John Madden made a great point, that no coach on the planet would ever unilaterally mess with the game balls. Anything done to the game balls would have to come at the QB's direction. Of course that means that Brady would be the instigator here, not Belichick. And Belichick has denied any involvement, hanging Brady out to dry. If true, that Brady paid or directed a team employee to mess with the balls post referee inspection, do you think he gets suspended for the Super Bowl? There really is no other way to punish Brady for this, as a fine would just signal to every other $20m a year QB that you can effectively pay your way out of this. This is getting very interesting.....
Maybe Gillette paid for the deflation?
"The best a man can get."
New England Deflatriots?
Anyone???
Nothing???....
And dammit John Madden should be commissioner.
I'm kind of coming around to the chance the NFL might suspend Brady for the SB. Or at least it's not quite the "no effing way" it sounded like a couple days ago.
I think it's becoming obvious Brady instigated the whole thing and probably has for some time.
The point has been made that taking a little air out of a ball amounts to dick in the grand scheme of things. I'm 100% on board with that. But it's still a premeditated act of doing something outside what's allowed.
And here's where the NFL does a tremendous job of backing itself into a corner that make a decision on letting Brady slide not quite as easy as it maybe should be.
Last week the NFL caught wind that Marshawn Lynch was going to wear the gold plated kicks. They informed him that if he wore them he's was getting ejected from the game. Ejected for wearing non-conforming shoes.
If Brady did what it looks like he did. And he did it on his own. How do you tell Marshawn he's getting tossed over a pair of shoes in the NFC Championship game and turn around and give Brady a hall pass when you know what he did. Assuming again he did what it looks like he did.
I'm just saying it could happen.
Worst case scenario Brady is fined.
If any suspension would take place, the NFL would "announce it" on Saturday "evening", then Brady would appeal & at best his suspension would take place in September.
There is no way they suspend him for the Super Bowl....NO WAY
Just like lynch got penalized for the cleats last week ��nfl is not serious about enforcement in the playoffs is what I am seeing
And when you look at Lynch's cleats they were black on the sides but the bottoms sure looked gold to me. Me thinks he pulled one over on Goodell.
Agree, Boris, it won't happen. But it should. And for those that keep saying "it's not that big of a deal, move on", if it isn't a big deal, then why is Brady doing it? You don't cheat like this because it's not a big deal; clearly it is a big deal to Brady.
He's got a press conference in 30 minutes. Should be interesting.
Why the NFLPA didn't bargain on player punishments, how quickly any action is taken, and associated issues is beyond me. The disparity in punishments/penalties/fines, who they are levied on, and how quickly/how long (duration) begs for it.
Tom may get a slap on the wrist of some sort, but it won't be enforced until next season, at the earliest. Or if at all.
Spygate - tapes burned, $1 million fine and lost what a 1st round draft pick? No wonder they pile up so many draft picks. No suspensions levied.
Deflate gate - watch them suspend Brady for the season opener or something lame like that.
Bounty gate - massive fines levied, lost I believe 2 draft picks, 2 coaches were suspended for a season and 2 more for parts of a season.
Seems like an inequality of justice. Only one of those teams above have an owner who takes selfies with the Commissioner.
Originally Posted by CUPackFan:
Agree, Boris, it won't happen. But it should. And for those that keep saying "it's not that big of a deal, move on", if it isn't a big deal, then why is Brady doing it? You don't cheat like this because it's not a big deal; clearly it is a big deal to Brady.
He's got a press conference in 30 minutes. Should be interesting.
The actual incident itself isn't as big of a deal, IMO, but as part of the whole....
It's like in Baseball if you swing and miss at two terrible pitches, work it back to a full count and then have a foul tip that's caught it doesn't matter that it was the "best" of the strikes, you're still out, sit your carcass down.
Forgot about the heavy salary cap fines they gave to the Redskins and the Cowboys when they didn't even break a rule, they broke a made up rule for the uncapped year.
To play devil's advocate, only one of them touches fairly directly on player safety, which the NFL claims to care about. More than NFLPA bigwigs like Drew Brees.quote:Seems like an inequality of justice. Only one of those teams above have an owner who takes selfies with the Commissioner.
The only fair thing to do is eject the Patriots from the Super Bowl and have the Packers represent the AFC. Anything less is a sham.
Brady presser, ongoing:
#Patriots QB Tom Brady: “I didn’t alter the ball in any way.” Says he wouldn’t do anything to break the rules.
Brady: "I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing." says was in locker room preparing for game. Had no idea what may have happened to balls.
Brady: "I feel like we won the game fair and square."
Brady's press conference.
"I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing."
- Tom Brady
I'd be very worried if I was the ball boy for the Patriots.
The NFL has not contacted Brady about this yet?
Yeah, this is being seriously investigated. I guess Goodell wanted Belichick, Brady, and all the rest to have time to get their stories straight.
Well, of course Brady didn't do anything to the balls himself. Where was BK's pool boy before the game? It shouldn't have taken much to out-bid for an afternoon of his services.
"Everyone is trying to figure out what happened"
The ballboy better cut a sweetheart of a deal with Tom Terrific before he agrees to take that grenade.
Brady isn't good at lying either.
Originally Posted by ChilliJon:
Brady isn't good at lying either.
You don't say.
Never noticed before but it seems Giselle is a member of the IBTC.
That's not Giselle. It's Bridget Moynahan, his baby momma that he ditched for Giselle.
Wasn't she knocked up when Tommy split?
Originally Posted by MichiganPacker:
Brady's press conference.
"I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing."
- Tom Brady
"Jerry, just remember, it's not a lie if you believe it."
George Costanza
Before you know it the Colts will have done it to make it look like the Patriots did it.
Originally Posted by packaddict:
Before you know it the Colts will have done it to make it look like the Patriots did it.
Not quite.
So you have to wonder if it happened vs the Colts, how many other games did they do it?
How many great fingertip catches did Gronk make because he could grip the ball better ... all season long?
One or two catches that otherwise would not have happened, could add up to gaining home-field advantage for the playoffs . (i.e. Jordy Nelson at Buffalo)
As a kids soccer coach, I checked the inflation of the balls. Granted this was soccer but it made a difference for the goalie and obviously kicking. I'm sure at least the QB coaches), know how inflated/deflated their guy likes it.
He can't believe so much is being made out of this whole
#balls story.
On Tuesday Troy Vincent said the NFL would have their investigation over soft balls wrapped up in 2-3 days.
Today Brady said no one from the NFL has approached him or requested to speak with him.
Stands to reason Tom Brady might be a person of interest if your investigating the possibility the Patriots are taking the air out of footballs. But WTF do I know.
It's like not asking to see the elevator tape all over again. Goodell's NFL will always be a three ring clown show.
But the very best part of all this is that Roger really did want this all wrapped up and swept under the rug by today. Tomorrow at the latest. He was really hoping it was a whole lot of nothing. Or a story they could make go away.
It ain't going away. The Patriots pulled some **** again. And now this story is going to dominate every day and 100% of media day and the days leading up to the NFL's marquis game. It's Rogers worst nightmare.
I honestly don't understand how each team gets to bring their own balls to the game and can scuff them up and all that stuff, but then there are rules that the balls need to be inflated to a certain pressure? If a team can legally scuff up a ball to make it easier to grip, then why is it illegal to under-inflate a ball to make it easier to grip and catch?
So this ball pressure thing is a strict rule and all teams need to abide by it regardless if it really makes sense or not. I certainly can appreciate that. Alright, apparently officials inspect these ball and then turn them back over to the teams? Why would you do that if there are regulations on ball pressure? Shouldn't the correct way of doing it would be the teams bring their own balls, the game officials inspect them and green light them, then they go into separate boxes on the sideline where an NFL employee watches the box and is the guy that shuffles balls in and out of play. The NFL can't pay some credible guy 25 bucks an hour to do this? It would be like MLB umpires mudding up the balls and then an hour before the game handing half of them to a spit-ball pitcher and think that nothing else will happen to those balls.
Belichick is a cheater, we've know that for a long time. Brady now looks like a cheater too. Those guys are looking pretty bad. But the NFL looks pretty bad too, what a bunch of idiots to have rules like this on the books and to have the complete lack of ball control policy that they have. They were only asking for trouble with this lack of oversight and now it's bitten them right in the ass at the worst possible time.
I don't think anything happens to Brady although if it's proven he had involvement I think a minimum of a four game suspension would be in order. As far as the Pats, they will lose a first round pick over this and probably even more than that.
Originally Posted by Herschel:
Well, of course Brady didn't do anything to the balls himself. Where was BK's pool boy before the game? It shouldn't have taken much to out-bid for an afternoon of his services.
Miguel knows nothing of American football.
La Pelota........Si!
Originally Posted by ZUF:
So you have to wonder if it happened vs the Colts, how many other games did they do it?
I'd bet an under-inflated ball is a lot easier for Edelman and his smaller hands to throw.
15 years worth of Patriot players with names no one will ever remember or recognize gave their sweat and heart to a coach that turned their life's work into an asterisk.
Bill Belichick is the biggest kind of dick. He cheated therefore they cheated. Dick.
If it were any other team other than New England I think people wouldn't be so up and arms about this
The problem is the Patriots have a history of bending or breaking the rules and it's almost gotten to a point where they just don't care what may or may not happen if they get caught
At some point the league needs to send a message that integrity matters but once again they are fumbling and bumbling their way through this
The problem is the Patriots have a history of bending or breaking the rules and it's almost gotten to a point where they just don't care what may or may not happen if they get caught
At some point the league needs to send a message that integrity matters but once again they are fumbling and bumbling their way through this