#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[Hoya81]

 
We'll have to agree to disagree on this.  I don't see reason why Kraft would make the statement he did if that were the case.  If it's Mcnally's decision then there's no reason for Kraft to take ownership of it.

 
McNally was allegedly also upset at being ambushed at home by ESPN's Kelly Naqi (whose husband is a Jaguars executive and former League office employee) and didn't want to be involved further.

 

[LuckyBen]

The Patriots were obligated to cooperate fully with the investigation. If their part-time employee told them he refused to participate in the investigation further, they should have immediately terminated him and reported to Wells that he refused to cooperate further and was fired as a result. No way to cite the Patriots for failing to cooperate then, I think.

So a phone interview is refusing to participate. Didn't some tool reporter snap a pic of McNally at his home recently and say he was told to leave. I wonder why McNally wouldn't want anymore personal visits?

 

[JasonVaritekIsMyCaptain]

Nice job turning everything into personal attacks on me.  Congratulations, the pro-Patriots mob is now just as bad as the anti-Patriots mob.  Bye now.

 
Agree with this sentiment. Year after year I have come come SOSH to read deep analysis, not quick takes and takedowns of open discussion.
 
Of course I think the Pats were screwed in a sting, but how are we moving the needle by repeating the same opinions and perspective over and over? 

 

[EricFeczko]

After following this entire disaster since January and reading the Wells report, I want to try and clarify one point mentioned a few pages back. 

Isn't the most damning part of the evidence that McNally was clearly doing something to the balls, sometime? Everyone interviewed, including Brady, said that he had no role in ball preparation. The texts show that's not true. 

Even if all the texts are explained as deflating balls prior to inspection, why does neither Brady nor any of the clubhouse personnel mention that McNally was ever involved in ball preparation? Isn't this the biggest problem with the Pats' defense? Am I missing something? 
 

Sure, but that's hardly damning evidence of anything, there are too many plausible explanations to rule out. For example, Jastremski was supposed to handle the balls but decided to give this responsibility to McNally (because Brady is an asshole regarding the game balls or something). McNally demanded that he be compensated for doing this for Jas.
 
That being said, it is grounds for not trusting Brady. Although, the report itself suggests that McNally was lying when he said that he was typically involved in ball preparation. Unfortunately, they don't provide much support for why Wells didn't believe McNally. 
 

 
Irrelevant.  There was no judge enforcing the rules of evidence.  There was no defendant's counsel ensuring that that his client was getting a fair shake.  There was just Wells.  The process sucked, but it was the best they could do.
 
One of many reasons why Kraft's lawyers should get fired.  This was not a legal contest, it was a street fight.  It's like the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark -- the Patriots thought they were pretty cool waving their sword around, only to see Wells pull out a (metaphorical) gun and shoot the Patriots down.  

This is getting even more absurd than before. The Wells report cleared the patriots organization of ANY wrongdoing.

 

 
We do not believe that the evidence establishes that any other Patriots personnel participated in or had knowledge of the violation of the Playing Rules
or the deliberate effort to circumvent the rules described in this Report. In particular, we do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots ownership, Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick or any other Patriots coach in the matters investigated. We also do not believe there was any wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing by Patriots Head Equipment Manager Dave Schoenfeld.

The wells report also noted that the patriots were substantially cooperative, except for this one thing.

 
In addition, the Patriots provided substantial cooperation throughout the investigation, making personnel, documents and other information available to us upon request. As noted herein, this cooperation was subject to an important exception — the refusal by counsel for the Patriots to arrange a requested follow- up interview of Jim McNally by our investigative team.

Apart from Wells omitting the texts,  you seriously think that any changes to the wells report would have seriously changed Troy Vincent's mind? This is a man who can acknowledge that the patriots organization had no knowledge, but should still be punished anyways.
 

 
"In accepting the findings of the report, we note that the report identified no evidence of wrongdoing or knowledge of wrongdoing on the part of any member of the coaching staff, including Head Coach Bill Belichick, or by any Patriots' staff member other than Mr. Jastremski and Mr. McNally, including head equipment manager Dave Schoenfeld. Similarly, the Wells report is clear that Patriots ownership and executives did not participate in any way in the misconduct, or have knowledge of the misconduct.
"Nonetheless, it remains a fundamental principle that the club is responsible for the actions of club employees. This principle has been applied to many prior cases. Thus, while no discipline should or will be imposed personally on any owner or executive at the Patriots, discipline is appropriately imposed on the club."

 

[Myt1]

The Patriots were obligated to cooperate fully with the investigation. If their part-time employee told them he refused to participate in the investigation further, they should have immediately terminated him and reported to Wells that he refused to cooperate further and was fired as a result. No way to cite the Patriots for failing to cooperate then, I think.

Contracts without explicit requirements to the contrary often have an implied reasonableness requirement. I think we'd all agree that asking to interview McNally 100 times at midnight wouldn't be reasonable and the Patriots would be justified in refusing. The question is where the line is. Given Wells's lack of credibility in hiding the ball initially and the NFL's failure to manage information properly throughout, I see no reason to credit his latest version of things over the other reports coming out about the league leaks to the press, and those would impact my analysis.

Wells would have just hung the failure to cooperate bootstrapping on Brady, anyway.

 

[54thMA]

 
 
Why bother?  I live in 49ers territory and their fans are gleefully calling Brady a cheater until I point out that they had a slew of domestic abusers playing for their team.  As for the Cowboys, look no further than here.  The minute a fan from an opposing team starts in, I check the arrest records and then point out that slightly deflated footballs are nothing compared to the horrific nature of domestic abuse or the danger to innocents that results from DUIs.  That usually shuts people up.   

 
I couldn't agree more, but this asshole has been on a mission since the day the story broke, he's gone on and on and on about it, I did my best to avoid him, but enough is enough.
 
He's purposely been trying to get a rise out of me since this started, shame on me for engaging him as it was a no win situation.
 
 The point I tried to make with him was if the shoe was on the other foot, how would he like it if I went on and on and on about the Cowboys being cheaters.  He said today Brady should just serve the suspension, not appeal it and admit he's guilty and be done with it, to which I replied that's very convenient as the Patriots play the Cowboys in game #4 of the suspension, no agenda there right? 
 
His reply was he doesn't live and die with his team like I do, he's not like me.
 
At that point, I was done.
 

 

[Myt1]

Agree with this sentiment. Year after year I have come come SOSH to read deep analysis, not quick takes and takedowns of open discussion.
 
Of course I think the Pats were screwed in a sting, but how are we moving the needle by repeating the same opinions and perspective over and over? 

He's entitled to his own opinion, not his own facts. Nothing in Kraft's statement contradicts anything and he was stupidly trying to play gotcha and wasting everyone's time.

Part of analysis is having the gumption to hear that your posting sucks when your posting sucks.

I mean, the guy dismissed a perfectly relevant response with: "Irrelevant." I'm not particularly concerned that hurting his feelings shut down some fruitful avenue of debate.

 

[EvilEmpire]

So a phone interview is refusing to participate. Didn't some tool reporter snap a pic of McNally at his home recently and say he was told to leave. I wonder why McNally wouldn't want anymore personal visits?

If McNally actually requested a phone interview instead of a face-to-face, sure that would change things a bit. The Wells report said that didn't happen. If it did, and Wells lied, their report is further tarnished beyond questionable science.

I don't think the stuff about the ESPN reporter has any bearing on Wells and the investigation he was charged to do. McNally can have a good reason or no reason at all for not wanting to cooperate. Doesn't matter. But if he doesn't cooperate, he shouldn't have a job with the Patriots.

 

[uncannymanny]

I went and dug this up from the report because it's been bothering me. Keep in mind these statements are all on the same page:
 

Although Anderson's best recollection is that he used the Logo Gauge, he said that it is
certainly possible that he used the Non-Logo Gauge.

 

We credit Anderson's recollection of the pre-game measurements taken on the day
of the AFC Championship Game based on both the level of confidence Anderson expressed in
his recollection and the consistency of his recollection

 

For the reasons described in Section VII.B, we believe it is more probable that Anderson used the Non-Logo
Gauge for his pre-game measurements.

 
Like, WTF.
 
That said, taking this spin through the report again I re-read all of the texts. They look worse than I remember when it came out. Yes, of course, they're not proof of anything specific, but if it was a report on the Jets and Geno Smith I think it's safe to say we'd all be all over it and people would be popping over to the GG forums to "needle" their fans. I'm not saying that TB was involved, aware, etc, etc, but I agree that it's more probable than not that *someone* was doing *something* they weren't supposed to be doing. Getting from there to this punishment, however, is a bridge way, way too far.

 

[Nick Kaufman]

 

My opinion on this as simple. The Patriots took something that didn't need to be a big deal and made it one. It was bad enough that the media ran with it, but the media is a child looking for its next toy, it would've dropped this story, moved on to the Super Bowl and hardly brush over it again. Instead, Tom Brady lied, the Patriots did not cooperate, and instead of preparing for the Super Bowl the entire week, the first thing they do when they land in Arizona is demand an apology, talk about scientific stuff they have no business talking about, and pretend they're a martyr. What occurred is really punishable by a very small fine, but since they themselves wouldn't shut up about it and turned it into a federal crime this is the end result. They set themselves up.
 

 
That's wrong. By the time the Patriots reacted, the story had turned into a world wide scandal of epic proportions which demanded all kind of heavy punishment. There's no way for the Patriots to react other than prove their innocence that doesn't lead them to incur heavy punishment.
 
Moreover, the Patriots were proven right with the scientific stuff they had no business talking about. No one talked about the ideal gas law before the Patriots did and the Patriots were right that the cold reduced psi.

 

[geigercount]

Agreed - there were members of the media talking that the Pats should forfeit their trip to the Super Bowl, before the Pats said anything. 

 

[geoduck no quahog]

Asking a favor: if anyone finds a transcript of the Wells interview could you please post a link in this thread?

Also, quick question: what do the ellipses mean in the text transcripts? Is that a shorthand or did the texts really include those things?

 

[Doctor G]

I can tell you one thing: I'm in Indy, and folks here are eatin' it right up.

The team on the other hand is maintaining strict radio silence. They know what's coming.

 

[Doctor G]

Agreed - there were members of the media talking that the Pats should forfeit their trip to the Super Bowl, before the Pats said anything. 

Belichick did his PC mainly so he could go back to preparing for the SB. Brady did his essentially as a follow-up to BB who suggested Brady was the ultimate authority on ball prep. Kraft did his as a response to the leak about McNally that occured  while the team was en route to AZ. There was never an instance of evasiveness in either of the press availabilities. Kraft simply appeared to be heading off an effort to try the case in the media, which he rightly viewed as totally unfair given the fact that his players and coaches were involved in preparing for the Super Bowl against an opponent who was slightly favored to beat them.
 
I don't see how at this point contrition would have been  a wise or reasonable response.
 
To simply say they should have come clean immediately  does not take their pregame and postgame situation into consideration.
 
Should they have dismounted the duck boats at City Hall Plaza  and thrown Jastremski  and McNally to the mercy of the crowd. 

 

[djbayko]

Moreover, the Patriots were proven right with the scientific stuff they had no business talking about. No one talked about the ideal gas law before the Patriots did and the Patriots were right that the cold reduced psi.

Well, that's not quite true. Gas' reaction to temperature change was being discussed from day 1. It's instinctive for many people who live in colder climates like New England, and there are many science-minded individuals who thought of it immediately.

The Pats were the first ones to add in the effects of friction caused by their ball prep process, but that's because only they know exactly what their process is. I always believed that 2nd piece was dubious because it was unlikely that they were rubbing their balls all the way up until game time, but it gave everyone more variables to consider.

 

[Jettisoned]

I went and dug this up from the report because it's been bothering me. Keep in mind these statements are all on the same page:
 
 
Like, WTF.
 
That said, taking this spin through the report again I re-read all of the texts. They look worse than I remember when it came out. Yes, of course, they're not proof of anything specific, but if it was a report on the Jets and Geno Smith I think it's safe to say we'd all be all over it and people would be popping over to the GG forums to "needle" their fans. I'm not saying that TB was involved, aware, etc, etc, but I agree that it's more probable than not that *someone* was doing *something* they weren't supposed to be doing. Getting from there to this punishment, however, is a bridge way, way too far.

 
This doesn't make any sense. If Anderson used the Logo gauge to set the balls before the game, then no tampering occurred.  Those texts only look bad if you assume the guys sending them are already guilty.

 

[DourDoerr]

It seems to me that on some level Goodell has to know this is a harsh punishment and he (if he values continuing as commish) wouldn't go forward if he didn't know he had strong support from some owners.  I think that, more than anything else, gives him the balls to take it to Kraft this hard.  That and $43 million/year of fuck you money.  And, yes, I do understand the contents of the tapes and the shitshow that is Spygate - at least the parts that are in the public record.
 
The private negotiations and conversations between the NFL and the Krafts over the tapes could have been embarrassing to Kraft though and he'd rather keep it in-house.  Publicly, Kraft has treated the incident as a boneheaded move and that BB was a real schmuck for doing something that was on the boundaries of the rules without any competitive advantage to be gained by it and the press/public has pretty much let it go at that.  If Kraft had a very different private take on the incident and how it would impact games and if RG was privy to that and could leak it, it'd cast Kraft in a bad light and he hasn't been in that position before.  As a respected and successful businessman, I'd think he'd be very reluctant to lose his sterling reputation, particularly at his age and with his son in position to inherit everything.  I realize it's a lot of "if's," but I don't think it's out of bounds to speculate that a guy like Kraft - who's been a godsend to New England Patriots fans - might worry about how he is perceived.
 
Also, I seem to have missed the memo that everyone else has read - why did RG burn the tapes?  He's been the subject of ridicule all these years over it and I don't recall his reasons for burning them.

 

[CaptainLaddie]

You know who would be perfect to take this on, although he never would because -- let's face it -- it doesn't mean much in the real world?
 
John Oliver.

 

[GeorgeCostanza]

Would be a great "how is this a thing" segment.

 

[m0ckduck]

 
From my Ravens (I know, I know) fan friend. I think this is a mostly a decent take, but I think he's expanding the scope of the charge a bit far. I had compared the concern about this contrasted with Rice's 2 games, Rodgers' overinflation discussed during the Pats game in Lambeau last season, the loss of picks, Brady suspension, plus why the Chargers and Vikings got a lot less. What say you of these statements? Reasonable guy, decent opinion, and so forth. But I hold strong in that it's at least somewhat apples-to-apples to compare this suspension with an actual crime (like Rice), unlike what he states below.
 


 
I think this is honestly this will be as good as it will get from fans of opposing teams, especially Baltimore fans. 2001-2006 perceptions of The Patriot Way aren't coming back, we all know this, but still. Thought it'd be interesting to add another team's opinion, especially given the nature of his fanbase, and his mostly reasonable outlook, a lot of which we haven't had here yet.
 


 

 
Your friend's take is indeed reasonable. If I was a Ravens fan, or a fan of most any other team, I would believe this too, because it would be true in my team's case: admit to a minor infraction, get an appropriately minor penalty, move on. What this take misses is that the public perception towards the Pats has become so sociopathic— and Goodell is so beholden to that public perception— that Brady would likely have been suspended for the Superbowl had he admitted any knowledge of anything. This is what the league has reaped with its disciplinary policy, where it's less about an objective assessment of what you did and more about who you are, and where you stand in the court of public opinion
 
You can see this assumption in a lot of the commentary out there among neutral fans and commentators: a belief that, for the situation to have gotten so glaringly irrational, the Pats must have authored that irrationality. 

 

[YTF]

Rudy Pemberton


 



Posted 11 May 2015 - 09:27 PM
 I think a lot of people owe Bud Selig an apology.          
 
 
I think Bud owes Roger a huge thanks and a handy.  

 

[Devizier]

It took 10000 or so pages before we got our first GBCW post? Impressive.

 

[nayrbrey]

 
Heck, I want anyone from NFL HQ traveling through New England to learn the hard way that invariably their luggage will be lost, their hotel room will be too hot or too cold, their meal orders will be jumbled up, and their drinks will be watered down to a ridiculous degree.,  

I wonder if Goodell will go to his vacation home in Maine this summer, that would be interesting to see for the reasons you mention.

 

[Super Nomario]

This doesn't make any sense. If Anderson used the Logo gauge to set the balls before the game, then no tampering occurred. 

If you read through the Wells report, it explains that assuming the Logo gauge would bring the Patriots' balls closer to compliance, but some of them have readings low enough that they can't be explained by the Ideal Gas Law (assuming starting point of 12.5 PSI, 71 degrees inside, and 48 degrees outside), and moreover for some of the balls measured later in the process, time variation means they probably would be higher enough temperature that Ideal Gas Law can't explain their readings (again assuming 12.5 PSI starting point). They get into this on pages 52-55 of the Exponent Report if you want more detail.
 
That doesn't mean tampering occurred - in fact, I find the pattern of variance bizarre compared to what I would expect for tampering - but it is not accurate to say that if we assume balls were Logo gauged at 12.5 pre-game that natural forces explain the final data.
 

Those texts only look bad if you assume the guys sending them are already guilty.

Yeah, I don't think it makes any sense to start with the texts and work backwards to find tampering in the data. If you find tampering in the data - and it's reasonable to see why Wells / Exponent concluded such - the text messages look fishy, although I don't think they really add up to a coherent story (why was McNally blaming the refs for the 16 ball if he was already deflating them, and if he wasn't why does it matter what he called himself six months earlier?).
 
The text messages are also significant because they're the only thing that implicates Brady. I do agree with the conclusion that if tampering occurred Brady was "more than probably generally aware" just as a matter of common sense, but I don't think there's anything resembling a body of evidence that would hold up in court (though IANAL).

 

[amarshal2]

1. Convincingly discredit the science in the Wells report in public (hire 10 neutral Phd's to review it, release their findings)
2. If possible, convincingly clear Brady's name. (After Brady's appeal is over and he's not setting precedent, he could do things such as take a polygraph for the sake of his legacy). If not possible, do your best to tell Brady's side of the story
3. If you succeed at 1 & 2, start applying pressure publicly and privately

Do not pursue any legal recourse because that will align the owners against you.

 

[koufax32]

If you read through the Wells report, it explains that assuming the Logo gauge would bring the Patriots' balls closer to compliance, but some of them have readings low enough that they can't be explained by the Ideal Gas Law (assuming starting point of 12.5 PSI, 71 degrees inside, and 48 degrees outside), and moreover for some of the balls measured later in the process, time variation means they probably would be higher enough temperature that Ideal Gas Law can't explain their readings (again assuming 12.5 PSI starting point). They get into this on pages 52-55 of the Exponent Report if you want more detail.
 
That doesn't mean tampering occurred - in fact, I find the pattern of variance bizarre compared to what I would expect for tampering - but it is not accurate to say that if we assume balls were Logo gauged at 12.5 pre-game that natural forces explain the final data.
 

Yeah, I don't think it makes any sense to start with the texts and work backwards to find tampering in the data. If you find tampering in the data - and it's reasonable to see why Wells / Exponent concluded such - the text messages look fishy, although I don't think they really add up to a coherent story (why was McNally blaming the refs for the 16 ball if he was already deflating them, and if he wasn't why does it matter what he called himself six months earlier?).
 
The text messages are also significant because they're the only thing that implicates Brady. I do agree with the conclusion that if tampering occurred Brady was "more than probably generally aware" just as a matter of common sense, but I don't think there's anything resembling a body of evidence that would hold up in court (though IANAL).

But the numbers are so close to completely explainable by nature that, in order for intentional deflation to have occurred, it would mean they cheated by degrees of .2 or.4 psi (rough numbers). That's the amount of air lost by simply measuring a ball another time. At worst, the Patriots are guilty of deflating a ball by infinitesimal amounts. That should raise the question of why do it in the first place? There's just no motive then.

 

[pappymojo]

 
When you're the one being investigated, you're in absolutely no position to dictate the rules.
 
 
Hasn't anyone been audited before?  Try that kind of attitude with the IRS and see how far it gets you.

The IRS is the government. The NFL is just a bunch of self important assholes.

Edit: sorry. Way late.

 

[Ferm Sheller]

Ever been captured by ISIS?  Try back-talking to them like you do your mother and see where that gets you.

 

[Granite Sox]

Wells and Goodell fished around for weeks looking for evidence that Brady ordered the Code Red.
 
Don Yee laid the bait, and Wells and Riesner snapped it up and basically blurted out that the NFL ordered the Code Red on the Patriots.
 
Touché.  Game On.

 

[uncannymanny]

 
This doesn't make any sense. If Anderson used the Logo gauge to set the balls before the game, then no tampering occurred.  Those texts only look bad if you assume the guys sending them are already guilty.

I was pointing out the inconsistencies in their trust of Anderson's recollections (which they do within a single page of the report).

As for the texts, I am not investigating anyone. I'm a former season ticket holder and very, very heavily biased in favor of the Patriots. I have done the same mental gymnastics as everyone else here to try to get to completely innocent, but I can't get there. You are also free to draw whatever conclusions you want, but I vehemently disagree that they only look bad if you're assuming the guilt of the parties involved. Quite the contrary, they're the *only* part of the report that makes me (you know, my personal opinion) lean to someone doing something nefarious and I'm not able to do blindly explain those conversations away as completely nothing. The rest of the report is a bunch of overwrought dog shit.

Ever been captured by ISIS?  Try back-talking to them like you do your mother and see where that gets you.

This was well done.

 

[Granite Sox]

I can tell you one thing: I'm in Indy, and folks here are eatin' it right up.

 

I have a safe house if you need one.

 
We can start an Underground Railroad of sorts...
 
Doyel, Kravitz, the TV stations have all been insufferable.  I'm practicing avoidance behavior.
 
However, one of the local TV guys interviewed Andrew Luck and asked him about it.
 
To his credit, Luck simply said, "I don't care [about DeflateGate]. We just need to figure out a way to beat them."
 
Luck's a good dude, but I hope he has an uncomfortable day against the Pats in the fall. /understatement

 

[LuckyBen]

Wells and Goodell fished around for weeks looking for evidence that Brady ordered the Code Red.
 
Don Yee laid the bait, and Wells and Riesner snapped it up and basically blurted out that the NFL ordered the Code Red on the Patriots.
 
Touché.  Game On.

I am very curious to see what the Princeton professor had to say. My guess is he disagreed with the findings, but Wells took the one thing that he did agree with and added it to the report. Wells probably did this quite a bit if I had to guess. The Patriots refused to give me an (in person) interview with McNally.

 

[Omar's Wacky Neighbor]

 
When you're the one being investigated, you're in absolutely no position to dictate the rules.

How in the world do you figure that? Respect my authoritah...?
 
 

Hasn't anyone been audited before?  Try that kind of attitude with the IRS and see how far it gets you.

And now you're equating the IRS to the NFL?  Really?    How does an audit by the Feds even begin to compare with inquiries into potentially under-inflated balls in a professional sports league?

 

[biollante]

I am assuming that Brady will get the suspension down to 2 games which is doable. The fine is just a pin prick for Kraft. The loss of a 1st round draft pick doesn't make any sense to me as a punishment. Seems vindictive.
 
Say what you want, it does make next season that much more interesting.

 

[Shelterdog]

I am very curious to see what the Princeton professor had to say. My guess is he disagreed with the findings, but Wells took the one thing that he did agree with and added it to the report. Wells probably did this quite a bit if I had to guess. The Patriots refused to give me an (in person) interview with McNally.

 
"I like my brand new BMW paid for by the NFL!"

 

[RetractableRoof]

If you read through the Wells report, it explains that assuming the Logo gauge would bring the Patriots' balls closer to compliance, but some of them have readings low enough that they can't be explained by the Ideal Gas Law (assuming starting point of 12.5 PSI, 71 degrees inside, and 48 degrees outside), and moreover for some of the balls measured later in the process, time variation means they probably would be higher enough temperature that Ideal Gas Law can't explain their readings (again assuming 12.5 PSI starting point). They get into this on pages 52-55 of the Exponent Report if you want more detail.
 
That doesn't mean tampering occurred - in fact, I find the pattern of variance bizarre compared to what I would expect for tampering - but it is not accurate to say that if we assume balls were Logo gauged at 12.5 pre-game that natural forces explain the final data.
 

Yeah, I don't think it makes any sense to start with the texts and work backwards to find tampering in the data. If you find tampering in the data - and it's reasonable to see why Wells / Exponent concluded such - the text messages look fishy, although I don't think they really add up to a coherent story (why was McNally blaming the refs for the 16 ball if he was already deflating them, and if he wasn't why does it matter what he called himself six months earlier?).
 
The text messages are also significant because they're the only thing that implicates Brady. I do agree with the conclusion that if tampering occurred Brady was "more than probably generally aware" just as a matter of common sense, but I don't think there's anything resembling a body of evidence that would hold up in court (though IANAL).

This is driving me nuts.

If the logo guage was used pre-game, then one CANNOT assume the balls started at 12.5. That guage (with the crooked needle no less) was presenting high readings relative to the other. It means the balls read 12.5 but were really less than that to start. When you consider the 'gap' between the readings and where the Pats half time balls should have been via the calculations the entire difference can be found in using the logo guage for the pre-game readings.

One can't have meaningful science when you make 'assumptions' on the starting data that distort the output of the results and claim conclusive results. The damn report from the scientists have these caveats all over them - which are being ignored by many.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Just read this morning that Elway agrees with the findings against the Patriots. The integrity of the game quote almost had me spit out my coffee. Funny, isn't this the same quarterback who played on a team that cheated the salary cap not once but twice so they could keep the roster in tact?

 

[twibnotes]

 
"I like my brand new BMW paid for by the NFL!"

Personalized tags: "THX ROG"

 

[Hoya81]

Did NFL deliberately leak false PSI info to make #DeflateGate seem like a bigger deal than it really was? http://t.co/Ry1K0cLTLw
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 13, 2015
 
 

 
 
It’s impossible to know exactly what happened within the confines of the Ted Wells ensuing investigation without having access to the raw transcripts of interviews and the full range of text messages. For now, though, it’s clear that this investigation proceeded aggressively despite a history of less-than-zealous attention to air pressure, an apparent lack of immediate understanding regarding the Ideal Gas Law, and a non-accidental attempt to make the tampering seem more obvious than the facts suggest it was. And that makes it hard not to wonder what other flaws may be lurking within the 243-page report and the underlying evidence on which it was based.

 
Florio is tire-swinging back and forth so much it is hard to keep track. 

 

[twibnotes]

Just read this morning that Elway agrees with the findings against the Patriots. The integrity of the game quote almost had me spit out my coffee. Funny, isn't this the same quarterback who played on a team that cheated the salary cap not once but twice so they could keep the roster in tact?

I just can't figure out why all these teams whose dreams the Pats regularly squash are supporting the findings and penalties.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I just can't figure out why all these teams whose dreams the Pats regularly squash are supporting the findings and penalties.

The amazing thing is I assure you ESPN won't bring up Capgate. Still shocked I haven't seen a Borges article yet.

 

[tims4wins]

This too from Florio:
 
 

Think of how different the narrative would have been if, in the early days of the scandal, the prevailing information from one of the largest sports-media outlets in America had been not that 10 of the 12 balls were two pounds under the minimum but that all 12 balls (including the one that had been intercepted by Jackson) tested within the range consistent with the application of the Ideal Gas Law.
Also, think of how different the narrative would have been if, in the early days of the scandal, the league had acknowledged that the officials used two different gauges with dramatically different readings generated.
 

 

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

I know Mortensen will never give up the source, but I'd love to see some heat/backlash on him for this.  I know it's wishful thinking and never going to happen.  But that one god damn tweet with BS info fueled the media rage and pushed this whole thing down the slippery slope.  

 

[ifmanis5]

Just read this morning that Elway agrees with the findings against the Patriots. The integrity of the game quote almost had me spit out my coffee. Funny, isn't this the same quarterback who played on a team that cheated the salary cap not once but twice so they could keep the roster in tact?

And that they taught all their OL how to leg whip on a regular basis. Every team is full of crap and the Integrity of the Game garbage couldn't be more laughable. This entire scandal is based on sour grapes.

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

Sally Jenkins, Washington Post:

 

DeflateGate would be more of a ‘Gate’ if the league had proven that the balls were in fact deflated. But it hasn’t. That’s what is so peculiar about this entire deal. The Ted Wells report commissioned by the league is perfectly clear on this point: No one is sure which of two gauges were used to check the pressurization of the balls. The gauges gave significantly different readings; one read much higher than the other and showed the balls were legally inflated. The referee in charge of checking the footballs, Walt Anderson, is pretty sure he used this gauge. Yet the NFL disregarded this critical point — and the testimony of their own official. Nevertheless the NFL decided the “preponderance of the evidence” showed Brady and the Patriots manipulated the game balls. That’s how eager they are to find wrongdoing.
 
Even harder to find is evidence of any actual harm: The Patriots won the AFC championship game 45-7. In the first half, with the supposedly softer spheroids, Brady completed just 11 of 21 passes with an interception. In the second half, when everyone agrees the game balls were fully pressurized by the reading of any gauge, the Patriots scored four touchdowns and ran away with the game.
 
Did Brady attempt to influence how much air was in the ball? Sure. Every quarterback in the league is princess-and-the-pea sensitive to the texture and grip of the ball in his hand, and asks equipment managers to inflate them to his preference. If you dock Brady four games, then you have to dock Aaron Rodgers, too. Rodgers admitted to CBS analyst Phil Simms last season that he “pushes the limit” on how much air is in the ball. Rodgers has large hands and likes an extremely hard ball. He told Simms that he tells his equipment guys to “even go over what they allow you to do and see if the officials take the air out of it.” Simms reported this on national television, and no one called it a ‘Gate’ — for the simple reason that it’s not cheating. It’s a preference. And it comes with an equalizing downside. If a softer ball is easier to grip, it also decelerates when you throw it, loses velocity and doesn’t travel as far. If it’s overinflated the way Rodgers likes it, then it travels farther, faster.
 

 

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

Sally Jenkins, Washington Post:
 
. It’s a preference. And it comes with an equalizing downside. If a softer ball is easier to grip, it also decelerates when you throw it, loses velocity and doesn’t travel as far. If it’s overinflated the way Rodgers likes it, then it travels farther, faster.
 

 
Now we know why Brady can't throw the deep ball   #BBTL Game Thread

 

[BroodsSexton]

Ride, Sally, Ride.

 

[Super Nomario]

But the numbers are so close to completely explainable by nature that, in order for intentional deflation to have occurred, it would mean they cheated by degrees of .2 or.4 psi (rough numbers). That's the amount of air lost by simply measuring a ball another time. At worst, the Patriots are guilty of deflating a ball by infinitesimal amounts. That should raise the question of why do it in the first place? There's just no motive then.

Yes, and it's even more crazy than that, because the average would have been .2 or .4, but the variance was all over the place - a couple balls would have been deflated nearly 1 PSI, three or four not at all, and most in this small range. That doesn't seem consistent with tampering to me - at least any sort of competent tampering.
 

This is driving me nuts.

If the logo guage was used pre-game, then one CANNOT assume the balls started at 12.5. That guage (with the crooked needle no less) was presenting high readings relative to the other. It means the balls read 12.5 but were really less than that to start. When you consider the 'gap' between the readings and where the Pats half time balls should have been via the calculations the entire difference can be found in using the logo guage for the pre-game readings.

One can't have meaningful science when you make 'assumptions' on the starting data that distort the output of the results and claim conclusive results. The damn report from the scientists have these caveats all over them - which are being ignored by many.

The difference between the logo gauge and the non-logo is pretty consistently .35-.45. Assuming the logo ball was used pre-game would explain some of the gap but not all of it. Look at ball 10 - it reads below 11 on both gauges even though it was one of the last balls measured (and thus would have had some time to come up above 48 degrees). Use of the logo gauge does not explain this ball (which doesn't mean that we need to infer tampering to explain the difference), and there are another 2-4 balls that cannot be explained even if we assume the logo gauge was used.

 

[H78]

Jenkins crushed it.

 

[lambeau]

Rapoport:

Brady defense will be bases on 1) Sting
2) Officials' pregame ballhandling (Gaugegate?)
3) Lack of direct evidence implicating TB