...

Another Bad Lip Reading For The Super Bowl

The name on the card that night in May seemed to draw as much anxiety as it did excitement. Johnny Manziel, Quarterback, Texas A&M. The former Heisman Trophy winner had been passed over 21 times, prompting a text from Manziel to then-Browns quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains that he wanted to "wreck this league" in Cleveland. The words were actually more R-rated, but the implication was clear. Twitter erupted at the selection. A Cleveland radio host cheered and screamed openly on air. Manziel gave his "money" sign as he walked onstage to greet Roger Goodell. By season's end, cheering had turned...

...One can clearly see the Patriots, visually, are off the chart. There is no other team even close to being near to their rate of 187 offensive plays per fumble lost. The league average is 105 plays per fumble lost. Most teams are within 21 plays of that number. I spoke with a data scientist whom I know from work on NFLproject.com and sent him the data. He said: Based on the assumption that fumbles per play follow a normal distribution, you’d expect to see, according to random fluctuation, the results that the Patriots have gotten over this period, once...

Unless you've been living under several rocks, you've heard by now that the New England Patriots were investigated for under-inflating the footballs used during the first half of their 45-7 victory in the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The whole matter has come to be known as "Deflategate" or "Ballghazi," and has dominated the national news this past week.In response to all of this, Rep. Todd Young (R-IN), a Colts fan, published a "Who said it?" quiz on his official website comparing the rhetoric used in DeflateGate with the White House's official response to several scandals during the...

Patriots defenders constantly make the point that deflated balls were not a big deal last Sunday, because the Pats won so convincingly over Indy. Maybe. But what about the Ravens game a week earlier? That one WAS close - 35-31. Does anyone really think the Pats weren't pulling their under-inflation tricks then, that it just started last week? Other teams raised the issue back in November, so it's reasonable to assume it's been going on since at least then.

For more than a decade, Tom Brady has established himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time, one of the sport’s most popular and respected players. On Wednesday, Brady may have jeopardized his credibility for good. Like Patriots coach Bill Belichick, Brady denied having anything to do with footballs being deflated in the AFC Championship Game and denied knowing it had occurred until the next day, but to the quarterback’s former peers, the NFL’s golden boy lost some of the luster he had earned in his 15-year career. “I did not believe what Tom had to say,” former quarterback...

Bill Belichick said he did not know how the Patriots’ footballs became underinflated in Sunday’s game. By Matt PepinGlobe Staff January 22, 2015 Coach Bill Belichick said he did not know of any issue with the Patriots’ game balls in Sunday’s AFC Championship, and did not learn the league was investigating his team until Monday morning. He also said he did not know how the Patriots’ footballs became underinflated during the game. “I have no explanation for what happened,” he said. It was Belichick’s first appearance since news emerged that 11 of 12 footballs the Patriots used against the Colts...

In the wake of the news that the Patriots used underinflated footballs in the AFC Championship, several stories have emerged of other instances of footballs being modified or suspected of being altered during NFL games. According to CBS Sports, some members of the Baltimore Ravens believe kicking balls used in their playoff game against the Patriots in the divisional round may have been underinflated. No players or Ravens personnel are identified in the CBS report, which also says the NFL did not receive a complaint from the Ravens regarding the footballs in that game. ...

Now that the New England Patriots have officially been booked for using deflated balls, you can expect the jokes and criticism to continue rolling in at an even higher rate now. And jumping on board are the guys at Benstonium, who put together this clever New England Patriots Cialis Commercial Parody

Playoffs - Super Bowl SUN, FEB 1 New England at Seattle 6:30 PM NBC U of Phoenix Stadium

Chris Mortensen reports, the NFL has found that 11 of the Patriots footballs used in Sunday’s AFC title game were under-inflated by 2 lbs each, per league sources. The league says the New England Patriots used deflated footballs during their AFC Championship Game win over the Indianapolis Colts. They say that 11 balls were under-inflated by two pounds each, according to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. “We are not commenting at this time,” Greg Aiello, the NFL’s senior vice president of communications, said to ESPN.

The Patriots used underinflated footballs on Sunday night. The next question is how did it happen? According to a National Football League letter about the investigation into the controversy that was shared with the Globe, the Patriots were informed that the league’s initial findings indicated that the game balls did not meet specifications. The league inspected each of the Patriots’ 12 game balls twice at halftime, using different pressure gauges, and found footballs that were not properly inflated. According to ESPN, 11 of the 12 game balls were found to be underinflated by about 2 pounds each. The NFL specifications...

The Patriots used underinflated footballs on Sunday night. The next question is how did it happen? According to a National Football League letter about the investigation into the controversy that was shared with the Globe, the Patriots were informed that the league’s initial findings indicated that the game balls did not meet specifications. The league inspected each of the Patriots’ 12 game balls twice at halftime, using different pressure gauges, and found footballs that were not properly inflated. According to ESPN, 11 of the 12 game balls were found to be underinflated by about 2 pounds each. The NFL specifications...

The NFL is investigating whether the Patriots deflated footballs that were used in their AFC championship game victory over the Colts.

<p>This is from the Patriots Packers game back in November.</p> <p>Listen as they explain how Aaron Rodgers once told them, "I like to push the limits to how much air we can put in the football, even go over what they allow you to do and see if the officials take air out of it" because he thinks its easier for him to grip.</p>