NFL Postseason Megathread: Playoffs in the Post-Orton Era

[jimmy olsen]

Spygate was an overblown misdemeanor punished with unduly harsh measures

This guy's delusional.

Reading the unbolded bits isn't fair!

[sbr]

Spygate was an overblown misdemeanor punished with unduly harsh measures

This guy's delusional.

Spygate is almost as big a joke as Deflategate.

[Eddie Teach]

Which is almost as big a joke as Watergate.

[Berkut]

To me the interesting thing here is the NFL crapping all over themselves yet again.  They were tipped off about the issue and either decided to run a sting operation, or just didn't give a shit.  No one paid extra attention to the balls, they had multiple pressure gauges that read differently on the same balls and no one knows who used which to test anything; no one thought to actually record the starting pressures to check against later.

I think they acted exactly as they should have for the most part.

The Colts raised the issue prior to the game, but had no proof or evidence. So the NFL elected to not do anything out of the ordinary other than normal procedures. All they did was have someone remind the referree to make sure he followed normal protocol for checking the footballs. I think that was a very reasonable response given that the Colts didn't actually have anything other than anecdote.

Nobody "thought" to record the starting pressures because it doesn't matter. You aren't testing the balls to see some particular value, you are just testing to make sure they are valid, within the given range. You really think every game the officials should record the actual pressure of 36 game balls, when never before in the history of the NFL has anyone ever cared what the actual values were? It doesn't matter - the jobs of the officials are to

1. Check each ball.
2. Make sure that if they are not in the right range, they are adjusted to be in the correct range.


There is a presumption here in this process that there isn't, and should not need to be, much concern about someone actively and intentionally cheating. The process is just to make sure that both teams game balls are legal and ready, and adjust those that are not, for whatever reason. This has worked fine for hundreds and hundreds of NFL football games where the home team is not engaged in a conspiracy to modify the game balls.

Further, the referee(s) in question have all stated that all 12 Patriots footballs were at 12.5 or 12.6 PSI after they adjusted the two that were low. Are you suggesting that they are lying, and in fact the balls were lower than that, but they just decided to ignore them and not adjust them for some reason? Why would they do that?

What should the NFL have done differently - for decades the process they have has worked just fine for thousands of game balls. You are saying they "crapped all over themselves" because they haven't been recording the pressure measured for the last 40 years for every game ball of every game?

Once the Colts provided NFL officials with actual balls that appeared to have been tampered with, the NFL officials collected all 24 game balls in question at half time, took them into the locker room, and tested as many as they could in the few minutes they had available. Every single Patriot football was under pressure compared to the original readings. two different guages were used, and it is no surprise that they had slightly different measurements, but both *consistently* made it clear that someone let air out of the Patriots footballs. Again, what should they have done differently? Had a scientific team on standby for every game ready to leap into action and do a perfect lab controlled test on game balls at any moment?

They took the balls into the locker room, grabbed the backup officials, and measured every single ball twice, and recorded the results. What could they have done better in those few minutes they had available?

They didn't have time to measure the Colts balls, but they grabbed four of them and tested them as well. All four measured within acceptable range, with one exception on one gauge, and even that one was only very nominally below range. It is pretty clear that the Colts did NOT tamper with their game balls (nor would they have had any opportunity to anyway, being the visiting team and not having any access to them after they were checked anyway).

What should the NFL have done reasonably better under the circumstances?

[jimmy olsen]

Three other teams in  the last few years have been caught altering the ball. One team got a $20k slap on the wrist and two weren't punished at all. How about a little consistency?

[Liep]

Three other teams in  the last few years have been caught altering the ball. One team got a $20k slap on the wrist and two weren't punished at all. How about a little consistency?

The consistency here is in the Patriots' cheating behaviour.

[Eddie Teach]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg2oR91_r5I

[Berkut]

Three other teams in  the last few years have been caught altering the ball. One team got a $20k slap on the wrist and two weren't punished at all. How about a little consistency?

Those other teams did not engage in a concerted and willfull attempt to cheat in a manner they knew was illegal, nor did they attempt to cover up their actions and lie about it under investigation.

[Valmy]

Those other teams did not engage in a concerted and willfull attempt to cheat in a manner they knew was illegal, nor did they attempt to cover up their actions and lie about it under investigation.

LOL whatever. Deflating the ball is like stealing signs or reading the other coach's lips or loads of other ways teams have been engaging in shenanigans to win forever. It is not like they were caught pumping up players with illegal drugs or bribing officials or something. Geez what a bunch of self-righteous bores you guys are. Actually most NFL fans are. No wonder it is the No Fun League.

They got caught they will pay their penalty. This, to me, is like Fred Biletnikoff covering himself in stick-em. Are you going to lead a dreary and self-righteous crusade to get his trophy renamed next?

[Admiral Yi]

Stickum was legal in Fred's time.

[derspiess]

Three other teams in  the last few years have been caught altering the ball. One team got a $20k slap on the wrist and two weren't punished at all. How about a little consistency?

The consistency here is in the Patriots' cheating behaviour.

No shit.  Tim seems to keep forgetting that despite our best efforts to remind him.

[Valmy]

Stickum was legal in Fred's time.

*groan*

I swear to God.

[Ed Anger]

I wish zombie Jack Tatum would cripple Tom Brady.

[Berkut]

Those other teams did not engage in a concerted and willfull attempt to cheat in a manner they knew was illegal, nor did they attempt to cover up their actions and lie about it under investigation.

LOL whatever. Deflating the ball is like stealing signs or reading the other coach's lips or loads of other ways teams have been engaging in shenanigans to win forever. It is not like they were caught pumping up players with illegal drugs or bribing officials or something. Geez what a bunch of self-righteous bores you guys are. Actually most NFL fans are. No wonder it is the No Fun League.

They got caught they will pay their penalty. This, to me, is like Fred Biletnikoff covering himself in stick-em. Are you going to lead a dreary and self-righteous crusade to get his trophy renamed next?

Hey, I get that you, like many people, don't care about sportsmanship, integrity, or any sense of honor or fair play. I understand that many people just don't consider that to be important, and to them willful cheating is something that they only care about if caught.

I can live with that - I just don't get the actual attempt to then act all mortified and offended when cheaters get caught and punished. Even if you don't have an ounce of integrity, at least one could recognize that the game would not be very interesting if it wasn't about football, but about who could create the biggest advantage outside the game itself.

The "No Fun League" would be a much less valuable commodity if everyone was just allowed to play by whatever rules they and their integrity-less fans thought they should be able to get away with - what a uninteresting game that would be...JMO, of course. Maybe some no rules, you play with a tennis ball, I play with a badminton shuttle, game would be a lot of fun?

[derspiess]

Boom.