Posted on 01/19/2015 7:48:57 AM PST by servo1969
The NFL has confirmed it is looking into charges the New England Patriots cheated Sunday night when they clinched a trip to the Super Bowl Sunday night by using deflated footballs.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed the probe Monday, following the AFC championship game, in which the Patriots demolished the Indianapolis Colts, 45-7. The charge was first made Sunday night, when an Indianapolis reporter that the NFL had seized at least one game ball from the AFC championship game to examine whether pigskins were intentionally deflated to make them easier to throw and catch.
“The NFL is investigating the possibility,” Bob Kravitz, of WTHR, tweeted, adding that, “at one point the officials took a ball out of play and weighed it.”
If the Patriots did cheat, it would not be the first time. The team was penalized a first-round draft pick, fined $250,000 and head coach Belichick was personally fined $500,000 after an investigation by the NFL determined the team had illegally videotaped their opponents hand signals during a 2007 game.
And unsubstantiated accusations of cheating have long dogged the team, stemming from their Super Bowl wins in 2002, 2004 and 2005. The St. Louis Rams claimed the team illegally videotaped their walk-through practices prior to the 2002 game, and players on the other defeated opponents have said the Patriots seemed to have inside knowledge of their playbooks.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yes, and according to the commercial I saw last night, all of those tablets were supplied by Microsoft. The official tablet of the NFL. I wonder if you can get them with the AFC champion New England Patriots logo and colors. It seems like a great marketing strategy. Kind of like the toasters that burn your favorite teams logo on your toasted bread.
As someone who was a center for several years, I can assure you if the QB is taking snaps over the line, and not long snaps...it could lead to a long afternoon of deflated balls.
The happens especially when the QB is the second string QB that comes in after an injury. Getting their hands located wrong can be a memorable experience.
I had one QB ask me to remove my protector. Because his hands were in the wrong place I was snapping it hard enough to bruise his hand. I sure as hell didn’t want those knuckles slamming into my fleshy parts!
Well, may be (the oddsmakers have opened at "Pick-'Em").
I'm not surprised by the allegation against belly-chick, but I would be very disappointed in Tom Brady if this is true. This morning Brady said this was ridiculous. I hope for the sake of his credibility Brady is right as he would certainly know if he was handling a deflated ball.
thanks !
I'm just thankful that this thread stopped at 183 posts. Lord knows I might have been here all day!
So how much does the air inside a football weigh?
Cheating is such a strong word...how about “gaming the system”...which is what the Patriots do better than anyone!
With a Microsoft Surface, I can use Miracast, which allows me to wirelessly project my Surface screen and sound to a flat screen TV. From there, I could record what was on the TV. The Surface device would never know.
Part of the problem the NFL runs into is a matter of who is in charge. Remember the commissioner works for the owners, so his level of power over them is limited. And there’s CBAs that include punishment limits for the players, coaches and refs.
The biggest punishment on the NFL books is draft pick removal. And they do it, though not lately, mostly because nobody breaks those rules (cap violation, and interfering with player contracts are the big 2) anymore. So maybe the penalties are enough.
Makes you wonder why more teams don’t cheat. .. at least to the extent of some teams. Oh, that’s right. .. integrity. I guess nice guys finish last. ..lol. I think some of the teams realize they aren’t as “tight” shall we say with the league HQ so they probably can’t get away with as much. There are definitely the “haves” and the “have nots” in the NFL IMNSHO.
Yes, it would be like trying to pass a football-shaped bowling ball..
I don't know what the temperature was when and where they inflated the balls, vs the temperature on the field at game-time, but if the balls were inflated at room temperature and then cooled down on the field, the psi would drop. That, however, would be the same for both teams. If the balls were different psi for each team, I can't think many reasonable explanations for how that could happen without cheating.
If the NFL does not inflate and check the psi of their game balls under the conditions of play, that is a problem with the NFL not being careful enough - not a problem with the team. Interestingly, if you wanted to cheat like this, all you would have to do is warm the game balls before the opposing team used them (increasing the psi), and cool them down before you use them (decreasing the psi). This could be done with on-field ball warmers set to different temperatures.
Interestingly, if one had ball warmers set to different temperatures for the home team vs the visiting team, one could vary the psi during the game, and after the game - under identical measurement conditions (e.g both balls at room temperature) there would be no differences noted. So, it's a relatively easy way to ‘cheat’ without being caught.
Makes you wonder why people assume there’s lots of cheating going on. Really big “scandal” of the Pats breaking a stupid rule the league already had the technology to make unnecessary (and then proceeded to use the technology and make it unnecessary) was 8 years ago. People act like it was yesterday.
The land of cheating is the NCAA, where teams know that no matter what happens in the long run they’ll get away with it long enough to get a new job before the NCAA lands on them. Heck that’s how Pete Carroll landed himself a SB ring (and maybe 2), he got out of dodge before the NCAA landed on him and started vacating victories from 5 years earlier. And who did they replace Carroll with? Lane Kiffin, who was fleeing SEC sanctions in Tennessee.
“The Surface device would never know.”
Since the Surface is actively broadcasting it HAS to know ...
What a beautiful day here in OKC. 72 degrees, no wind (and no wind is rare). Incredible January day. Summertime I'm about a 3 handicap. Winter I'm about an 8.5. Today was a great day :) I don't slice btw :)
No, I meant the Surface device wouldn’t be aware that I was recording the television screen. I can echo the video coming in into an output channel and then record digitally.
“No, I meant the Surface device wouldn’t be aware that I was recording the television screen. I can echo the video coming in into an output channel and then record digitally.”
1. You have to assume that they have NOT disabled WiFi
2. You would have to have a TV and recording device within WiFi reception area.
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