Theory - the equipment guys wiggle the needles around when pumping to make the valves a little leaky. All at the behest of evil mastermind TB12, so the balls gradually lose pressure.
Nice theory. Throw it in the pile with the rest of the crackpots.JohnnyK said:Theory - the equipment guys wiggle the needles around when pumping to make the valves a little leaky. All at the behest of evil mastermind TB12, so the balls gradually lose pressure.
Hoya81 said:Simmons thinks that they are going to cut Brady after the season now. He's lost it. A FA Brady would make the Manning stuff look crazy. Buffalo, Minnesota, Philly, Houston would all trip over themselves.
Jed Zeppelin said:
I believe he's been on this kick for a while now. Everything that happens is squeezed in to fit the narrative.
This would be most logical. "The equipment guys know how to condition the balls to my liking. The refs have already indicated that they tested all of them before the game, and they were all in spec. I've got too many other things on my mind during the game to worry about that."PaulinMyrBch said:He would not have gotten ahead of this, giving an 8 minute statement if anything in that statement was in the process of being proven a lie. He's out of it folks, this is good news.
Tommy, you're next. My guess is he'll admit he likes them on the 12.5 end of the spectrum and he plays with what they approve, and that will be it.
Then the NFL will be up next and they'll get scientific.
Smiling Joe Hesketh said:Full transcript:
“Let me just say that my personal coaching philosophy, my mentality, has always been to make things as difficult as possible for players in practice, and so with regard to footballs, I’m sure that any current or past player of mine would tell you that the balls we practice with are as bad as they can be. Wet, sticky, cold, slippery, whatever. However bad we can make them, I make them. And any time that players complain about the quality of the footballs, I make them worse, and that stops the complaining. So we never use the condition of the footballs as an excuse. We play with whatever, or kick with whatever we have to use, and that’s the way it is. That has never been a priority for me, and I want the players to deal with a harder situation in practice than they’ll ever have to deal with in a game. And maybe that’s part of our whole ball security philosophy.
“I’m trying to coach the team and that’s what I want to do. I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on the footballs. They know a lot more than I do. They’re a lot more sensitive to it than I am. I hear them comment on it from time to time, but I can tell you and they will tell you that there’s never any sympathy whatsoever from me on that subject. Zero. Tom’s personal preferences on his footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly provide.
“I can tell you that in my entire coaching career I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure. That is not a subject that I have ever brought up. To me, the footballs are approved by the league and game officials pre-game, and we play with what’s out there. And that’s the only way that I have ever thought about that.
You mean mysoginistic assholes who aren't nearly as smart as they think they are? There's probably a ton on those in the NFL, dude.SMU_Sox said:Simmons said what? I think I understand what it takes to be a sports journalist and op/Ed guy these days. Just come out with as much over the top shit as you want and if it doesn't stick who cares? This reminds me of the political scene. Sensationalized garbage. Hot garbage. Fresh garbage. No logic required. It's like listening to Ben Stein speak about how evolution doesn't prove gravity. Stupid on so many levels it's hard to contemplate. Where's the NFL's Thunderf00t when you need him?
dcdrew10 said:
I am so happy he's the HC of NEP. Love the subtle FU to the Colts.
Hoya81 said:Simmons thinks that they are going to cut Brady after the season now. He's lost it. A FA Brady would make the Manning stuff look crazy. Buffalo, Minnesota, Philly, Houston would all trip over themselves.
Jed Zeppelin said:
I believe he's been on this kick for a while now. Everything that happens is squeezed in to fit the narrative.
I stopped reading here, because anything said based on this falsehood would be pointless.Gator4MVP88 said:I need to put some coherent thoughts together as this subject has, quite frankly, taken over my life. I know I have better things to do and I need to stop focusing 80% of the useful portion of my brain to this. Before I get too far into it, I should say that my opinion thus far is formed out of the facts as we know them, which are far from complete, plus some of the additional reports that have come out, which, as this point, appear that the guilt is on the Patriots. There is still a lot more that needs to come out, so I don’t think my opinions are set in stone, and anyway, mine are pretty easily swayed by whatever I heard last.
The Patriots have had a ridiculous amount of sustained success in a league that’s been designed to increase parity through free agency, the salary cap and unbalanced schedules. Those three things place an upper limit for the on-field product, but despite that, the Patriots have been able to excel by maximizing what they do off the field in terms of preparation and decision making. A lot of times, they’ve won the game before they’re played. Any fan of any team that hates the Patriots for this is rationalizing for their own team’s mediocrity. You can always outwork your opponent, most just don’t.
The NFL has a rulebook that governs on-field play and it also governs what occurs off the field. When a violation of the rules occurs on the field, a flag is thrown and a penalty is assessed. The penalty is predetermined, gets assessed and the game moves to the next play. Is every violation called a penalty? Heck no. Players on the field will push the rules to the limit; if they go too far they get flagged, and we move on to the next play. If the refs miss one and they don’t get flagged, we move on to the next play. Some penalties result in an ejection. These are typically for offenses that threaten the safety of another player. But the game moves on.
Off the field rules are no doubt very tricky to referee and even more tricky to penalize. If pushing the limits of the rules on the field of play is generally accepted as it is (because of that we have 7 guys in stripes paying attention), I would consider that the same should be true for off the field. The NFL is a printing press when it comes to money, but there is little or no enforcement for off the field infractions, other than after the fact. How can this be possible? When the margin between winning and losing is so razor thin, the sport, to me, loses a lot of credibility by not monitoring everything that goes on that can affect wins and losses. $10/hr ball boys that are team employees? For a multi-billion dollar enterprise, does that make any sense to anyone? To me, we as paying fans, whether we go to games or buy the jerseys or products they endorse, deserve better.
In baseball, when a pitcher is found to be doctoring the baseball in a way that breaks the rules, he will be ejected from the game if caught, like the Yankee game earlier in 2014. In the case of #Ballghazi, once it was found that the football had been doctored.
Unless the NFL is certain of their ability to ensure with 100% accuracy that every play in every game from now on is run with a ball that has a PSI between 12.5 and 13.5, they want to keep it from being simply about numbers. Take the angle that the pre-game PSI specified in the rulebook is to prevent excessive doctoring of the ball, and that once the game starts it's at the ref's discretion whether a ball needs to be removed from play and reset to spec. The rule was never intended to indicate that plays run with a ball falling outside the 12.5-13.5 range were somehow invalid. If the investigation ultimately finds that the lower PSI resulted from specific actions that go beyond reasonably acceptable handling practices, then, as was the case with the Vikings, the Patriots will be instructed to cease those practices. But the league does not find the lower PSI found in the Patriots balls in and of itself to be a concern.The NFL needs to release the measurements from before the game and halftime if they want to get this cleared up. Too many people will think the NFL swept it under the rug to protect the Pats like with spygate.
This all becomes really simple with the before and after numbers.
Mystic Merlin said:Simmons has been concocting theories about Brady's departure left and right.
Early indications are that many players and former players don't take the rule too seriously. One of them, former Washington quarterback Joe Theismann, went so far as to do a test with one legal football and one deflated football on Wednesday.
"I wanted to physically handle the footballs and see if I could tell a difference in them," Theismann told USA TODAY Sports' Jim Corbett. "And I couldn't."
Theismann went on to quote Dan Marino: "The last thing you're thinking about as a quarterback when you get to the line of scrimmage is, 'I wonder if this football is 2 PSI lighter?' "They came out of the woodwork, these legendary quarterbacks, furrowing their brows and wondering what all the fuss was about after all the news media reports about the underflated footballs.
"I've never heard of this before," Super Bowl XXII MVP Doug Williams said in a phone conversation Wednesday, "but it could have happened to me, I don't know. When it's cold, the football is going to be harder to catch no matter what the pressure is. But I don't know that I ever would have noticed it, if it was one pound or two pounds more or less." Williams' Super Bowl teammate, Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green, was equally unconcerned.
"We're talking about a millimeter, which is very insignificant in the scheme of things," he said over the phone. "To use the term deflated is an over-exaggeration. It's not truly deflated. The only reason this is a story is because it's about this coach who is known for these kinds of things in the past. Otherwise, it would be a non-story."
Simmons has been saying that since the restructuring of Brady's contract a few weeks ago. Nothing new. Nor relevant. Nor interesting, for that matter.Hoya81 said:Simmons thinks that they are going to cut Brady after the season now. He's lost it. A FA Brady would make the Manning stuff look crazy. Buffalo, Minnesota, Philly, Houston would all trip over themselves.
lambeau said:BB seemed to be putting out the theory (without being explicit) that the Pats' balls are submitted at 12.5 psi, leaving no margin for deflation during normal usage, which must have occurred.
While this is probably not the correct explanation (that 11/12 balls lost 2 psi and the Colts' didn't), it may be hard to disprove, and may be a (just barely) viable defense.
Guapos Toenails said:I'm equally disgusted by all the Pats fans that couldn't wait to fall on their swords and express their disappointment with BB. Just as bad as media that piled on. People are so. F'ing. Stupid.
093917 All right. I'll start by addressing the football issue here. I came in Monday morning I was shocked to learn of the news reports about the footballs. I had no knowledge whatsoever of this situation until Monday morning. I've learned a lot more about this process in the last three days than I knew or had talked about it in the last 40 years coaching in this league.
3947 I had no knowledge of the various steps involved in the game balls and the process that went through -- that happened between when they were prepared and went to the officials and went to the game so I've learned a lot about that. I obviously understand that each team has the opportunity to prepare the balls the way they want, give them to the officials and the game officials either approve or disapprove the balls and that really was the end of it for me.
4025 Until I learned a little bit more about this the last -- the last couple of days. Let me just say that my personal coaching philosophy, my mentality has always been to make things as difficult as possible for players in practice, and so with regard to footballs, I'm sure that any current or past player of mine will tell you that the balls we practice with are as bad as they can be, wet, sticky, cold, slippery.
4104 However bad we can make them, I make them. And any time that players complain about the quality of the balls -- footballs, I make them worse and that stops the complaining. So we never use the condition of the footballs as an excuse. We play with whatever or kick with whatever we have to use and that's the way it is. That has never been a priority for me, and I want the players to deal with a harder situation in practice than they'll ever have to deal with in the game, and maybe that's part of our whole ball security philosophy.
4153 I'm trying to coach the team, and that's -- that's what I want to do. I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs. They know a lot more about it than I do. They're a lot more sensitive to it than I am, and I hear them comment on it from time to time, but I can tell you and they will tell you that there is never any sympathy whatsoever from me on that subject. Zero.
4227 And Tom's personal preferences on his ball -- footballs are something that he can talk about in much better detail and information than I could possibly -- than I could possibly provide. I can tell you that in my entire coaching career I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure.
4258 That is not a subject that I have ever brought up. To me, the footballs are approved by the league and game officials pregame and we play with what's out there and that's the only way that I have ever thought about that. I've learned about the inflation range situation.
4329 Obviously with our footballs being inflated to the 12.5 pound range, any deflation would then take us under that specification limit. Knowing that now, in the future we will certainly inflate the footballs above that low level to account for any possible change during the game. So as an example, if a ball deflated from 13.2 to 12.9, it wouldn't matter but if it deflated from 12.5 to 12.3, it would so -- as an example.
4422 So, we will take steps in the future to make sure we don't put ourselves in that type of potential situation again. The national football league is investigating the situation. We have cooperated fully, quickly, and completely with every request that they have made, continue to be cooperative in any way that we can. I have no explanation for what happened and that's what they're looking into.
4505 So I can't comment on what they're doing. That's something that you should talk to them about. Again, my overall knowledge of football specifications, the over all process that happens on game day with the footballs is very limited. Let's say that during the course of the game I honestly never -- probably has happened on an incomplete pass or something, I've never touched a game ball.
4540 That's not something that I have any familiarity with on that. And, again, I was completely and totally unaware of any of this that we're talking about in the last couple of days until Monday morning.
4558 So based on what I know -- knew Sunday, Sunday night thinking back on this, which I have done several times, I really can't think of anything that I would have done differently based on what I knew then, based on what I know now. I told you the one change we would make in the initial start level of the football pressure, but that's -- that's really about it.
4627 And it's unfortunate that there's a story coming off of two great playoff victories on our football team, our players but, again, we've been cooperative with the NFL investigation, we'll continue to do so, and we will turn all our attention and focus onto the Seattle Seahawks, a very well-coached, talented, tough, competitive football team.
4657 We've spent the last four days, three days with our preparations and so forth for the trip, and those are coming to a conclusion. We're wrapping that up. And we're starting our preparations today with the Seahawks and practicing through the weekend. So we'll have a good, solid opportunity there to get ourselves ready to go before we head down there.
4729 Again, I have no further comment on the NFL investigation and I have told you all I know about the subject from my perspective so that's where we are.
Q: The NFL investigation, in your own investigation did you find whether or not anyone --
4752 I've told you everything I know.
Q: Coach, where do you --
4756 I have nothing -- I don't have an explanation.
Q: Understanding what you've said here today, a lot of people were questioning your integrity. You say --
4806 I've told you everything I know.
Q: What do you say to critics who are challenging your character? It goes well beyond the sport of football.
4815 I've told you everything I know.
Q: Any message to the fans who are watching all of this?
4821 I've told them everything I know.
Q: I assume you've had conversations with Tom about this issue and what happened --
4832 I have no explanation.
Q: Coach, why do you think these controversies continue to follow you?
4840 I don't have an explanation for what happened.
Q: The super bowl and distractions come with the territory. What do you say to your younger players who don't have the experience being in the spotlight like this?
4854 None of them are involved in this.
Q: Tom Brady involved after the inspection of the balls?
4908 Those are all questions that should be directed to the league and that's part of what they are doing. That's not what I'm doing.
Q: Is it possible that someone on your sideline, even though you may not know it happened, deliberately altered a ball?
4924 I don't have an explanation for what happened. I've told you all that I can tell you from my point of view and anything coming from the investigative side from the league needs to be directed toward them.
Q: Why do you want to over inflate the balls unless you think that somehow it happens naturally?
4942 So that there is no opportunity for a small margin of error that would put us under the specifications.
Q: Do you see any other circumstance -- coach, do you see any circumstance where the 12 footballs could have accidentally deflated?
4959 I don't have an explanation for what happened.
Q: We know how much you care about obviously what's going on. What's it been like for you since you found out about the investigation?
5016 As I said, I've learned a lot about the process. I had no idea how the balls got from the official's locker room out on the field and so forth and so on and all that. That's not something that I had ever thought or concerned myself about at game day. I've concerned myself with preparing and coaching the team. So some of the things like that that have been talked about that have happened, I'm totally unaware of. All right. Thank you.
lambeau said:BB seemed to be putting out the theory (without being explicit) that the Pats' balls are submitted at 12.5 psi, leaving no margin for deflation during normal usage, which must have occurred.
While this is probably not the correct explanation (that 11/12 balls lost 2 psi and the Colts' didn't), it may be hard to disprove, and may be a (just barely) viable defense.
It's true is a distraction for the fans, and, to some extent, the team's staff. Fortunately, this is a "bye week".dcmissle said:TBs scheduled media availability has been moved up a full day from Fri pm to this afternoon.
The statement of BB concludes with the need to get on fully focused with game prep -- that this week has been devoted to trip logistics so far as players are concerns.
Statement also laments 2 impressive playoff wins tainted with Harbaugh crap and this crap.
Don't tell me this isn't a major fucking distraction. Portions of the statement almost seem like plea to players and assurance to fans that we'll attempt to get over distraction.
Brady better clean ut up as best he can. This sucks
They moved a media day and someone prepared a statement for BB. How is this affecting their prep again?dcmissle said:TBs scheduled media availability has been moved up a full day from Fri pm to this afternoon.
The statement of BB concludes with the need to get on fully focused with game prep -- that this week has been devoted to trip logistics so far as players are concerns.
Statement also laments 2 impressive playoff wins tainted with Harbaugh crap and this crap.
Don't tell me this isn't a major fucking distraction. Portions of the statement almost seem like plea to players and assurance to fans that we'll attempt to get over distraction.
Brady better clean ut up as best he can. This sucks
There aren't enough highlighters in the world.OnWisc said:I'm not familiar at all with the NFL rulebook, but I wouldn't be surprised if Goodell appointed a team to go through the whole thing this offseason and proactively identify any unnecessarily specific language or other rules that are not enforced 100% of the time.
D and C immediately went down this road.DrewDawg said:Lead story on both cnn.com and foxnews.com right now, with Fox going with the BB threw Brady under the bus" angle.
Ralphwiggum said:Someone needs to change dcmissile's avatar to a dark cloud of doom hanging over a Patriots logo or something.
ifmanis5 said:Tom should move his presser to Salem as this has degenerated to a witch hunt.
I just wish he'd step out from the ledge my friend.Ferm Sheller said:
He's caused me to not be able to get Third Eye Blind's Jumper out of my head.
SumnerH said:
There are reports in this thread that the tested balls were 2 PSI below the minimum, 2 PSI below the 13 PSI target, and 1/2 PSI below minimum. Probably of other numbers, too. Until the NFL report comes out, we're speaking ex-chapeau.