Here's the latest from ESPN. I say they should just blame it on Aaron Hernandez and be done with it.... :TU: The NFL has zeroed in on a New England Patriots locker room attendant who allegedly took the AFC Championship Game balls from the officials' locker room to another area on the way to the field, Fox Sports reported, citing sources. According to Fox Sports, the league has interviewed him and has video. The league is still gauging if any wrongdoing occurred, but he is a strong person of interest, according to the report.
The rest of the story First, per a league source, the other "area on way to field" is a bathroom. The bathroom consists of one toilet and one sink and a door that locks from the inside. Second, according to the same source, the person carried two bags of balls into the bathroom: the 12 balls to be used by the Patriots and the 12 balls to be used by the Colts. Third, from the same source, the evidence comes from a surveillance video that was discovered by the Patriots and given to the NFL early in the investigation. Fourth, again from the same source, the video shows the employee in the bathroom for approximately 90 seconds. So this video was actually of the Patriots staffer going to the bathroom for 90 seconds- clearly not enough time to perfectly deflate 12 footballs- and the footage was submitted by the Patriots themselves.
On that particular day, the Patriots would have beaten the Colts if they were using cantaloupes instead of footballs. I find it interesting that the Patriots played far better in the second half when the low-pressure balls had been removed from the game. If the reduced pressure was intentional, it's still cheating though. I just don't see it as a big deal as far as the game went.
a lot can be done in 90 seconds. a single stall bathroom is the perfect place to do something like that. This fellow will obviously be the fall the guy for the pats. Any sane individual wouldn't bring the balls into the bathroom to take a leak- they would leave them outside the door. bringing them in is really kind of gross. For someone who was training for this 90 seconds is more than enough time. Hell pit crews change 4 tires in 20 seconds.. how long do you think it takes to let 2 lbs out? a minute? Its likely only a few seconds.
Balls Balls Balls. There is a lot of hot air here. I personally think the Patriots fill the balls with helium.
If the balls were inflated with a dry needle, wouldn't air slowly leak out? I know that happens with basketballs, but I'm not sure how quickly the air will leak. -BC
To lower the pressure in 11 balls in 90 seconds allows about eight seconds each - including removing them from the bags and putting them back. I would have to see this done in person before I would believe that it could be done. As to taking the footballs into the 'loo, in order to maintain proper custody of the balls he would have had to do this if he really needed to relieve himself. Leaving the footballs in the corridor on the opposite side of a closed door would have broken the chain of custody. I don't see that this dude did anything wrong. I'll bet one guy couldn't lower the air pressure by two lbs each in those four tires in much less then 90 seconds!
the thought occurred to me today that maybe the colts or some other patriots/brady enemy paid the ball boy to create this scandal
I knew they would overturn it. "More probable than not" was a bunch of crap! And...how many of you guys would turn over your phones to have them searched? Go Pats!!!
Here is a link to the actual written decision by Judge Berman: http://www.gannett-cdn.com/experiments/usatoday/Sports/2015-09-03-nfl-brady-decision.pdf
There has not been a bigger witch hunt in New England since Salem 1692. It took a legal ruling to stop that too. Hysteria ruled the day before that. I see a lot of parallels here and I am ashamed of the piling on and the lack of scientific knowledge of how things deflate in lower temperatures. And it was very minimul to boot.
