NFL Playoffs 2015/Super Bowl XVIX

[MrSaigon]

The refs handle the ball after every single play. If they can't notice...

[slide_into_first]

It may be over the top but Brady looked like was lying in his press conference. Wtf with the ski cap- he's just a team guy and wears a Patriots cap 24-7?

[MrCrowesGarden]

Given the wild overreactions, I'm 100% in on the Patriots now. Go Pats. Some lady who cofoundes espn the magazine wrote an oped for CNN calling for the Pats to be thrown out of the sb. For playing with slightly less pressure than allowed in their footballs? For violating a rule that, again, until now was punishable by like the equivalent of a fraction of a second of Super Bowl ad space?

It's very clear the league didn't and doesn't care much about this. It appears that most players don't either. Why is this bigger than Ferguson-or, something that's more relevant and never talked about, roids?

I'm in your camp. Actually, I was always pulling for the Pats because, well, [expletive] [expletive] [expletive] the Seahawks. But the overreactions to Patriot stuff always makes me pull for them even though I don't like them at all.

I think what kills me about all of this is that everyone has an opinion on it. But does anybody even know what it means? If someone gave you a football with 2 less pounds of pressure, would the average schmuck even notice? Maybe, maybe not. And that's just it. Nobody knows. But everybody knows that it's this huge heinous crime and that Brady should be banned from the Super Bowl, Belichick should have to sit out a year, etc... It's all so over the top.

I really am split on how this should be handled.

First and foremost, I'm glad to see that this board hasn't really said anything about the Pats blowing out the Colts being a factor in what happened.

The ideas that

A) The Pats would've won the game regardless of whether the balls were properly inflated
&
B) If the Pats did cheat by doctoring the balls, they should be reprimanded

are not mutually exclusive.

But, even though I don't think the offense is all that serious, I do think there has to be some sort of escalator clause about the Patriots being repeat offenders if the league determines they cheated. I do think reputation should be taken into consideration.

And, if the league does find the Patriots tampered with the footballs but Belichick didn't know about it, I'm still not sure that's a valid excuse. The head coach should know what's going on on his sidelines. We also saw the NFL suspend Sean Payton for a year for a Bountygate program he didn't know about, so there is a precedent. I'm not suggesting under inflating footballs is as severe as intentionally trying to injure opposing players, but we've established before that a coach can be disciplined for something he didn't know about.

If all these things happen, I'm still not sure what the appropriate punishment is, but there has to be some sane middle ground.

[JL21]

I think that's fair, MCG.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Jay Glazer reported the league may have video of a Patriots locker room attendant deflating footballs.


And I'm going to guess that guy is getting hooked up with whichever of Gisele's friends has the most daddy issues.

[stlouie_lipp]

According to well-researched and rather mind-boggling data compiled by Warren Sharp of sharpfootballanalysis.com, the New England Patriots have had fumble rates for years that almost defy the law of physics, not to mention probability.

Not only were the Patriots, who are under suspicion for intentionally deflating their footballs in the AFC Championship Game, only the third team in the last 25 years to have never lost a fumble in a home game, but they have a fumble rate over the last five seasons that is more than just a little suspicious.

The Patriots average 187 plays per fumble. compared the league average of 105.

According to a data scientist Sharp quoted, "based on the assumption that fumbles per play follow a normal distribution, you’d expect to see, according to random fluctuation, the results that the Patriots have gotten over this period, once in 16,233.77 instances."

That, according to Sharp is like "winning a raffle where you have a 0.0000616 probability to win. Which in other words, it's very unlikely that it’s a coincidence."

http://www.mcall.com/sports/football/ea ... story.html

[stlouie_lipp]

Jay Glazer reported the league may have video of a Patriots locker room attendant deflating footballs.


And I'm going to guess that guy is getting hooked up with whichever of Gisele's friends has the most daddy issues.

They found their fall guy. If this guy "comes clean" and says he went rouge...[expletive]. No way some equipment guy does this without coach/QB knowledge.

[Jocephus]

Jay Glazer reported the league may have video of a Patriots locker room attendant deflating footballs.


And I'm going to guess that guy is getting hooked up with whichever of Gisele's friends has the most daddy issues.

They found their fall guy. If this guy "comes clean" and says he went rouge...[expletive]. No way some equipment guy does this without coach/QB knowledge.

[cardsfansince82]

Jay Glazer reported the league may have video of a Patriots locker room attendant deflating footballs.


And I'm going to guess that guy is getting hooked up with whichever of Gisele's friends has the most daddy issues.

They found their fall guy. If this guy "comes clean" and says he went rouge...[expletive]. No way some equipment guy does this without coach/QB knowledge.

Just like Goodell never saw that Ray Rice tape. I used to marvel how wealthy, successful entities always got such seemingly terrible PR advice, but it turns out they know more than I do. It's not about coming clean or admitting wrong or regaining trust, it's about getting people to talk about something else as soon as possible and it all just fades away.

[lukethedrifter]

I didn't listen to Belichick but the two most famous science guys in this country both weighed in and said he was off base. They were both incorrect in one way or another.
I'm not saying the Pats didn't cheat btw.