NFL finds 11 of 12 balls deflated per ESPN

[Stinger92860]

In baseball, cheating has been a right of passage.

 

[J187Money]

Does Gretchen know that Tom is playing with deflated balls?

Gretchen?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Said this elsewhere; but...

This had no real impact on the game. Maybe the Pats would have won by just 21 instead of 35; but, the Pats, who had been caught before, are basically waving a big red flag in front of a bull. A major fine and loss of draft picks as a result of SpyGate clearly did not do much. Plus, what team would not give up some cash and a few draft picks to play in the Super Bowl? The only thing that the Hooded One cares about is winning. So, suspend him from the Super Bowl. That should get Coach Belichick's attention.

How do you figure? Both teams used the same balls. There were no separate balls. A slightly deflated ball is easier to throw in rainy conditions. One team had 170 yards rushing, the other couldn't do anything on the ground and had to rely almost exclusively on the pass. The latter team benefited more from any deflation. Hint: they also lost the game.

 

[Dove]

I wonder how often a football violates the psi rule. Any game, anywhere.

It just so happens somebody checked this time? If the NFL has such a rule then this is on the league to enforce it before, during and after the game.

 

[noeynox]

Im a rules person. It doesn't matter who does it or how often it happens, its an issue right now, and its the patriots that are in question. Belichek and Pats need to get dinged for this.

Expect the NFL to revisit the procedure of what happens to the balls after they're weighed.

 

[DoctorWho85]

There's seems to be a lot of engineers on the Yard, myself included. Loving it!!!

 

[DarthGrumpy]

How do you figure? Both teams used the same balls. There were no separate balls. A slightly deflated ball is easier to throw in rainy conditions. One team had 170 yards rushing, the other couldn't do anything on the ground and had to rely almost exclusively on the pass. The latter team benefited more from any deflation. Hint: they also lost the game.

From what I have been reading, that is incorrect. Each team's offense gets to play with their own balls (damn, I sound like a 7th grader) except for special team balls (PK, FG's), which are handled separately. Thus, the doctored balls were only used by the Pat's offense.

As for the end result, I agree that this action had no impact on the result, which makes this just foolish. Is Belichick's ego so large and his need to humiliate opponents instead of just defeating them so big, that he had to pull this stunt just to win by 35 instead of 21? Saw a little bit of that in the 4th quarter when the game was already over when Brady was still in the game with under 4 minutes left. The announcers called Belichick on it and Brady did take one big hit low and was lucky not to get hurt on the series before he was finally pulled.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

There's seems to be a lot of engineers on the Yard, myself included. Loving it!!!

Great trick at UConn that I knew about before I even started was taking the required calculus classes (for business or engineering) over the summer at the branch campus (Waterbury) where the professors, most of whom where high school math teachers making some extra money, knew the subject and could speak English, which was a combination that was very rare Storrs.

PS - The old UConn Waterbury branch campus was an interesting place. Learned a lot. Never walk out to one's car by yourself. Sometime running a red light to get back on I-84 had to be done for safety. And, when the Waterbury PD SWAT team raids a house across the street, get down behind the concrete walls.

 

[HuskyHawk]

From what I have been reading, that is incorrect. Each team's offense gets to play with their own balls (damn, I sound like a 7th grader) except for special team balls (PK, FG's), which are handled separately. Thus, the doctored balls were only used by the Pat's offense.

As for the end result, I agree that this action had no impact on the result, which makes this just foolish. Is Belichick's ego so large and his need to humiliate opponents instead of just defeating them so big, that he had to pull this stunt just to win by 35 instead of 21? Saw a little bit of that in the 4th quarter when the game was already over when Brady was still in the game with under 4 minutes left. The announcers called Belichick on it and Brady did take one big hit low and was lucky not to get hurt on the series before he was finally pulled.

Agreed. The initial description I read of how this works, with each team supplying balls didn't say that those are then kept separate and used by each offense. It suggested that they were then pooled. Since that is not the case, my point is invalid. Either way it is irrelevant to the outcome. There is also no evidence at this point that the Patriots did anything, certainly not that Belichick ordered it.

 

[MASSconn]

diehard pats fan here- why is everyone blaming belichick? as has been said all day- this is something that QB's lobbied for and it's wide-spread that a lot of nfl qbs do this. it's clearly brady and the ball boy. so easy for non pats fans to blame belichick

 

[junglehusky]

Agreed. The initial description I read of how this works, with each team supplying balls didn't say that those are then kept separate and used by each offense. It suggested that they were then pooled. Since that is not the case, my point is invalid. Either way it is irrelevant to the outcome. There is also no evidence at this point that the Patriots did anything, certainly not that Belichick ordered it.

Right. They'll find a low level equipment guy to take the fall. Or blame the invisible mischief gremlins who steal air molecules out of footballs and cause souflees to deflate.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Agreed. The initial description I read of how this works, with each team supplying balls didn't say that those are then kept separate and used by each offense. It suggested that they were then pooled. Since that is not the case, my point is invalid. Either way it is irrelevant to the outcome. There is also no evidence at this point that the Patriots did anything, certainly not that Belichick ordered it.

If it was just just 1 or 2 balls, everyone agrees that it would be no big deal as environmental and/or game action could have caused a ball or two to deflate. But, the announcement that 11 of the pat's 12 balls flunked inspection, makes it almost certain that human intervention caused this, especially if the Colt's balls all passed (I have seen nothing either way on that so far). The other key observation is that if this was indeed the result of human action, does anyone believe that someone on the Pat's staff would on his/her own without direction or discussion with the Hooded One do this? Belichick is an OCD King. If some one did this on his/her own, the NFL would not have to worry about it because the Emperor Belechick would take the guy for a little drive over to an industrial park after hours and plant the guy in the ground. Thus, if the footballs were tampered with, Belichick was involved.

I have been texting a good friend from the Boston area about this all morning. if Belichick did do this, he wants him suspended at least. His oldest son is a Pats fan, just like mine (argh!), and his done has been reduced to tears with everyone in the media and kids at school calling his coach, his team, and his QB (Brady) cheaters. He's too young to remember SpyGate and to have seen how life works yet. It sucks. My son was very upset yesterday and after calming him down a bit, I tried to turn it into a life lesson - once you are caught cheating, it is very hard to shake the reputation going forward even if you never cheat again.

 

[CL82]

Im a rules person. It doesn't matter who does it or how often it happens, its an issue right now, and its the patriots that are in question. Belichek and Pats need to get dinged for this.

Expect the NFL to revisit the procedure of what happens to the balls after they're weighed.

"need" Interesting word choice.

 

[Adios]

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-beginners-guide-to-deflategate/

If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying!

 

[CL82]

From what I have been reading, that is incorrect. Each team's offense gets to play with their own balls (damn, I sound like a 7th grader) except for special team balls (PK, FG's), which are handled separately. Thus, the doctored balls were only used by the Pat's offense.

As for the end result, I agree that this action had no impact on the result, which makes this just foolish. Is Belichick's ego so large and his need to humiliate opponents instead of just defeating them so big, that he had to pull this stunt just to win by 35 instead of 21? Saw a little bit of that in the 4th quarter when the game was already over when Brady was still in the game with under 4 minutes left. The announcers called Belichick on it and Brady did take one big hit low and was lucky not to get hurt on the series before he was finally pulled.

I've been laughing at the ball handling puns form the get go on this. Only discipline and years of practice has kept me from subjecting the board to it, well, more than I already have.

That's news to me that each team plays with it's own balls (snicker). I've thought that they both use a common ball, or set of balls. That's what the rules seem to contemplate.

I'd be curious at to how you calculate that 2 psi = two touchdowns. I'm not seeing that at all.

 

[Chin Diesel]

As all of us have learned most everything we know about footballs and the NFL in the last 48 hours...............................................

I think it's obvious that every QB has a level of influence over how the footballs are inflated and broken in for home games. Who knew there was a homefield advantage to footballs? I think it's also obvious tha the NFL has had knowledge of this practice and has pretty much left up to the players and teams to self-police the process.

I stopped having a favorite NFL team when the Rams traded Dickerson, so I don't care one way or the other.

From my perspective the biggest egg is on the NFL for letting the process get out of control until it came back to bite them in the arse at the second worst possible time.

 

[superjohn]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...n-concerns-in-november-matchup-with-patriots/

 

[Bonehead]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...n-concerns-in-november-matchup-with-patriots/

OMG really can't make this up - or can you?

All these haters everywhere or where smoke there is fire??

I obviously don't have a horse in the race but come on - there is way too much smoke!!

 

[cryjeremiah]

The Patriots are the equivalent of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. Extremely good, but can't resist trying to tilt things in their favor. Cheating is cheating. The final score of the Colts game is irrelevant. This plus Spygate is a proven pattern of behavior. Obviously they would never mess with Super bowl profits, but the NFL needs to come down hard on them, like multiple draft picks and fines/suspensions for Belicheck, the GM, and some form of punishment for Kraft(will never happen).

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I've been laughing at the ball handling puns form the get go on this. Only discipline and years of practice has kept me from subjecting the board to it, well, more than I already have.

That's news to me that each team plays with it's own balls (snicker). I've thought that they both use a common ball, or set of balls. That's what the rules seem to contemplate.

I'd be curious at to how you calculate that 2 psi = two touchdowns. I'm not seeing that at all.

I think this story needs some AC/DC....

As for the score, my point was not that the deflated balls gave the Pats an extra 14 points, it was the Pats won convincingly and did not need to break the rules to do so. Instead, the Hooded One wanted to beat the Colts and beat them badly. Humiliate them. His ego and greed may have got the better of him this time if he ends up watching the Super Bowl from his home in Medfield.

PS - Boston.com is reporting that all of the Colt's balls checked out, though based on their play last week, they should be called the Indianapolis Geldings, checked out OK. If the environment and play was the cause of some balls deflating, the statistical chances that 11 of the pats 12 balls would be impacted while none of the Colt's 12 were is close to 0. Thus, someone had to deflate the darn things.

 

[CL82]

I think this story needs some AC/DC....

As for the score, my point was not that the deflated balls gave the Pats an extra 14 points, it was the Pats won convincingly and did not need to break the rules to do so. Instead, the Hooded One wanted to beat the Colts and beat them badly. Humiliate them. His ego and greed may have got the better of him this time if he ends up watching the Super Bowl from his home in Medfield.

PS - Boston.com is reporting that all of the Colt's balls checked out, though based on their play last week, they should be called the Indianapolis Geldings, checked out OK. If the environment and play was the cause of some balls deflating, the statistical chances that 11 of the pats 12 balls would be impacted while none of the Colt's 12 were is close to 0. Thus, someone had to deflate the darn things.

Possibly, or possibly the refs never checked them all by gauge to start. We've heard that it is common practice for home QB's to try to finesse theirs balls to their liking. Maybe TB likes em right at 12.5 while the Colts in anticipation of the challenge filled their balls to 13.5 so they came in within the range. No way to tell, since there doesn't seem to be a record of the starting weights and there isn't a definitive chain of custody.

I can't believe that no one made Big Balls the theme of last year's NC run for men's basketball.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I wonder how often a football violates the psi rule. Any game, anywhere.

It just so happens somebody checked this time? If the NFL has such a rule then this is on the league to enforce it before, during and after the game.

From all the articles and radio I've heard over the past 48 hours, it's every week. Prepping or doctoring the footballs to the QB's liking was known by all NFL'ers I've heard. None of them think this is a story. Makes you wonder why this game became an issue. Also, once the referees were notified the balls were inflated to full for the second half.

This seems to be this generations George Brett pine tar incident.

 

[HuskyHawk]

From all the articles and radio I've heard over the past 48 hours, it's every week. Prepping or doctoring the footballs to the QB's liking was known by all NFL'ers I've heard. None of them think this is a story. Makes you wonder why this game became an issue. Also, once the referees were notified the balls were inflated to full for the second half.

This seems to be this generations George Brett pine tar incident.

Exactly. I think the NFL is in a bind because this became public. How much can they penalize New England when they silently allow every other team to do this every week. It's already known that Minnesota and Chicago broke the rules by warming balls in a game earlier this year...no penalty. That violation was on film.

 

[Bonehead]

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story...gland-patriots-shocked-deflated-football-news

Of course he is - even if he was responsible (which I dont believe he is) what do you expect him to say...

Although it would be hilarious if a photo emerged of him in some equipment closet, with his cut off sleeves sweatshirt, manhandling an air gauge and a bunch of footballs.

 

[CL82]

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story...gland-patriots-shocked-deflated-football-news

Of course he is - even if he was responsible (which I dont believe he is) what do you expect him to say...

Although it would be hilarious if a photo emerged of him in some equipment closet, with his cut off sleeves sweatshirt, manhandling an air gauge and a bunch of footballs.

Hysterical, but not entirely unexpected....