Posted on 02/25/2015 10:52:04 AM PST by Colofornian
The Deflategate controversy took another strange turn Thursday when Colts general manager Ryan Grigson revealed he had alerted the NFL the week before the AFC Championship Game about concerns the Patriots were underinflating footballs.
Grigson’s revelation, which came during a press conference at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, appeared to contradict league officiating director Dean Blandino’s strong denial the NFL had conducted a “sting” of New England during the title game.
“Earlier in that week, prior to the AFC Championship Game, we notified the league about our concerns,” Grigson told reporters Thursday. “We went into the game, we had some issues.
“I’m not going to get into specifics,” Grigson added, deferring to the NFL’s ongoing investigation by Manhattan attorney Ted Wells. “Hopefully everything can come out, and everybody will be able to have a clear look at the situation.”
Grigson’s revelation would seem to indicate the NFL had advance knowledge and was trying to catch the Patriots in the act during the first half of the title game, and when Mike Kensil, a former Jets executive who is now the league’s director of football operations, weighed New England’s supply of balls again at halftime.
Asked during Super Bowl week by The Post if the NFL was running a sting on the Patriots, Blandino said: “I don’t know where [the idea of a sting] came from. This was a problem that came up in the first half.”
Possibly backing up Blandino’s assertion is the fact the NFL did not log the weights of the Patriots’ footballs before the game.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Amnesty for illegals, ISIS on the march, Obama taking over the Internet, the country coming apart at the seams, and there are still those out there worried about this so-called “deflate gate” BS?
Seriously?
<><><>
Gothca. You can take the time to comment because you see the bigger picture.
Are you seriously unable to focus on important things and AT THE SAME TIME think about some unimportant things?
If not, sucks to be you.
There is something that has driven me crazy since the start of this controversy and it is the idea that weighing air versus air pressure is how you determine if a ball is under or over inflated. What is it with these commentators anyway? Am I all wet with regard to this matter? I never heard of, nor can I imagine that you can judge a ball’s inflation level by weighing it? It sounds preposterous to me.
Too many stupid people in sports. It’s pretty clear that a lot of sports commentators actually believe psi is determined by weighing on a scale. Unbelievable (’til recently)!
A completely flat uninflated football weighs the same as a completely overinflated round football because air has no weight.
“Every team tampers with the footballs,” Matt Leinart said on Twitter. “Ask any Qb In the league, this is ridiculous!!”
Leinart then carved out one exception: “Actually my guy @kurt13warner didn’t tamper w the footballs because he wore gloves,” Leinart said. “Used to irritate me..So correction, almost all QBs!”
Source: ESPN: Leinart says “every” quarterback tampers with the ball, except one
“That would have to be driven by the quarterback,” Madden told The Sports Xchange on Wednesday. “That’s something that wouldn’t be driven by a coach or just the equipment guy. Nobody, not even the head coach, would do anything to a football unilaterally, such as adjust the amount of pressure in a ball, without the quarterback not knowing. It would have to be the quarterback’s idea.”
Madden’s position makes a lot of sense. Quarterbacks are particular about their footballs. Anybody doing anything to the footballs without the quarterback’s knowledge or consent would be asking for a tongue lashing...
Source: John Madden: Blame Tom Brady for deflated footballs
So my reaction is two-fold:
1. Whatever is said about whether refs can -- or can't --tell the difference, there were plenty of ex-NFL qbs who in the wake of Deflategate's early articles who essentially said "Yup. Better believe you can tell the difference."
2. Just as this last article says "quarterbacks are particular about footballs" -- well, baseball pitchers are, too, when it comes to game-day baseballs.
And not just pros. Any high school pitcher and even most regular Little League pitchers can tell differences in balls like a rubberized t-ball vs. other balls.
The QB knows...and not only that...they don't want to practice with one certain level psi...and then wind up playing game-day with another...because it can throw 'em off just like a pitcher not being able to hit the strike zone because of an underweight baseball.
And QBs have to throw the ball longer than 30 yds.
Whatever the game-day psi is, ya better believe that the equipment mgr supplying the balls knows what Brady practices with day in, day out...that it's all very intentionally set...and to think that the equipment mgr would risk a Patriot playoff game by giving Brady balls something other psi-wise to what he's comfortable practicing with...is simply reaching for thin-air apologetics.
I'll add to what I said there...
Well, any Pop Warner QB who throws a lot could tell the diff 'tween an underinflated football and one that isn't -- no matter what the actual weight on some scale is.
Those who try to make this about why the refs who weighed the ball in the first place ignore the realities that ya better believe the QB isn't going to be throwing balls in a big playoff game that are off psi-wise than what he's use to practicing with...
Otherwise, the Patriots would have already given the walking papers to whatever low charge they had who submitted the balls to the refs.
I mean, why would some equipment mgr...knowing that Brady likes his psi level at "X"...fill 11 of the 12 balls in a playoff game to just "Y"??? Why would they jeopardize a playoff game?
I mean, that'd be like major league pitchers throwing one certain type of baseball all thru Spring Training...and a similarly weighted ball -- yet different in grip, etc. -- suddenly placed in their hand on Opening Day.
I'm stumped why people even go in this direction, knowing these kind of parallels.
OK...think of the jackie robinson little league team that just had its national title taken away because they recruited kids from other LL districts...their own Chicago version of a "dream team"...
Other coaches & admins in other LL districts in Chicago whose players were from those other districts knew it was happening...
...they knew about it as the team was formed...
...they knew about it during ALL levels of tourney play, which is multiple in LL...
...they knew about it in August AFTER they won the national championship...
It really wasn't til about November...and then again in December...when an opposing coach whose allstar team lost 43-2 to the Chicago dream team started ... and cont'd making noise about this...'Twas actually an initial investigation in Nov that didn't go anywhere...resurrected in Dec
Now why do I bring this parallel example up?
Because say I'm the Nevada team coach that lost to the dream team in the national finals. And I know about the cheating that's been going on.
I have several choices, & not all are mutually exclusive:
1. I could go to Ntl LL a day before the game
2. I could go to the umps pre game
3. I could go to the umps during the game...who would in turn feed it to the Ntl LL protest committee put together to handle protests immediately...and, btw, NOT a great testimony either to the coach or to LL to do that all by waiting to do it in front of a national audience...
Choice #3 could result in a protest, which due to the lack of info, probably wouldn't hold up. But then the coach would get the "sour grapes" and "is this the ONLY way you can win?" and "why are you discriminating vs. black families?" kinds of accusations...
So if I was such a coach, I might hope that I don't have to do any of these...I'd just hope we'd win, anyway, & eliminate the winning by the back door route.
So, while choice #3 might be a very late last-ditch option, it might be one worth trying if losing, which the Colts were doing at half.
Sounds to me like the Colts opted for something akin to choice #1 as the best option...skipped choice #2...and may have done choice #3...but in a very subtle way so as to avoid it being broadcast live on national TV vs. making a big show of things the way a LL protest would go down.
You missed the point of the question and your own post. I understand why the Colts would say something before the game, it’s a pretty standard thing in sport that if you think a future opponent is fond of violating Rule X you put a bug in the ref’s ear hoping for stricter enforcement. What I’m calling into question is this:
Grigson’s revelation would seem to indicate the NFL had advance knowledge and was trying to catch the Patriots in the act during the first half of the title game, and when Mike Kensil, a former Jets executive who is now the league’s director of football operations, weighed New England’s supply of balls again at halftime.
Why would the league FAIL to enforce the rule during the pregame inspection hoping to “catch the Patriots in the act during the first half”? That simply does not make sense. By properly inspecting the balls before the game that was their chance to catch them in the act AND not have it effect the game.
Good question
I thought this was all put to rest when it was discovered that an NFL employee was taking the original balls to sell and substituting them with others.........
No that was a special teams ball used by both teams
Well, that's not quite accurate........there was more to it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.