#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[Hoya81]

Unless the Pats practiced with the underweight balls, the chance that it would disrupt Brady's timing and lead to over/under throws and drops seems like too much of a risk.

And I'm sure after Spygate, Kraft must have told BB to avoid situations like this, so why take the chance?

 

[rodderick]

I'm 99% sure the official story will be that a ball was slightly deflated, which is a common occurrence, and that there was no evidence of tampering.

That being said, there's also a slight possibility that Goodell decides to go into "Take issues of integrity very seriously, will be thorough in our research on these serious allegations..." mode and just fucks everything up.

 
Somehow, public opinion believes Goodell was too lenient on the Patriots for "Spygate", so my fear is him trying to prove something with this inane shit to appear proactive.

 

[Reggie's Racquet]

Can we change the name of the thread to....
"Deflate balls of Ire" ?

 

[BlackJack]

Somehow, public opinion believes Goodell was too lenient on the Patriots for "Spygate", so my fear is him trying to prove something with this inane shit to appear proactive.

This is one of the things about [tapingfromthewrongpartofthefield]gate that annoys me the most. People saw the magnitude of the penalty and assumed that the offense must have been really bad. That in turn leads them to focus on how bad it must have been which results in the offended person saying that the punishment should have been harsher (Suspending/Banning Belichick, vacating playoff wins/superbowls, etc).

It's a stupid-cycle.

 

[crystalline]

 
Somehow, public opinion believes Goodell was too lenient on the Patriots for "Spygate", so my fear is him trying to prove something with this inane shit to appear proactive.

Coaches and league people know the truth: all coaches tape games and signals and Belichick only broke the league rule about the camera location. And Goodell was new, and needed to assert his authority evenif over something small.

I think Goodell showed everyone who is boss already. And Kraft has got to be smart enough to fight back if the league tries to screw them again over something unimportant for the game. Kraft has a lot of capital with Goodell now. You're not going to see any more capricious punishments for the Pats.

 

[Ed Hillel]

Florio is on it: Is this the Beginning of the End for the NFL?
 

Given the franchise’s history, that’s precisely what the league seems to be doing, sooner rather than later.  Surely, the league office realizes the importance of a full investigation and complete transparency; those failures nearly brought down a Commissioner over a topic that had nothing to do with the playing of games.  Anything other than a full and complete investigation of a situation that has an impact on the game could bring down the league.

 
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/19/league-likely-will-be-saying-more-about-ball-controversy-this-morning/

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

Officials removed several balls from the field due to "abnormalities." Not clear whether there's any evidence of tampering.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/19/source-several-abnormal-balls-were-removed-from-colts-pats-game/

 

[67YAZ]

Peter King gave a detailed description of the refs' pre-game ball prep routine last December - http://mmqb.si.com/2013/12/06/peter-king-week-with-officiating-crew-part-three/2/

Seems like it would take quite a well panned and executed conspiracy to pull this off for questionable benefit.

 

[grimshaw]

We may as well at least discuss the extremely minute possibility that this is true since it is an odd thing to run with.  Kravitz insisted on the radio that his source is really reliable.
Wouldn't this be a terrible decision to make to risk losing draft picks for?

 

[Mystic Merlin]

What a mendacious, Bob Costas-lite turd.

 

[Silverdude2167]

How can you even know/check after a game in a downpour? That seems near impossible to accurately determine anything about weight and even less possible to determine the cause.

 

[crystalline]

Florio is on it: Is this the Beginning of the End for the NFL?
 
 
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/19/league-likely-will-be-saying-more-about-ball-controversy-this-morning/

Translation of Florio:
"I need to generate clicks. What 'storyline', factual or not, can I construct to get attention? Pats win? Nah. Brady's great play? Belichick passing Lombardi? Marshawn Lynch's 2nd half play? Russell Wilson's end of game drive? No,no,no, that will be just like every other writer today. Ah, making up some stuff related to the Pats and the rules? Great, that will bring in eyeballs."


This is just sports reporters that are really screenwriters, writing entertainment fiction. Blech.

 

[DanoooME]

To me this sounds like this troll Kravitz was told one thing, but heard something else entirely.  But I guess that's what happens when you have a troll brain.  How these guys aren't fired for this bullshit is beyond me.

 

[rodderick]

I just want to know how can the league possibly come to the conclusion that the Patriots were purposefully deflating balls. Belichick has been a head coach for 20 years, has played countless playoff games, a million bad weather games, and they choose this one to deflate footballs?

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

Well, he initially claimed that it would have hurt the Colts because they are primarily a passing team and a deflated ball is harder to throw, so it's not even clear that he knows what the issue is.

 

[bankshot1]

If we can use league precedence as our guide, Goodell will burn the footballs in question.

 

[Harry Hooper]

The weird thing is that the officials handle the ball at the end of every play and before the snap for the next one.

 

[johnmd20]

Another team loses, another team acts like a sore loser. So pathetic.

 

[rodderick]

Well, he initially claimed that it would have hurt the Colts because they are primarily a passing team and a deflated ball is harder to throw, so it's not even clear that he knows what the issue is.

 
I've only heard of deflated footballs being used to allow small handed QBs to throw more accurately. That's not the case with either Brady or Luck, so I still have no idea as to how that would be beneficial.

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

Another team loses, another team acts like a sore loser. So pathetic.

Haven't heard anything about this coming from the Colts.

 

[Filet-O-Fisk]

Not only do I believe that the Patriots intentionally deflated the balls, I believe Bill Belichick did it personally.   

 

[lexrageorge]

If you go to the front page of ESPN's NFL coverage, you cannot even find this story.  Which is all you need to know; it's complete and utter boycowcrap.  
 
We have the Colts version of Ron Borges starting the story from his twitter account, and known Belichick-hater Florio taking it on as his task of the week.  The accusations are laughable, and, as even Florio noted, the supposedly underinflated balls were removed prior to the game.  Even Florio admits:
 

it's "not unheard of" for a ball to be removed from play for an abnormality during the game

 
This will be a field day for the hacks; why D&C decided to give Kravitz an audience is beyond me. 

 

[DJnVa]

Tim Hasselbeck, who was once a Patriots ballboy, was jt on WEEI and called the scandal absurd and a non-issue.

 
Maybe, but the howling masses don't care if it's a real issue.
 
 
What ESPN Radio is saying is that, yes, the Pats provide the balls as the home team, but then each team has half of them on their sideline and uses those when on offense. Therefore, the Pats deflated the ones they used, while Indy didn't do anything to the balls on their side.
 
Or something.

 

[IdiotKicker]

Wasn't there a whole thing discussed by announcers during the GB game about how Rodgers likes harder balls that are more inflated? Or am I misremembering this? It seems like teams have some ability to tweak things on the balls, it's not a secret.

 

[rodderick]

 
Maybe, but the howling masses don't care if it's a real issue.
 
 
What ESPN Radio is saying is that, yes, the Pats provide the balls as the home team, but then each team has half of them on their sideline and uses those when on offense. Therefore, the Pats deflated the ones they used, while Indy didn't do anything to the balls on their side.
 
Or something.

 
So they deflated only their share of footballs after the refs checked them pre game?

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

I bet the Colts wish that ball that bounced off the punt returner's face had a little less air in it.

 

[DJnVa]

Another team loses, another team acts like a sore loser. So pathetic.

 

THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF AMERICA'S "EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY" CULTURE!!!

 

[BroodsSexton]

I bet the Colts wish that ball that bounced off the punt returner's face had a little less air in it.

 
I laughed.  Someone should .gif that one.

 

[Devizier]

 
THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF AMERICA'S "EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY" CULTURE!!!

quite the opposite. Higher stakes on winning means more soreness for the losers. And this is some sore ass losing, from where I sit.

 

[lexrageorge]

We may as well at least discuss the extremely minute possibility that this is true since it is an odd thing to run with.  Kravitz insisted on the radio that his source is really reliable.
Wouldn't this be a terrible decision to make to risk losing draft picks for?

Tomase insisted his source was really reliable when he broke the "video taping of Rams walk through" story, which was eventually proven to be false.  
 
Is it possible that a couple of balls were underinflated when the referees tested them?  Yes.  Is it possible a couple were found to be underinflated during the course of the game?  Again, yes.  Neither possibility, however, hints of anything nefarious being done by the Patriots, especially as the balls themselves are in possession of the officials for 2.5 hour before game time.  

 

[DJnVa]

 
So they deflated only their share of footballs after the refs checked them pre game?

 
That's the storyline.
 
They deflated the ones on their sideline that Brady used. Slightly deflated, easier to grip in rain.
 
 
When the Colts took the field, they used the ones on their sideline which were not deflated and therefore Luck had grip issues.

 

[Hoya81]

They keep a large number of balls on hand so they don't have to use one ball for the whole game, so removing a wonky one isn't unusual.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

I won't have a comment on this until I hear from Arlen Specter

 

[( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)]

It would be great if the nfl pulled krazitvs press credentials from nfl games. There really needs to be accountability

 

[Leather]

Jonathan Vilma, of all people, is saying "ok, so there's no story because it was a blowout and now we have to make up something to talk about? What are we talking about? It was 45-7!"

 

[soxfan121]

I won't have a comment on this until I hear from Arlen Specter

 
You know that book the kid wrote about going to Heaven was bullshit, right?

 

[P'tucket rhymes with...]

To me this sounds like this troll Kravitz was told one thing, but heard something else entirely.  But I guess that's what happens when you have a troll brain.  How these guys aren't fired for this bullshit is beyond me.

You seem to be under the impression that sportswriters exist to provide "news" and "information" rather than to "provide entertainment" and "generate clicks."
 
You are mistaken.

 

[H78]

Belichick is in the head of literally everyone who has anything to do with the NFL. Goodell, referees, owners, coaches, players, announcers, media, ball boys...everyone. No one wants to believe a coach can be as good as he is so they desperately try to find reasons to diminish his credibility as arguably the greatest coach in the history of the league. It's very obvious and extremely sad.
 
It makes you wonder if Vince Lombardi ever dealt with the same kind of shit? Were other coaches furious that they struggled to beat him no matter how much work they put in? Would they label him a 'cheat' at the first hint of a completely insignificant competitive imbalance to justify their own failures? The Patriots won 45-7, mostly behind a power running game, and people are talking about whether a football weighing 11.5 PSI versus 12.5 PSI is the reason why because it would have made it easier to throw and catch the ball. Just stop. This makes the NFL look like a league full of crybabies who don't know how to use failure as a motivational tool to improve.
 
Also, it's a shame that the NFL would let this be a distraction to one of the teams competing in the Super Bowl just as their two week preparation period begins. The Patriots should only have to worry about what they need to do to beat one of the best defenses in perhaps the history of the league; that in an of itself is a daunting task. The fact that during these next two weeks players and coaches will now have to deal with laughable 'cheating' questions in the wake of an AFCCG beatdown is completely shameful to the league, media, and perhaps most of all, the Indianapolis Colts.
 
If I'm Pagano, I pull a trusted reporter aside today and say, "You want an interview? Let me tell you all about how we got out-coached and out-played yesterday, this way our players know they need to improve this offseason if they want to win next year. We would have lost yesterday using glow-in-the-dark Nerf balls." The last thing I would want, if I were him, is for my players to think they could have beaten the Patriots yesterday if the ball wasn't - possibly - slightly deflated. You're giving them an excuse to think they're already good enough and Pagano knows they're not.
 
NFL - clean this up and clean it up quickly. These types of 'leaks', not the possibility of slightly deflated footballs, are becoming an embarrassment to your league and isolating large parts of your fanbase for absolutely no worthwhile reason whatsoever.

 

[Zomp]

Until the national media pick this up, or the NFL release a statement, this is pretty much a non-story right?  I mean the only person I've seen reporting it is that Colts writer so seemed a little out of his depth. 

 

[DennyDoyle'sBoil]

Maybe, but the howling masses don't care if it's a real issue.
 
 
What ESPN Radio is saying is that, yes, the Pats provide the balls as the home team, but then each team has half of them on their sideline and uses those when on offense. Therefore, the Pats deflated the ones they used, while Indy didn't do anything to the balls on their side.
 
Or something.

The rule seems to read a bit differently, and I'm not sure this is how it works. The home team provides 24 balls and makes them available for testing. (I doubt they actually are always tested but who knows.). The visitors can also bring 12 if they like. You use the home team's balls unless one is determined out of compliance or the home team's supply is exhausted, then you go to the visitor's balls. Just speculatimg here, but my guess is that Anderson thought some of the balls weren't right during the game and called for new ones and put it in his report. Since it's the Patriots it must have been some sort of deliberate cheating.

 

[Ed Hillel]

It would be great if the nfl pulled krazitvs press credentials from nfl games. There really needs to be accountability

 
Well, apparently what he said was true. Hard to blame him. It's up to the league now, which is rarely a good thing.

 

[Ed Hillel]

And we've made the front of FoxNews! Top story.
 
www.foxnews.com
 
Now the league has to act.
 

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.

 

[dcmissle]

Until the national media pick this up, or the NFL release a statement, this is pretty much a non-story right?  I mean the only person I've seen reporting it is that Colts writer so seemed a little out of his depth.

It has been picked up broadly. Example: Mike G of Mike and Mike -- "Not sure what to make of it."

I think Florio of PFT is correct about the NFL wanting to put this to rest promptly. And I suspect it will be.

As we have learned, there is a lot of filling to be done the next two weeks, and I don't think the NFL wants this to be any part of the filler.

 

[Boston Brawler]

And now we're at the top of drudge, too. With links to foxnews, cbs, and newsday.

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

And we've made the front of FoxNews! Top story.
 
www.foxnews.com
 
Now the league has to act.
 

 
Are you sure it isn't time for a colorful metaphor?

 

[ivanvamp]

We all know this is nothing but a gigantic pile of dog turd.  
 
However, we also all know that this will be buried into the subconscious of every Pats hater in America as another example of the Patriots "cheating", and respect for the Patriots will not be given in due course.  
 
And that will piss a lot of Patriots' fans off.  And rightly so.
 
But whatever.  Just win in two weeks.  Win.  Win.  Win.

 

[Leather]

Can you imagine if the Patriots had pulled that alleged fake crowd noise shit? Yet that was basically ignored. Perhaps rightly so, but the contrast between coverage is stark.

 

[DJnVa]

At some point, I would hope Kraft throws his weight around with Goodell and tells the NFL to VERY STRONGLY refute this.

 

[H78]

Can you imagine if the Patriots had pulled that alleged fake crowd noise shit? Yet that was basically ignored. Perhaps rightly so, but the contrast between coverage is stark.

 
Last week the losing team accuses the Patriots of cheating by using illegal formations.
 
This week the losing team accuses the Patriots of cheating by using under-inflated balls.
 
I mean, this is hysterical at this point. It's baffling that these men make millions of dollars as professional athletes and coaches and still don't know how to take a loss and become better because of it.
 
If the Patriots beat the Seahawks I'm already looking forward to the headlines. "NFL investigating whether Belichick used humidifiers on sideline to keep players' skin moist in Arizona desert"
 
I'm really starting to love the Patriots but truly hate the league.

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

Let's be clear here: There is no report anywhere indicating that the Colts are behind this. Bob Kravitz does not work for the Colts.