[sneakerhead]

I guess Blount ran faster with a deflated ball

Either way, Patriots fuked up here. They wouldve won easily, didnt need to taint their win with this

[EmpireMaker]

Report: NFL found 11 of 12 Patriots footballs under-inflated

Posted by Curtis Crabtree on January 20, 2015, 11:22 PM EST
APThe New England Patriots may have some explaining to do.
According to Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com, the NFL has found that 11 of the 12 football used by the New England Patriots in Sunday’s AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts were under-inflated by two pounds each.
The Colts noticed one of the Patriots footballs was abnormal after linebacker D’Qwell Jackson intercepted Tom Brady. The issue was then relayed up through the organization and ultimately to the league, who began an investigation into the situation.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick declined to comment on the investigation. Per Mortensen, the league has no further comment on the investigation at this time.
Mortensen said on ESPN’s Sportscenter that the investigation is still not complete and the league is still looking to determine how the footballs became under-inflated. NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent said on PFT Live on Tuesday the investigation should be concluded within 2-3 days.
Per NFL rules, the footballs must be inflated between 12.5-13.5 pounds per square inch of air pressure.
It seems pretty improbable that mere happenstance would result in 11 of the 12 footballs being under-inflated without outside factors. While the blame for the deflated footballs has yet to be assigned, the Patriots won’t get much in the way of benefit of the doubt due to previous issues.

[Kermit]

Each team uses their own footballs..

So what was Luck's excuse for only 12 completions?

[Kermit]

I guess Blount ran faster with a deflated ball

Either way, Patriots fuked up here. They wouldve won easily, didnt need to taint their win with this

And Herron averaged more YPC than Blount did. go figure.

[eidolon]

Why would they lose draft picks for this?
I really see this more as a situation that the league needs to change.
Like the refs should look at every ball before each game.

[odog11]

Why would they lose draft picks for this?
I really see this more as a situation that league needs to change.
Like the refs looking at every ball before each game.

They have rules about not altering the balls after they are checked by game officials and if they violated those rules they will lose picks. Question is did they violate or get around with a loophole. May be hard to prove, but they need to have some explanation for it one way or another. Pretty sure NFL can take away picks just based on a strong suspicion or if they feel Patriots are not cooperating fully, not a court of law. Also doesn't matter that NFL had no procedure for checking balls during the games which seems super dumb.

[Kermit]

I could see there being a huge deal if Brady lit them up for 400 yards and went 35 of 40, but Hell, they couldn't stop Blount. The time of possession war was decided because Blount picked up the first downs and kept the clock moving.

Luck had 12 completions and the entire Colt's offense runs through him. If he fails, they fail.

[MoneyLineDawg]

So what was Luck's excuse for only 12 completions?

..They weren't deflated??

Don't know what you're getting at

No one's saying the Pats wouldn't have won anyway, but most people are sick of their shit....constantly pushing and breaking the rules, and for what?

[odog11]

..They weren't deflated??

Don't know what you're getting at

No one's saying the Pats wouldn't have won anyway, but most people are sick of their shit....constantly pushing and breaking the rules, and for what?

For winning, what do you think? This is F'n America after all, get with the program.

[sneakerhead]

They have rules about not altering the balls after they are checked by game officials and if they violated those rules they will lose picks. Question is did they violate or get around with a loophole. May be hard to prove, but they need to have some explanation for it one way or another. Pretty sure NFL can take away picks just based on a strong suspicion or if they feel Patriots are not cooperating fully, not a court of law. Also doesn't matter that NFL had no procedure for checking balls during the games which seems super dumb.

The whole procedure sounds super dumb.

Patriots will be punished heavily by Goodell though so he can make a point

[jtoler]

No surprise.

[MoneyLineDawg]

For winning, what do you think? This is F'n America after all, get with the program.

Well obviously....But the point is they would be a good team without it all.....Just arrogance and paranoia IMO

[Kermit]

..They weren't deflated??

Don't know what you're getting at

No one's saying the Pats wouldn't have won anyway, but most people are sick of their shit....constantly pushing and breaking the rules, and for what?

Well this whole deflated ball thing is sounding like an excuse as to why the Colts lost. Luck played the worst game of his career at the worst time possible and the air pressure of the ball had nothing to do with it.

I was hoping the Colts would have knocked off the Pats, but they looked like absolute shit and deserved to lose.

I would have liked to see Rogers knock off Brady in the Superbowl though.

[MoneyLineDawg]

Well this whole deflated ball thing is sounding like an excuse as to why the Colts lost. Luck played the worst game of his career at the worst time possible and the air pressure of the ball had nothing to do with it.

I was hoping the Colts would have knocked off the Pats, but they looked like absolute shit and deserved to lose.

Don't think people are going that far

Think it's more about how it's the Pats, yet again, in a scandal

[odog11]

Well obviously....But the point is they would be a good team without it all.....Just arrogance and paranoia IMO

It's not about being a good team, it's about winning, every game, every time you are on the field and at the end only one team wins. In football as in war there is no honor in defeat, that's the mindset and it has worked.

[MoneyLineDawg]

It's not about being a good team, it's about winning, every game, every time you are on the field and at the end only one team wins. In football as in war there is no honor in defeat, that's the mindset and it has worked.

And apparently getting caught cheating multiple times in the process.....Let's see where this one ends up

[Kermit]

Does anyone know "exactly" what the pressure of the Pats balls were?

What gets me is this whole "12.5 to 13.5" pounds of pressure. It should have been an exact number at that low weight, not a fukking pound variance in the first place. I have no problems putting exactly 38 pounds into my tires, so regulating 12.5 pounds into a ball shouldn't be a problem at all. If the Pats balls were 12 pounds, so what? Having a gauge to put air pressure into a ball should have been simple.

Not only that, but wouldn't purposely running under inflated balls be a high risk if needing to kick field goals?

[MoneyLineDawg]

Does anyone know "exactly" what the pressure of the Pats balls were?

What gets me is this whole "12.5 to 13.5" pounds of pressure. It should have been an exact number at that low weight, not a fukking pound variance in the first place. I have no problems putting exactly 38 pounds into my tires, so regulating 12.5 pounds into a ball shouldn't be a problem at all. If the Pats balls were 12 pounds, so what?

Not only that, but wouldn't purposely running under inflated balls be a high risk if needing to kick field goals?

Teams use kicking balls which are completely different

Whatever they did, it's enough to have this complete investigation by the NFL

I don't know exactly how much this affects anything but it seems to be serious

Just a dumb move altogether

[odog11]

Does anyone know "exactly" what the pressure of the Pats balls were?

What gets me is this whole "12.5 to 13.5" pounds of pressure. It should have been an exact number at that low weight, not a fukking pound variance in the first place. I have no problems putting exactly 38 pounds into my tires, so regulating 12.5 pounds into a ball shouldn't be a problem at all. If the Pats balls were 12 pounds, so what? Having a gauge to put air pressure into a ball should have been simple.

Not only that, but wouldn't purposely running under inflated balls be a high risk if needing to kick field goals?

Article pretty clearly implies 2 pounds under the required 12.5, therefore under 10.5 which seems pretty significant. Would like to know what he Colts balls came in at, but NFL were probably too stupid to test them.

[odog11]

Teams use kicking balls which are completely different

Whatever they did, it's enough to have this complete investigation by the NFL

I don't know exactly how much this affects anything but it seems to be serious

Just a dumb move altogether

They probably did it more than this one game is my guess and maybe got them a win that gave them home field advantage, pretty significant if Manning hadn't been a shell of himself.

Depending on what the NFL can prove will be anywhere from a 1st to 3rd round pick probably.

[Kermit]

Teams use kicking balls which are completely different

Whatever they did, it's enough to have this complete investigation by the NFL

I don't know exactly how much this affects anything but it seems to be serious

Just a dumb move altogether

Yeah but Raven's players are complaining now that kicking balls in their game were under inflated against the Patriots.

[MoneyLineDawg]

They probably did it more than this one game is my guess and maybe got them a win that gave them home field advantage, pretty significant if Manning hadn't been a shell of himself.

Depending on what the NFL can prove will be anywhere from a 1st to 3rd round pick probably.

If they trace it back to Belichick he's probably in a lot of trouble as well

He was fined the maximum allowed for coaches for Spygate and there were a few other small instances over the years

Patriots lost a 1st round pick for that....this may be considered repeat offenders....No idea really

[Kermit]

Article pretty clearly implies 2 pounds under the required 12.5, therefore under 10.5 which seems pretty significant. Would like to know what he Colts balls came in at, but NFL were probably too stupid to test them.

I only read an article on ESPN earlier that just said they were under inflated. It didn't go into detail.

[MoneyLineDawg]

Will Brinson @WillBrinson · 54m54 minutes ago

“Uh yeah Bill, over here. Sorry one more question about your balls.”

[Kermit]

What I don't get is that the officials inspected the balls before the game and touched them repeatedly throughout the game and didn't notice anything. So were the refs in on it?

[odog11]

If they trace it back to Belichick he's probably in a lot of trouble as well

He was fined the maximum allowed for coaches for Spygate and there were a few other small instances over the years

Patriots lost a 1st round pick for that....this may be considered repeat offenders....No idea really

Yes, but for "spygate" the NFL had issued a directive prior to the season that teams were not supposed to be taping sideline calls. It was something a number of teams had been doing and NFL didn't really have a clear rulel against it and had been turning a blind eye. This is a key point that the "Patriots have not won since spygate" whinny bit(thes never bring up, just dont' know or fail to understand. Goodell was just pissed that the Patriots had completely ignored his memo, doing the same thing a year before hadn't been a big deal.

It really does seem strange here that this issue has never come up before and that the procedures for monitoring this were so half assed.

[Ironman07]

There are a few legal issues that need to be addressed here. Does the league have actual video of the weighing and documentation by the officials/? is there video of any Pat's staff altering the pressure. Without both this is a nothing more than a witch hunt against Belicheck whom the league despises. This is the most worthless bullshit Ive ever seen.

[Roadtrip635]

Deflatriots looking for an edge and probably didn't think anyone would notice. They obviously didn't need an edge against the Colts, but it does make you wonder what other little tricks they have been using that haven't been caught. The Pats are one of the marquee teams of the NFL, but think the league will come down hard. Partly due to the slew of controversy this post season and partly due to being repeat offenders. The league has had a number of black eyes this season and has to at least appear tough to the public for a team caught cheating.

[daneblazer]

Can these fukkers ever win without angle shooting

[eidolon]

What I don't get is that the officials inspected the balls before the game and touched them repeatedly throughout the game and didn't notice anything. So were the refs in on it?

EXACTLY!
How did the refs not notice they were deflated by 2 lbs? that is a huge difference. Every time the ball comes in, they grab it and put it down. If they don't like it they can toss it out. But did the refs do this even once during the game? I personally don't remember.

So the refs that touch the ball every down didn't notice the balls deflated, but the defensive player did when he got the interception?
Something is fishy here.

[Let's Go Rangers]

**BREAKING NEWS **


The NFL has just announced that they will hire Michael Sam to inspect all balls before and during the Super Bowl

[BeanTownClown88]

EXACTLY!
How did the refs not notice they were deflated by 2 lbs? that is a huge difference. Every time the ball comes in, they grab it and put it down. If they don't like it they can toss it out. But did the refs do this even once during the game? I personally don't remember.

So the refs that touch the ball every down didn't notice the balls deflated, but the defensive player did when he got the interception?
Something is fishy here.

Objective radio hosts did the test today, neither one could tell the difference...the reality is there is not much difference...the air pressure was just below the league standard..that's all

[klemopixx]

Why does each team provide their own set of balls? I think that is the real question here. By having each team provide their own footballs it promotes the idea of doctoring them in some way to obtain an advantage, whether its inflating/deflating them or rubbing them down to get the shine off. I can see a new ruling coming from this "scandal" where the refs are in total charge of all footballs for each game, both teams using the same footballs. That easily settles the controversy.

[jtoler]

EXACTLY!
How did the refs not notice they were deflated by 2 lbs? that is a huge difference. Every time the ball comes in, they grab it and put it down. If they don't like it they can toss it out. But did the refs do this even once during the game? I personally don't remember.

So the refs that touch the ball every down didn't notice the balls deflated, but the defensive player did when he got the interception?
Something is fishy here.

Touching not the same as throwing, catching, and kicking.

[jjgold]

both QB's used the same balls

this is silly