Posted on 05/06/2015 10:54:02 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
An N.F.L. investigation has found that “it is more probable than not” that New England Patriots personnel intentionally deflated footballs to gain an advantage in the A.F.C. championship game last season, and that Tom Brady, the Super Bowl most valuable player, was probably aware of it.
No penalties have been announced.
The long-awaited report into so-called deflategate, released on Wednesday, concluded that it was probable that Patriots personnel were “involved in a deliberate effort to circumvent the rules.”
The report said that Jim McNally, a locker room attendant, and John Jastremski, an equipment assistant, released air from the footballs. It said that besides those two and Brady, no other Patriots personnel, including Coach Bill Belichick, were aware of the wrongdoing. The report separately determined that the Patriots had not deliberately tried to introduce an improper football for kicking and cleared kicker Stephen Gostkowski of any wrongdoing.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The big question now is how much will they punish Tom Brady. Will it be four game checks plus a $100,000 fine?
The NFL teams have played fast and loose with the rules since the league was formed. Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Tom Landry, George Allen, George Halas, Mike Shanahan, Lovey Smith etc, etc, are all documented cheaters.
I would think so, you are only letting a few seconds of air out of each, you don't want it too obvious because the refs do handle the balls and can determine if one is obviously low. Poking a waxed hollow metal shaft down hole is not very time consuming. In hot weather we often just let a little air out of our basketballs if they are too lively and it only takes a second or two.
I find it interesting that the Slimes promote this story right after Brady failed to appear at the propaganda summit at the White House!
Yep. And this McNally character had been a part time employee for 32 years, including for Brady’s entire tenure. He knew how deflate & how much, and how to do it quickly.
The worst is Brady, though. All of it was done at his insistence, and then he coerced the asst. equipment mgr. to lie during numerous, early morning phone calls in the days right after the cheating was found out. And last, he repeatedly lied to the media and the public about it...@-ho!e.
2nd biggest it was only the conference finals. And as a true conservative I loath rules that seem to exist for no other reason than to fill space in the book.
Hmmm.....Tom Brady dissing Obama by not showing up at the White House with his team mates, then this 243 page report (!) points a finger at Tom Brady, who is rumored to be a Republican.
Thank God I’m not into conspiracy theories.
I just read part of an article and they are saying the person they think did it deflated 13 footballs in 100 Seconds.
Now is that really possible. That is a very short amount of time to juggle 13 footballs and deflate them down to whatever it was.
What conditions did the league conduct that test?
Oh sure, teams can simply establish whatever psi they figure is most favorable for the weather conditions present, & it just doesn't matter...all cause selective arbitrary libertarian discostu simply says so...
Bolt action Mannlicher-Carcano air pressure gauge...just as fast as the rifle.
Why not? Why should the restrictions on the balls be so tight? What purpose does it actually serve? Is the game markedly better/more fair with balls in the range of 12.5 to 13.5 than it would be with balls in the range 10.5 to 15.5? If the inflation of the ball is vital to the integrity of the game why does the league put so little effort into keeping the balls “safe” from tampering after inspection?
If there’s something arbitrary here it’s the rule. A rule I’m sure will be seriously “massaged” over the next couple of years, much like how spygate led to the end of the stupid rule banning helmet radios from the defense. Of course they still have the stupid rule that each team can only have one radio helmet on the field at a time. Not all rules are written equally, some are just plain dumb. And the Pats are really good at finding those.
Bingo...the stats going back to 2008...when teams were FIRST allowed to supply their own offensive footballs, totally backs this up...
This is all FREEPER only published research on the Patriots' fumbles' ratios before & after 2007...including what exPats did fumblewise AFTER leaving the team:
Charts & all included @ this link...
Ludicrous. Might as well allow each team to supply their own sized footballs as well.
After all, per you, "why should restrictions on the balls be so tight?"
Even refereed pee wee football games don't allow those little balls you see at times tossed into the stands by cheerleaders.
The NFL’s attempt to disrupt the Patriots enough to have the Seathugs win two Super Bowls in a row failed, so the NFL had to save face...
“More probable than not”....LOL...what kinda BS is that? What a complete joke this commissioner is.
Now that this particular form of Patriot cheating is out of the bag, it'll be quite interesting to see if the Patriots' fumbles rate suddenly changes for the worse in 2015 & beyond...and if Brady's completion percentage takes a sudden plunge.
After all, doubt the NFL will let those pregame balls into the hands of cheaters again.
They didn't have criminal level determination of guilt...so they fell back on the civil level...a preponderance of guilt means more probable than not.
Changing the size of the ball would involve some level of “surgery”, that would be a bit beyond the pale.
I’m totally cool with them having rules governing the balls. But the rules need to be smart. Originally this rule was really for Wilson, these were the specs they had to ship balls in and teams weren’t allowed to tweak the balls. These specs made sense for Wilson, they didn’t want balls coming out of the factory in basically random condition. But then they specifically changed that (due to lobbying from star QBs like Brady, Manning and Rogers), they gave the teams room to tweak the balls. But they didn’t change the specs, they still kept the same window. Which no longer makes sense, there’s no good reason to have the specs so tight.
And I sure hope you’re just as indignant at Rogers who has repeatedly said he likes his overinflated AND tries to sneak them past the refs that way. Maybe the league should listen to this group of QBs AGAIN and loosen the specs.
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