Google the Eli Manning story from a few years ago. Every ex-NFL'er on ESPN radio from Golic to Theismann, Schlereth, etc said they all do it. Phil Simms was on the air earlier this year talking about how Aaron Rogers likes to over inflate the balls. Brad Johnson supposedly bragged about $7K to get the balls to his liking at the Super Bowl.
The common theme is that every team's QB works with the equipment manager and the manager knows what the QB expects. Before each game the QB will go through a bunch of the footballs and let the manager know which ones to give to the refs for the game.
It's like goldilocks. Some QB's like 'em hard, some like 'em soft and some like them in the middle.
Any divide in player reaction can be split between active players and retired players. Retired players aren't trying to win games any more.
This is kind of riveting and at the same time, when you really think about it, kind of stupid. So the Patriots are on offense and are using a flat ball. At every play stoppage a ref picks up the ball and spots it. If the ball was so flat that it was giving the Patriots some sort of shocking advantage, why don't the refs or an opposing player make a big deal out of it then and there? It seems kind of dramatic that people think the ball was so soft that the Pats couldn't fumble it but the officials never noticed this "flatness". We made it through 3 hours of game time between play, play stoppages, and breaks without it coming up and now the Pats never fumble because they use a flat football?
I agree, it is clearly cheating. However, it is cheating like all the other cheating in sports, built in with a wink and a nod.
Assumes fact not in evidence....so no.Aaron Rodgers was complaining that he isn't allowed to inflate the ball to his liking. In his opinion, there should be a minimum inflation level, but not a maximum.
In other words, he's forced to play by the rules.
Tom Brady, however, doesn't feel so inclined.
And therein lies the rub - it's a rule. There is actually a procedure in place to ensure compliance and the Patriots willfully deflated the balls after they had been inspected.
Recap.
There is a rule.
The Patriots know the rule.
The Patriots present balls within the limits of the rule.
The Patriots then break the rule.
It can't be explained away, mitigated or equivocated.
Sorry.
Re: The Aaron Rodgers thing. I am assuming you understand the difference between a min and a max psi. So just stop bringing it up. It's not apples to apples.
If anyone is upset because the Pats wanted footballs inflated below league rules you must be equally upset that another team would want balls overinflated. The claim isn't whether or not the PSI gives you an advantage, it's that you're breaking the rules.
Cheating defeats the primary purpose of any sport. There should be a severe penalty, regardless of the likelihood that the cheating did not change the outcome of the game As a second offense against the Pats the penalty should be severe. Anyone who was involved in both the past cheating and current cheating (assuming it is proved) should be permanently banned from football. Also, the game should be forfeited. That would send a message that cheating is not allowed - period.who thinks this is a bunch of adoo about nothing? I'm not even a Pats fan, and I don't see what the big deal is. I'm trying to dial up some outrage, but all I dial up is that the Colts come off as a bunch of b(tches.
Doctoring playing balls is hardly unique to football, you can find it any sport that involves a ball. My guess is the rule dates back decades to the antiquity of pro-football, when teams actually didn't make more money than the GDP of most small countries and some states of the union. Having enough regulation game balls, and having both teams supply them and manage them the way the NFL does, reads to me like a rule that makes sense in tight budget little league sports.
The easy solution for this is that both teams bring balls to the game, they get weighed in, measured and then get put into a random pool that gets drawn from during the game. Somebody's job is going to be to guard the bag so nobody from the Patriots screws around with them.
QB's will be ticked off b/c they won't have the freedom to mess around with the balls anymore - and they can thank Bill Belichik's empire for that.
Colts were using properly inflated balls on offense.Oh here we go again. My screen name mentions basketball so I don't understand what a football feels like. Actually, the inflation of a basketball is equally, if not more so, critical in a game. I can assure you that an under or over inflated basketball would result in a player or ref quickly speaking up. Even high school basketball players routinely complain about the game ball within seconds of tip off.
Also, were the Colts using a different ball when on offense or the same ones? I thought that the refs controlled the ball once play started and that at least for the half, each ball would be in use until it needed a swap out. So from series to series weren't they using the same ball most times?
I would have leaned to agree with your last paragraph. But after watching this Sports Science video, it sounds like the difference in grip force in a properly inflated vs. underinflated ball is not that much. The other concern I had was that Chris Mortenson's reporting indicated officials tested PSI but he didn't report if the balls were underweight. In that video it appears that the difference in weight (related to the number of air molecules) at the given PSI difference would also be very small (the weight of a dollar bill). So now I'm leaning to the side that the any effect outcome on the field would be negligible, probably more of a placebo effect on the QBs / receivers' confidence than anything else. Now despite that, DeflateGate may or may not merit punishment according the the letter of the rule, but for me, without direct evidence of who was responsible, not anywhere near the punishment for SpyGate or BountyGate.It's not the QB's that's the issue here. THis is similar to the spygate thing. There are things that happen in football, and rules are pushed, but the Patriots clearly go a step beyond with pushing the limits, and they get caught.
When the balls are apparently as deflated as they were, across the board, there seems to be a different purpose than the QB's comfort with the ball.
Think about it.
Try stripping the ball from a running back that can squeeze a ball and dig their fingers in for grip, or stripping the ball from a receiver that's made a catch, or stripping it from a QB that's going down for a sack, when they all can squeeze that pig like a sponge.
I think if someone were to put the time and effort in to do a good statistical study, you'll find that Tom Brady, and the New England Patriot running backs, and receivers do not fumble the ball very much, and you'll probably find that players that have played in multiple teams, fumble less when they are in New England, and if you are really good at statistics, you can probably go back in time and find the point where they started deflated balls regularly for that purpose.
I would have leaned to agree with your last paragraph. But after watching this Sports Science video, it sounds like the difference in grip force in a properly inflated vs. underinflated ball is not that much. The other concern I had was that Chris Mortenson's reporting indicated officials tested PSI but he didn't report if the balls were underweight. In that video it appears that the difference in weight (related to the number of air molecules) at the given PSI difference would also be very small (the weight of a dollar bill). So now I'm leaning to the side that the any effect outcome on the field would be negligible, probably more of a placebo effect on the QBs / receivers' confidence than anything else. Now despite that, DeflateGate may or may not merit punishment according the the letter of the rule, but for me, without direct evidence of who was responsible, not anywhere near the punishment for SpyGate or BountyGate.
First, let me say I'm a Giants fan, not a Pats fan.So Bill Belichick the man who knows the rules better than everyone in the league including the refs and has his hand in absolutely everything the Pats do had absolutely no knowledge of underinflating footballs, had no idea about any of the process of the footballs used in games etc.? Does anyone actually believe this nonsense. I think it's pretty clear Belichick is playing dumb because he knows if he admits any knowledge or had a hand in the cheating the NFL hammer would really come down so deny, deny, deny. My guess is Brady will also play dumb and the blame will just rest on the shoulders of the ball boy because obviously the ball boy always operates without Belichick and Brady's say so. Brady might even laugh like he did in his Boston radio interview.
So if BB and TB had no knowledge of this, who was doing it and for what reason?I doubt BB had any involvement with this. He has more important FB issues to deal with. That is my pure speculation. Just like your speculation that BB and TB were up too their eyes balls in this. Neither of us know..
I would have leaned to agree with your last paragraph. But after watching this Sports Science video, it sounds like the difference in grip force in a properly inflated vs. underinflated ball is not that much. The other concern I had was that Chris Mortenson's reporting indicated officials tested PSI but he didn't report if the balls were underweight. In that video it appears that the difference in weight (related to the number of air molecules) at the given PSI difference would also be very small (the weight of a dollar bill). So now I'm leaning to the side that the any effect outcome on the field would be negligible, probably more of a placebo effect on the QBs / receivers' confidence than anything else. Now despite that, DeflateGate may or may not merit punishment according the the letter of the rule, but for me, without direct evidence of who was responsible, not anywhere near the punishment for SpyGate or BountyGate.