Pats Cheated... Again. Deflategate

[Midswat]

I wonder if the NFL is pumping air into this story to deflect from the heat the refs were taking for a number of questionable calls during the postseason

I have to say, I find deflategate to be a complete non-story. And I'm definitely pulling for New England now.

 

[Doomsday]

I agree with Pep and some others I've seen and heard: You don't get to the level Brady and Belechick are - in any profession - and not be very well versed in fact expert, on every minute detail of your profession no matter how esoteric. In fact that is WHY you are at the level you are.

 

[VTA]

Not saying it was in this game, but in a closer game, sure it can be the difference. If referee's calls on pass interference and what is and isn't a catch on one play can be the difference between winning and losing, then a difference in the conditions of the ball for the entire game can certainly make a difference.

The result of this game isn't the point. As Aikman said this morning, if you think Brady and Belichick haven't been doing this all year, and then just decided to do it on the biggest game of the year to this point, then you're just as naive as they want you to be.

Oh, so you're okay with SOME type of regulation on the air pressure in the ball, just not this particular range of air pressure. The arbitrary standard of internet message board commenter VTA, whatever it is, isn't micromanaging, but the one that the NFL has had in place longer than any of us have been alive is... Yep, ridiculous.

Apparently the league has a protocol to follow for the refs to measure the balls before the game starts... just like the rule provides. this isn't some arcaine rule that just showed up 10 years ago.

The football is the fucking point of the game numbnuts.

Fuck, let em play with tennis balls for all you care right? "Long axis between 11 and 11.25 inches?" Pfft... fuck that shit. Don't tread on me you fucking commies!!

You're comparing apples to oranges and citing extremes. In some states they have blue laws - antiquated, non-essentail laws; like it's illegal to leave you car through the door facing a busy street. It's not enforced, no one cares and it's irrelevant. You're arguing as though someone not concerned with this dumb little law is somehow validating murder. I guess the cops in the states who have that law are just being arbitrary and stuff... it can't be that it's not that important and has no real effect.

A slightly deflated ball is nothing like playing with a flat ball, pass interference and bad calls. You're straining at gnats.

 

[dbair1967]

I wonder if the NFL is pumping air into this story to deflect from the heat the refs were taking for a number of questionable calls during the postseason

I have to say, I find deflategate to be a complete non-story. And I'm definitely pulling for New England now.

figures

 

[peplaw06]

Here's the link to Mark Brunell's comments yesterday. It's also got some decent stuff from Jerome Bettis and Brian Dawkins.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12213476&ex_cid=sportscenterFB

 

[peplaw06]

You're comparing apples to oranges and citing extremes. In some states they have blue laws - antiquated, non-essentail laws; like it's illegal to leave you car through the door facing a busy street. It's not enforced, no one cares and it's irrelevant. You're arguing as though someone not concerned with this dumb little law is somehow validating murder. I guess the cops in the states who have that law are just being arbitrary and stuff... it can't be that it's not that important and has no real effect.

A slightly deflated ball is nothing like playing with a flat ball, pass interference and bad calls. You're straining at gnats.

This is not a blue law. It's enforced every single game when the refs check the balls before game time. Your whole argument falls apart before it gets off the runway.

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

I have to say, I find deflategate to be a complete non-story. And I'm definitely pulling for New England now.

Same here. I thought Spygate was a major scandal the league swept under the rug (destroying the tapes, really?) but this doesn't do much for me. The league never should have had the dumb rule to let the teams control their own footballs if they didn't want something like this to happen. And I still don't see why the officials who handle the balls the whole game never said anything, except that it wasn't even that noticeable.

 

[VTA]

This is not a blue law. It's enforced every single game when the refs check the balls before game time. Your whole argument falls apart before it gets off the runway.

Oh Pepper, you're flying a kite against my F-4.

A brilliant marketing ploy to create a bad guy for an otherwise un-attractive Super Bowl.
The players involved hardly give a crap, let alone see the difference.

From the guy who intercepted Brady and supposedly started this nonsense:

“I wouldn’t know how that could even be an advantage or a disadvantage,” D’Qwell Jackson told NFL.com. “I definitely wouldn’t be able to tell if one ball had less pressure than another.”

Jackson insists he didn’t blow the whistle on the Patriots to the whistle blowers. He says he just wants the souvenir he earned fair and square back in his possession.

“It wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game,” Jackson said. “They outplayed us. We didn’t match their intensity. I don’t feel slighted at all personally. They created turnovers, they ran the ball on us. They won that game because of their intensity — not the pressure of a football.”

 

[peplaw06]

Yeah cause LBs handle so many footballs.

You're focusing on bullshit and blue laws that aren't. It's beside the point that it didn't make a difference in the outcome of the game. The intent is all that matters.

There is literally nobody out there saying that this is a rule that's not enforced. The refs have protocols to check the balls before and during the game, does that sound like they're not enforcing the rule?

So all you have left is the outcome of the game wasn't affected? Arguing a strawman that no one disputes... Yeah, that's some Miramar level flying there...

 

[dbair1967]

Aikman is out there saying today the Pats organization should be punished at least as much, if not more than the Saints were for bounty gate

 

[bbgun]

Yeah cause LBs handle so many footballs.

You're focusing on bullshit and blue laws that aren't. It's beside the point that it didn't make a difference in the outcome of the game. The intent is all that matters.

There is literally nobody out there saying that this is a rule that's not enforced. The refs have protocols to check the balls before and during the game, does that sound like they're not enforcing the rule?

So all you have left is the outcome of the game wasn't affected? Arguing a strawman that no one disputes... Yeah, that's some Miramar level flying there...

Agreed, the Pats blew the Colts out, but they didn't know for sure that would happen before the game kicked off, hence the "extra edge" just in case. Likewise, Barry Bonds could have hit 500-600 homers without steroids, but he did cheat, so he has to pay the price.

Aikman is out there saying today the Pats organization should be punished at least as much, if not more than the Saints were for bounty gate

"Jealous Troy just doesn't want Brady to have more SB wins than he does!" Seriously, that's what a Boston website is saying.

Troy Aikman: DeflateGate Punishment Must Be More Severe Than Bountygate’s | Super Bowl | NESN.com

 

[dbair1967]

Agreed, the Pats blew the Colts out, but they didn't know for sure that would happen before the game kicked off, hence the "extra edge" just in case. Likewise, Barry Bonds could have hit 500-600 homers without steroids, but he did cheat, so he has to pay the price.



"Jealous Troy just doesn't want Brady to have more SB wins than he does!" Seriously, that's what a Boston website is saying.

Troy Aikman: DeflateGate Punishment Must Be More Severe Than Bountygate’s | Super Bowl | NESN.com

Proves how stupid northeast people are I guess

 

[LAZARUS_LOGAN]

"Jealous Troy just doesn't want Brady to have more SB wins than he does!" Seriously, that's what a Boston website is saying.

Troy Aikman: DeflateGate Punishment Must Be More Severe Than Bountygate’s | Super Bowl | NESN.com

Why would Aikman be jealous?

Unlike Brady and the Pats... Aikman and the Cowboys didn't have to cheat in any of their Super Bowl victories, let alone all three of them.

Unlike Brady and the Pats... Aikman and the Cowboys DOMINATED in each of their Super Bowl victories, and didn't have to come down to a FG in the waning moments.

The Cowboys of the 90's would wipe the floor with any and all Brady/Belicek - led Super Bowl winning teams and with them cheating. Hell... the Pats probably couldn't beat the 4 consecutive Super Bowl-losing Bills' team.

 

[cockstrong]

Proves how stupid northeast people are I guess

Coming from the guy who said Hitchens didnt interfere with the Detroit receiver

Its called Homer ism you dope

 

[bbgun]

Why would Aikman be jealous?

Unlike Brady and the Pats... Aikman and the Cowboys didn't have to cheat in any of their Super Bowl victories, let alone all three of them.

Aikman knows that this scandal can't prevent Brady from winning another SB next week, so the "jealousy" angle is preposterous. He's advocating penalties next year.

 

[VTA]

Yeah cause LBs handle so many footballs.

You're focusing on bullshit and blue laws that aren't. It's beside the point that it didn't make a difference in the outcome of the game. The intent is all that matters.

There is literally nobody out there saying that this is a rule that's not enforced. The refs have protocols to check the balls before and during the game, does that sound like they're not enforcing the rule?

So all you have left is the outcome of the game wasn't affected? Arguing a strawman that no one disputes... Yeah, that's some Miramar level flying there...

Take some Metamucil Pep; it's really not that earth shattering - the 'cheat', nor my view on it. All I have is my opinion is that it's a non-starter of a controversy; sorry my view of it caused you so much grief that you had re-think your reply and get spastic about it.

 

[dbair1967]

Coming from the guy who said Hitchens didnt interfere with the Detroit receiver

Its called Homer ism you dope

Its already been proven it wasn't PI

I said all along I didn't believe it was PI, and that the only thing that could have been called is illegal contact or defensive holding. There is a big difference.

But keep spewing ignorance if you like.

 

[peplaw06]

Take some Metamucil Pep; it's really not that earth shattering - the 'cheat', nor my view on it. All I have is my opinion is that it's a non-starter of a controversy; sorry my view of it caused you so much grief that you had re-think your reply and get spastic about it.

I think the stupidity of your "position" is earth shattering. You haven't made any substantive argument as to why a sport shouldn't tightly regulate the object with which they play, and every sport does it this way.

 

[VTA]

I think the stupidity of your "position" is earth shattering. You haven't made any substantive argument as to why a sport shouldn't tightly regulate the object with which they play, and every sport does it this way.

Of course I have, you just didn't like it. It's as insignificant as spitting on the sidewalk and the fact that in 77 years it has never been an issue would attest to that. Is it possible it never fucking occurred until now?? I'll bet 90% of football fans never heard of this rule until now.

Maybe you just feel like arguing counselor... calm down.

 

[peplaw06]

Of course I have, you just didn't like it. It's as insignificant as spitting on the sidewalk and the fact that in 77 years it has never been an issue would attest to that. Is it possible it never fucking occurred until now?? I'll bet 90% of football fans never heard of this rule until now.

Your opinion that it's insignficant, in the face of people who actually played the game professionally saying otherwise, isn't a substantive argument. It's willful blindness. I'll take their opinion over yours any day.

And how do you know it hasn't been an issue in 77 years? Who knows how many times the refs have had to check the balls before the game and air them up, or deflate them? Just cause you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Percentage of fans who haven't heard of the rule is irrelevant. There's probably hundreds of laws or legal theory that I'm sure you've never heard of either. Doesn't mean they don't exist or are insignificant.

Maybe you just feel like arguing counselor... calm down.

I'm not the only one arguing here, and if you didn't feel like arguing, then you would quit.