#DFG: Canceling the Noise

Is there any level of suspension that you would advise Tom to accept?


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Ed Hillel

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ifmanis5 said:
I mean.. just... what in actual fuck. RG is a clown show with no rival.
 
One could also ask why this isn't a big deal to the Worldwide Leader, or anyone else, for that matter, but whatever. Florio is the only objective-ish guy paying attention.
 

DJnVa

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Nice. Because at the end of the day, Mort handled this badly and needs to be called out on it.
 
Someone needs to get a transcript posted as soon as possible tomorrow.
 

simplyeric

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'Look Mort, I'm sorry to tell you that you got everything wrong, were totally played by your sources, your journalistic integrity is long gone, and I think you owe it to everyone to correct your story.'

Mort: I accept your apology.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Guys, it was the Kraft Foundation that called to apologize to Mort. Simple mistake that any respectable journalist could make.
 

CantKeepmedown

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I can't remember for sure, but didn't Hassleback say on Monday that Mort had gotten an apology from the Kraft's?  It was either that or he said that they had spoken.  Either way, Mort is definitely telling stories.  
 

Auger34

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DrewDawg said:
Nice. Because at the end of the day, Mort handled this badly and needs to be called out on it.
 
Someone needs to get a transcript posted as soon as possible tomorrow.
Honestly, he has handled this about as badly as humanly possible. He has accepted no responsibility for anything, played the "I don't want to make this about me" card multiple times (of course all the while making it about him). He also feigned moral outrage at WEEI for "making him the center of the story" when of course....he was LITERALLY the only story since they were just trying to figure out why his tweet was so wrong and why he didn't delete it.
But, the most bush league part of his whole act is somehow trying to pass off blame/shift negative attention away from himself onto Belicheck for implicating Brady (which of course was never really in question nor the issue people are criticizing Mort for)
 

riboflav

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This is actually morally and ethically worse than the underinflation tweet. That, at least, could be passed off as a mistake or incompetence. This is lying, pure and simple.
 

singaporesoxfan

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snowmanny said:
If I hear about that fumble rate idiocy again I may have to strangle someone. Or rant like a lunatic. This was a "study" done with basically no data points, just a presumption that the NEP's used balls of indeterminate lower deflation than other teams..but of course we have no clue what New England's average psi was or what any teams's average psi was. And there was no study of exactly how psi effects ball grip and so forth, which would be pretty easy to do if you really thought it was very important, just a presumption that there must be some sort of direct correlation. And no credit to the fact that there are lots of other variables that that one team might do differently than another that could effect fumble rate (player selection, play calling, coaching, and of course whether or not they routinely bench anybody that fumbles).  And no thought that if you have a historically great team then they are probably historically great at particular aspects of the game and that doesn't mean that they were cheating any more than it would mean that the 1927 Yankees were using corked bats, juiced baseballs and steroids.  And no mention that in the ten quarters of football that we know for a fact the 2014 Patriots played with perfectly inflated OR OVERINFLATED footballs (Jets game, Super Bowl, 2nd half AFCCG) they fumbled a grand total of zero times.  And of course the unspoken implication of all this is that if Brady was behind this "scheme" he wouldn't be doing to decrease the fumble rate therefore it really was Belichick all along.  Too many stupid people.  Way too many stupid people.
 
I wrote a whole ITP article about the problems with the fumble rate statistics because that analysis was so badly done, and I thought through all these reasons as well. Only after publication did I realize that the study was so bad and so flawed that I didn't even think to address the most basic elemental mistake - the fumble rate study compares the Pats pre-2007 seasons with 2007 and beyond. Except that the Brady/Manning rule changes took place starting in the 2006 season, and adding in the 2006 season (where the Pats fumbled a decent amount) makes the fumble rates look not that different.
 
My fault for assuming the initial study was done in good faith.
 

Ed Hillel

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On what planet are the Krafts apologizing to Mort for anything? It makes no fucking sense, the man is delusional.
 

mwonow

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catomatic said:
Stole it from Neil Young—from whom True Detective must have stolen it too. It's a classic.
 
Not to sidetrack the thread, but the Neil Young song is a stone classic (jj44, do you really not hear it when you read the poem?), and the True Detective 2 theme is by Leonard Cohen - and pretty great in its own right.
 

Hoya81

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Ed Hillel said:
On what planet are the Krafts apologizing to Mort for anything? It makes no fucking sense, the man is delusional.
I can see RK/JK saying that they have more of an issue with Mort's league office sources who leaked him the story but that isn't an apology.
 

Reverend

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simplyeric said:
'Look Mort, I'm sorry to tell you that you got everything wrong, were totally played by your sources, your journalistic integrity is long gone, and I think you owe it to everyone to correct your story.'

Mort: I accept your apology.
 
This is tremendous.
 

simplyeric

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mwonow said:
 
Not to sidetrack the thread, but the Neil Young song is a stone classic (jj44, do you really not hear it when you read the poem?), and the True Detective 2 theme is by Leonard Cohen - and pretty great in its own right.
Yes it's important to maintain the integrity of this thread!
4 game suspensions for all of you!
 

catomatic

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simplyeric said:
Yes it's important to maintain the integrity of this thread!
4 game suspensions for all of you!
I know nothing of True Detective and spoke from ignorance and surmises. But Neil Young I know well and Leonard Cohen somewhat. I've been railroaded, here. I'd like to appeal my suspension, please—to someone less prejudicial than you yourself, if possible. 
 

djbayko

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There is no Rev said:
 
This is tremendous.
But seriously, this is how I pictured it all along. Perhaps not to this ridiculous degree, but I could easily see something like:

"Look, Mort, we're deeply sorry that the league office has put you in this position. It must be very difficult having to choose between journalistic integrity and your future earnings potential. At the same time, your report has really hurt the reputations of innocent people and we'd appreciate it if you helped us clear the air."

He walks away selectively hearing "we're sorry".

I guess we'll see tomorrow AM.
 

ipol

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catomatic said:
I know nothing of True Detective and spoke from ignorance and surmises. But Neil Young I know well and Leonard Cohen somewhat. I've been railroaded, here. I'd like to appeal my suspension, please—to someone less prejudicial than you yourself, if possible. 
 
FFS, take your penalty like a man and stop being a distraction to the message board.
 

simplyeric

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catomatic said:
I know nothing of True Detective and spoke from ignorance and surmises. But Neil Young I know well and Leonard Cohen somewhat. I've been railroaded, here. I'd like to appeal my suspension, pleaseto someone less prejudicial than you yourself, if possible. 
You're lucky I don't have $5million to commission an investigation looking into this.
 

Auger34

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Did anyone listen to D and C this morning? The consensus on Twitter seems to be this promised smack down never happened and was ruined by Tanguay
 

cshea

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They just said the Krafts didn't apologize.They told Mort their beef was with the source, not him.

And, yes, Tanguay is ruining everything. Saying Belichick threw Brady under the bus because he knew Brady did it.
 

jsinger121

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cshea said:
They just said the Krafts didn't apologize.They told Mort their beef was with the source, not him.

And, yes, Tanguay is ruining everything. Saying Belichick threw Brady under the bus because he knew Brady did it.
 
He's infuriating.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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Blaming Belichick is such a bizarre retconning of events. So you watched BB's first presser then stopped thinking about it at all since then?

If you believe Schefter, we know that the league was having trouble pinning anything on anyone while bumbling through its investigation, but Brady was always going to be "implicated" once it got to the texts of Mr. and Mr. "Got a big needle for you" (probable dick joke btw). BB is yet another red herring.
 

Ed Hillel

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Tanguay is pulling a Felger, and the sad thing is it's working. People are talking about him more than ever.
 

dcmissle

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Florio all over this back-and-forth on PFT.com.

Net losers -- Mort and NFL.

Logic can be cruel. Logic + some good legal training, devastating.
 

Hoya81

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Jed Zeppelin said:
Blaming Belichick is such a bizarre retconning of events. So you watched BB's first presser then stopped thinking about it at all since then?

If you believe Schefter, we know that the league was having trouble pinning anything on anyone while bumbling through its investigation, but Brady was always going to be "implicated" once it got to the texts of Mr. and Mr. "Got a big needle for you" (probable dick joke btw). BB is yet another red herring.
 
From Peter King's story on Jan 23, prior to Well being hired:
 
 
 

Why were Thursday’s Bill Belichick/Tom Brady news conferences mostly useless? 
 
Simple: If either man said anything other than that he knows nothing about deflated New England footballs in the first half of the AFC Championship Game, he likely would have been banned from the Super Bowl. And so if either man had something to hide, he likely would be willing to risk getting whacked for it after the Super Bowl—instead of admitting it and then being the first coach or player in the 49-year history of the game to be banned the week of the game by the NFL.
 
There was no way that Brady or Belichick admitting even indirect involvement, as in "JJ and JM did it without being told too",  would somehow have made this story go away. 
 

cshea

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Florio apparently has new info on the psi numbers.

Florio says he requested the AFCCG psi numbers from the league on the day of the Super Bowl and was denied.
 

ifmanis5

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cshea said:
Florio apparently has new info on the psi numbers.

Florio says he requested the AFCCG psi numbers from the league on the day of the Super Bowl and was denied.
Yup, he also said the NFL purposefully withheld all correct PSI numbers to keep the Pats in the dark and on the defensive.
 

riboflav

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The Krafts calling Mort to say their beef is with the NFL and not him is not an apology per se. But, it is an attempt to make nice with Mort and while short of an apology, it's pretty far from what we were led to believe by Callahan last night. 
 

weeba

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cshea said:
Florio apparently has new info on the psi numbers.

Florio says he requested the AFCCG psi numbers from the league on the day of the Super Bowl and was denied.
 
Is this from D&C or on his site?
 

simplyeric

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Is the whole 'Belichick implicated Tom' thing based on Bill just saying 'I don't deal with the balls, you'll have to ask Tom'?

If so, this is another new crazy.
 

I12XU

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ifmanis5 said:
Yup, he also said the NFL purposefully withheld all correct PSI numbers to keep the Pats in the dark and on the defensive.
Isn't this old news? The context site put up the email of the league finally giving the Patriots the correct numbers weeks after first requested and the league putting a gag order on the Patriots barring the release of the numbers.
 

MillarTime

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cshea said:
Florio says he requested the AFCCG psi numbers from the league on the day of the Super Bowl and was denied.
 
Honestly, Florio has earned a spot on the white list for life. I love that we's going after Mort, ESPN, and NFL. Must be making things very uncomfortable behind the scenes.
 

Hoya81

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ifmanis5 said:
Yup, he also said the NFL purposefully withheld all correct PSI numbers to keep the Pats in the dark and on the defensive.
 
If the league was trying to overtly undermine and distract the Pats prior to the game, that's essentially the NFL putting the fix in for the Seahawks.
 

MillarTime

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Hoya81 said:
 
If the league was trying to overtly undermine and distract the Pats prior to the game, that's essentially the NFL putting the fix in for the Seahawks.
Agree and it infuriates me even more that the NFL keeps quoting "integrity of the game."
 

Norm loves Vera

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Here is the link to Florio on EEI.. towards the end he brings up a point regarding the Kraft "apology" that sort of sums up my thoughts regarding Mort and the NFL. 
 
Florio mentions that any conversation the Krafts had with Mort were not "on the record" and basically were probably more in line with them stating they had a beef with his source within the NFL and not him.  Mort then throws the Krafts under the bus publicly by saying both of them called him to apologize thereby painting himself as the victim of a man just doing his job and getting roasted by a rabid fan base. 
 
To me it's clear Mort has be given access to the inner shield and the truth be damned as it is about the integrity (or image) of those behind the shield not the game itself to Mort.  I am clinging to the hope that Berman sides with the NFLPA and the next level of appeal will reveal more layers of BS that went into this and someone in the NFL FO finds the buck stops there. 
 
http://media.weei.com/a/108680067/mike-florio-calls-out-chris-mortensen-8-28-15.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
 

SeoulSoxFan

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There's no one in the NFL circles that has come around more for me than Florio.
 
Unless Pollard signs with the Pats, knocks out Manning, Flacco, and Geno on our way to another SB win. 
 

ifmanis5

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Let's take a quick summary of the NFL's actions in this matter:
 
- Sting operation to catch a problem that didn't exist based on sour grapes allegations
- Leaking of one-sided, incorrect and damaging info to Mort to win PR battle
- At every possible point the NFL made life as hard as possible for the NEP even when they had correct data that should closed the matter within days
- Setting up a very non-independent report that manipulated data to come up with a predetermined outcome which was then ratified by the very entity that promised an investigation into the investigation that was later not included
- Kangaroo court to handle appeal
- Further leaking of one-sided info to win PR battles and constant moving of goal posts to substantiate their position after embarrassing court documents were legally released
 
And that's only the short list. It goes on and on. I'm sure Jonathan has a great running Word doc for it that he updates daily. I'd love for him to release it someday.