Posted on 01/24/2015 4:00:59 PM PST by big'ol_freeper
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 is punishable by a minimum $25,000 fine. This is no more serious than hockey players playing with an illegal stick or, as we saw in 1983 with George Brett, hitting with a doctored, pine-tarred bat.
Talk about having your priorities all screwed up.
(Excerpt) Read more at weei.com ...
Cheat!
Cheat!
Cheat!
“Which brings us to the crux of the matter. Why, six days after the fact, is the NFL so obsessed over this?
I get it. Someone in the NFL office is fuming and embarrassed.”
It’s almost like they actually dig having a controversial NFL story dominate the news cycle in the days leading up to the league’s biggest game. Truly mystifying.
Freegards
Go Patriots!!
Your consistent failure to understand either math in general or statistics in particular doesn’t mean anyone else cheated.
Innumerate!
Innumerate!
Innumerate!
I’m sure that won’t mean much to you either.
Indeed.
And also classic Patriots if, as I understand it correctly, they somehow so vigorously rubbed the balls just before taking them to the refs locker room before the game that they temporarily had an extra psi of pressure before they deflated out on the field to reach “equilibrium” again. They also asked the refs to inflate the balls to the 12.5 minimum. That means they were able to essentially double the effect of taking the balls out in cold air, dropping 2 psi instead of one, and getting the balls effectively 2 psi under the mandated minimum.
All while following the letter of the law on ball preparation.
How about four or five years ago during a Yankees baseball game. Derek Jeter was at bat and the pitch hit the end of the bat. Jeter, dropped the bat and grabbed his hand and pretended that the ball hit him. The trainer even came out and looked at his hand. The replay clearly showed the pitch hit the bat, but Jeter was awarded first base. Is he a cheater? Should he be disallowed from getting into the hall of fame?
For me, sports is entertainment, nothing more. Whether or not the Patriots altered the footballs doesn't matter one iota to me. I'm still going to go to work on Monday, and my life will go on as normal. I'm still going to watch football and will continue to be entertained during the games.
When I go to the movies, I know it's all fake but I'm still entertained by them. I know that the actor playing Sonny didn't really die in The Godfather, but I still love that movie. I don't feel cheated to know that everything in movies is fake.
I just don't see why people are getting their shorts in a twist over something that doesn't matter to them. Why is altering the footballs such a big deal and purposely holding or pass interference isn't? All those infractions are against the rules and could alter the outcome of the game.
I saw that presser. he really didn’t say anything, and he said it poorly.
I think it’s just sad that there is a significant chunk of the country caught up over 2lbs of pressure in a football.
The New England Patriots team have had a lot of success over the past 20 years. Most people from other football towns hate them because their own teams have not had the same level of success. Those people will seize on any opportunity to label them cheaters. That just goes with the territory when you have that level of success.
This is the same reason most New Englanders hate the New York Yankees baseball team. The success of the New York Yankees over the past century, not to mention the purloining of Babe Ruth, has come mostly at the expense of the Boston Red Sox. Therefore, most people from Boston have an irrational hatred of New Yorkers.
And so it is with the New England Patriots, who have demolished other football clubs (except maybe the New York Giants) from coast to coast over the past two decades.
The best thing the New England Patriots can do at this time is focus on beating the Seattle Seahawks and find some ways to get an edge over them. I thing we are going to see a reverse flea-flicker in the first half.
The range of “legal” ball pressures needs to be widened. Embrace diversity.
The little bit of analysis I have seen on this is that he did well in the press conference but admittedly, it will all be media spin and fan spin. I thought he came off relatively well.
This is from a Patriots website and so it is not biased but nonetheless, I agree somewhat and I'm not a Patriots fan. I think for the time-being, this issue will be on the back-burner some. I don't feel like he was out there making outlandish lies to defend his team.
I just turned on sports radio to try to get an idea on how people are perceiving this. Doesn’t mean anything but is interesting.
In short, do the following:
1. Inflate eight Wilson-made official NFL footballs, four to 12.5 PSI and four to 13.5 PSI, in a heated room set to a temperature of around 65 °F.
2. Put the footballs in the climate control chamber, set to match the temperature and humidity at 6 pm EST on January 17, 2014 in Foxborough, MA, then:
a. Adjust the temperature and humidity over a time period so it matches the kickoff delay time (remember, the NFC Championship Game went into overtime and delayed the AFC Championship Game kickoff).
b. Adjust the temperature and humidity over a time period so it matches the weather changes from kickoff to the end of the first half.
With this level of accurate climate control chamber testing, we'll find out once and for all if the temperature and humidity changes during the AFC Championship Game that match the weather in Foxborough, MA at the time does cause the football to deflate. And whether the temperature changes caused the footballs used by the Patriots filled to 12.5 PSI to go out of spec.
GO PATS!
What amazes me is the absence of any hard evidence. Only rumor and speculation that is driving the narrative
And coincidence, that seems to be the big deal. That only the Pats' balls and all of them went down in pressure from what I understand.
“And whether the temperature changes caused the footballs used by the Patriots filled to 12.5 PSI to go out of spec.”
Strictly speaking, there is no spec. The NFL rules refer to “pounds,” not to pounds per square inch. However, a ball inflated to 12 1/2 to 13 1/2 pounds would be almost as heavy as a shot put.
Excuse me you are?
Besides a sore cheater...
“Article NAILS it “
It certainly does.
.
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