Deflategate

[WilliamPitt]

"They are unanimous in their hate for me--and I welcome their hatred."

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking down the long corridor of history for Patriots fans everywhere

Fuck it. If this is how it's going to be - media fuckwits looking to fill the next two weeks of dead air with Pats-hating - so fucking be it. Aaron Rodgers openly admitted to manipulating game balls with his bare face hanging out, and these same media gasbags went "Tee hee hee, isn't that cute!" Fuck those people, and fuck this shit.

The officials had all the balls before the game. They handled the game balls after every play. How do 11 balls get past that degree of scrutiny? Under the watchful unblinking eye of every camera on the planet, exactly when did the Patriots have the opportunity to tamper? This story reeks of bullshit, but of course they're going to run with it so douchekazoos like Michael Wilbon can get the OMG HOT TAKE OF THE DAY YOU GUYS by demanding the Patriots forfeit the Super Bowl. Fuck you.

...and guess what? All this is doing - ALL this is doing - is filling the Patriots' billboard with material that, in 11 days, will send those players boiling out of the locker room like methed-up wasps. You're winning the game for us already, you seeping bag of butt-nuggets, and we haven't even played a snap.

So thanks for that. See you a week from Sunday. Get a real job.

[JayhawkSD]

1. No, the Patriots are not even listening.

They don't care what anyone outside their fan base thinks about them. This shit does not make them angry, they just don't care.

[Scuba]

2. What did Aaron Rodgers do?

[WilliamPitt]

3. Here you go

http://deadspin.com/aaron-rodgers-likes-to-tamper-with-footballs-too-1680676328

[Scuba]

4. "Ballghazi." Bwahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

[WilliamPitt]

5. They do know how to turn a phrase in that shop.

[cleanhippie]

6. When did they have time to tamper? In the two hours before the game

There's 2 hours and 15 minutes between the time the footballs are inspected and marked by the refs where the balls used by the offense are held by the teams ball-boys and game time. None of the footballs used by Indy's offense were under inflated. Only after Indy intercepted a pass did the defender notice something not quite right with the ball were officials notified.

That this is beyond the realm of possibility for a team to tamper with equipment between the time it's inspected by the refs and game time, ESPECIALLY the patriots, who are proven, DOCUMENTED, and convicted cheaters, shows nothing but bias.

[rocktivity]

27. Maybe the solution is for the league to have full charge of the game footballs

via the referees, rather than depending on the teams to provide them.


rocktivity

[Agschmid]

29. Yup.

[adigal]

7. Absolutely!!! If my team cheats, it's excellent!!! If you team cheats, then it's a BAD thing.

Nice moral relativism you are showing here. And any Super Bowl victory, like previous victories where cheating was suspected, will be tainted - no matter what Patriot fans think and no matter how loud you scream and how much you curse. Bellichek is a cheater and this will be an asterik forever, as it should be. Brady is a scum - he cheated on his pregnant fiance and cheats in football.

Ask Lance Armstrong how that worked out for him.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. It's pretty simple actually

If the NFL ref crew properly inspected the balls and approved them and then those same balls were deflated after the inspection, this is a pretty big scandal IMO.

It's my understanding that the NFL refs put some sort of certification on the balls after inspection.

If it turns out the balls were deliberately tampered with after the inspection, then in all likelihood this came from Belichick himself.

He should be banned for life from the NFL and the Pats should lose a number of draft picks over a period of several years.

Enough is enough.

[Capt. Obvious]

10. This is bigger than Benghazi

[MohRokTah]

9. 11 of 12 balls were definitely 2 pounds under.

I'm thinking a $275K fine ($25K x 11 balls). Possibly a first round draft pick, too.

[Agschmid]

30. 275k...

Is a drop in the bucket for these teams.

[MohRokTah]

31. The official fine for deflating a ball is $25K

That shows how seriously the NFL takes the issue.

[Agschmid]

47. 25k is nothing, it's barely a fine to these teams.

Also if the NFL really takes it seriously it should not take another team to point it out...

[MohRokTah]

48. Precisely.

The total fine for the Patriots in this case will amount to $275K.

They could also lose a first round draft pick over it since it was 11 out of 12 balls.

[NRaleighLiberal]

45. 2 PSI - the difference in weight of air is that of a dollar bill.

This is just an issue of sports reporting having no idea of science.

[MohRokTah]

46. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

10.5 PSI for 11 of 12 balls, meanwhile all 12 balls on the Colts side were 13 PSI

The Cheatriots will be fined, and will hopefully lose draft picks for their cheating.

[NRaleighLiberal]

50. No one could sense the difference in weight between those two PSI measurements.

Amazing - guilty before proved.

It all makes me laugh - and hope that the Pats crush the Seahawks.

[Goblinmonger]

52. Bullshit

You are going to tell me that a professional football player that has been playing for all those years can't tell the difference? I doubt it. They handle balls at the same pressure for a crazy amount of hours in their life. I've seen documentaries of professional Vegas dealers that can tell if a card is a face card or not based on the amount of ink on the card so I'm guessing these guys know the difference in inflation of a ball. Could I tell the difference? Probably not. But I'm an English teacher.

[GusBob]

11. They may indeed win the game

and forever have an asterisk next to the victory, or have that forever pointed out to them. I feel sorry for them.

If indeed a coach manipulated the rules, they should blame him as well as the press and the haters

[PeteSelman]

12. Hear fucking hear!

Whiners and crybabies all.

Go Pats! From an Eagles fan that was also supposedly "cheated".

[countryjake]

13. From what I've been reading, hatred for the Seahawks is comparable, this week...

Sherman has a presser coming up in a few minutes, so I'm looking forward to his take on all this ridiculous talk.

[El Supremo]

14. But...

[Yavin4]

15. Wow, if the Yankees did something like this....

Methinks your post would have a very different tone.

[WilliamPitt]

16. Hard to deflate a baseball.

P.S. They did. See: A-Rod.

[Yavin4]

18. Okay. I get it.

Cheating is only bad when other teams do it. Not your team. Lesson learned.

[madinmaryland]

49. SNORT!! The Boston ROID Sox. Roger Clemens deflated a baseball, or was it his balls....

[MohRokTah]

20. As a cubs fan, I was very disappointed when it was revealed Sammy Sosa used corked bats.

It's sad when people feel like they have to cheat to win.

[trumad]

24. A corked bat does not give you an advantage.

Quite the opposite.

[mythology]

22. Boston sports fans conveniently ignore that their hero David Ortiz was also busted for steroids

They stomp their feet about Alex Rodriguez, but never about Ortiz or Manny Ramirez who both failed drug tests.

[TeeYiYi]

17. I realize that all is fair in love and war...

...but I think it's kinda' shitty since the Patriots already had home field advantage.

The cold, rainy weather worked against the Colts. Deflated balls are easier to hold onto, throw and catch. Patriots didn't need to cheat to win but they did.

If both teams had had the advantage of playing with deflated footballs on a cold, rainy day, I wouldn't care... but they didn't. Colts were throwing rocks in cold weather. Patriots were throwing nice cushy rockets. Nothing fair about that scenario.

Patriots are a good team. No, they're a GREAT team...but they still cheat like they've got the mob in their back pocket. It detracts from their legacy.

Who would possibly want the 'cheaters' to win the Super Bowl now?... Hmmm…let me think... Maybe this was a calculated setup, made by bad guys in Vegas to try to control the Super Bowl outcome. I imagine Deflategate has already affected the odds…

I don't doubt that the Patriots cheated... I'm just surprised that they got caught. Most anyone WOULD cheat if they knew how and thought they could get away with it. That's just the nature of business in the real world of corporate America. It's a dog eat dog world… Just don't get caught.

Patriots have been finding ways to give themselves an advantage since the jump. Colts should've had their own cheat plan if they wanted to have any hope of winning the championship game against the number one, 'whatever it takes' Patriots.

I'm not surprised that the Patriots deflated their footballs on a cold and rainy day. I'm more surprised that the Colts didn't follow suit...

My 2 cents.

TYY

[madinmaryland]

19. Just treat Brady and Belicheat the way they treat the roiders...

Give them a four game suspension starting immediately.

[mythology]

21. What Aaron Rodgers does is different than what the Patriots are apparently doing.

What Rodgers claims to have done is to have the balls inflated over the allowed level which are then presented to the referees who then deflate the footballs to the allowed level.

The Patriots on the other hand had balls that were verified to be at the correct level before the game and then lowered during the first half so that 11 of the 12 were 2 psi below the allowed level.

So in the case of the Packers, the balls are presented in a fashion that would be illegal during the game, set to the correct level and then used in the game legally.

By contrast, the Patriots presented balls that were legally inflated and then were caught having altered the pressure after the verification. That's called cheating.

It's really not that hard to understand why one is cheating and one isn't. Unless one is trying to justify that their team is run by a "piece of shit used car salesman".

[rocktivity]

28. They can do that with their practice footballs if they like

But maybe it's time for the league and the refs to start handling the game footballs from now on.

If the game balls are deflated after they're inspected, someone needs to be banned permanently -- and BEFORE the Super Bowl game.


rocktivity

[bluedigger]

40. If it's that big a deal (it's debatable) the NFL needs to establish a chain of custody.

As it is, unless someone confesses or a Zapruder tape appears, there is no evidence to charge a culpable party. They will probably still fine the Patriots, but this will really be addressed by the rules comittee during the off season.

[El Supremo]

41. Geeze, it now sounds like Humidor-Gate. n/m

[bluedigger]

42. The more I learn about it in general, the less interesting it is.

From what I can gather, there are possible physics explanations for it, which may or may not be human created, or it could be just plain old physical tampering after the balls are tested. We know Indy's balls passed, but not what their starting PSI was (do we?), which leaves us unable to determine the range of the potential change. We also know that reduced PSI improves grip (accuracy) and retention of the ball, but it also decreases range and slows the ball in air, which is probably a bad thing for the offence. So that means that any competitive advantage would depend on the style of play of the QB and plan of attack. Granted, in this case, it seems to slightly benefit Brady and the Pats, even if the actual game statistics do not reflect it - Brady was better in the second half with the correctly inflated balls. And what of the 12th ball? Are we supposed to believe that it was in reserve in case of a Hail Mary situation at the end of the game? Or just sloppy cheating?

As for Brady himself, has he been doctoring the balls his whole career? Or just this one time? Tom has thrown 143 interceptions in his career and 9 this season. Not to mention fumbles recovered by the other teams. But only D'quell noticed something off? Okey-dokey.

I'm fine with the NFL establishing standards on football's PSI. But if this is going to be a thing, then they need to take control of the game balls away from the teams.

[opiate69]

23. ...

[sir pball]

25. It could have been done while remaining technically legal.

The rules don't specify (that I can find) the temperature of the air the balls are filled with. My chem math isn't so rusty that I don't recall my ideal gas law - for a ball to be 2psi short at 280k/45f, it would have needed to be inflated with 326k/128f air. Not unmanageable at all. As it cooled on the sidelines, the pressure would drop naturally, no tampering after the measurement and certification, therefore no technical illegality. That seems to be BB's MO these days, a Formula 1-style "creative interpretation" of the lettet of the law.

As to how you'd get the ball inflated with the hot air and measured before it cooled I don't know. Are the teams allowed to blow them up and immediately have them certifies?

[MohRokTah]

32. The NFL officially ruled the temperatures were NOT a factor. eom

[bluedigger]

43. They have a great track record themselves with their "rulings".

Or does only the Pat's record count when determining credibility?

[fishwax]

26. lol -- awfully touchy

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

33. Uhhhhhhhh Will?

The billboard material about under inflated balls isn't enough to promise a win against the Seahawks. Care to make a DU friendly wager? Like I take the Seahawks and you the Pats and the loser has to post the a picture of the other teams logo every day for a month or something.

Because in the end it's not about a slight edge with the amount of air in the ball. It's about blocking and tackling and while Russell Wilson doesn't have the same amount of experience as Tom Brady, he's got enough to not be wowed by the circumstances.

I can promise you the Seahawks don't give a rats ass if the ball is like a blimp or like a Frisbee, they are going to beat the Patriots...........

[WilliamPitt]

34. What's the bet?

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

35. well let's see........

How's this? The loser changes (or adds if they don't have one) their sig line that says, for example; "My favorite team, the Seahawks, lost in the Super Bowl to the better team, The Patriots" for a month or something. I've seen just about every one of these things and am getting to the point where something extra is needed to make it interesting for me. After all, how is a guy gonna know if he's lucky unless he bets once in a while?

[WilliamPitt]

36. Sig line bet works

I have a bi-annual avatar bet with trumad that is sacrosanct and has lasted more than 10 years; it's between me and him always and only.

This does not despoil that. So: "My favorite team, the -----, lost in the Super Bowl to the better team, the ------."

...in the sig line, for a month.

Online handshake?

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

38. We have a wager sir!

Online handshake
and now we wait

[WilliamPitt]

39. ...and wait...and wait...

...It's the most...annoying time...of the year...

[eridani]

51. Only if they bring their A game to the first half n/t

[Nye Bevan]

37. If they hadn't cheated, the conversation would be about what a good team they are,

and about Belichik's and Brady's legacies.

But because they cheated in a game that they obviously didn't need to cheat in to win, the conversation is entirely different. They brought this entirely on themselves.

[radiclib]

44. "..seeping bag of butt-nuggets.."

I'm stealing it.