NFL bears plenty of blame for #DeflateGate

nbcsports.com ^ | 25 Jan 15 | Mike Florio

[big'ol_freeper]

But what has the NFL really found? As one league source has explained it to PFT, the football intercepted by Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson was roughly two pounds under the 12.5 PSI minimum. The other 10 balls that reportedly were two pounds under may have been, as the source explained it, closer to one pound below 12.5 PSI.

[Psalm 73]

AWESOME! Thanks for the link.

[ExpatGator]

Numerous teams have been caught spying. Just off the top of my head, Denver, NY Jets and even my Fins in the last couple of decades. They were organizational infractions that they were punished for.
Bottom line, all teams cheat when they think they can get away with it. Too much money involved and a lack of ethics all around.
Heck, every team has players on performance enhancing drugs. They are all guilty. New England has just had the bad luck of being the most successful team of the last decade and they are hated for it.

[Mad Dawgg]

See here is my whole problem with this issue. In baseball if you use spitballs and such you can get tossed from the game but usually they just substitute a new ball. And I am good with that. Its worked for a long time and no one gets bent out of shape if a pitcher uses such in the World Series etc.

Deflating a football a little though apparently is akin to treason even though there is really no way to tell who actually did the deed. I am not saying that the Pats didn't do it but unlike a spitball which is really easy to identify and very easy to tell if it has been tampered with a deflated football is not really visually apparent that its underinflated unless drastically so. Its more of a feel thing and unless you are specifically concentrating on the feel of the ball it would be hard to detect.

So the deed could have been done anytime. That makes it hard to say definitely who did it. And if you can't do that then even the motivation for doing so comes into question. Most likely it was just to get the Pats QB balls that were inflated to his liking but because of the nature of how inflating footballs and detecting if they are not properly done works it is going to be fairly hard to pin it on someone.

The NFL just needs to change the whole system that involves who is in charge of the balls once they are checked and certified by the refs. This should take care of the issue to a point you can hammer anyone who messes with the footballs.

[CodeToad]

[latina4dubya]

Read for yourself (or, if necessary, have Mommy read it to you!). Geniuses.

geniuses???

[latina4dubya]

You might want to retire to a quiet corner and work on your reading comprehension skills.

you are wasting your efforts... he thinks he is a "geniuseS..."

[Gargantua]

Wha..? Oppa dey boo nessis? I'ma shide dat pinny on da runny kine!

Sah-da-TAY!

;^)

[Gargantua]

Su intelligencia excede solamente para ti belleza. Guapa.

[discostu]

Except the guy who intercepted the pass has said repeatedly he didn’t notice anything odd about the ball. He gave it to his equipment guy because he wanted a souvenir, you don’t get a lot of interception off Tom Brady, especially not in the conference finals.

The more this meanders the more it’s looking like the refs messed up. Probably didn’t do as good a job checking the balls as they were supposed to. Which probably happens a lot. And the whole thing would have gone by unnoticed (like all the other times) except somebody told a journalist and then the Pats whiners went off the deep end.

[Biggirl]

The Seahawks are going to WISH that “deflategate” NEVER came out. They will be taking the BRUNT of a VERY ANGRY Patriots team.

[camle]

i thought they played the second half without the deflated balls....if so, then what’s all the fuss about? if they DID play with underinflated balls having been detected at half time by the officials, then why did they allow that to happen?

[RayChuang88]

After that video from HeadSmart Labs showing the potential for a Wilson official NFL football to deflate below 12.5 PSI legal limit due to weather conditions (under 50 °F. temperatures and high humidity due to rain), the NFL MUST refute that video or they are going to be in big trouble for taking the wrong tack on their analysis of football deflation.

[archy]

American Pravda has already spent more airtime on "Deflategate" than on Fast and Furious, the IRS targetting, etc.

When the magician wants you to not notice what he's doing with one hand, he does something with the other, with a nice added flourish or two to divert your attention from the real action.

Same deal with the democrat party media.

[archy]

Can we please have a moratorium of “deflate-gate” stories?

It was “bread and circuses” when the NFL concocted the “scandal” and it's still “bread and circuses”.

Obama deflated the economy footballs. Pass it on.

[WayneS]

Obama did it?

Not surprising.

In the back of my mind, I think I always knew that.

[NY.SS-Bar9]

Pete Carrol is a 9/11 truther

Bill Belichick has the ethics of a NY State Senator, and the entire league is full of thugs, misogynists and felons.

I stand by my statement.

[dainbramaged]

I stand by my statement.
All I can say to you is seek professional help, some sort of therapy or medication is warranted to offset that hatred for guys you don't even know.

[lepton]

No other team has had any sort of similar infractions organizationally.

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That’s not true at all. ...just no one cares for more than a week or so, and everyone moves on. Even Spygate was at the tail end of incidents with each the Jets and the Dolphins and videotaping, with the Dolphins getting the
Local stations to give them tapes of the Patriots which included line calls filmed using shotgun mikes and parabolic dishes. The accusation was that the Dolphins has commissioned them. The NFL said it wasn’t a violation of the rules.

Just within the last couple of years, you have two teams warming kicking balls, a QB discussing how he submits his favored overinflated balls and gets them through ( which isn’t a violation to submit them), and a team applying stickum to the balls during games (they were fined $20k for not cooperating with the investigation).

The list goes on, including coaches making provably false accusations.

[lepton]

IT WAS THE GUY WHO INTERCEPTED A PASS WHO NOTICED IT RIGHT OFF AND INFORMED THE REF...

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Nope. He said he couldn’t tell the ball was abnormal.

[lepton]

“There is a massive advantage to have a ball that’s easier to grip and hold on to. Easier to catch, less likely to fumble.”

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According to Sports Science tests, that amounts to at most 1.5% for the ranges being discussed - far less than the roughing up, and rubbing in of dirt and grit that teams are fully allowed to do...or the natural variance between individual balls...or the variance from play to play from the rain.

A larger difference is the benefit of practicing with muddy, sopping wet balls.