NFL 2014 season thread: The good, the bad, & the ugly.

To the extent that there is a problem, I see this being more on the refs than anybody else, assuming the ref's approved the balls that were used in the game. I've not seen anybody allege that the balls were altered after the ref's checked off on them; but that would obviously show a different level of intentional deception.

An earlier poster had made a comparison to cheating in golf. But that sport has a long tradition of being a "gentleman's game" where you are expected to call your own fowls as part of the culture. The general culture of the NFL is play to win, and its up to the officials to ensure impartial condition.

If the current system for providing game balls leaves room for this kind of tampering, why do they leave it in the hands of one organization or the other? Just have the officiating crew show up with with 8 balls straight from the wilson factory still in the box, and inflate them on-site to regulation specs. Problem solved.

 

I believe the Hawks defense is rated #1, please correct me if I'm wrong, going up against the #1 offense. The Hawks have a chance to win if they can shut Brady down. It will not be on TDs thats for sure. There may be more points by the kicking squad.

 

Colts Player: Officials Stopped Using Patriots' Balls In The First Half

The Patriots played over half the game with the Colts' footballs... the half of the game during which they dismantled Luck & Co., primarily with the run game. The Colts were more competitive while the Pats were using their "questionable" gear. Time to move on from this sideshow.

 

It makes no difference to me who wins this Super Game, but for the first time in my life I am planning on voluntarily watching the game at a friend's house.
I have seen two Superbowls previously against my will or at least choice in the latter one.
Green Bay won both of them with this Brett Favre fellow playing in the latter one at least. The first one they beat someone ?-?; I just remember the Beach Boys playing Carl Wilson's last live show before his death (if memory serves) at halftime. The other one I watched with my wife and the Packers beat someone ?-?.

My predictions for this one are the companies advertising for obscene rates winning handily over the American Consumer's wallets. As a sideshow a bunch of large men will run around hitting each other in a way that rugby players call a "light no-contact practice".

 

Things like this under inflation thing (no matter how much validity it may or may not have) just give victories a bad taste. Whatever happened with the cheating thing a few years back is bad enough. I personally have no clue what that was, I have seen the "Billicheat" name thing online without any explanation or personal effort to enquire on it.

 

View from my home...on ferry to city xoxoxoo
--- merged: Jan 24, 2015 3:48 AM ---
GO HAWKS......xoxoxoo

 

I think the NFL is milking this as much as they can for the free publicity leading up to the big game.

They will probably say that they found no evidence of wrongdoing, and the temperature during the game or equipment used to measure the balls wasn't calibrated correctly causing the footballs to be a little off.

Then they will come up with a remedy to fix this and prevent it from happening in the future. It isn't that hard of a problem to solve, and I don't think it impacted the outcome of the playoff game (since it wasn't close).

They do need to take a hard stand against cheating and preventing it from happening though.

 

The NFL could have released a statement early in the week about it, or said that nothing was wrong quickly if they didn't want to deal with it. Blame the officials, or say if they didn't catch it, then it wasn't a problem.

And yes, the media is driving this story and hyping it up way bigger then it should be. I would think that drug use by NFL players would be a much bigger cheating scandal, but that is only if the fans would care and if it didn't happen on every team.

 

any way you look at it it makes the patriots orginaziation look bad.

 

First of all, some high school kids demonstrated that a 20* temperature drop caused a football's pressure to drop from 13 to 11 psi. This was just one football in a controlled environment. If they conducted the same experiment with many balls at the same time, there would be evidence of whether each ball lost the same amount of pressure, or if each individual ball reacted slightly differently. Minor differences in the bladder, cover or stitching could affect the results.
Secondly, did they bother to test any of the Colts' footballs? I haven't heard of that happening. Those tests could have been compared to the tests they ran on the Patriots' footballs to show whether or not the playing environment had an effect. Since there is no control group, the tests they conducted are scientifically sketchy. Their findings have no context.

Personally, I feel the whole scenario makes the league, the refs and the Colts look worse than the Patriots. For their parts, the Patriots are stepping up to the mic and facing the questions. Some may not care for their responses, but they aren't hiding and they aren't hedging on their story. The Colts are looking like sad losers and the league is being its incompetent, non-responsive self. The public furor is Spygate carryover and personal animosity toward Belichick and Brady and jealousy over the NE franchise's long running series of successes.

The Patriots are not my favorite team, but I cannot hate them. They conduct the business end of the game better than anyone. They find ways to win (those formation innovations vs the Ravens were completely within the rules, despite the whining). I'm not even convinced that Spygate actually translated into anything positive on the field... or that no other team has tried it without getting caught. When they find shady characters in the organization, they jettison them (Hernandez?).

We have a week left to talk about the actual game and the teams. How are those injuries healing? What about some human-interest pieces about that obscure 3rd stringer who only sees the field on special teams? Does the MVP dare go to Disneyland with the news about measles being spread from there? Is Al Michaels actually a cyborg replacement, with the real Al playing hermit on a South Seas island? Come on! Let's talk about something interesting!

 

I had not heard of the tests on the Colts balls, but I will admit to being burnt out on the media saturation and ignoring a lot of the posted news.

 

I don't see how this makes the Colts look bad. I haven't read/watched every report, but I don't recall much whining from the Colts. They got stomped, and they know it. But they have the right to complain and expose cheating. This does make the leagues game ball procedure, which is basically a honor system, look bad.

Regarding Spygate, there have been enough reports--long after the incident, which didn't receive much media attention--to suggest and support the idea that illegal filming was indeed common. That does not erase the fact that the Patriots did it and got caught.

A good portion of the uproar is related to the Patriots arrogance (which IMO has evolved to hubris*), real or perceived. I think it's pretty clear that some persons with the Patriots manipulated the ball pressure. In our legal system the damages awarded are punitive, i.e. based on a history of wrongdoing rather than a single act of wrongdoing (think of the people who were shocked over the McD 'hot coffee' damages award). Whether or not that should be applied to the Patriots will be a major factor in what action, if any, the league decides to take.

* FTR I'd support strong punishment against any team, not just the Patriots, with a history of cheating. And my previously posted "vindictive punishment" is obviously completely unrealistic.

 

I gave up on SNL many years ago, but sometimes they get a skit right.

'Saturday Night Live' DeflateGate sketch throws Tom Brady under the bus - SBNation.com