#DFG: Canceling the Noise
- Thread starter nattysez
- Start date
Agreed.Ed Hillel said:
Unless a Patriot employee (whether ballboy or Kraft himself) snuck into the Referee Locker Room (which would presumably be locked or otherwise filled with guys in stripey shirts) and deflated them right there. OMG, they probably even had the key. /tinfoilhat
PeaceSignMoose said:
"Standard procedure." The way people are talking you would think we're dealing with how security protocols for nuclear launch codes are handled when the president is on the move.
Who called this "scandal" Ballghazi first? Because I just saw that in the NYT.
Also, next time I leave the house, I intend to buy me some Uggs.
Also, next time I leave the house, I intend to buy me some Uggs.
Comfortably Lomb said:
We're not? Did you see those press conferences yesterday? This is much more important.
H78 said:
By Globe, do you mean Ben Volin, or everybody but Ben Volin?
Whatever "facts" have been reported are entirely specious facts until they come from something other than anonymous "league sources" or "sources close to the league/team/ref/ballboys".
I am a woman. I don't need any boots. But I am so fed up with this crap I am going to buy some of those crappy boots to support TB.Silverdude2167 said:
Section15Box113 said:
Towel boy, probably. Well-sourced whispers around the league say that they're the most likely agents.
Comfortably Lomb said:
Here is a video of the refs going through the ball check process before a game.
Sal, I don't want you to ever bring up what you just said to anybody else. Because, at best, nobody will ever take another word you say seriously ever again.
Sorry about that I realized that I assumed gender like an idiot after I posted it.InsideTheParker said:
shepard50 said:
Because none of it is coming from a source with a name. Volin got the 2 PSI stuff from Mort, who got it from some anonymous source that no other reporter has been able to verify. IT'S ALL FUCKING USELESS SPECULATION
The Pats should just say this. "Yeah, we inflated the balls with hot air. We did not think it was in violation of the rules. We won't do it again."SumnerH said:
End of scandal. And a lot of people probably applaud them for their genius.
Not that this is a legal proceeding, but it brings up an analogue in my mind. My dad is a lawyer, and he told me that the first thing that he did in any case where the arrest was predicated on a traffic stop for speeding was request the maintenance logs from the police for the radar gun. Apparently, every state/municipality has requirements for how often the equipment needs to be serviced, calibrated, and tested, but also that they almost never actually follow their own rules, despite the fact that this places the results outside of the manufacturers suggested tolerance levels/confidence intervals.crystalline said:
He has gotten a lot of subsequent searches (and speeding tickets) thrown out by demonstrating that the people in charge of using measurement equipment are doing so in an improper manner, and said that often the key was getting the cop on the stand and giving something along this lines of questioning:
Attorney: "Can you identify this document?"
Cop: "It's the maintenance log for our radar guns."
[Attorney then goes through process of forcing the cop to admit that the radar gun was not tested and calibrated recently enough]
Attorney: "According to the manufacturer's documentation, is this device 100% accurate all the time, or is there a margin of error?"
Cop: "There is a slight margin of error, that we take into account."
Attorney: "What is that margin of error, when within the proscribed usage and care?"
Cop: "x percent."
Attorney: "And what does that margin of error increase to after x months of improper maintenance and calibration?"
Cop: "..."
...Profit
Bone Chips said:
Except that it would now contradict what Belichick and Brady have said about their knowledge of the balls.
I wish I had a dime for every time I've heard people say authoritatively 'once a cheater, always a cheater.' I've been walking around town for a week doing a constant Facepalm.
shepard50 said:
Am I supposed to be impressed that they did this for the cameras?
My favorite part of that video is the guy exclaiming "12.5... eh, close enough" then nonchalantly tossing the ball aside. Guy doesn't care. Not hard to infer it's about making sure the equipment is fit to be in a game rather than some sort of advantage.
That video shows a pretty loose operation, at one point one of the refs says "close enough", if this were as deadly serious as it is made out to be you would think they would have a more organized operation.shepard50 said:
In addition that is how they did it when they were being filmed by one of the most popular(for whatever reason) football writers in the country, how do they do it when they aren't on film.
Can't even imagine what it must be like to sit in on an ESPN HOTSPORTZTAKE meeting. Sal Pal must be pissed he got stuck with The Ugg Motivation (sounds like a spy novel based in the Star Trek universe).
shepard50 said:
We don't know it because we don't. The officials are apparently saying they needle-tested them all. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. But we don't know.
The most plausible situation, imo, is that officials don't really needle test 48 fucking footballs before each game, because that would be a waste of time. However, when asked "did you test the footballs" they of course say "yes"...Aaron Rodgers is on record as saying he gets overinflated balls through the checks. How could he do that if the officials actually needle-tested each ball? Why wouldn't they test them all? Because there's no competitive advantage to 2 PSI either way, the spirit of the decades-old rule is pretty clearly "use a football inflated enough to work in a football game", and no one could have predicted the mind-fuckingly idiotic response this has generated.
But hey, I could be wrong.
Byrdbrain said:
Another thing: it's clear that they don't keep a logbook of ball pressure. He said, she said.
Comfortably Lomb said:
I'm sure there's some of that. If it's 12 or 14, I doubt the refs are moving over to the pump machine every time. It's kind of what Aaron Rodgers said, according to Simms -- sometimes they take a little air out of his.
We just really need to know the facts. What is the ref who checked the balls saying, and what were the numbers? This is to me the single most important piece of information and we don't have it.
Corsi said:
holy shit. That's AMAZING.
yes, Tom is lying because he wants to not offend women who buy Ugg boots. That's what he was thinking about in his press conference.
Does he even...? I mean... Fuck.
Bergs said:
We don't know. Nobody (edit: in this discussion who is rational and fair) is writing the obituary. But we're down to rooting for one of the following:
1) this one fact to have been reported wrong by several reporters
2) rogue ball boys
The rest of your posts is potentially negated by all the rumors the NFL knew about this going in and basically set a trap. This time they made sure to test every ball.
Again, I'm praying for the rogue ball boy.
Jed Zeppelin said:
"Mark, here's a picture of Willie Clay picking up that fumble and booger buddy's buttfumble. Bryan, here's a picture of Rodney mocking your stupid little dance in SB 39. Jarome, here's a bunch of pictures, take your pick. Stare at these for as long as you can during Brady's press conference and we'll cut the cameras immediately to you when it's over."
Well, if the Colts had tipped the league to their complaints then you can bet on the refs checking before this game. But doing so then makes the AFC championship game a sting operation.
Also, what are the rules about disclosure when one team lodges a complaint about another team?
Also, what are the rules about disclosure when one team lodges a complaint about another team?
amarshal2 said:
When the report comes out with specific numbers backing up the 2 PSI "fact", I'll buy it. Mort's report alone is too vague to be taken as gospel, particularly since there's been no corroboration of it in the 2+ days since it came out...just mindless repetition and embellishment.
The testing is loose. The logging of data on the balls is non-existent. The sources from the NFL are unnamed. A lot of people seem to think this is in itself a problem.
Its a football game not a federal courtroom. And it's a crummy rule no one really cared about in the history of ever until now. And it's a good bet (OMG WE CAN'T PROVE IT!) that the Patriots (and probably other teams) screw the balls around to get them how they like them.
Isn't the point that this is all overblown much more salient than trying to claim that the evidence chain is suboptimal. If you really look at this honestly, don't you think you think someone of the Pats staff did something to the balls?
Its a football game not a federal courtroom. And it's a crummy rule no one really cared about in the history of ever until now. And it's a good bet (OMG WE CAN'T PROVE IT!) that the Patriots (and probably other teams) screw the balls around to get them how they like them.
Isn't the point that this is all overblown much more salient than trying to claim that the evidence chain is suboptimal. If you really look at this honestly, don't you think you think someone of the Pats staff did something to the balls?