A rogue element, undoubtably.
A data scientist/statistician ran the numbers on all NFL teams/games going back to 2010.
This has to do with offensive plays/per fumbles lost. The Patriots are off the chart with 187 offensive plays per fumble lost. The next closest team is Houston (enclosed stadium team) with 140 O/P per F/L. The average for teams in the NFL is 105 O/P per F/L. If the data is correct this anomaly can't be ignored by the NFL. The Patriots, in my opinion, have been scamming the system for several years with under inflated balls.
This NFL/Patriot BS we have a low echelon person of interest is totally ridiculous ... in the extreme.
Football is of course an obsession for many of us but this story is almost as moronic as was the spy gate BS.
In ‘Spygate’ taking pictures in a stadium filled with thousands of people with cameras was somehow defined as cheating.
If that is not dumb enough, a new scandal had to be uncovered where the air pressure in game balls was supposedly recognized in the middle of a game. Upon the resolving of the air pressure problem, the ‘cheating’ team had greater success in that very game.
This entire story, both of which certainly appears to be an exercise in explaining the improbable results of a team that for decades was the league doormats until suddenly new ownership, a class A Coach, and a superlative Quarterback came together and disrupted the NFL parity formula.
The incessant drum beating against a consistently winning combination looks more like sour grapes than anything.
I would expect that at least on FR.com, excellence would be appreciated, respected, supported, and not so regularly reviled.
It is contrary to the values of free republic that I thought were typical, that the NewEngand franchise would be dissed so regularly because they just do well in competition.
I’ve read most of the threads on FR on this and have heard stories on FNC. While it does seem a bit suspicious, I honestly don’t know what happened.
That said, I hope they lock up the balls for the Super Bowl after the refs approve them and no one has access to them until the beginning of the game.
Here’s an excerpt from the story below regarding Wilson’s making of the SB balls:
Far from deflate-gate, football factory prepares for Super Bowl
By Garrett Tenney
Published January 26, 2015
“The final touch, and one most sports fans are very familiar with now, is inflating each ball until it has 13-pounds of air pressure inside – right down the middle of the NFL-mandated range of 12.5-13.5 pounds of pressure.
“The balls leave here they have 13 pounds of air in them, and that’s our goal here to send out a quality football,” explains Wilson Factory Manager, Dan Reigle.
The football factory shipped out 104 game balls for the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks the day after the championship game was decided.”
GO SEAHAWKS!!!
Goodell spent the weekend of the AFC Championship at Robert Kraft’s house. Nothing to worry about Patriot fans. Daddy paid the bill.
He prolly only went in there to take a leak.
Video shows he stopped in Men’s Room for 90 seconds.....
to take a LEAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!