League investigation found eleven of twelve footballs were under-inflated

[campybatman]

The investigation found the footballs were underinflated by 2 pounds per square inch of air less than what's required by NFL regulations during the Pats' 45-7 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, according to sources.

Yet to be determined is what, if any, penalties may be imposed upon Patriots. One source described the league as "disappointed ... angry ... distraught," after spending considerable time on the findings earlier Tuesday.

Part of the investigation that still needs further vetting is how the 11 footballs became underinflated.

http://espn.go.com/boston/story/_/id/12 ... nship-game

With the Patriots under investigation for possibly under-inflating balls in their playoff win against the Colts, sources said some on Baltimore's sideline believed there may have been irregularities with the kicking balls used in their AFC divisional playoff game at Foxborough, Mass., on Jan. 10.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer/jas ... s-patriots

[threrf23]

I checked last night and Patsfans already had 125 pages on deflate-gate. Overkill.

I really want there to be a good explanation for this. Like, weather related, or something. I hope they are testing the Colts' game balls as well for a point of comparison.

Obviously, we beat the Colts regardless, but without a good explanation this puts a shadow over past victories, like our victory against the Ravens, and what not. If balls were not properly inflated, why did the refs not catch anything?

This would be much different than Spygate to me. There is a difference between getting away with what you can get away with to assist with intelligence and planning, versus literally tampering with the game. And I could be wrong but I don't think this would be like steroids in baseball, where it is unofficially allowed and you need to do it to keep up with the competition.

[sully00]

I think the crazy thing in all of this is how everyone is trying to lynch Belichick for this when your hear all around the league how it is the QB who messes with the ball. This story line is so out of whack nobody talking about Brady at all.

Beyond that you can't have a QB (Discount Double Check) do an interview a few weeks ago talking about over inflating the balls after the ref checks them and nobody does anything but chuckle and then freak out about this. If you do your either clueless or a hypocrite.

EDIT John Madden finally just said it was Brady who would have messed with the balls and he has said he likes under inflated balls previously. If this was so important and part of the integrity of the game why the hell does the league let each team handle its own balls?

[Geoffrey P]

It pisses me off more than anything that it comes out after a big game like this. As if the Colts lost the game by 38 points because some balls weren't properly inflated. They rushed for 177 yards and 3 touchdowns; don't go telling me an under inflated ball let that happen. Face it, your defense was a sieve when they rushed for 32 less yards than you had all game.

Now if they can prove that they were legitimately messed with, other than just saying they're not inflated properly, I'd have a small problem with.

[campybatman]

The referees that officiated the AFC championship game as well as Brady deserve to be under scrutiny. But Belichick bore the brunt of the fallout because it happened on his watch.

Unfortunately, for fans, the league will likely make an example of Belichick and the New England Patriots, again.

Personally, I'm just sick and tired of the drama. The "Tuck Rule Game" controversy, Tom Jackson's controversial comment, Bill Polian's push for the illegal contact and defensive holding rule, the "Spygate" controversy and the undefeated season and, supposedly, running up the score. It's always something.

[83SixersRocked]

Who knows who would have won if the balls weren't deflated. But if it's not a big deal, the patriots should prove it, by playing teh Superbowl only with balls that are overinflated. And Seattle can deflate them if they want. Sounds fair to me, no fines no fuss.

[Geoffrey P]

I'm pretty sure the Patriots would have kicked their ass yet again if every ball was under inflated, over inflated, or within limits. The amount of talk on this is ridiculous. As if the pressure in a ball is going to account for them being outscored by 60 points total and 38 in the AFC title game.

And I'm sick of everything too. Very funny how things come out of the woodwork after a big game though.

[campybatman]

Unfortunately, the national outcry from the fans won't allow the NFL to exonerate the New England Patriots. Whether the punishment is levied against them prior to the Super Bowl, or thereafter, is what's on everyone's mind. Because we all know that the New England Patriots seemingly never get the benefit of the doubt since Belichick has become the head coach.

Also, I wonder has the notion of using a polygraph entered the heads of commissioner Goodell or anyone else involved in the investigation.

I feel bad for the defensive players. In general, I want to believe that they were framed but that would be naive.

Per Schefter, the league might be able to release their findings at some point today. He also says that the NFL is struggling to collect any evidence that the Patriots knowingly affected the football, and that the burden of proof lies with the league to determine guilt. If the league cannot find evidence that the Patriots tampered with the football, then there's nothing that should happen to New England.

http://www.patspulpit.com/2015/1/22/787 ... d-evidence


http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:12211388

[165bows]

I'm not the worlds biggest football fan these days but everyone needs to get off their high horse. The league checked the balls and ok'd them. Unless someone can show the Pats illegally tampered with them after that it's much ado about nothing. If it turns out they did then this amount of noise is warranted but until then it's completely ridiculous.

If the league can't use one set of equipment or keep it straight that's on them. There's literally a giant floating camera right on top of everyone in their face at all times. If someone stuck a needle in eleven footballs and the league can't figure it out, then it serves them all right.

[theagent]

Tom Brady looked shook and unnerved in that press conference........somebody lying. Sad thing is some equipment manager is gonna have to fall on the sword. If I were them......I'd hire a lawyer. If I were the Pats front office I'd pay the guy 5million plus property in a sunny state to take the blame and keep his mouth shut.

[sully00]

I am not saying they didn't break a rule if they let air out the ball and for all the rocket science out there it is as easy is just stabbing a a ball needle in the inflation hole and letting out for a second it is one psi. What I can't wrap my head around is this.

In football guys use PEDs all the time and it is part of the game nobody is convicted a cheater. Not Rodney Harrison or just about anyone else. But if you defalte a ball now it people are screaming what about the children.

Now in baseball if you doctor the ball it is considered part of game if you get caught you get caught but no big deal. If you use PED's you would be better of raping a bus of nuns but messing the ball no big deal.

I think the end game here is that Tom tells the poor ball boy to let a pound out of the ball after the ref gives them back and he let too much out.

Also the league can't get on its high horse and not address what Rodgers and Manning have already said on this subject. You can't freak out because it is the Patriots and ignore it when it is another team. If your going to address it then you have to at least address the instances of when other players have admitted to doing the same thing. Which is not being done by the media as whole.

[threrf23]

Worth being aware of:

http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sp ... mbles.html

[campybatman]

The national media and fans and current and retired NFL players and anyone else who needs to put their two cents in won't be satisfied until the New England Patriots lose the Super Bowl for this season and, even then, that won't quench their thirst for validation of their suspicion. Sad.

But I won't resort to such cheap shots. With these educated men, I'm going to take the high road. I’m going to respond with an appeal to their intellect befitting such learned, erudite gentlemen.

Allow me to refer to Gustave Le Bon's 1895 tome "The Crowd: A Study Of The Popular Mind." It is a treatise on how to influence the masses with propaganda in order to sway public sentiment to your every whim. Le Bon's work was a huge influence on facist buttinskis from Hitler to Stalin and everyone in between. I quote:

"It was Napoleon, I believe, who said that there is only one figure in rhetoric of serious importance, repetition. The thing affirmed comes by repetition to fix itself in the mind in such a way that it is accepted as a demonstrated truth.

"The influence of repetition on crowds is comprehensible when the power is seen which it exercises on most enlightened minds. This power is due to the fact that the repeated statement is embedded in the long run in those profound regions of our unconscious selves in which the motives of our actions are forged. … When we have read a hundred, a thousand, times that X's chocolate is the best, we imagine we have heard it said in many quarters, and we end by acquiring the certitude that such is the fact."

Thus, the Patriots are cheaters. Why? Because we keep hearing they are cheaters. Michael Wilbon says they've been caught "repeatedly." Jerome Bettis calls them "felons." Albert Breer uses the word “pattern." Sports Illustrated posts a crazy, incoherent screed that sounds like something out of Infowars about the giant TV outside Gillette Stadium and jammed helmet radios. And all of it is accepted truth by the naive sheeple ready to accept the lie rather than look at the truth.

It's groupthink. An explanation for why one team is so much more successful than all the others that's way easier for the great unwashed mob to digest than the truth, which is the Patriots scout, draft, manage, game-plan, practice, coach and play better than other teams. But guys like Sherman, Richardson, Mangold and the media are way too ready to lap up the snake oil they’re selling to each other than face the facts.

http://thornography.weei.com/

[theagent]

Tom Brady looked shook and unnerved in that press conference........somebody lying. Sad thing is some equipment manager is gonna have to fall on the sword. If I were them......I'd hire a lawyer. If I were the Pats front office I'd pay the guy 5million plus property in a sunny state to take the blame and keep his mouth shut.

Now the league has identified an "attendant" who tampered with the balls. Didn't I call it. If that attendant is smart......take the money. BUT why would the attendant tamper with the balls......unless instructed to do so.

[threrf23]

Now the league has identified an "attendant" who tampered with the balls. Didn't I call it. If that attendant is smart......take the money. BUT why would the attendant tamper with the balls......unless instructed to do so.

The 'tampering' part isn't confirmed. But yeah, doesn't look too good.

[campybatman]

It's important to read what's actually being reported as opposed to implying something that wasn't even confirmed in the initial report. Can we let the facts come out before you jump to conclusions? If the surveillance video doesn't clearly show conclusive evidence that the attendant tampered with the footballs in his or her possession, and the league doesn't ask for a polygraph test, then how can one say that the person's definitely guilty of tampering? Therefore, I'm not ready to concede that this is damaging evidence against the New England Patriots.

JayGlazer
@JayGlazer

Breaking news: sources tell @FOXSports the NFL has zeroed in on a locker room attendant w Patriots who allegedly took balls from officials locker room to another area on way to field. Sources say they have interviewed him and additionally have video. Still gauging if any wrong doing occurred with him but he is strong person of interest

2015-01-26

http://m.tmi.me/1eXHpm

The person of interest was already interviewed by the league. The NFL is trying to determine whether any wrongdoing by this individual occurred, sources tell FOX Sports.

There is surveillance video showing the attendant taking the footballs from the official's locker room into another room at Gillette Stadium before bringing them out to the field, sources tell FOX Sports.

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/defl ... ant-012615

[sully00]

This was from Toucher and Rich 98.5 Sportshub

One thing that has been reported this last week, as we’ve been learning about how footballs are treated before a game is that before every game, a referee measured with a pressure gauge each football to see if the pressure in each one is between 12.5 and 13.5 PSI.

But that apparently isn’t always the case. As a matter of fact, from what I’ve been told, many times the refs don’t test the pressure of each ball with a gauge at all. Sometimes refs hold the ball, squeeze it, briefly inspect it, then sign off on it. Next ball. It’s never been a problem before. This is apparently a well known fact in the NFL.

Now according to my sources, The Patriots turned in their footballs to the ref at a pressure just below the allowable PSI.

If it’s a situation where the refs DID use a gauge, the refs would see the balls were under inflated, and inflate them to the proper size. But in this case, the balls were approved and given back to the Patriots under-inflated.

Thus, the under-inflated balls. The Patriots, according to my sources, played with league approved deflated balls.

This makes all the sense in the world. So the Ravens and Colts tattling is going to expose the fact that NFL cares so much about ball inflation they don't even bother to check.

[campybatman]

Vice president of officiating Dean Blandino said yesterday the referees do not log the PSI level of the footballs when they are gauged before or during a game.

So basically, the investigative team is taking referee Walt Anderson at his word about the pregame and halftime checks, but the PSI levels were not documented when the Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts to advance to Super Bowl XLIX.

That's the standard protocol for this process.

"They’re not logged, and that’s certainly something that can be a thought (for the competition committee)," Blandino said in Phoenix. "They’re tested. They make sure they're in that acceptable range, and then they basically mark the football to say this is an acceptable football. It met the proper specifications."

That means Anderson measured the footballs and either approved them or disapproved them before the game. Blandino said the Patriots and Colts both had their footballs measured at halftime because of an incident. The league announced the Patriots used backup footballs in the second half.

"Walt gauged the footballs himself," Blandino said. "It’s something he has done throughout his career."

Multiple reports suggested the Patriots' footballs were either 1 or 2 PSI below the limit (12.5-13.5). Without proper documentation, the question now is: How could that be proven?

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/patr ... psi_levels

Bart Hubbuch
@BartHubbuch

After listening to Dean Blandino today, I've decided the NFL is going to have a hell of a time penalizing the Patriots. Too many gray areas.

Mike Petraglia
@Trags

Blandino told me he and the New York office were NOT notified by the Colts of low ball pressure during the Nov. 16 game in Indy

Ed Werder
@Edwerderespn

When told of suspected cheating by #Pats, #NFL tried to catch them in act rather than reminding them of rules. Is something wrong with that?

[sully00]

What does 1-2 psi even mean now. Is it between 1-2 below 13.5 which means it needs air or 1-2 below 12.5 which is a little more significant? Of course nobody knows because nobody was actually investigating anything until Monday.

[campybatman]

Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson has declined to comment on Deflategate, but it's now been confirmed that it was Grigson who asked the NFL to check the footballs that the Patriots' offense was using during the AFC Championship Game.

It's unclear how word got to Grigson that the Patriots' footballs might be under-inflated. There have been conflicting stories about whether the Colts thought it was an issue going into the game, or whether it only came up when Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson intercepted a Tom Brady pass and noticed that the football felt flat.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... footballs/