Don't you guys feel guilty now that they have video evidence of a locker room attendant, which ESPN called a " lone wolf", going rogue and sabotaging the balls.

 

Turns out that Coach B and QB B were on the up and up when they said they had no idea how the balls were deflated and were as surprised as everyone else.

 

Lone wolf, my aunt fanny....

Don't you guys feel guilty now that they have video evidence of a locker room attendant, which ESPN called a " lone wolf", going rogue and sabotaging the balls.

 

Turns out that Coach B and QB B were on the up and up when they said they had no idea how the balls were deflated and were as surprised as everyone else.

You're kidding right?

 

So you actually got suckered into believing that some guy with the Patriots took it upon himself to go and come up with the idea to deflate the footballs used by the Patriots, the same footballs that were inspected by Brady himself, to go out on his own and deflate 12 footballs without anyone else from the organization telling him to do so?

 

You also think that 90 seconds is long enough to deflate a dozen footballs to a specific size? The only way 90 seconds would be long enough is if this was done in the past and the person knew exactly how long to keep the needle in each ball to release a certain amount of air.

 

Sorry, but no one working for the Patriots is going to do this on his own out of the blue. Brady had to tell whoever he has had do this that he likes the balls under inflated. Every QB has their preference and no one is going to do this for their QB without knowing what the QB's preference is. For instance, Rodgers likes his footballs over inflated.

The longer this goes, the more I believe this is what actually happened...

 

The Patriots, like a lot of other teams, I'm sure, turned their balls in according to what Brady likes. That may have been at 11 pounds or whatever. And the officials, when they inspected them prior to the game, did nothing more than a hand check to see if everything "passed". And obviously, they let them go. And it was only after the Colts probably registered a strong enough complaint in the first half, that they actually took a needle/gauge to the balls at halftime.

 

Based upon everything that I've read, it sounds like every quarterback has his own preference for the ball, and if (according to the story from the former ball boy is true) the officials do nothing more than a cursory inspection of the balls prior to the game, I seriously doubt that New England is the only team that has ever used a ball outside of the legal parameters at some point in time. Is it legal? By the truest definition, no. Does it seem like it's an accepted practice? Yes. If the NFL wants to truly make this a non-issue going forward, the league provides the balls, the officials inflate them, and both teams use the same ones during the game. Time to move on.

Or, they can do the logical thing and the league provides the balls. It's ridiculous that the league mandates uniform and shoe restrictions, but they allow teams to provide their own footballs.

 

The teams having this kind of access to them is just a recent development, IIRC. I think that Peyton and some of the QBs fought pretty hard to get the balls that they'd use in the games "broke in" during the week of practice so they've have a feel for them at kickoff.

 

Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay Packers upset referees take air out of footballs - ESPN

Read article some guy in Washington did a study and found some interesting facts about the Pats and fumbles. Before 2006 they had about average numbers for the league in fumbles per carry. After Brady and Peyton lobbied for each team to play with their own balls that number went way down for the Pats compared to other teams in the league This deflating has been going on for a long time and they finally got caught. Just based on stats but they don't lie. Not even close to the rest of the league in fumbles per carry.

I saw that article, I had not even considered the effect on fumbles.

I saw that article, I had not even considered the effect on fumbles.

 

Huge effect.

Mean to tell me this has been going on every game for 8 years and this is the first time anyone ever noticed? Please, that's beyond ridiculous and absurd.

Mean to tell me this has been going on every game for 8 years and this is the first time anyone ever noticed? Please, that's beyond ridiculous and absurd.

 

Doesn't surprise me that the Patriots have been cheating for 8 years.

I wonder how many High School and College teams do this as well...or how many will be doing it this fall?

There would be no need to under inflate for every home game but it would be interesting to look at statistics for the bad weather home games vs competitive teams. Those would be the games most likely to result in the balls being tampered with. The fumble statistics were interesting.

Jeff Blake Says Every Team Deflates Balls

 

Looks like we can definitely label the Bengals, Ravens, Saints, and Cardinals as cheaters too.

I think the former NFL ball boy, didn't work for the Patriots FWIW, is pretty close to the truth of what happened. He claimed that during his years as a ball boy the officials never once actually weighed the footballs before declaring them good to go. He said they'd give them a squeeze, toss a couple here or there out, and declare them acceptable. If they didn't actually weigh them beforehand, regardless of what PSI level the balls were at, it's on the league.

Jeff Blake Says Every Team Deflates Balls

 

Looks like we can definitely label the Bengals, Ravens, Saints, and Cardinals as cheaters too.

Jeff Blake Says Every Team Deflates Balls

 

Looks like we can definitely label the Bengals, Ravens, Saints, and Cardinals as cheaters too.

 

Didn't Jeff Blake end his career in 2005? That would mean that it was before Brady lobbied the league to allow the QB's prep the footballs before each game which was 2006 I believe.