2015 NFL Playoff thread

cysporsche wrote:I really can't see the Commish & league office breaking bad on the Patriots before the Super Bowl ? I think the punishment (slap on the wrist), will come down after the SB ? They keep saying the punishment is coming any day ?

I'm afraid this whole deal is going to fire up Brady even more. Go Seahawks !

Go Jets...Cyborg

Yes, the Cash Cow otherwise known as the Super Bowl will not be interrupted by all this silly ball deflation talk.

Goodell will wag his finger at Brady in closed quarters after the game, as they sip celebratory cocktails and laugh about it all.

An investigation which looks pretty simple, and is OBVIOUSLY a cover-up, will somehow take more than the two weeks up to the Super Bowl.

In related news, this piece talks about the lack of turnovers by the Pats, and how they have been historically over-the-top. I mean, unbelievably over-the-top.


http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.sharpfootballanalysis.com%2Fblog%2F%3Fp%3D2932


And just look at their home record over the past decade or so. It's not even believable.

How much stuff are they doing that we DON'T know about?

I'm starting to think more and more that the Pats inflated their footballs just prior to their being checked, but did it exactly to 12.5 PSI. The key is where they did it.

They may have inflated them in a very hot room, like a sauna, which would precipitate a drop in pressure over time, especially as they got exposed to cooler conditions.

To me, this is still cheating. It is a way of deliberately ensuring the depressurization over time, to play with footballs that were below the 12.5 PSI threshold without getting caught.

That said, it is still quite possible they just had their ball boys secretly deflate air under a towel before or early on in a game.

Mike Reiss @MikeReiss · 7m 7 minutes ago
ESPN's @ESPNMichele, at Gillette Stadium, says Patriots expected to make an announcement around 2:30 p.m. ET. No details on announcement.

So this presser is almost completely spontaneous, no news of who will speak, or what it will be about.

Does anyone want to take a guess as to the name of the ball boy who will be fired for "going rogue?"

That or something completely unrelated. Maybe they go full evil, break out Aaron Hernandez from prison just so he can play against Seattle.

SackExchange wrote:That or something completely unrelated. Maybe they go full evil, break out Aaron Hernandez from prison just so he can play against Seattle.

Michele Steele @ESPNMichele · 1m 1 minute ago
RT @daringantt: The Patriots will see your Friday afternoon news dump and raise you a Saturday afternoon press conference.

football51 wrote:Michele Steele @ESPNMichele  ·  1m 1 minute ago
RT @daringantt: The Patriots will see your Friday afternoon news dump and raise you a Saturday afternoon press conference.

I've heard of taking out the trash on Friday, but Saturday afternoon?

SackExchange wrote:

football51 wrote:Michele Steele @ESPNMichele  ·  1m 1 minute ago
RT @daringantt: The Patriots will see your Friday afternoon news dump and raise you a Saturday afternoon press conference.

I've heard of taking out the trash on Friday, but Saturday afternoon?

Michele Steele @ESPNMichele · 20s 20 seconds ago
Considering how hastily arranged this press conference was, no surprise it's almost 20 minutes behind schedule #patriots





Sack, who ordered the code red ?

HA! I really have no idea what this is going to be.

Has Revis begun his holdout?

Since Belichick benches players for being late, shouldn't the Pats organization be benched for being late to their own press conference?

Michele Steele @ESPNMichele · 1m 1 minute ago
Pats head PR person Stacey James says Belichick will be in shortly




Is he going to step down as the HC of the NEP?

Michele Steele @ESPNMichele · 25s 26 seconds ago
Belichick: "there have been questions raised, I believe now we have followed every rule to the letter"




Tom E. Curran @tomecurran · 40s 40 seconds ago
This is "doing what's best for the foot team" 101 from Belichick.



Michele Steele @ESPNMichele · 30s 31 seconds ago
Belichick says Pats simulated gameday simulation this week for ball prep - process raises PSI by 1 pound...



Michele Steele @ESPNMichele · 3m 3 minutes ago
Belichick emphasizes Patriots ask officials to inflate balls to 12.5 PSI

Tom E. Curran retweeted
Phil Perry @PhilAPerry · 4m 4 minutes ago
Belichick says footballs never prepped in a heated room.



Dennis Waszak Jr. @DWAZ73 · 1m 1 minute ago
BUT ... why were the Patriots' footballs all different from the Colts' footballs in the same conditions?

As far as he knows...........



Phil Perry @PhilAPerry · 2m 2 minutes ago
Belichick: "We try to so everything right. We err on the side of caution...As far as I know we did everything as right as we could do it."

This is a farce.



Phil Perry @PhilAPerry · 14m 14 minutes ago
Team found that once footballs were on field "for an extended period of time" it dropped PSI 1.5.




Rich Cimini @RichCimini · 1m 1 minute ago
So why weren't the Colts' footballs affected? #DeflateGate

What is the point of holding a presser to come out and say nothing?

Of course, he declares the matter settled.

SackExchange wrote:I'm starting to think more and more that the Pats inflated their footballs just prior to their being checked, but did it exactly to 12.5 PSI. The key is where they did it.

They may have inflated them in a very hot room, like a sauna, which would precipitate a drop in pressure over time, especially as they got exposed to cooler conditions.

To me, this is still cheating. It is a way of deliberately ensuring the depressurization over time, to play with footballs that were below the 12.5 PSI threshold without getting caught.

That said, it is still quite possible they just had their ball boys secretly deflate air under a towel before or early on in a game.

I had mentioned the temp component and do think that is the most likely scenario the Pats used rather than tamper with the balls afterwards. I do believe that still breaks the rules and should be punished.

Now that Belichick denies this, if it was the case, the league should come down harder on him.

But they won't.

Corey Griffin retweeted
Erik Frenz @ErikFrenz · 30m 30 minutes ago
Belichick's defiance tells me he's confident #NFL can't find a way or reason to punish the #Patriots.

I think his press conference was orchestrated along with Goodell so BB can say no comment for the rest of the time leading up to the SB. The league won't do anything until after the SB.

Albert Breer @AlbertBreer · 39m 39 minutes ago
Boil it down, and what Belichick just did -- in the most forceful way possible -- was create plausible deniability.



Albert Breer retweeted
Matt Chatham @chatham58 · 33m 33 minutes ago
For fans-or haters- u just saw what a player sees in a heated team meeting. No BS. Pissed off. Gets to bottom of issue. And then moving on.

I just don't get it. What does this coach, as well as the rest of this franchise, have to do to actually be properly labeled as the cheaters they are? This is a repeated pattern by this franchise of bending and/or breaking the rules, yet it is constantly written off.

The Pats could get away with it. If he had never resigned as HC of the NYJ, and all this transpired with him as the Jets' HC, how much hell would the Jets be in?

You know it's bad when Peter King is questioning things.



Peter King @SI_PeterKing · 39m 39 minutes ago
Riveting and unusual and well-reasoned. With one exception: Why did the Colts footballs apparently not fluctuate the way New England’s did?