Pats Cheated... Again. Deflategate

peplaw06 · Jan 20, 2015

Per Mort

NFL investigation finds that 11 of the Patriots 12 game balls were underinflated by 2 pounds during AFC Championship game.

cmd34 · Jan 20, 2015

Pep, met a well-known football name last week who has something in common with you. Wanna guess who?

Doomsday · Jan 20, 2015

NFL Says 11 of 12 Patriots Footballs Inspected Were Under-Inflated - Extra Points - Boston.com

The NFL found 11 of the 12 footballs the Patriots used in Sunday’s AFC Championship game were under-inflated, according to an NFL letter about the investigation that was shared with the Boston Globe on Tuesday.

According to the Globe, game officials discovered at halftime that game balls were under-inflated. The officials tested each ball twice with different gauges.

ESPN's Chris Mortensen first reported Tuesday night that 11 of the 12 game balls allotted to the Patriots were found by the NFL to be under-inflated by two pounds of air (PSI) each according to sources.

According to the ESPN report, the NFL is "disappointed ... angry ... distraught," after spending considerable time on the findings earlier Tuesday.

An NFL football must be inflated with between 12.5 and 13.5 pounds of air (PSI) and weigh between 14 and 15 ounces per the league's rule book. In addition, home and road teams must each provide 12 game balls to be inspected by the league before kickoff.

"Each team will make 12 primary balls available for testing by the Referee two hours and 15 minutes prior to the starting time of the game to meet League requirements," according to the NFL rule book. "The home team will also make 12 backup balls available for testing in all stadiums. In addition, the visitors, at their discretion, may bring 12 backup balls to be tested by the Referee for games held in outdoor stadiums. For all games, eight new footballs, sealed in a special box and shipped by the manufacturer to the Referee, will be opened in the officials’ locker room two hours and 15 minutes prior to the starting time of the game. These balls are to be specially marked by the Referee and used exclusively for the kicking game."

NFL senior VP Greg Aiello would not comment on the Mortensen report.

NFL executive VP of football operations Troy Vincent, speaking on Pro Football Talk Live on NBC Sports radio Tuesday, said the investigation should be coming to a close soon.

"We’re hoping to wrap that up in the next two or three days," Vincent said. "The team is in place in New England now interviewing staff members."

Vincent did not say when decisions on the findings would be made and/or any potential punishment imposed.

"We obviously want to get that on the table, get that behind us so that we can really get back to the game itself...," Vincent said. "For a fan, you want to know that everything’s equal. The integrity of the game is so important."

On Monday night, WCVB-TV (Ch. 5) sports anchor Mike Lynch reported that Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson, who intercepted Tom Brady in the second quarter of Sunday's game, told coach Chuck Pagano that the ball felt deflated.

Newsday's Bob Glauber, citing "a person familiar with the background of the matter," also reported that Jackson "gave the ball to a member of the Colts' equipment staff, who noticed the ball seemed underinflated and the notified" Pagano. Glauber reports that Colts general manager Ryan Grigson was then notified in the press box and contacted NFL director of football operations Mike Kensil, who then communicated the information to the officials on the field at halftime.

bbgun · Jan 20, 2015

cmd34 said:
Pep, met a well-known football name last week who has something in common with you. Wanna guess who?

theogt? what does he look like?

Irving Cowboy · Jan 21, 2015

I went to a Wildcats game last night and there was a guy wearing a Patriots hat in front of me. I told him I was a Cowboys fan and that I could tell his Balls were under-inflated for the AFC Championship Game.

He said "I know".

We shook Hands.

Midswat · Jan 21, 2015

What would the benefit be in deflating balls?

peplaw06 · Jan 21, 2015

cmd34 said:
Pep, met a well-known football name last week who has something in common with you. Wanna guess who?

Mike Leach?

peplaw06 · Jan 21, 2015

Midswat said:
What would the benefit be in deflating balls?

You get a better grip for throwing it and catching it. Basically any time the hand squeezes the ball it's easier when it's underinflated...

When I was a kid I used to love throwing around a ball that was not fully inflated. I could make Odell Beckham-like catches with it.

I'm sure the times I remember the ball was more than 2 pounds underinflated... 2 pounds may be insignificant not sure. But they're supposed to be between 12.5 and 13.5 psi. So you're talking they were underinflated by almost 20%.

peplaw06 · Jan 21, 2015

What would it take for the league to say the Pats don't get to play in the Super Bowl? You guys were cheating... again... Last time we fined you like a million dollars and a first round draft pick, and it didn't deter you. You know what, we're gonna nip this in the bud right now. The game you cheated in is a forfeit, and the Colts are going to play the Seahawks.

ThoughtExperiment · Jan 21, 2015

What is the rationale for letting the teams supply their own footballs anyway? I don't get that. Why can't the league just do it so this isn't a problem?

But to pep's point, that's why they keep cheating, because they know the punishment will be minimal and the advantage they gain will be worth it.

bbgun · Jan 21, 2015

if they had defeated the Colts by 7 points or less, this would be a much bigger scandal

Everlastingxxx · Jan 21, 2015

I think the final score is irrelevant. The fact that they are cheating again and could be hoisting the Super Bowl trophy is a disgrace. I am sure they will get another light slap on the wrist.

LAZARUS_LOGAN · Jan 21, 2015

ThoughtExperiment said:
What is the rationale for letting the teams supply their own footballs anyway? I don't get that. Why can't the league just do it so this isn't a problem?

But to pep's point, that's why they keep cheating, because they know the punishment will be minimal and the advantage they gain will be worth it.

Didn't they fix this as a result of the slicked up ball the Seahawks used against the Cowboys that resulted in Romo mishandling the ball a few years back?

Everlastingxxx · Jan 21, 2015

LAZARUS_LOGAN said:
Didn't they fix this as a result of the slicked up ball the Seahawks used against the Cowboys that resulted in Romo mishandling the ball a few years back?

From my understanding the K balls (kicking balls) are still right out of the box. Brady and Manning are the ones behind the rule change of providing your own balls.

peplaw06 · Jan 21, 2015

Snippets I've heard from various people...

Gerry Austin said the 12th ball was deflated too, it just wasn't 2 psi or more under the lower limit.

Tom Brady gave an interview in 2011 where he was asked about Gronkowski spiking the ball... he said Gronk spikes it to hard, the ball deflates and he loved it, because he likes a deflated ball.

People are discussing Belichick being suspended for the 2015 season, a la Payton and Bountygate. I don't understand why you wouldn't punish them in the Super Bowl... except that it's the biggest event of the year, and they try to avoid the controversy. But there's no avoiding it now.

ThoughtExperiment · Jan 21, 2015

Heh, now Brad Johnson admits he paid $7500(!) to "rough up" the footballs they would be using in their Superbowl.

At the Super Bowl, the NFL had 100 footballs. They were new, slick and supposedly under the league's watchful eye. But not leaving anything to chance, Johnson made sure the balls were scuffed and ready well before the Dixie Chicks sang the national anthem.

"I paid some guys off to get the balls right," Johnson now admits. "I went and got all 100 footballs, and they took care of all of them."

How much did it cost Johnson? "Seventy-five hundred (dollars)," he said.

"They took care of them."

Johnson made the revelation several years ago, prior to the 10-year reunion of the Bucs' Super Bowl champion team.

And Matt Leinart tweeted that every QB doctors the footballs in some way.

peplaw06 · Jan 21, 2015

The point of the rule change in 2006 that was lobbied for by Brady and Manning was so the QB could have the ball "roughed up" however they like. I think the air pressure question is a different issue.

bbgun · Jan 21, 2015

Do the refs not inspect the 12 submitted balls before the game begins? OTOH, I guess someone on the NE sideline could have secretly deflated the balls during the game.

peplaw06 · Jan 21, 2015

The refs inspected the balls on Sunday 2 hours and 15 minutes before the game started. That's more than enough time to deflate them after they are checked. Or like you said, it's as simple as having an equipment manager on the sidelines with a needle.

I wonder if the 12 balls that the refs checked could be swapped out with 12 different balls? It's not really needed if they inspect them that far ahead of the game, but still.

Gerry Austin was also saying that if the issue was brought to the refs attention, they could have checked them at halftime and aired them back up. Not sure if that happened or not.

Doomsday · Jan 21, 2015

Although the stuff coming out makes it look like it couldn't have been a accident, or coincidence - the truth is that if you have a gauge that is not accurate, and you inflate 12 footballs using the same gauge, they're all going to be what that gauge measured. But not what a accurate gauge would say.

Seems odd that if the Coats defender noticed the ball he intercepted was under-inflated, why didn't any of the officials notice this? They handle all the footballs many times during a game, and most of them have been at it for 10 years or more - can't they tell the difference between a correctly inflated football and one that feels a bit squishy?

When the league "inspects" the footballs prior to the game, do they check air pressure? Were the Coats footballs correctly inflated? Have they even been checked?

Lots of unanswered questions still at this point. But definitely it sounds like a hole in the system - who has custody of these footballs for the 2 1/2 hours after they're inspected and certified? Seems like they would be in a locked box up until kickoff at least.

It really doesn't matter that much the PSI air pressure in the game footballs, as long as both teams are using the same pressure on the footballs. We don't know that's not the case yet.

The Patriots could have beaten the Coats using medicine balls, truth be told. You don't get to 45-7 merely because you were using under-inflated footballs. Sort of beside the point I know, but still.

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