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 ...
I agree and for Ballicheck to say he isn’t aware of any ball manipulation is hogwash. He is a known cheater and will go to ANY lengths to win.
What’s all the ‘hoo-ha’ about this, other than a lot of people who just don’t like that team winning? I don’t even watch football, but I know that each team controls it’s own balls. It’s not like giving the other team a ‘bad’ football.
There is a measure of inflation rate to be followed, it was cold weather that perhaps affected it too. One thing I do know is that REFEREES will toss the ball back and forth to each other to check the weight. Have they asked the referees?
Thank you, I'm always trying to shoot for the stars.
But in all seriousness, I liken this to cheating at a poker tournament. Suppose you're at a game, and you've devised a way to give yourself, say, a ten whenever you need it.
This advantage would make you a tad bit bolder, willing to stay in more pots. And you'd win more pots. In tournament play your growing lead would force other players to play more marginal hands, or get blinded out.
The thing I notice... a lot of people who obviously don’t know much about the topic and have very little experience with a football.... weigh in on the topic, and somehow think that a pound and a half of air pressure is such a difference that it is the deciding factor in a game. Its crazy.
A pound and a half of air pressure is NOT EVEN CLOSE to giving yourself a 10 every time you want it in poker. Its a crazy comparison. So you may hold both the 2nd and 3rd craziest statements now.....
Reality #1.. Lots of deeper routes are called on any given pass play & it's quite often left up to discretion of a veteran Q as to whether he will go deeper, shorter, or a "check-down"...
So you're assumption that it's all left to the offensive coordinator as to whether to go deep is off-base...Brady may have had ... and likely so... options on that 30-yard lst qtr play...and it would have been up to Brady's confidence level as to whether he would throw deep or go shorter route receivers...
Just like a Major league pitcher, who might know he's got a baseball all cut up and easier to "junkify" would have more confidence in throwing such a junk pitch in a key situation.
The key factors anybody associated with the offense is going to consider in pelting rain conditions is the catchability of wet footballs ... and if somebody knows it's more catchable, it simply increases the confidence of the person making the play.
The Referee’s run each ball into the game. The Ref’s are constantly swapping in new footballs.
Are we to believe the Ref’s, responsible to identify rule infractions and assess penalties, did not realize the balls were under inflated?
Maybe, it was the junior Ref from Cinci, the one called Gruber.
Then again, What difference, at this point, does it make
-— somehow think that a pound and a half of air pressure is such a difference that it is the deciding factor in a game. Its crazy. -—
I think this is what’s driving the issue nationally. They should know that in the second half, when Brady was using regulation balls, and when it was raining harder, the Pats outscored the Colts 28-0.
Brady is on the record stating that he likes deflated balls. I’m sure that he regularly submits low or underinflated balls. I doubt that the refs ever check the pressure. But they can’t admit it unless they want to lose their jobs. I know it’s part of their job, but who would check 24 balls with a gauge before a game?
I'll say it again... it is a crazy statement, and unlearned, no knowledge statement, that says Brady or his coordinator would think "wow, I can throw it deep now that the ball has a pound and a half less air in it". Period. It is a dumb thought to believe that.
...and Brady was the first to think of deflating the ball??? Really! And now a conspiracy of three people?? Relax,its a football game. This narrative is stomping on real breaking news.
Have the bookies commented on deflate gate. If no, the air pressure in the ball is meaningless
Yep... I agree. It would be a crazy though to think Brady is in the huddle going... “damn, I wish I could throw it deep, but you know... the ball has 13 pounds of air in it instead of 11.5. People who believe that is possible have never really played much football, or thrown one much.
“and if somebody knows it’s more catchable, it simply increases the confidence of the person making the play. “
Looking at Brady’s first half pass stats, he wasn’t very confident. Most of his passes were for less than 10 yards (including run after catch yards).
Later on tonight I'll be checking to see if either Brady or Belichick belong to the Illuminati. So don't count me out for that number one spot just yet.
Right. It does not make sense that he prefers 12.5 psi to 13.5 psi, but could not tell that the balls were 10.5 psi. It also does not make sense that the NFL conducted 40 interviews and did not speak to Brady.
Who does he think he is... Bill Clinton?
IMHO, the main reason they are playing deny, deny, deny, is that this has been going on a lot longer than anyone is talking about.
Yard-wise, yes, but not completed "downfield" passes.
ALL of Brady's completions, as far as I can tell, were short passes...EXCEPT the one to Vereen in the first quarter...and the 22-yarder in 2nd half to Edelman down the middle.
But once you're up, you don't even need to throw downfield, do you?
If you review ALL of the 2nd-half pass plays, as I have in Espn's play-by-play account, you'll see any double-digit gains in 2nd half were ALL (except 1 by Edelman) short passes. Quite significant YAC (Yards After Catch) kicked in on 3 other passes:
* 16-yarder by Gronk (was a "short" pass)
* 16-yard TD by eligible lineman (you can see this one online somewhere)
* 23-yarder by Edelman on wide-out screen
So we're back to confidence-level issues: Teams are going to pass, no matter what the weather conditions are. They are more likely to throw it short in wetter conditions, and especially when ahead.
Indy didn't have that luxury once falling behind by multiple scores...and Luck is probably #2 Q in league behind the Ravens' QB in throwing downfield as a regular part of offense...so you could see reluctance to move away from that because that success is what got them where they were.
So far your arguments have consisted of “That’s stupid” and “You’re Crazy” Wanna try for “Don’t be a doo-doo head?”
I just read through more of the comments and everybody has an opinion. Since I’m not a football watcher I can’t say more. It’s the same old story with every topic, if you are for the ‘person, sport, team’, you argue for them and if you are against you argue against.
It’s the same in politics, religion, etc.
Well, that is true. The wetness heavily contributed to that. The coverage of deeper receivers on certain plays probably contributed some to that.
My point is that "Deflate Gate" in my opinion contributed HEAVILY to New England's 2nd TD.
Take away that TD, and Indy may not have fallen down 14-0 in first half...and would not have so readily abandoned its run game, which up until then was averaging 5 yards per carry.
In wet conditions, the run game is vital. I believe if Indy was down 7-0 instead of 14-0, it would have stuck to a roughly 40% run vs. 60% pass game. Instead, what we saw, once it became 14-0, was Indy to run only twice more the rest of the first half. Then down 17-7 at half -- versus say, 10-7 -- Indy went on to completely abandon the run...passing 10 of 11 times in 3rd quarter.
I'm not by any means saying Indy would have won the game. I am saying that it contributed a domino effect -- a "slippery" slope -- that made it basically impossible for Indy to even be in the game early in the second half.
I believe Belicheck when he says he didn’t think about this crap. I think Brady told the equipment guys what he wanted. And he got it.
The ball security is tighter in D3 college football than in the NFL.
The whole thing is a joke. The fact that this is even on the news tells me how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone.
Has anyone noticed Europe is circling the drain, along with the Middle East?
We are so screwed. Brady was right. This ain’t ISIS.
I’m not making arguments. I’m making declarative statements.
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