#DFG: Canceling the Noise

[Bleedred]

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.

-Goodell's written Award upholding the suspension includes a lie or is grossly negligent by asserting that Tom Brady testified that he never discussed the AFCCG footballs with Jastremski that following week, but only preparation of the footballs for the Superbowl.   Goodell's lie/gross negligence revealed when transcripts released.

 

[MarcSullivaFan]

 
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.

This is tinfoil hat territory. The obvious explanation is that they had already screwed up and were in ass covering mode. The dominant thread in this entire fiasco is the buffoons at the top of the league being completely unable to admit when they're wrong.

 

[ipol]

This is tinfoil hat territory. The obvious explanation is that they had already screwed up and were in ass covering mode. The dominant thread in this entire fiasco is the buffoons at the top of the league being completely unable to admit when they're wrong.

 
Culled from Wiki:
"...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent."
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

[judyb]

This is tinfoil hat territory. The obvious explanation is that they had already screwed up and were in ass covering mode. The dominant thread in this entire fiasco is the buffoons at the top of the league being completely unable to admit when they're wrong.

As ridiculous as it sounds and feels, when this much dishonesty piles up, you almost do have to get to the point of wondering if the apparent buffoonery isn't just cover for all the deception.

 

[Harry Hooper]

 
Culled from Wiki:
"...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent."
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

. It is not ass-covering to leak a story while the Pats plane is flying to Arizona.

 

[ipol]

. It is not ass-covering to leak a story while the Pats plane is flying to Arizona.

Was it malicious? Maybe. Certainly it was opportunistic.

 

[CantKeepmedown]

This is tinfoil hat territory. The obvious explanation is that they had already screwed up and were in ass covering mode. The dominant thread in this entire fiasco is the buffoons at the top of the league being completely unable to admit when they're wrong.

I hear what you're saying, but it was interesting to note that even after being asked multiple times before the SB, the league refused to correct anything.  Florio said today that he tried to get the correct psi numbers to no avail.  And MFB just replayed their interview with Mort SB week asking him about the psi readings.  Mort said that he had called his sources back, to make sure that the information he put out there was correct.  And he was told that yes, the information was correct.
 
Like you said, it's probably more so the NFL just being run by a bunch nitwits, but I don't think there's any doubt they were enjoying seeing the Pats scramble and twist in the wind.  It being SB week was just icing on the cake.  

 

[Hoya81]

This is tinfoil hat territory. The obvious explanation is that they had already screwed up and were in ass covering mode. The dominant thread in this entire fiasco is the buffoons at the top of the league being completely unable to admit when they're wrong.

 
You're probably right. But the same thing happened with the Tomase article before SB 42, when the league pulled in a lot of organization people and coaches for interviews, including BB, on Saturday and on the day of the game. 

 

[ElcaballitoMVP]

Holy shit Tanguay is annoying. Being in California I had no idea he turned into Felger. Too bad. 

"He never said his name" after everyone else agreed Mort implicated Brady
 
"Belichick did not help. Belichick did NOT help." Huh? Because he denied knowing about something that no one can prove actually happened? 
 
"The coach threw the quarterback under the bus" No. He. Did. Not.
 
"But isn't that why the Patriots didn't let them testify a 5th time??"
Florio summary: No, Wells committed malpractice. That's inexcusable. You don't trust anyone else. You look at every page. And to not have that text in hand the first time he interviewed McNally, for whatever reason this guy shouldn't have been running the investigation.
"But if Wells has the text, why didn't the Pats let them interview him again??? FLORIO JUST EXPLAINED WHY but then further explained that the Pats probably felt like they were being railroaded, which is perfectly reasonable now that we look at everything. "Mike, do you believe that though? I believe there is something to confess". 
"And you can make the argument if he went in for a 5th time he would've cracked and that's why the Pats denied him."  
 
Wow. Just...wow.
 
 
 

 

[EricFeczko]

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. 

The thing that's amazing about Florio is that he admitted he was initially wrong.

IIRC, Florio's first columns roasted Brady and the patriots. As the facts started to come out through the investigations, he realized his initial columns were wrong and he changed his angle.

The mark of a good journalist is the ability to synthesize new evidence into an existing story, especially when the new evidence contradicts the prior story. Florio has done that here. The juxtaposition with Mortensen only makes it clearer.
 

 

[joe dokes]

The mark of a good journalist   an intelligent adult is the ability to synthesize new evidence into an existing story, especially when the new evidence contradicts the prior story. Florio has done that here. The juxtaposition with Mortensen only makes it clearer.
 

 

[ifmanis5]

The thing that's amazing about Florio is that he admitted he was initially wrong.

IIRC, Florio's first columns roasted Brady and the patriots. As the facts started to come out through the investigations, he realized his initial columns were wrong and he changed his angle.

The mark of a good journalist is the ability to synthesize new evidence into an existing story, especially when the new evidence contradicts the prior story. Florio has done that here. The juxtaposition with Mortensen only makes it clearer.
 

Great point. Also, Florio has at least attempted to do his own reporting on the matter and pushed forward using his own intellect. Mort has basically punted and blamed everyone else. Pathetic.

 

[Ed Hillel]

This is tinfoil hat territory. The obvious explanation is that they had already screwed up and were in ass covering mode. The dominant thread in this entire fiasco is the buffoons at the top of the league being completely unable to admit when they're wrong.

It was probably being done to coax a confession, since the NFL realized it had fucked up, hoped they were right about deflation anyway, and wanted it to end quickly with the Pats taking the fall.

 

[NavaHo]

"And you can make the argument if he went in for a 5th time he would've cracked and that's why the Patriots denied him."
 

 
And if they gave Wells 137 chances at McNally, he might've gotten him to flip by then. Unless, you think that's enough? Let's make it, say, 178 chances.

 

[ipol]

It was probably being done to coax a confession, since the NFL realized it had fucked up, hoped they were right about deflation anyway, and wanted it to end quickly with the Pats taking the fall.

 
The question is, when did they realize they had fucked up? When, exactly, did someone say to Vincent, Kensil and Gardi, "You know a football will have less pressure when it's cold and wet, right?" We can surmise from the unsealed testimony that question was answered with a fish-eyed stare but was it a day later? Two weeks later?
 
Edit to remove certainty.

 

[djbayko]

 
The question is, when did they realize they had fucked up? When, exactly, did someone say to Vincent, Kensil and Gardi, "You know a football will have less pressure when it's cold and wet, right?" We can surmise from the unsealed testimony that question was answered with a fish-eyed stare but was it a day later? Two weeks later?
 
Edit to remove certainty.

Confirmation bias. You had pop scientists messing up the science, current / ex league execs leaking stories of Patriots cheating, etc. This realization may have never come. If it did come, it was probably right before they got desperate and found the "gotcha" text messages.

 

[wiffleballhero]

 
And if they gave Wells 137 chances at McNally, he might've gotten him to flip by then. Unless, you think that's enough? Let's make it, say, 178 chances.

Thumb screws.

 

[Shelterdog]

Confirmation bias. You had pop scientists messing up the science, current / ex league execs leaking stories of Patriots cheating, etc. This realization may have never come. If it did come, it was probably right before they got desperate and found the "gotcha" text messages.

 
I'll bet it came earlier.The exponent guys might have put crap science in the report but they're wicked smaht and when they're sitting around running the numbers (and probably talking to the Paul, Weiss associate who had an applied physics phd from Harvard, so likely another pretty bright dude)  they would have very quickly realized that the ideal gas law easily explained the vast majority of any deflation and that small differences in measurement accuracy, temperature or timing could also explain the rest.  

 

[PedroKsBambino]

 
I'll bet it came earlier.The exponent guys might have put crap science in the report but they're wicked smaht and when they're sitting around running the numbers (and probably talking to the Paul, Weiss associate who had an applied physics phd from Harvard, so likely another pretty bright dude)  they would have very quickly realized that the ideal gas law easily explained the vast majority of any deflation and that small differences in measurement accuracy, temperature or timing could also explain the rest.  

 
Agreed.  And, for me, this is why Pash is so important: the most likely explanation of what occurred is that Pash told Wells/PW that they needed to come out with as strong a finding as they could that 'cheating' occurred, and needed to manage Exponent to support the best story they could assemble.   There were likely back-and-forths about how little there was, and about how there is no credible scientific or statistical model that gets to where the NFL wanted.  And I suspect Wells pushed back on anything more than the wishy-washy 'more probable than not' knowledge standard in there as well.
 
Conceivable it wasn't Pash, but someone else in the NFL legal office delivering that message.  But I struggle with how Wells and Exponent would arrive at the blatantly non-objective, results-oriented places they landed without explicit client instruction to do so.  And thus, Pash or one of his minions has to be the person who said so in my mind.

 

[joe dokes]

Bob's got it figured out:
 
 
 
The PSIs They Are a Changin':
Positively Park Avenue
Masters of Balls
Ballad of a Dumb Man
Blind Roger Goodell
Balls of Cold Wet Leather
Don't Measure Twice, It's Alright
Idiot Wind
Roger's Farm
Subterranean Urinal Blues
Talkin' Jim Irsay Paranoid Blues

 

[OnWisc]

 
The question is, when did they realize they had fucked up? When, exactly, did someone say to Vincent, Kensil and Gardi, "You know a football will have less pressure when it's cold and wet, right?" We can surmise from the unsealed testimony that question was answered with a fish-eyed stare but was it a day later? Two weeks later?
 
Edit to remove certainty.

I think they realized they screwed up- maybe not with respect to physics, but just in general- prior to bringing in Wells. Sting or not, I think the NFL quickly realized that their initial handling of the "incident" would not stand up under the scrutiny the allegations were generating, and basically just handed the whole thing off to Wells for a fresh start. Someone might've initially floated the Ideal Gas issue early on too, which would have been another reason to put the whole thing in the hands of "independent" outside "experts".

 

[Mooch]

so much depends
upon

a deflated
football

glazed with rain
water

beside the two
gauges.

 

[CaptainLaddie]

It's defamation.
Defamation! Defama
tion, right?  No?  What about Def...

 

TOO GOOD

 

[ipol]

I think they realized they screwed up- maybe not with respect to physics, but just in general- prior to bringing in Wells. Sting or not, I think the NFL quickly realized that their initial handling of the "incident" would not stand up under the scrutiny the allegations were generating, and basically just handed the whole thing off to Wells for a fresh start. Someone might've initially floated the Ideal Gas issue early on too, which would have been another reason to put the whole thing in the hands of "independent" outside "experts".

 
That seems a reasonable timeline of events. I'm still stuck on the, "We did not consider the science," part though. The, "Oh, shit," moment wasn't just the scale of what they had wrought but mostly the we-have-no-idea-what-we're-doing thought process. I think they were still stuck there when Gardi fired off the infamous 10.1 letter (Christ, that lie still pisses me off, even more than all the rest). That was Monday the 19th. Wells' hiring was announced Friday the 23rd. So, it seems possible that the buffoonery became evident to even themselves somewhere in between those days. I think that shows more cock-up than conspiracy but all y'all's mileage may vary.

 

[edmunddantes]

I think they realized they screwed up- maybe not with respect to physics, but just in general- prior to bringing in Wells. Sting or not, I think the NFL quickly realized that their initial handling of the "incident" would not stand up under the scrutiny the allegations were generating, and basically just handed the whole thing off to Wells for a fresh start. Someone might've initially floated the Ideal Gas issue early on too, which would have been another reason to put the whole thing in the hands of "independent" outside "experts".

Always remember... it was "it should be cleared up in a few days" - Vincent "he'll (Wells) take a couple of weeks" "it'll be out soon" "5 months later" <--- it would be great if someone actually had the timeline of all the timing quotes.
 
Something was going on. It wasn't going the way they were expecting. I really think the fact that JJ and McNally didn't crack the way they wanted/expected them to threw them off. 
 
It's the one thing that doesn't make sense if they actually did it. Usually, if you lean hard enough, things like this unravel. It really hasn't. JJ and McNally haven't run off anywhere to make a quick buck (thus the needs for the "Kraft's paying them!!!"). JJ and McNally didn't truly say anything really incriminating (or we would have definitely heard about it and not just random texts pulled from all over into a coherent story to make it look like they were in close proximity). etc.

 

[snowmanny]

Always remember... it was "it should be cleared up in a few days" - Vincent "he'll (Wells) take a couple of weeks" "it'll be out soon" "5 months later" <--- it would be great if someone actually had the timeline of all the timing quotes.
 
Something was going on. It wasn't going the way they were expecting. I really think the fact that JJ and McNally didn't crack the way they wanted/expected them to threw them off. 
 
It's the one thing that doesn't make sense if they actually did it. Usually, if you lean hard enough, things like this unravel. It really hasn't. JJ and McNally haven't run off anywhere to make a quick buck (thus the needs for the "Kraft's paying them!!!"). JJ and McNally didn't truly say anything really incriminating (or we would have definitely heard about it and not just random texts pulled from all over into a coherent story to make it look like they were in close proximity). etc.

Right. And there are people who believe that something was going on with the balls for years; if there were then there would be lots of potential witnesses and co-conspirators and one would have spoken up by now.

 

[bigq]

Incompetent league
Can’t get out of its own way
Waste of time for all

 

[pappymojo]

For sale: AFC K Balls
Never used.

 

[pappymojo]

This is just to say
 
I have deflated
the footballs
that were in
the bathroom
 
and which
you were probably
hoping
to gauge
 
forgive me
they were too hard
so stiff
and so hard to throw

 

[tims4wins]

I would love to hear either Kessler or Berman question Goodell / Pash on why Gostkowski wasn't punished for obstruction for not turning over his phone.
 
Berman: why wasn't the kicker punished
Goodell: we determined that he did not commit any violations, so he wasn't obstructing anything by not turning over his phone
Berman: didn't you say a big part of the reason you are punishing Brady is because you think he is guilty because he didn't turn over his phone?
Goodell: yes
Berman: so why wasn't the same logic applied to the kicker?
Goodell: ...
 
I mean, wouldn't that, right there, prove there was no fair and consistent basis for punishment?

 

[SumnerH]

may i squeeze said he
(it's a breeze said she
too much air said he)
almost there said she
 
(let's deflate said he
sounds great said she
that's too far said he
here you are said she)
 
(may i touch said he
how much said she
much less said he)
why not said she

 

[ipol]

You want answers
I want the proof
You can't handle the proof!

 

[mwonow]

I would love to hear either Kessler or Berman question Goodell / Pash on why Gostkowski wasn't punished for obstruction for not turning over his phone.
 
Berman: why wasn't the kicker punished
Goodell: we determined that he did not commit any violations, so he wasn't obstructing anything by not turning over his phone
Berman: didn't you say a big part of the reason you are punishing Brady is because you think he is guilty because he didn't turn over his phone?
Goodell: yes
Berman: so why wasn't the same logic applied to the kicker?
Goodell: ...
 
I mean, wouldn't that, right there, prove there was no fair and consistent basis for punishment?

 
 
Maybe they're saving Ghost's suspension for the playoffs...   :c070:

 

[simplyeric]

 
 
Maybe they're saving Ghost's suspension for the playoffs...   :c070:

Maybe they did a quick google search and realized that dead men tell no tales, so they figured they wouldn't be able to get Ghost on anything?

 

[Red Right Ankle]

No need for origniality, I'm pretty sure Ginsburg summed up the Deflategate thread pretty well:
 

 
 
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,
starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking
for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly
connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking
in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating
across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,
who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw
Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs
illuminated,
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes
hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the
scholars of war,
who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing
obscene odes on the windows of the skull,
who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burning their
money in wastebaskets and listening to the Terror through
the wall,
who got busted in their pubic beards returning through Laredo
with a belt of marijuana for New York,
who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in Paradise
Alley, death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night
with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and
cock and endless balls.

 

[SumnerH]

In Foxborough did Robert Kraft
a stately stadium decree:
Where Gronk, the huge man-child ran
O'er DBs measureless to man
  Into one more TD
So two score yards of fertile ground
Were covered by ball with spiral round
And there were Solders causing Harbaugh ills
Where linemen blossomed into TEs
and Blount gave audiences chills
Inspiring silent spots of reverie
 
But oh! that route which outward slanted
Toward the Gronk was thwarted by a closer cover!
A savage catch! The Colts sideline all chanted
As D'Quell the ball to them fast bore
And Harbaugh wailed about a plot to uncover.
And from a chasm, with ceaseless seething
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing
The mighty Goodell momently was forced
And Walt Anderson's half-measured tests were worst,
Small fragments of data like a gentle hail,
or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail
And mid Ted Well's report at once and ever,
Flung up momently the stun'd conclusion,
Goodell's decision causing much commotion
Through arbiters and courts the strange case ran,
Til it reached the question of the 4 game ban,
And came to Berman in a wild motion
And mid the tumult Belichik heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
   The fairness of the case was measured
   'gainst steroids, domestic fights, and Ray,
   Yet Belichick took no brief leisure
   but prepped for season's opening day
 
(At this moment I was unfortunately called out by a person on business from Porlock, and detained by him above an hour, and on return to my room found that although I maintained a dim and vague recollection of the remainder of the poem, all the details had passed away like the images on the surface of a stream into which a stone had been cast)

 

[simplyeric]

'And furthermore'
declared Goodell the younger
'It is my opinion that Brady delenda est'

 

[Leather]

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. 

 
And as an afterthought,
This must too be told:
Some people have taken pure bullshit
And turned it into gold.
 
-Neil Young.

 

[Curtis Pride]

The Charge of the Light Brigade
Apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Shame
    Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the balls!" he said:
Into the valley of Shame
    Rode the six hundred.

2
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was the Commish dismay'd?
Not tho' the media knew
    Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to spread the lie:
Into the valley of Shame
    Rode the six hundred.

3
Science to right of them,
Science to left of them,
Science in front of them
    Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with facts told well,
Boldly they rode and fell,
Into the jaws of Shame,
Into the mouth of Hell
    Rode the six hundred.

4
Flash'd all their Twitters bare,
Flash'd as they went on air,
Blaming the Patriots there,
Charging a team, while
    All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the PSI-smoke
Ideal Gas Law they broke;
Brady and Belichick
Reel'd from Wells Report stroke
    Suspend'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
    Not the six hundred.

5
Florio to right of them,
Stradley to left of them,
Jenkins behind them
    Volley'd and thunder'd;
Berman with the law to tell,
"Settle, Brady and NFL!"
Turn'd away from Goodell,
Came thro' the jaws of Shame
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
    Left of six hundred.

6
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
    All the world wondered.
Vacate the charge they made,
Forget the Light Brigade,
     Ignoble six hundred.

 

[cshea]

FWIW, Beetle says he will ask Jonathan Kraft about the appology to Mort on the pre-game show tonight.

 

[crystalline]

 
Something was going on. It wasn't going the way they were expecting. I really think the fact that JJ and McNally didn't crack the way they wanted/expected them to threw them off. 
 
It's the one thing that doesn't make sense if they actually did it. Usually, if you lean hard enough, things like this unravel. It really hasn't. JJ and McNally haven't run off anywhere to make a quick buck (thus the needs for the "Kraft's paying them!!!"). JJ and McNally didn't truly say anything really incriminating (or we would have definitely heard about it and not just random texts pulled from all over into a coherent story to make it look like they were in close proximity). etc.

This is right on.

I think both the lawyers and Exponent firmly believe that Brady is guilty, and so the ends justify the means. There may be no evidence, but they 'know' he did it from the text messages. And it's driving them crazy that Jastrzemski and McNally did not crack. (Likely because no rules were actually broken.)


Far above, someone pointed out that Lorin Reisner spent a decade trying to nail Steven Cohen for insider trading. He had suggestive texts and emails but could never find enough proof to make the case stick. Reisner spent years knowing Cohen was guilty and trying to find evidence to nail the bastard. And he sat across the table from Brady thinking the exact same thing. But in this case, he only needed enough to persuade Goodell, not a federal judge and jury.

 

[Harry Hooper]

 
 
Maybe they're saving Ghost's suspension for the playoffs...   :c070:

 
It's clear the Belichick destroyed Ghost's phone, but the league is protecting BB. Get with it!

 

[jacklamabe65]

I would just love to have the Full Jonathan say, "Nope, Mort is lying once again."

 

[Corsi]

FWIW, Beetle says he will ask Jonathan Kraft about the appology to Mort on the pre-game show tonight.

 
Interviewing him now.

 

[Omar's Wacky Neighbor]

 
Interviewing him now.

Here's hoping for a pre-game open bar.

 

[Corsi]

Jonathan Kraft:
 
I think that through the whole situation that has transpired, a lot of respected reporters have received false info that could only have been leaked by league.
 
We've let these reporters know that we don't blame them for the misinformation.  We've asked league to correct this misinformation.  Still hasn't been corrected.  Never got explanation from league for erroneous reports.
 
"We haven't apologized to the reporters and we really have no need to."

 

[Corsi]

https://twitter.com/BenVolin/status/637401403900719105

 

[nattysez]

'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.

 
I'd bet a fair amount of money that this is more or less what happened given what J. Kraft said tonight.

 

[dcdrew10]

https://twitter.com/BenVolin/status/637401403900719105

I didn't watch Kraft's remarks; what was his tone? The text seems like it's an appropriately condescending "It's not your fault you are stupid." statement.

 

[Tito's Pullover]

Goodell anusface
Goodell, Goodell anusface
Goodell, anusface.