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Karl Juhnke -> RE: Vikes talk for Twins fans (5/14/2015 2:49:11 PM)
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ORIGINAL: djskillz
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ORIGINAL: Karl Juhnke
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ORIGINAL: Trekgeekscott
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ORIGINAL: twinsfan
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ORIGINAL: djskillz
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ORIGINAL: sixthwi
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ORIGINAL: djskillz
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ORIGINAL: Mr. Ed
http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/05/14/new-england-patriots-wells-report-deflator-weight-loss
Patriots say 'deflator' refers to equipment worker's weight loss
[&:][&:] Just yet another thing that shows this whole thing is a sham from the NFL. If you read the context of the texts (which themselves are out of context) you will come to far different conclusions than the NFL. But oh, the horror, the Patriots were giving autographs and shoes to these guys. Umm, go ask ANY equipment manager in pro sports, at any level. That's often one of their big perks/payments.
What a joke this entire thing is. Give it up, NFL.
You don't actually believe that deflator actually means that do you??? [&o]
I absolutely do. Every bit as plausible as the "fantasyland" conclusion of the NFL's "report". I use that term as loosely as possible. It's a witch hunt. Again, there is not even plausible/credible evidence that the balls were below 12.5 PSI pre-game! The NFL doesn't even know what gauge was used and they completely disregard the head ref's own recollection of which one he used, which if true, would completely dismiss the notion that the balls were underinflated at all. Go read the science on it. The Ideal Gas Law explains the drop completely. People keep disregarding this because the initial, erroneous, leaks were that the balls were "2 pounds under" when they were nothing of the sort.
On top of that, obviously the NFL wasn't too concerned about any of the process when they let the Patriots' equipment managers handle the footballs repeatedly in the midst of a "sting" operation.
Why would the NFL hate the Patriots so much and voluntarily bring a controversy like this to the forefront? That conspiracy makes no sense.
Good Question.
Patriots have been one of the NFLs better franchises for years. It draws frequent nationally televised games and keeps the ratings up. Tom Brady is a poster child of the NFL and now...
It doesn't made sense that they would have it in for the Patriots.
That was exactly my first thought. I didn't know...and still don't know what exact evidence the NFL has. But I do know, if the evidence was at all flimsy it would have been the easiest thing in the world for them to sweep this under the rug and move on. Most of the sporting public had already forgotten about it. Why would the NFL want to drag it all out again, reveal cheating in its premier game, hit one of its premier teams and golden boy players with severe punishment and drag them through the mud?
That's the last thing in the world they would want to do.
I have to believe they would only take this action if it was a pretty open and shut case and they needed to make an example to other teams to not pull stuff like this.
You guys have a lot more faith in the NFL than I do, apparently. I think it's a joke of a league with no real foresight on anything. I think they WOULD have swept this all under the rug otherwise but it because a MASSIVE story really because of their own doing. Really? You're going to run a sting operation with your most popular team right before the Super Bowl? And make that the story of those 2 weeks? AND leak completely off-base information (which misled the public) about balls being 2 PSI under, when they weren't even close? I think the story took on a life of its own and they had to save face by doing something like this.
1) If they didn't want this to be a story and their real concern was the "rules" then they would have gone to the Patriots right after they got the complaint from the Colts and warned them to have their footballs at the proper PSI. The fact they didn't points to either A) they didn't actually care, or B) they were running a sting.
2) Once the story broke all hell broke loose because it's a big story and the timing of it. There's no putting the cat back in the bag.
There's no way they were going to deal with this before the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the goose that lays endless golden eggs and they're not going to mess that up by suspending star QBs from playing in it. Brady would have to shoot Chris Berman on live TV to get suspended from the Super Bowl. And even then there's a good chance they'd find a way to defer his suspension to next season...have to conduct our own thorough investigation, innocent until proven guilty and so forth.
And yes it was a big story because the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl are among the the most dreadfully dull in the entire sports calendar. NBA and NHL is plodding along still months away from its players actually caring enough to play hard for entire games. Baseball hasn't started yet. College football is done. College basketball is invisible until March. There is nothing else for sports media to talk about except endless annoying Super Bowl previews. So when a juicy story comes down, yes, they'll talk about it endlessly. There's nothing else to do.
But you say there's no putting it back in the bag. That's not true. Immediately after the game, NOBODY CARED about deflated footballs. The sports world had moved on. The deflated footballs had their 15 minutes. Next up, a controversial tweet from Johnny Manziel or something.
It was already back in the bag, and the bag had washed out to sea never to be seen again.
The NFL wouldn't do this unless they had a pretty rock solid case, and were sure the team had A) done it and B) were jerking them around during the investigating of it.
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