I think this would be a way bigger deal if the Colts hadn't gotten blown out so bad. I they lost by one touchdown maybe, but I don't think the ball made that much difference. Just play better!! The refs are supposed to inspect all the balls before they play. Maybe it's a problem with the refs. That would be something new!!! Don't mind New England but Seahawks Luke Wilson is from my home town Go Seahawks!! Leo
You have to consider the psychological affect that unearned touchdowns can have on a defense. Once the Pats got the momentum going their way with the underinflated balls, the rest just snowballed. When your opponent is cheating and hammering you down effortlessly but you dont know they are cheating, it can be quite demoralizing. Just saying. Also, consider who are the ball boys? Arent they children of wealthy patrons of the team?? Just saying. Something to think about.
Sounds like he's a big fan of Charlie Murphy's "True Hollywood Stories"...particularly the Rick James one. Now how many people will know what I'm talking about?
I heard a former referee say that, during the game, their job is to get a fresh ball ready to be in play as quickly as possible. Given the weather conditions, every ball was coming out of each play needing to be replaced with a dry one. I'm guessing it will be different in the Super Bowl. After hearing Brady say how he picks 12 balls that he considers to be perfect, I'm surprised that he wouldn't notice them being different during the game than they were when he chose them. Feb 1st can't come soon enough!
Lot's of talk about cheating, but so far it is just talk. The balls were inspected and passed. Maybe the refs screwed up and didn't do their job? Maybe Brady had nothing to do with it (I believe him), and a ball boy did it? Maybe the balls were on the edge of legality and the temperature was THE factor. Seriously, the Patriots do not need to deflate balls to beat the Colts. No disrespect to the Colts, they have a gifted QB and Coach, but I seriously question that the Patriots jeopardize their careers for this game. I could very well be wrong, but so far I have not seen nor heard anything that tells me this is a clear case of purposely modifying the balls.
In the immortal words of Jessie "The Body" Ventura... "WIN IF YOU CAN, LOSE IF YOU MUST, BUT ALWAYS CHEAT!!! "
Where is the proof. The top story is Brady is a cheater and now a liar. The "media" has already stripped him of wins, mvp and super bowls. All of this coming from mostly former players that are just plain jealous IMHO The NFL doesn't seem to be concerned about it. The supposed properly inflated balls played with in the second half must have been fondled by Brady to score so many points This has turned into a "Media" and "Crybaby" frenzie Innocent until proven guilty Go Patriots! Go Seahawks! To add to this I'm not a fan of instant replay as it has taken from the game with terms like Process of the catch Not enough evidence to overturn the call I think the NFL and media have turned this into a congressional hodgepodge with the delays and blatant misses.
I like IR. It keeps refs honest. It keeps everyone honest. About the media. What can we say. They lie, they spy, they conspire and scheme they make news instead of reporting news, they spin, whatever it takes to get people to pay attention to them and subsequently look at the ads they are getting paid to run. There is no Journalism any more, its all hype and entertainment, sensationalized, pre packaged, dumbed down, trash for mass consumption by the dumbed down drooling zombified masses. They do the same thing with everything, politics, religion, finance, science and of course the criminal justice industry as well. Happy Friday peoples.
brady at news conference this am - no eye blinking ( coached ) , stiff , bad body language . nobody knows nothing , minor fine , media campaign completed . and lynch is getting fined like almost 100K for not talking to media and a crotch grab ( but they pay'd m.j. for same at halftime ) .
The former Carolina Panthers GM is obviously not a big fan of New England.... CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The "Deflategate'' controversy in New England resurrected questions former Carolina Panthers general manager Marty Hurney had about the Patriots after losing Super Bowl XXXVIII. Hurney, now the host of a weekday radio talk show on Charlotte's ESPN 730 AM and an ESPN NFL Insider, shared those questions on Thursday regarding Carolina's 32-29 loss to the Patriots on Feb. 1, 2004. "There isn't a day that goes by since [then] that I haven't questioned ... that there were some things done that might have been beyond the rules that may have given them a three-point advantage,'' Hurney said during his radio show. "And I can't prove anything, and that's why I'm very angry. And the anger has come back over the last couple of days that commissioner Roger Goodell decided to shred all of the evidence after 'Spygate,' because I think there were a lot of things in there that would bring closure to a lot of people.'' The NFL is investigating why 11 of 12 football used by the Patriots in Sunday's 45-7 win over Indianapolis in the AFC Championship Game were underinflated significantly below the league requirements. "To me this isn't about 'Deflategate', this isn't about anything having to do about any particular game last week,'' Hurney said. "And it certainly isn't fodder to get by the first week before the Super Bowl. "This is about a culture. Is there a culture of cheating at probably what most people look at as the best franchise in the National Football League?'' It was revealed in 2007 that the New England Patriots were caught illegally taping sideline defensive signals from New York Jets coaches during the team's opening week game. The "Spygate" controversy led to accusations that such activity has been going on since 2000. "There are people who swear to me that the Patriots taped our practice down in Houston during Super Bowl week," Hurney said. "I can't prove it. I don't know. And I hate talking like this because I feel like a bad loser, but it just gnaws at you and this latest incident brings it back up. "You go to 'Spygate' after our Super Bowl and things came out about a rumor about a video guy, and he had tapes and he goes to Hawaii and kind of disappears. ... These are all rumors and I can't substantiate any of this. But it gnaws at you." Hurney made it clear the Panthers weren't completely innocent of violating rules during their Super Bowl year. He reminded that a report came out after the season that several Carolina players bought steroids from a South Carolina physician. Among those cited in the report were three of the five starting offensive linemen. "That was wrong," Hurney said. "The organization didn't know anything about it and we took steps and we addressed that. We weren't going to put up with that. [Team owner] Jerry Richardson wasn't going to put up with that. "To me, this isn't about deflating balls, it's about a continuing culture of alleged cheating and to me everybody's talking about [coach] Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. When is Robert Kraft going to come up and explain why, if they are found guilty of this, why do these things keep happening in this organization?" Hurney said the current allegations against New England aggravate him because "it really pulls up some pretty big scabs.'' He admittedly kept track of New England's playoff record after "Spygate." "They were 6-6 in the playoffs," he said. "Now they're getting to the Super Bowl and you're saying this is all behind them and this comes up. This isn't about deflating balls; this is about is there a culture of cheating that they'll do anything to get an edge. "This is a bigger issue, and I think most people are missing the issue. It's an issue of if there is a culture of cheating at the organization that most people look at as the gold standard in this league. Is there a culture of cheating and breaking the rules?'' Hurney wasn't surprised that Belichick denied any knowledge of wrongdoing. "What did you expect him to say?" he said. "I don't expect the league to come out and say anything before the Super Bowl. I hope they do, but I still go back to why were all the documents shredded after that investigation if there weren't highly damaging facts about what the Patriots did. "... You go to people and teams, people that have played them and feel like I do that they might have had an unfair advantage. You're going to feel that way. But winning that Super Bowl, when you work in the National Football League, that completes your career and that's all you work for. And when there's a question about it, that's why I wanted to see the evidence, and that's why I'm so upset about the evidence being shredded.'' Hurney said the history of the Patriots under Belichick makes him wary of what the coach says. "I know I don't trust anything that Bill Belichick says because of all the rumors that are out there,'' he said. "That's why I want to see the report. I want to see what they did or what they didn't do. "I can't prove any of this. But where there's smoke, a lot of times there's fire.''
Who's really to blame? Read on: According to reports, the game balls used by both the Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts were tested before kickoff last Sunday and again at halftime. All of the balls passed inspection before the game, but at least 11 of the Patriots balls were reportedly 2.0 PSI under-inflated at halftime. The NFL has also reportedly determined that the balls were deflated by humans, not Mother Nature. If all of that information is accurate, someone had to have deflated all or almost all of New Englands game balls in the roughly two-hour window between the time they were tested and kickoff. Earlier this week, a former NFL ball boy helped shed some light on how the process of inspecting game balls before kickoff works. Eric Kester, who worked as a ball boy for the Chicago Bears in 2003, said part of his job was to work with the quarterback before the game to prepare the balls. We would then work with the quarterbacks to customize the balls to their liking, Kester told Monica Alba of NBC News. This involved scrubbing them with stiff horsehair brushes to rub off the leathers slippery silicone sheen, and occasionally inflating or deflating the balls a very small amount, which I believe is legal to a degree. Quarterbacks are very particular about the way a ball feels in their hand, and we worked meticulously to match their particular preferences. We knew all that, but the next thing Kester said strikes me as incredibly interesting. Based on his experiences, the referees did not always stick a pressure gauge into every ball. I recall them having a pressure gauge in the locker room, but most often they just squeezed the balls, turned them over in their hands a few times each, and inspected the laces, he explained. I dont recall them ever rejecting one of our balls. My thought process was, Lets get the balls exactly the way our quarterback wants them, and if the refs reject one or two before the game, no big deal. But theres no harm giving them our ideal balls and hoping they make it through inspection.' Is it really all that unreasonable to wonder if the officials who checked the balls before the AFC Championship Game went with the squeeze test instead of measuring the actual air pressure? And if that did happen, would they admit to the NFL that they did not do their jobs the way they were supposed to? Kester also explained how difficult it would be for a ball boy to deflate a ball after the inspection, as the game balls were taken out to the field immediately after the officials checked them. There was a window, maybe an hour or so, between inspection and game time, he said. The balls were out on the field, and it would have been very difficult for me to secretly deflate balls while thousands of fans and media members moved about the stadium. It would also have been very difficult to sneak 12 balls back into the locker room without raising suspicion. In my experience, I never knew of a ball boy who tampered with a ball after inspection. This is where the NFL has to be extremely careful, and its likely the reason we have yet to hear anything official from the league pertaining to the investigation. Just as the league must prove someone from the Patriots intentionally tampered with balls, it must also prove that the referees werent negligent. There have been reports that the Colts were suspicious of the Patriots using under-inflated balls back in November and that the Baltimore Ravens may have tipped off the Colts before the AFC Championship. If that is true, you would assume the NFL would make sure its officials checked New Englands balls with pressure gauges. However, you would also assume that would mean the NFL would have spoken to the Patriots about the suspicions and let them know they were being monitored. Otherwise, the sting operation theory that we discussed with you yesterday might hold weight, which would not be a good look for the league. There are plenty more questions that need to be answered, and dont be surprised if the NFL waits until after the Super Bowl to address them.
So why does a catcher close his legs so only the pitcher can see what pitch he wants, is everybody cheating that has their eyes open. Football coaches with plays on a clip board should be shown on camera. I have met many people in my trade that I like, and some I don't. So should I accuse them of things just because things didn't go my way. Show me in the record books where the NFL has posted the air pressure of any game balls used "ever". Show me where ESPN has ever talked or posted the air pressures of any sport. This whole circus show has made me less interested as a pro football fan I guess if you don't like em you hate em
If you don't pass the post race inspection, you don't win the race.. Even if it wasn't on pourpose. The 12th ball was for the kicker only. I bet it was right at the upper limit.
Now it is the Patriots balls that were used in the first half and the Colts balls that were used in the second! And now they anticipate the Superbowl to be the most watched in history. Odd how right after the game and BEORE the alleged scandal it was just the opposite! GO PATRIOTS
