And even more damning, Tom Brady was in the know the whole time.
I must warn you, there is some NSFW language in the transcripts...
ESPN: Wells report finds Pats employees probably deflated balls vs. Colts
From the actual report:
For the reasons described in this Report, and after a comprehensive investigation, we have concluded that, in connection with the AFC Championship Game, it is more probable than not that New England Patriots personnel participated in violations of the Playing Rules and were involved in a deliberate effort to circumvent the rules. In particular, we have concluded that it is more probable than not that Jim McNally (the Officials Locker Room attendant for the Patriots) and John Jastremski (an equipment assistant for the Patriots) participated in a deliberate effort to release air from Patriots game balls after the balls were examined by the referee. Based on the evidence, it also is our view that it is more probable than not that Tom Brady (the quarterback for the Patriots) was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of McNally and Jastremski involving the release of air from Patriots game balls.
Part of the evidence was this series of text messages compiled after the October 17th game against the Jets.
And this excerpt from the report about what happened in the front office after the Deflategate report first broke in January...
Additional evidence of Bradys awareness includes a material increase in the frequency of telephone and text communications between Brady and Jastremski shortly after suspicions of ball tampering became public on January 19. After not communicating by telephone or text message for more than six months (based on data retrieved from Jastremskis cell phone), Brady and Jastremski spoke by telephone at least twice on January 19 (calls lasting a total of 25 minutes and 2 seconds), twice on January 20 (calls lasting a total of 9 minutes and 55 seconds) and twice on January 21 (calls lasting a total of 20 minutes and 52 seconds) before Jastremski surrendered his cell phone to the Patriots later that day for forensic imaging. These calls included conversations relatively early during the mornings of January 19 (7:26 a.m. for 13 minutes and 4 seconds), January 20 (8:22 a.m. for 6 minutes and 21 seconds) and January 21 (7:38 a.m. for 13 minutes and 47 seconds). Brady also took the unprecedented step of inviting Jastremski to the QB room (essentially Bradys office) in Gillette Stadium on January 19 for the first and only time that Jastremski can recall during his twenty-year career with the Patriots, and Brady sent Jastremski text messages seemingly designed to calm Jastremski ("You good Jonny boy?"; "You doing good?"). For his part, Jastremski sent Brady text messages confirming that he was okay ("Still nervous; so far so good though") and cautioning Brady about questioning ("FYI...Dave will be picking your brain later about it. Hes not accusing me, or anyone...trying to get to bottom of it. He knows its unrealistic you did it yourself...").
Remember when Robert Kraft demanded an apology for this fabricated story, and then went and compared 'Deflategate' to 9/11 on the podium after winning the Super Bowl? Yeah... about that....
Comments
Why does McNally not like Brady? Everyone knows the Patriots cheated, not the first time won't be the last.
Those were sarcastic comments. He is just busting Brady's / Jastremski's chops about inflating the balls instead of deflating them.
From what it sound like, Tom has a history of bitching to these guys every week about how his balls are too inflated, even after they deflate them after the ref inspection.
I am neither a fan nor a hater of the Patriots or Brady, but in reference to teams cheating, I am just going to leave this here:
http://yourteamcheats.com/
The scores seem a bit subjective, but I think it does well to illustrate that "cheating" in the NFL is not uncommon. I also think the "Spygate for Morons" tab is particularly useful. I was unaware that it has always been perfectly legal to video-tape another teams signals until 2006 when the NFL only limited filming to certain locations.
Yeah, I'd say those scores are pretty baloney. Just looking at the score for my team (Washington, unfortunately) vs. the Patriots.
Somehow, Washington gets a higher "cheater" score for the salary cap mess than the Patriots have received for everything. Not to start a completely different argument here, but what Washington did was to try and create an unfair advantage by breaking a "Gentleman's agreement," not a rule, but that's worse then the league rules that the Patriots broke? Sure.
I agree about the scores and I wish they were more transparent on how they calculated them. I just like the comprehensive lists and breakdowns. I think that it brings perspective on how much "rule-breaking" actually occurs in the NFL and how much media scrutiny is really much ado about nothing.
I totally agree with you about the salary cap thing in the uncapped season, though. The Redskins and the Cowboys basically got screwed by all of the other owners on that. How do you break a rule that isn't even a rule? Total BS.
Also note how Brandon Merriweather's inability to tackle without knocking himself or someone else out shows up on the scores for both the Patriots and Skins (I may or may not dislike that guy because I have Eddie Lacy on my Fantasy Football team and Merriweather was fined for giving him the concussion that knocked him out of a couple of games).
That dude is pretty obviously a patriots fan and a new generation one. The teams with the highest "cheat" scores are the patriots modern rivals
Pittsburgh, Denver, the jets, and indy. The redskins...well unfortunately my team isn't very popular to start with
Oh no!!! sarcastica....
Nothing will be done that will affect the Pats/Brady/management in a big way
Might be worth noting that the game after this text message exchange was against Chicago, during which Tom Brady set season high marks in completion %, passing yards, and passer rating....
I'm sure the two are completely coincidental
How did this take until after the draft to finish?
Probably because the Pats are guilty
I just meant that this report easily could have been finished within a month or so. I'm suggesting the league sat on it till after the draft so it wasn't a major storyline during what's supposed to be a feel-good yay-for-the-league night.
That, and it would be REALLY embarrassing if the NFL had to strip the reigning Super Bowl Champions of a Draft pick or 2 because an independent review found them guilty of cheating throughout the season....
Don't you mean "reigning SB champs"?
My cynical guess is waiting for a down time in their self generated news cycle. If the draft wasn't going on, I bet they'd have dropped it on fight night.
Exactly
Because you can't get penalized a draft pick if the report comes out after the draft.
I was wondering when the conversation was going to turn to Brady's balls.
Those balls are perfect:
http://youtu.be/xT9pygVQwgk
The head coach? Known cheater. The QB? Sounds like a cheater to me. Once a cheater, always under suspicion. The Pats will play a lot of years before anyone will trust their integrity again. While it might not kill 'em now, in the long run what goes around comes around.
Meh...
Pats fan?
Yeah, I appreciate the way they play football.
Was definitely pulling for the Squawks in the Super Bowl. But the pats are annually one of the top 3-4 teams in the league, and it's not because they
deflate a few footballsdon't have enough air in their balls.I gotta' give this one a Peter Griffin:
Edit: Sorry to bring this up again, but I finally figured out how to embed video...
I think it's more about the principal of their arrogance. They are willing to continually, blatantly break very clear rules to gain even the slightest edge. What else are they currently doing or have they done in the past that we'll never know about?
Thanks for being more eloquent than I. Don't really care about NFL, but cheaters being caught is always of at least passing interest if you care about the game.
This is what bothers me.
It's not that they cheat to win. They can win without it. We all know that they would have crushed the colts playing with cinderblocks instead of footballs, for all it matters. They cheat simply because they feel like it, and I think that's worse.
PEDs? Signal stealing? Jersey tugging? These things and more are all blatant violations of NFL rules and good sportsmanship. They're also commonplace in the modern game.
Deflating a ball to achieve a slight potential advantage in catch-ability (and probably flight penalty as well) doesn't bother me... at all. Sure, if they get caught penalize them. But do it during the game, immediately. Breaking out the pitchforks and torches, calling for game suspensions and loss of draft choices is absurd in my opinion. Sour grapes.
I believe the "advantage" is from a quarterback being able to grip better, particularly important in poor conditions. PED's are tested for (you can argue the effectiveness of the NFL's program, but they do supposedly try to rule those out), signal stealing may happen but without catching a team official videotaping the other teams signals (heard this story somewhere before...) it's hard if not impossible to prove, and I'm not sure what you're referring to with jersey tugging so I can't comment on that one.
I agree that punishments need to be better defined and dished out much quicker then they typically are, specifically in this case, but as others have mentioned it's all about the NFL trying to minimize negative PR on the timing of this sort of thing. I think at some point under any given regime of team officials and coaches the penalties for these generally "little" things has to begin to add up and become increasingly more harsh. Clearly the past punishments haven't done anything to discourage them.
One form of the "tug" is explained about halfway down the page here:
http://www.greatcornerback.com/cornerback-covering-tips.html
Penalties should always be stern against players and teams that intentionally break the rules.
Honestly, who cares? I've seen 15 yard penalties more egregious than anything about air in a ball. And this from a Redskins fan. Loss of draft pick and maybe a game or two from Brady. Moving on.
Bear in mind, Tom had a much lower QB rating with the deflated balls than after they were corrected. This still is a bunch of hot air from teams that got beat.
Yeah, it is true that those being cheated often tend to feel a bit touchy about it.
There are things to get up on a pedestal about and then there's sports entertainment. Let's not martyr the the NFL here.
Don't really care, just don't like what I don't like. No pedestal here. Love who ya wanna love, I'll reserve the same right for myself. And yeah, I'm in a bad mood today.
I can appreciate that.
Leg for putting up with me. Thanks.
His season high in most, if not all passing categories came the week after the linked text messages....
Game mentioned above vs Bears- 86% completions, 5 TD, 0 INT, 354 YDS
Colts game where it started- 66% completions, 3 TD, 1 INT, 226 YDS
Pretty good games by a very good QB. Not saying deflated balls were the difference in the games vs the Bears and Colts, but it's not unreasonable to assume he was doing this all season/multiple seasons, which could have affected close games.
Look at the stats for the first half versus the colts with the underinflated balls versus the second with the correct pressure.
"More probable than not" is as Kraft put not actually any evidence of wrongdoing.
Enough evidence if this was a civil lawsuit, not if it was a criminal case.
Unfortunately for the Patriots, I think the NFL probably views this more as the first one.
There might not be "hard" evidence, but there's plenty of circumstantial evidence. The guy who took the balls into the bathroom can't keep his story straight and has months of phone records of him calling himself "the deflator", talking about football air pressure, and demanding shoes and autographs in exchange for...something...from the equipment guy talking about giving him needles.
Sure as heck doesn't sound like everything was on the up and up.
"If you ain't cheatin', you ain't trying hard enough!" Patriots' team motto?
Here's Gronk's opinion:
Gronk luv the kids
I know this whole thing is about the deflating of the balls but I wonder if the NFL was at all held accountable for the part in the transcript where the refs pumped the balls to 16.
This wasn't an issue until it was something to hold against the patriots
Whatever brings about the end of the Patriots playing good football the quickest, that's what I'll support.
So basically, take off and nuke the entire site from orbit?
The issue for the Pats is that they have already been caught cheating, and once you have that reputation, its hard to shake.
Especially with the arrogance with which they continue to flaunt the rules. I am all for trying to create a (legal) competitive advantage). But if you look at what is going on here with the deflated footballs, the effect it had on Brady was not the only advantage the Patriots received. One thing I find really interesting is the Fumble numbers for not only Brady but the entire Patriots team. For an outdoor, cold weather team, their fumble rate over the last decade or so is so much lower than any other team in the league over that span. Brady alone had 5 fumbles in something like 1800 snaps, which is far and away the lowest over that span for any QB.
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/01/stats_show_the_n...
Are you telling me this is a coincidence? How many close games were decided by a little extra grip on the ball or the difference between an untimely turnover or not.
The Patriots don't fumble footballs because ball security is a major point of focus in Patriot practices. The balls they use in practice are generally as bad as they can be. As for Brady he's been coached by Belichick for sixteen years now, so I think it's safe to assume he's simply used to keeping the ball safe.
I don't doubt that ball security isn't a point of emphasis in Patriots practice (and practice for any team I would imagine).
But if Belichick is such a guru in coaching ball security, its strange that he would not have coached it up from 2000-2006, when the Patriots fumbled at a rate similar to every other team. (If not in fact a little bit below average)
But I'm sure its just coincidence that getting caught with using footballs that are easier to grip for the QB has led to fewer fumbles (by a significant margin) team wide...And it definetely has nothing to do with the fact that Brady and Peyton Manning in particular starting lobbying heavily to allow teams to have control over their footballs before the game....following the 2006 season.
(Or the fact that you seem like a football fan from the New England area...)
Ok just messing with you on the last one
Maybe they all just came out of the pool!!
Odd source for condemnation of the actual report:
http://www.breitbart.com/sports/2015/05/06/probably-doesnt-cut-it-wells-...
I personally have no real skin in this game, but it just seems to me that people who already hate the Patriots are going to see this report as a smoking gun, while fans of the Patriots are going to see the report as flawed and an example of "haters gonna hate".
I am just overly curious how this has become such a media scandal and a lot of noise over something that is essentially a minor infraction calling for a small fine by the rule book.
I stated this above, but I think the problem I have isn't the minor competitive advantage (at best) gained by the Patriots doing this. With or without this infraction, they probably still would have been a darn good football team.
My problem is that the Patriots not only have a history of cheating- but have a history of cheating in minor ways that probably aren't the difference between 2 wins and 12. They do it because they don't care if they get caught or not. They don't need it to win, and we all know it. To me, that's worse.
Yeah, but then there's the old adage about the cover-up being worse than the crime. If they had just said, "Oops, you caught us" in the very beginning, they would gotten their slap on the wrist and everyone would have forgotten about it months ago.
If they had gone the "We take this seriously and will get to the bottom of this" route it would have worked out, too. Instead they doubled down and went the "How dare you suggest such a thing! This investigation will prove our innocence!" path instead. Kraft even said he expected an apology from the league once the investigation concluded!
Whenever you play the "innocent indignation" card and then it comes out that something shady was going on, people are gonna jump all over it.
This is just not news to me. The NFL needs to slap the Patriots' wrist and be done with it.
Everybody at this level is cheating to some degree. Only way to get an edge over the other world class athletes.
So said every juiced up major league baseball player.
The report provided ZERO evidence anybody on the patriots staff actually did anything wrong. The fact that the report included texts that had zero relevance to the actual case shows Wells was just trying to make people look bad.
I am a Packers fan, but this entire thing has been a mountain out of a molehill.
I've seen this type of response in a couple places now and I honestly don't understand how people draw that conclusion. I can follow most other arguments for the Patriots (not a big deal, didn't impact the results of the game, everyone cheats a little bit somehow, etc), but am having trouble finding the logic in this one.
The report presented data including text conversations between Patriots equipment staff members. The report's interpretation of those conversations is that they were discussing deflating footballs for Tom Brady.
In my line of work, you can disagree with an interpretation of data, but you must describe why you think the interpretation is wrong and preferably provide an alternate interpretation. This is so that others can follow your line of reasoning. Thus far for the report, I have yet to see a rebuttal that provides an alternate interpretation.
So I ask, not in a "Prove it" way, but in an "I'd like to understand your reasoning" way, what alternate scenarios can you come up with that would explain those text conversations?
Excellent point. People need to bear in mind that the Wells report is being written in effect from the same perspective as any law firm would prepare information as if they were pursuing a civil case. The use of the word "probably" is the key.
Nobody is asking if the Patriots violated a law, or committed some sort of illegal act. They are asking "Did the Patriots break the rules the NFL has set forth?"
And the conclusion is "Probably", based on the information that they gathered (and they did some really amazing statistical research in the appendices of the report, although methinks that has a lot more to do with the firm being paid by the hour by the NFL. Even Silver's blog agrees the statistical analysis of deflating footballs is top notch). This isn't court, where you need a Guilty Beyond a Reasonable Doubt decision.
Until the Patriots can provide some type of explanation, the conclusion drawn is the one most people will end up believing.
It is hilarious to watch Patriot fans defend this as if the NFL has it out for them in some way. They constantly have an excuse.
I agree with this, but I am missing where Brady is directly linked to the time they got caught. I haven't had time to read the entire report but from what is being plastered everywhere as damning evidence I don't see the connection.
I see the handlers complaining about Brady's want of air pressure and joking about changing said air pressure. There is enough documentation of that "joking" to assume it is probable that it happened, and the fact that they found balls in a game under inflated is proof it happened. But is there something that actually connects Brady to these handlers where he definitively states "I want these balls for this game to be under-inflated"?
Otherwise, isn't reasonable doubt still an issue? Because the defense is: It was all just a running joke. We would joke about this all the time. Brady would joke about it, we would joke about it. And unfortunately one of our jokes got into a game. It was unfortunate, but not deliberate.
Reasonable doubt doesn't factor in. The NFL seems to look at "probable" as being the burden of proof for rule-breaking.
I'm not disagreeing with that, but I would counter to say that the NFL looks at minimizing damage more than anything. And if given a reasonable excuse or explanation they tend towards non-punishment and/or minor fines. So if the case here is simply texts of people joking around without any solid connection, sure the optics make Brady look guilty and a huge douche (which everyone not a Pats fan already knows), then a reasonable defense would be what the NFL is looking for.
Hence why this came out after the draft. had it came out before people would be calling for picks to be taken immediately. Now drafts over, it's the offseason a long time before preseason games, and enough time for the thing to defuse and the reasonable explanation to be employed. NFL looks like the did their job by investigating and finding the texts, but it's all still vague enough to be explained.
Maybe I am too cynical of the NFL's track record... insert laughing hysterical gif here.....
The timing is odd. But most NFL "experts" including Schefter and Adam Caplan have indicated that a punishment is coming soon.
At some point in time, they had to talk to Tom Brady. Just with their respective jobs, it had to have come up. The evidence damning Brady comes from the historical phone records. Don't exactly recall the timeline, but Tom and the equipment manager had talked on the phone once or twice over the course of months. After the scandal broke, they were calling several times a day. The uptick in conversations has bee taken as some level of collusion or guilt. The old "where there's smoke, there's fire" argument.
I don't really see the phone records as being indicative of collusion before hand. While I certainly think the calls involved the deflated footballs, it could have reasonably been Brady trying to determine what had happened himself. That doesn't mean that it couldn't have been the case, but if I were making a determination of Brady's involvement solely on the uptick in phone calls, it wouldn't be enougg to convince me.
Exactly, Brady could have been concerned over how the equipment manager were doing.
The punishment comes down:
the epic schadenfreude in the wake of this, will be something to behold
Oh man Patriots blogs are going to be so fun to read tonight.
Also, how fun will it be for the NFL to have an opening night game with both LaVeon Bell and Brady sitting out due to suspension. Leaving perhaps the only player the casual fan will recognize in this game as Big Ben...who certainly has had his own issues.
Omg. Time to bring back Iago.
So a US Court of Appeals today has reinstated Brady's 4 Game Suspension for Deflategate...
http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-bradys-deflategate-suspension-reinsta...
Oh this is gonna be good
Barbara Eden. Yes.
That is surprising the report had more holes and false assumptions than a fifth graders science report.
I still can't believe this has been as big of a deal as it is, regardless of if it is true or not. I want this to end.
This suspension and the penalties for the team were extremely stupid, however the league did collectively bargain to give Goodell the power over discipline. So whether he made a wrong decision or not it was within his right to punish which I believe is how the courts felt.
I agree with this.
It's Officially the off season, time to bring up the Patriots any chance they get.
via GIPHY
Guess my amount of sport watching will decrease now till August
Mongo Like Candy
I think the decision makes sense, HOWEVER....I think Goodell's inability to execute justice in a fair, consistent manner will make the next CBA a nightmare. The NFLPA cannot be happy about what they signed up for in the last CBA and I think we may even see a lockout in the next round.
Update:
Federal courts deny Brady's appeal of the overturn of the overturn of the original suspension.
At this point, barring Supreme Court intervention, he's suspended for 4 games this season
Which guilty or not, it should be overturned as the punishment did not meet the precedence. Inappropriate equipment (which is what he was accused of) is a fine not a suspension.)
He wasn't suspended for deflating footballs. He was suspended for lying.
You do realize the NFL testified in Federal court that there was no evidence that any tampering occurred, right?
Did you know Brady said he had never met the ball boys/equipment managers?
It's not just inappropriate equipment...it's tampering with the equipment illegally after the officials inspection of the equipment.
Found the Pats fan
Actually a Packers fan, but I don't like seeing anybody getting screwed by Goodell especially beyond all precedent.
I side with Alum6144. The NFL is so fucked when it comes to punishments. Consider:
So deflating a football is equal as bad as violently assaulting someone? What a joke.
That's a very flawed analysis. The NFL's job is to regulate the game of football. If a player does something horrific and criminal 'off the clock' and does not affect the game, it's the job of the court system to hand down punishment, not a sports league. So drug violations (only if they're the sort of drugs that give a player an advantage, not marijuana, IMO) and equipment violations are within the legitimate purview of the League, while DUI, domestic violence and other crimes really need to be handled by the court system.
While I totally agree with this, the NFL has decided that they are concerned with the off-the-field actions of their players. IMO - the NFL either needs to be all in or all out here. Either they don't punish Greg Hardy at all, or they give him a punishment that fits the crime. Equal crimes should carry equal punishments, and equal punishments should result from equal crimes. The NFL has effectively said that, in their eyes, Tom Brady deflating a football to get a minor advantage is equally as evil to Greg Hardy violently attacking another human.
This is why people hate Roger Goodell.
Or what the league has said is that both of those things are equally detrimental to the product of the NFL. Which is what they have purview over. And that is a conclusion that actually makes sense. No one is saying that deflating footballs is equally as bad as beating people, but rather that both those actions equally tarnish the product.
As a consumer, I would much rather a product with a couple of slightly deflated footballs vs a league full of individuals with criminal histories. That's just me. I hate hardy much more for what he did than Brady. I would still pay to watch Brady play. I won't pay to see trash like women beaters and murderers
Then I guess you won't watch any football.
I think the criminal justice system should handle the players with criminal histories and infractions, and the NFL should handle rule violations.
Sadly, both the NFL and college football have both types of violations.
well, I pretty much only watch the Hokies play. I don't have any stake in the NFL and don't have time on Sundays most of the time anyway. So it's just college ball for me and Hokies at that.
Good Answer.
How the hell is it equally tarnishing the product? Every ball on the field of every NFL game all season could be a different psi and we would never notice a difference. It doesn't tarnish the damn product at all.
I never noticed (or could have physically noticed) that many MLB players were juiced like crazy during the late 90s home run boom, but it sure as hell tarnished my impression of all of them when I found out they were cheating. It was fun watching all those homers fly out of the park when I was a kid, but now I know it was all false.
Here's the obvious difference with this comparison: Steroids greatly affected the power, bat speed, endurance, and healing abilities of many players, and it resulted in enormous and noticeable stat increases.
The psi of a football isn't going to turn Tom Brady into you, or you into Tom Brady. To assume that psi has a significant affect on the arm talent of an NFL quarterback (any of them) who have spent thousands of hours practicing their throwing motion and repetitions and have natural ability to throw a football hard/fast is ridiculous. It is insulting to what it takes to be an NFL QB to say that the psi of the ball is having a significant impact on the game.
And steroids aren't going to turn me into Mark McGwire. Reductio ad absurdum.
Baseball players practice and spend thousands of hours on their craft, too. Steroids were/are a competitive advantage. Manipulating equipment and manipulating your body are both violations of professional sports rules. Simple as that.
There are two separate issues here. One, was there cheating, and was Brady complicit? Possibly. Two, is the punishment appropriate? Debatable. But when the CBA says the commissioner can investigate and punish as he sees fit, and the standard of evidence is as low as it is, it's case closed in that regard.
Yeah, I don't think I can continue to discuss this with someone who legitimately thinks steroid use in baseball is comparable to footballs being underinflated. Or thinks that a four game suspension, million dollar fine, two people losing their jobs, etc is even "debatable" as to whether this is appropriate punishment.
It's not as far out as you claim. Let's say steroids would have had the likelihood of adding one homerun to a box score. Then let's say the under inflated balls had the likelihood of preventing one fumble. Is the impact in the game that much different? The reason MLB was so noticeably different during the juicing era was because everybody was juicing.
The refs check ball inflation.
Ball inflation was changed after the refs checked them.
There are arguments that changing the inflation pressure doesn't affect the ball and game.
According to that logic, someone intentionally defied the referees and rules of the game for no noticeable advantage. One of two things is illogical here, either the person risking their job for no advantage or the arguments that deflated balls do not provide an advantage.
You do realize that the NFL said there was no actual evidence of tampering with the balls in Federal Court while under oath?
The two gauges the referee's used were off by more than 1 psi in accuracy. There was no record of which gauge was used before the game and at half. The one good thing out of the whole debacle is now there is a standard and records are actually kept.
I've never had a comment downvoted like this before. I don't back off my statement that it is absolutely absurd to compare this to the widespread (and illegal) use of steroids in baseball and their effects on their respective games.
I will say that I don't think you should be downvoted. I'll offset you by 1 but that's all I can do.
People are probably balking at your comment because you're basically saying "I'm taking my ball and going home." Rather than engage in a debate about why you think my proposal is so preposterous, you're basically blowing me off with a "I can't even right now." So it stifles discussion because you're going to blanket disagree with anyone whose comment doesn't fit your viewpoint. It's counterproductive and against the spirit of the forums. If you'd like to continue, please do. But you've already said you don't care to continue discussing this with me, so perhaps there's no point. I don't have a dog in this fight; I'm just trying to view things from an unbiased perspective.
Well part of the not engaging is that I have made multiple other lengthy explanations in this thread.
Here's a continued breakdown of the differences.
I would argue (and have a longer explanation in another comment in this thread) that having the ball in an unfavorable psi (too underflated, for example) has a much greater negative effect on your game (short accuracy, feel for distance on longer throws) than having the ball inflated to your personal preference (for me, a little overinflated feels good in my hand) has a positive effect on your game. I may like the feel, but it being a little different one way or another to my liking isn't going to affect my play like having a very underinflated or way overinflated ball would affect my game downward.
Secondly, this is a small "potential" advantage, as has been stated there is some argument that this is somewhat favorable in the cold. I think on a level playing field, the widespread use of steroids had a much greater effect on the game at large. It tainted an entire era of great hitters because they had artificially enhanced their bat speed, recovery, and healing in a statistically significant way as these guys blew records out of the water and created a "new norm" for power hitters. I don't even believe the ball psi is a serious advantage as stated above.
Thirdly, the actual offenses committed. The steroid use was illegal and expressly forbidden. The rules were unclear and in many minds, essentially non-existent as I think we can all admit that MOST of us didn't have any idea there was a set level of psi the footballs should be and that violating this would be a punishable offense. Nobody was illegally acquiring growth hormone and anabolic steroids from other countries or less than lawful dealers and not extremely aware they were breaking rules and thoroughly cheating. At best, I think this is comparable to a pitcher scuffing a ball or something but maybe not even that.
Honestly, I am a little frustrated, and I do think it is so obvious that it should be unnecessary for me to argue that one of the biggest scandals, that shook the foundation of baseball for years, and is still coming out with more players involved in this and legitimately hurt many players' legacies should even be remotely compared to this obvious power play on behalf of Goodell. I also think the level of punishment is absurd. There are numerous examples stated on here with much more legitimate evil or wrong doing involved that have received lesser or equal suspensions and sometimes just fines. I have a hard time believing any of these people going hard after Tom for this don't have some inherent bias against him or the Patriots.
There.
It doesn't matter the severity... cheating is cheating, and you must come down hard on cheating or put the literal integrity of the product you're trying to sell to fans, sponsors, and broadcasters, in jeopardy. There's a reason Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pete Rose were banned from baseball for life, where anyone caught taking steroids in baseball is banned for half the season for a first offense, and why someone caught cheating, even in what you may consider to be a meaningless way is banned for a quarter of the season. You must keep the integrity of the game sound, and like it or not, that's what Goodell is doing. You can't have players or teams going rogue, you just can't.
Well I think there are definitely different grades of cheating. What makes this so bad to me is the obvious attempt to cover it up. Being on the heels of spygate doesn't help either.
I appreciate the explanation. Honestly it's an interesting debate and I'm trying to gain a full appreciation of both sides. Let me respond to a few points (hey, it's the offseason, why not?) and if you want to reply, please do. I get that it can be frustrating when a lot of people (safe to say the majority) disagree.
Sure, it's a matter of preference, but if someone was deflating balls, it wasn't because the players (any of them) didn't want them to. I recall some quotes from anonymous players saying they preferred the ball to feel one way or another, but that's not necessarily conclusive of anything. If any of the Pats players potentially liked the ball a certain way (Brady, the receivers, etc) and anyone took action based on that, we have a problem.
Any cheating is a form of trying to obtain a competitive advantage and is only ever expressed in terms of potential. You also can't claim that steroids were worse because more people were doing them. We simply don't know what else NFL players might be doing. Consider the micro level, in complete abstract: Player X in the NFL alters the ball because he can grip it better, therefore throw better, or be less likely to fumble. Player Y in the MLB takes steroids to make himself stronger to swing faster and get more hits. The advantage, expressed in these terms, means that each player is more likely to be successful at their respective sport. Now, if player Y can't hit a knuckleball, his "potential" advantage goes out the window. If player X is playing with a steady, hard wind in his face, his advantage largely goes out the window. But the point is that if any one player tries to circumvent any one rule, it is unfair and punishable.
Ignorance of the rules by spectators is irrelevant to the violation of the rules by those who have signed on to play under those rules.
As a final point, regarding punishment itself, a steroid violation in MLB currently carries a 1/3 season suspension without pay. That sounds pretty comparable to a 1/4 season suspension without pay. Both situations involve the effort to obtain a competitive advantage. From this perspective, I genuinely don't see the outrage. The stuff about Goodell having too much power, doing his own investigation for his own ends, sure, but when you look at the fundamentals of competition and the rules that govern them, I think there is a strong parallel here.
No, he's just taking the air.
EDIT: double comment removed. My browser choked loading the page (looks like an ad is lagging the page horrendously at the moment).
woah! VTGM with the double post! what is this world coming to? /s
You're focusing in too much on a very specific part of the problem rather than the overarching issue. Brady and the Pats CHEATED. Cheating, of any kind, degrades the integrity of the sport, and as such, tarnishes the product. This is the same sort of logic people used to use when I was prosecuting for Honor Court. Stuff like, "I only googled answers for homework, I didn't copy on the test." It's frankly irrelevant how or when you cheat. What matters is that it's cheating. Period.
That's really not accurate. The NFL suspended Greg Hardy (with pay) for the remainder of a season and then an additional 10 games. In appeal that was reduced.
The NFL is definitely not making comments on what's "evil". The courts screwed the pooch there because Hardy basically paid off the victim to not testify, and everyone knows it. Nothing the NFL can do about that, nor should they interject themselves into the court system.
The fact that both were a 4 game suspension has absolutely zero reflection on what the NFL was actually trying to accomplish there. The union basically argued that the suspension was egregious because of a technicality (that being that hardy was ultimately not found guilty of a crime)
The NFL isn't suspending Brady for any perceived crime. He is being suspended for lying/being a party to cheating/lying about being a party to cheating.
I'm a Vikings fan for the record, but this is absolutely ludicrous that it has gotten to this point and that he is going to be suspended 4 games. Truly unbelievable. This whole thing is overblown and unless you have some kind of personal vendetta against the patriots nobody believes this would have made a difference in the outcome of this or any game. Absolutely not worth 4 game suspension, just another example of the NFL not backing down and holding too much power over players.
Players union negotiated that power.
im no cba expert, but id be willing to bet that the players are more likely to take a lopsided deal then the owners are because the owners can wait it out
i just personally don't buy the "it's the players union's fault" mantra that seems to be popular
It as nothing to do if it would have made a difference in the game or not. It has everything to do with breaking the rules and then lying about it once he got caught.
Or... you know... don't cheat
That Pats thought it would make a difference otherwise they wouldn't be doing it, right?
I'm a Redskins fan, and I agree this is ludicrous, but for different reasons:
1. Goodell has lacked any consistency in his doling out punishments and will come to regret this in the next set of CBA negotiations
2. Brady was never proved to lie or be involved. He was "probably" involved which means he's "probably" lying. For the record, this is pretty weak evidence for a 1/4 season suspension
3. There is presidence of previous "deflate" scandals that resulted in little to no punishments
4. I have no love for the Pats, but i look at it as "if Goodell can treat one team unfairly, how long until its YOUR team?"
Yeah, like what if they unilaterally decided to knee-cap your cap-space for salaries they approved? That'd be so unfair.
totally.....
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. About the time this whole affair blew up, I happened to be sitting across a poker table from a former FBS center, with a couple years starting experience snapping the ball to a future NFL QB. Seeing as how he seemed to be a subject-matter expert, we all started asking him about the situation. The guy told me in no uncertain terms that deflated footballs are far easier to grip, snap, throw and catch, particularly in cold weather when your hands and fingers are desensitized. This tactic absolutely gives the offense an advantage and could indeed affect the outcome of the game if only one team is employing it. (Now, the Pats-Colts game in question was obviously not affected, given the lopsided score. They could've won that one playing with an anvil.) He went on to divulge that his coach was not only aware of underinflated balls being used by his team in cold weather, but an active participant in the process. One more thought: the balls were obviously intentionally inflated to a pressure that was not compliant with league rules. If there's no benefit, why would anyone risk doing it?
As for the argument that Brady's punishment shows the NFL has too much power over the players, I'm sure I'm in the extreme minority here, but I think this is the one of the few violations where the NFL has the right and the obligation come down hard with player discipline. The job of the league is to protect the integrity of the game. When a player or team violates rules designed to ensure a level playing field, the League needs to act. It seems everyone likes to bash the NFL over it's scattershot approach to player suspensions for things like DUI and domestic violence, but honestly, when those incidents occur away from work, they are under the jurisdiction of the court system. The NFL really doesn't have the standing to punish guys for those offenses. I'm all for teams punishing their players for violations of the player conduct clauses of their contracts, but the league really has no legitimate authority to bring down the hammer, IMHO.
All I see is hate from people who probably don't like Brady/Pats in general. I agree w Hokie in the Wire that they haven't proved he lied. Additionally, other Quarterbacks have come out and stated how they prefer the ball over/underinflated such as ARod saying he likes the balls overinflated. Personally, that's how I prefer to grip and throw the ball too, I tend to shirk form and grip a more deflated ball tighter which throws off my release.
Honestly, not having the ball how you like it affects your performance downward MUCH more significantly than a good feeling ball would increase your efficiency upward.
example) If I had to play a game with a deflated ball, it would (personally) affect my accuracy on short throws and and my distance on long throws. A normal ball is what I am used to. I might prefer to have it a little overinflated, but it wouldn't really affect my play from the normal ball, just would "feel" good in my hand. The receivers (if anyone) probably benefit it from it more than the QB. If you have ever played with a real game ball, you know they are pretty rock hard, so whether it's deflated or not, it's gonna hurt like a bitch when it's cold.
This is where the real benefit is. A QB as skilled as Tom Brady can adjust his throws for the underinflated ball. The biggest benefit comes in ability to grip the ball more securely, reducing the likelihood of the ball bouncing off a reciever's hands, or getting fumbled during the snap or handoff.
Quarterbacks and receivers benefit from completions.
The question is whether they tampered with the balls, and then lied about it.
That's fine, but even Goodell's own investigator (inherent bias) could only get to the point of saying he "probably" knew about it. That's doesn't even meet the lowest of burdens of proof.
I believe you only need the lowest standard of proof to suspend a player from games.
There are some pretty incriminating text messages between equipment managers. Then there is the contact between Brady and the equipment manager. Oh, and Tom Brady's destroyed cell phone. This is like the "You can't prove it" defense.
Do you have doubts over whether they purposefully deflated balls?
I mean, the players negotiated and signed a CBA that allows Goodell to do this, which is why the courts ruled the way they did in April, and the appeals courts upheld that decision yesterday. And for the record, every team except for the Steelers voted to agree with the CBA in place.
So, if the players don't like what's happening, tough shit. They had their chance to reject this CBA which explicitly gives the commissioner the power he's wielding, and they overwhelmingly voted to support it. They have NO leg to stand on now.
Next time, read the contract before you sign it
I think the players signed that in good faith that Goodell would be fair, which he clearly isn't. This is a betrayal of trust from the commish to the NFLPA
yeah, it's not like the players were like "oh gee this sounds like a swell idea!"
players have cars, houses, families, etc to pay for and they aren't getting paid until a cba gets signed, which means they were going to have to accept some things they really didn't want and hope for the best. i find it unlikely that the players supported the setup, they were willing to live with it
I think a lot of players would consider Goodell unfair if he did nothing in the face of players or teams that were caught breaking rules.
The only even-handed way to deal with this is to have some kind of penalty. People can disagree on what that is, of course.
I agree, but he wasn't CAUGHT. Brady was found to PROBABLY be doing something as determined by a guy Goodell paid to investigate it (after Goodell had his sights on Brady). If you want to suspend Brady because you saw him breaking the rules, then go ahead, but this is ridiculous.
To me, Brady destroying his cell phone is like someone refusing the breathalyzer. You open yourself up to penalties when you don't comply with investigations.
The circumstantial evidence isn't proof positive, but it's pretty strong here.
I think its a low standard, but "probably" isn't proof, not even the lowest of standards. Think of all the things you'd be ok with for being punished for that if someone (who was paid by your prosecutor) told you that you "probably" did.
I think he destroyed his cell phone b/c there would be no way to limit access to potential shady crap (not related to deflating footballs). I think that the investigation was botched up (and if you read the sequence of events, you may agree).
Lastly, I'd refer you to: Ball tampering involving Panthers, Vikings produced a far different reaction
Found the other Pats fan
found the unconditional pats hater
Unconditional Pats Hater - 99% of people who don't live in Massachusetts
Temperature and pressure are directly related to one another. By increasing the heat of the balls, they were increasing the air pressure in the balls. Panthers were just trying to make the game more fair...
That's true, but Chris's argument was that underinflation hurts the QB's ability to put the ball where he wants it. As a guy who's never been able to throw a football at any pressure, I can't confirm or refute that argument. My attempt was to show how it still helps the offense, even if the underinflated ball is a bit more difficult for the QB to throw.
As for your question, it seems pretty apparent to me that the balls were tampered with. When every ball in the bag except for one (to be used for kicking) is underinflated, and you have all those very incriminating texts from the equipment guys, it becomes very hard to believe that no shennanigans were afoot.
What if I told you that this punishment had little to do with Tom Brady, deflated footballs, or cell phones, and everything to do with Spygate in 2007? That the Patriots cheated, everyone knew it, and they got off easy, which the rest of the league did not like? That there was an understanding amongst the rest of the league that should they ever be caught cheating again, the hammer would be dropped? ESPN 30 for 30 presents: Karma.
Improperly inflated or not, lying or not...does anyone else find it absurd that the Supreme Court is even an option to get involved with this?
Yes
I can see the headlines now:
Highest Court in the Land Considers Tom Brady's Balls
"Tom Brady's Balls Now in the Hands of Supreme Court Justices"
From Giselle to Ruth Bader Ginsberg...not the trajectory I'm sure he was expecting in his life.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg considers Tom Brady's small balls...
i see this as a fine, not a suspension. this is a rule the nfl didn't even care about...if they did, they would measure all balls before the game starts. but they didn't do that, so they didn't even enforce the rule. i don't know how they can justify a quarter season suspension for a rule they never even cared to enforce. can only be because goodell had some kind of vendetta against the patriots. should've been a simple fine, and then it would've been out of the news two days later. and then the nfl could've started enforcing the rule if they wanted to.
The blind Patriots hatred on here is so strong. I wish you could look at yourselves objectively and see how ridiculous it is to suspend someone for a fourth of the season over a rule (that hardly anyone even knew existed or talked about) and because they may have "potentially" lied about it. Players get fined for hits that were being made intentionally to hurt another player, but we suspend a guy 4 games over some air pressure discrepencies? Ridiculous.
That was my objection. The rulebook says ball pressure discrepancies are a fine, not a suspension. Well, the Patriots paid a million dollar fine, lost draft picks, fired two employees, and had their QB suspended for a quarter of the season. The punishment did NOT fit the crime.
Seeing this all written out together only makes me feel even stronger that this whole situation is absurdly ridiculous and a stubborn continuation of a power move on the NFL's part.
Here's how I see it, as someone who (1) doesn't care at all about the Patriots either way and (2) barely cares about the NFL at all (I prefer NCAA football). The negotiated agreement gives Goodell a lot of power, probably too much. He used that power, the players association balked, and they lost because they had agreed to a bad deal from their perspective. The agreement is such that basically if there was a likelihood of misconduct, Goodell can punish the player. The whole situation was less about the balls themselves, but the perception and/or reality that Brady was uncooperative or hindering the investigation. The NFL administration has pretty wide latitude here, from what I understand. Again, as stated above, the players union agreed to something that was not in their favor, and you're now seeing what's come of it. This says nothing of fairness or legal standards of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (which don't apply here, yet some people expect them to). Expect a much bigger fight when the next agreement is negotiated.
I don't hate the patriots at all. But, what we have here is a conspiracy to cheat (regardless of how meaningless the cheating is or isn't). If a commissioner doesn't come down hard on this, then that precious precedent everybody is looking for works the other way around next time when the crime might actually be worse.
Also, I'm tired of the argument about whether the air pressure gives an advantage. If it doesn't, then why go under the required air pressure?
"It's not cheating if they don't make a rule against it." - Robert Kraft
"It's not really a rule if they don't enforce it." - Robert Kraft
"It's not really enforced if the punishment is so minor it can be seen as the cost of doing business." - Robert Kraft
"Tom Brady's suspension is unfathomable" - Robert Kraft
(pretty sure only the last one of these is an actual quote, but you get the idea)
remember when he compared Deflategate to 9/11 when being interviewed on the field after winning the Super Bowl a couple years ago?
......yeah,,,,,
The first one is actually correct. If there is no rule then how are you breaking it to cheat?
Also this sounds like the exact same way college football recruiting has gone.
...Please refer to Major League Baseball's book of unwritten rules /s
Just weighing in as both a New England resident, and as a Patriots fan.
There is absolutely no denying that the Patriots are guilty of foul play in the handling of the their game balls. The matter of Tom Brady's guilt however, is open up to a whole different interpretation. So to is the administrative handling of the investigation, and the resulting abuse of power by Roger Goodell; mostly resulting from outside pressures in the form of the other 30 owners. This is why Tom Brady is both fighting for his legacy, and for the unprecedentedly harsh ruling from Goodell.
Brady's implication in the deflating of the balls is questionable at best. The investigation into Brady began with Belichik's tongue-in-cheek Mona Lisa Vito press conference after the Indy game, where he passed the buck onto his star quarterback. From there on the once immaculate Brady became a media scapegoat for the crime, prompting a quick investigation from the NFL (who was itching for action after Spy-Gate). After a sloppy inquisition and accruing text messages from guilty ball boy Jastremski, the NFL could only ascertain that TB12 had told his assistant that he like the balls a certain way. This is NOT in anyway a violation of any kind, and quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers do this every game. It is the officials job to check the balls and fix them, and Jastremski broke the rules thereafter in a secluded bathroom. Who told Jastremski to do it? It's most likely that Belichick or Jastremski's manager told him to get the air to where Tom likes by any means necessary. Or maybe he did it to make Tom happy. Whether you believe he's innocent or guilty of knowledge, the reaction of the NFL is the most egregious act of DeflateGate.
Roger Goodell, with the Ray Rice controversy already afoot, was quick to condemn and devastate the long suspect Patriots organization. He needed to be strong, and show the owners that the second time the Pats crossed him would be the last. He nailed NE with a massive fine and snatched their coveted first round draft pick. While this punishment was harsh, it was not necessarily unjust due to past transgressions by the Patriots and the hated Bill Belichick. Turning to Brady, who was believed to be the major player in DeflateGate, Goodell slapped him with a 4 game suspension. Goodell had smashed precedent, and flexed his muscles as both judge and executioner under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Precedent with the deflating of balls was a $25k fine for equipment violation, but Goodell thought that was too lenient in a time where his authority was crippled by his fickleness in the Ray Rice scandal. He correlated Brady's "awareness" of DeflateGate to a PED violation, which has a precedent of four games most recently set by Antonio Gates and Bruce Irvin. Whatever you believe about TB12's association in DeflateGate, it is unquestionable that Goodell was both unjust his ruling of violation, and used it to deliver a much more high profile suspension to Brady, who had been notably uncooperative with the investigation.
While Tom's quest to the Supreme Court seems laughable at best and won't change public opinion, it has evolved into a fight for his legacy and for changes in the CBA for the Player's Union. Tom has united with them as he sees the 4-games both unfair to him in principle, and crippling to his image. The NFLPA is using Tom's high profile case to loosen Roger Goodell's irrational grip on his unchecked control on player discipline.
I personally want to see Tom cleared of this case, but in reality it WILL NOT HAPPEN. The NFLPA relinquished the power to Roger Goodell, and based on principle alone, the Supreme Court (if they even hear the case) will not rule against the NFL.
DEFINITELY abusing your gf = 2 game suspension
PROBABLY conspiring to remove 1-2 psi from a football = 4 game suspension
POTENTIALLY wearing red socks instead of pink ones during breast cancer awareness month = 8 game suspension
Those make perfect sense to me because I HATE TOM BRADY, HE THROWS FOOTBALL GOOD BECAUSE CHEAT CODES.
Throwing the ball well and cheating are not mutually exclusive.
I don't hate Brady (he served my fantasy football team very well a couple of years ago), but let's just say the optics on this are bad.
Goodell is in over his head when his major goal is to prove something that just isn't so (we here in the NFL boast the world's most esteemed collection of polite, generous and gentlemenly young gentlemen - come see hither). He's trying to prove athletes = priests, and he's having a tough time doing that.
However the Tom Brady apologists are tying his fate too much into a "burden of evidence" court case/legal battle and forget that he's also a dude on the job.
If I'm involved in an investigation at work and I delete my phone contents just as they're being requested, I'm probably not in a real good spot with the career and the paychecks and all anymore. Similarly, people get fired for posting dumb stuff on Facebook - maybe they have a case in a court of law but I don't hear about many people getting those jobs back, nor do I ever hear much support for those acting like totally guilty idiots. We can talk about differences in salaries, but people lose their livelihood for being dumb, and firing and disciplining people isn't legally impossible.
The NFL doesn't really "fire" anybody, and maybe we seem to think they're out of line when they regulate their workforce at all (especially with a boss who's an dipshit - doesn't that just null everything he says?).
If I "allegedly" broke a stupid rule at work during an important inspection (think post-season), destroyed some "potential" evidence they ended up requesting about it and then got punished with a couple of weeks off, I would seriously have a hard time listening to people who continued to go around talking about me like I got screwed. Especially a year later, after I managed to stay my the initial punishment, and some high-up court was like "yeah, about that... you don't have a case".
You don't erase evidence if you're not facing punishment. So it goes (again, the 4 weeks is harsh but at least Brady isn't in the Josh Gordon business).
I totally agree with the NFL's control over an employee, and their right to discipline. However, Roger Goodell overstepped by giving Brady a PED violation and 4 games. Minus the in-cooperation, this has been done before by both the Panthers and the Vikings !!!!!!
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/07/ball-tampering-involving...
Even if the sanctions against the Patriots (which I believe are fair) are eliminated from the ruling, Roger unfairly used his powers and changed both the rules and precedent to alleviate his negative public opinion from Ray Rice by taking down a high profile player like Brady, even with his lack of solid evidence.
Tom should stop fighting. But can you really blame him? He has millions of dollars, a hot wife, time in the offseason, and a legacy that he might as well fight for.
I am in agreement, almost completely.
I think a harsh punishment improves his legacy. Tom Brady is insanely pretty; he can never have too much street cred.
His legacy to the millions of football fans he created is currently the 1) the pink jersey and 2) the Tom Brady rule, or the arbitrary rule book flagellation that must occur when a man that should be a supermodel hurts his leg playing your stupid contact sport!
He does a little hard time, he becomes just another guy to those of us who don't wear Freedom and Bald Eagle tinted glasses.
Now, what if Brady takes his his suspension AND Goodell gets proven wrong? You would get to witness non-Patriot fans ACTUALLY
LIKINGsticking up for Tom Brady.I think the suspension is justified just for the reason that this whole incident allowed "deflategate" to become a word.
If only Nixon's people had broken into the Bucketturd Hotel....
For your entertainment, crying pats "fan"
oh yeah, and
My 2cents (and worth every penny)...
Brady/Patriots cheated, they got caught. You can argue the degree and debate all you want, but there was cheating by the team, lying by the players and organization, potential cover up and lots of grandstanding (by both sides). Regardless of whether deflating balls provides a competitive advantage or not, it is still against the rules. Additionally, if it's no big deal, then why deflate them after the refs have checked and approved them?
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
How did Brady cheat? The Patriots might have cheated (and paid a $1mil fine and loss of a first round draft pick), but how did Brady cheat?
It is not hard to see:
Brady likes the football as soft as possible, he wants it at the minimum amount possible, equipment guys provide to refs at minimum amount possible, the refs' gauge differs a tiny bit so ball measures under minimum allowed PSI, refs then add air, but too much to Brady's liking, Brady is mad at his equipment guy. This scenario plays out at too many games, so Brady tells equipment guy to handle it by any means, equipment steals balls after refs' inspection and deflates, the deflated balls are noticed, Brady lies to public at press conference, NFL investigates the PSI issue, Brady all the sudden corresponds with equipment guys way more frequently because he's telling them not to rat on him, Brady destroys his phone, NFL suspends Brady for accumulation of events - cheating, lying, and failure to cooperate.
We'll have to agree to disagree. All I know for sure is that the next CBA discussion will be pretty crazy.
The problem is the gauges were inaccurate. The balls could have been inflated to the proper (minimum) pressure according to the one gauge and be over a 1 psi low on the other gauge. The ref's didn't record what gauges were used on what balls.
Brady could also have destroyed his personal cell phone to keep the contents away from the NFL and it being leaked to the press. When has the NFL EVER kept anything confidential. There could have been embarrassing and or confidential information on his phone that had nothing to do with the damn footballs.
That said it is finally over, I guess he got tired of paying for lawyers.
They managed to keep the fact that they had indeed seen the Ray Rice elevator video secret for quite a while. They can be fairly tight-lipped when it's their own butts in the fire.
completely agree. and for those saying brady didnt cheat hes the one throwing the balls...you cant sit here and tell me he didnt have any idea of it going on, furthermore the fact that he destroyed his phone and all of the evidence is a really bad look if he had nothing to hide.
however i think four games is a bit excessive, i think the harsh discipline here is a total makeup call for completely screwing spygate disciplinary case (particularly the whole destroying the videos so nobody could ever see what was on them thing is pretty sloppy way of handling things)
My (completely unfounded, purely speculative) theory is that even Goodell thought 4 games was excessive. I believe he expected the punishment to be reduced to a more reasonable two games or so when Brady appealed. After Brady and the NFLPA dug their heels in and refused to accept any suspension (if I'm remembering the saga correctly), the League was painted into a corner and had little choice but to stand their ground.
Update:
Brady has released an official statement to his Facebook account where he has agreed to accept the punishment and will no longer be issuing appeals. His first game will be Week 5 against Cleveland.
This is the right thing for him to do.
It will certainly help avoid some embarrassing headlines mentioning him, balls, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Take the over on Brady TD passes that week against the Browns
My beef with this suspension is two part:
1. I have yet to hear any evidence that Brady wanted the balls deflated past legal limits. The leaked text messages and the like have only showed that he likes the ball deflated as compared to normal. Is it unreasonable that he asked to have the balls deflated to the min as opposed to past the limit?
2. Its 25% of the season. Jobs are won and lost in 4 games. It seems egregious to suspend a player for that without having some serious evidence beyond "probable". Also, cheating has levels of severity, its not all in the same boat regardless of how many of you want to say otherwise. He lost 25% of his season because of the air in a ball. FeelsBadMan
But I'm 100% glad I won't have to hear about it anymore.
Except all preseason as they remind us that Brady's not playing in September.
And then all of September when they remind us that Brady's back in week 5.
And then in week 5, ESPN will be proclaiming BRADY'S BACK, BITCHES!!!!
And then the rest of the season when they remind us that Brady missed four games, otherwise his totals would be higher.
And every single time, they're going to be using that stupid made up word.