Posted on 01/23/2015 1:50:05 PM PST by Colofornian
Under his oversized ski cap, Tom Brady could not hide from the fact he was convicting himself in the court of public opinion. The quarterback of the New England Patriots admitted that footballs pumped up to 12.5 pounds per square inch are "a perfect fit for me," yet swore he did not notice a difference in the AFC Championship Game when most of the balls had significantly less pressure.
Brady's story Thursday was harder to believe than the story of the 199th pick in the NFL draft becoming one of the greatest players of all time...
"I would never do anything outside of the rules of play," Brady said.
But his own words told a different tale, and as soon as he was done talking, a 17-year veteran of the quarterback position, Mark Brunell, said on ESPN that he was among those who didn't believe Brady. Earlier Thursday, even before Bill Belichick seemed to be throwing his franchise player under a triple-decker bus in his own news conference, Hall of Famer Troy Aikman said on a Dallas radio station the following:
"It's obvious that Tom Brady had something to do with this."...
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
“The plot gets really sticky when the chain of testimony reveals that the Colts linebacker who intercepted the suspicious ball now claims that he never said a word to anyone about the “soft” football and that he was irritated that he had been dragged into the middle of a controversy that he had no - and as he himself now says - NO part in.”
Part of my conspiracy theory. The Las Vegas Mob paid him a visit.
Paste error ...
Possibly plausible if the fine sticks at 25k or below. If anything more serious occurs like a higher fine, lost pick, and/or suspension, we’ll know for sure that it was all on the Pats.
It’s also tough to believe that these competitors on a team that has been busted cheating before would allow the situation to fester. But I suppose I could allow for it to a point.
My theory is that the Pats know a lot more of the collected evidence than has been publicly released. They’re just not sure what the nfl is going to do about it. Better to play stupid until you know what ends up being revealed.
I read his statement earlier this evening in the Boston Globe. The LB is genuinely hacked off that his name is even associated with Deflate Gate.
Okay...who wants to contribute potential signage for Seahawks' fans?
How about:
Playing stupid has been a well-worn strategy for years because it works so frequently.
As for the cheating part, look at it from their perspective. The NFL has a published rule regarding the inflation standards for footballs. But the enforcement of that rule, by the refs, has been lax for years. Aaron Rogers likes his footballs overinflated - so cut him some slack. What difference does an extra 0.5 or 1 psi make? Brady likes his at 12 or even 11.5. The refs allow it because they know that this has little effect on the game. Game balls show up at the refs room for testing and some or all are either slightly under or over inflated, depending on the QB preference. The refs know this, and they let it slide.
Now someone blows a whistle from off the field and calls the Pats on under-inflated footballs. The refs scramble at halftime to correct the situation that they themselves created by allowing slightly under-inflated footballs into the game in the first place.
In order to conceal the malfeasance on the part of the refs - and the NFL - everyone has to play dumb. Otherwise, the NFL has to admit their part in this tempest in a teapot.
Then there’s the “twelfth ball theory”. If all 12 balls measured the same before the game and only 11 of 12 changed, all natural explanations go out the window. If they have the pregame psi’s your should see some sort of correlation in deflation amongst them all.
In that case I really think it would be easiest if the nfl admitted that their enforcement was poor. The generally did that when they decided to tighten up defensive holding calls this season.
That’s a nice thought, but there are too many variables to consider. What was the original pressure in the “twelfth ball” and what was the final measured pressure. Was the ball in play or was it held in reserve? Was it ever on the game field or was it sitting in a game bag somewhere?
I agree that it wold be the right thing to do, but far from the “easiest” for the NFL to admit to. I think it would be more likely that the NFL will amend the rule to read that ‘footballs will meet the standards set out by the NFL AT THE TIME OF TESTING AND CERTIFICATION prior to the beginning of the game.’ After the game starts, atmospheric and temperature changes will effect the footballs in barely predictable ways.
Or better still, footballs in play will be routinely and randomly checked throughout the game on the field. Any ball found out of tolerance will either be corrected or removed from play.
And finally, teams will not longer be allowed to provide their own footballs, reversing the rule applied for by Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
Another thing to consider is that after the balls were reinflated back to spec at halftime.....presumably in the same locker room, they reportedly remained in spec at games end.
Quite true - but the game balls had just spent two hours in the cooler temperatures, and the halftime break is brief. So the footballs themselves and the air they contained was at or near game time conditions. The introduction of a little air prior to return to the field of play would have little effect on the “conditioned” footballs. Thus, little or no change in their condition throughout and after the second half of play.
They did not reinflate the balls. They used the reserve balls for the second half.
Ok. But the officials measure and mark all balls prior to the game. This includes the Colts’. They stand there with a little electric air pump. I saw a behind the scenes video for another game. I find it highly implausible that they’d have 11 of 12 at the very bottom of the range for the pats, but have 12 of 12 at the very highest edge of the range for the colts. I just don’t see it. If you could show me even that two or three Colts balls were below spec, I could give nature more credence here.
This is walking and quacking like a duck. I’m calling it a duck.
“Or better still, footballs in play will be routinely and randomly checked throughout the game on the field. Any ball found out of tolerance will either be corrected or removed from play.”
If it was really that big of a deal to the sport, why didn’t they just do that? Modern era NFL has so many commercials seems like it would be easy to do with every break, right to the actual ball being used for the play sequence.
Freegards
I did not know that. Where were the balls stored - on the field or indoors? I suspect on the field as their need would be unpredictable. Do you know if they were tested again prior to insertion into the game?
That’s not what I read. This statement from the nfl says the balks were properly inflated for the second half. I read that to mean reinflated.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/23/nfl-issues-statement-on-deflategate-investigation/
Again, I have no information regarding the twelfth ball other than what I have stated before, which is not much.
As for the Colts’ balls, if the preferred inflation prior to the game at the time of testing was 13.5 psi, and the game conditions reduced the internal pressures to 12.5, they would still be in tolerance. This presumes that the Patriots’ footballs also recorded a similar reduction in inflation. But if the Patriots’ footballs started at 12.5 and “lost” 1 psi (proportional to the Colts’ “lost” air pressure), the Patriots’ footballs would no longer be within tolerance.
I have no problem with that. I’ll take it up with the NFL Rules Committee next time we meet....lol.
Oh well. I don’t think we’ll hear anything official until after the Super Bowl.
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.