Yahoo: Report: Patriots being investigated for using deflated footballs in AFC championship game

[GoSkins0721]

Then there's the accusations of teams pumping in face crowd noise, again, only for visiting team's third downs. 

I really assume that the Pats would have been a great team, without this cheating.  (Obviously, getting caught didn't exactly cause them to collapse into suddenly-revealed mediocrity.) 

 

Some of these things are like catching some dude voting twice in an election.  It's cheating, but does anybody really think it changed the election? 

 

The door opening/closing for field goals was an allegation when the Skins played in RFK. No idea if it was true or helped/hurt a kicker. 

The accusation of teams pumping in crowd noise was real & the Falcons were penalized for it: $350k, 5th round pick, & 3 month suspension of their GM. Did this alter the game result? Who knows? 

Correct, it didn't exactly cause them to collapse. But, how do we know when an opposition play was/wasn't known by NE? Do we know when that crucial pass was held onto by a receiver or an RB because it had less air during a rainy/snowy Sunday in NE? No, we don't. We have no idea what was going on with these deflated balls when NE was playing. It's like a baseball player that corks his bat & gets caught one game. How many games before that did he use the bat & get a hit? HR? Having a corked bat doesn't assure a batter hits 1.000 as he might have a ****ty eye & strike out a lot. Or walk. Or hit foul balls & then hit the ball right at a player in the field. Did it make him better when he used it & didn't get caught? Yeah, I'm sure it did. Same with NE. It had to help or they wouldn't have continued to do it. Now, if you're asking did they need to do it? We'll never know. We don't know when a game was ever fair for both teams. 

If you read the article about Martz & the STL pregame walk-through the questions asked about NE 'did they tape it?' was never proven. Let's say they didn't. But, the fact remains that 3 NE employees watched it, were questioned by NE football people, and asked to diagram what they saw. Would NE have won if that didn't happen? Who knows? But it goes beyond any reasonable logic to assume a teams last walk-thru, witnessed by the opposing team to the extent it could be diagrammed, didn't give NE an edge. 

This is lifetime ban, stripped of your trophies kind of cheating. Pathetic.

No wonder Kraft has been Goodell's biggest supporter all these years. And to have that prick Kraft as one of the owner's spearheading the Redskins salary cap penalty? **** him more than Mara. 

[grego]

. And to have that prick Kraft as one of the owner's spearheading the Redskins salary cap penalty? **** him more than Mara. 

 

is that true? i knew mara was behind it- didnt know about kraft.

[Rex Tomb]

I have the same thoughts about Kraft, but in all honesty, this new batch of charges looks like sour grapes after losing the Deflategate case.

[Stadium-Armory]

Whether or not any of this effected the outcome of games will never be known but it doesn't matter. "They would have won anyway" isn't a defense of cheating.

[GoSkins0721]

is that true? i knew mara was behind it- didnt know about kraft.

Yeah, he was on the committee that voted for the penalty: 

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/12/league-explains-cap-adjustment-by-pointing-to-competitive-balance/

 

“The Management Council Executive Committee determined that the contract practices of a small number of clubs during the 2010 league year created an unacceptable risk to future competitive balance, particularly in light of the relatively modest salary cap growth projected for the new agreement’s early years,” the league said in a statement forwarded to PFT by spokesman Greg Aiello. "

 

Here's a link to the list of members of the committee - Jerry Jones was excluded from the vote:

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/roger-goodell-ten-nfl-owners-including-giants-co-owner-john-mara-join-negotiating-session-article-1.118736

 

"On Tuesday, Giants co-owner John Mara became the first owner to take part in one of the sessions with mediator George Cohen. He was joined Wednesday by the other nine members of the NFL Management Council executive committee, which is the league's negotiating group. The 10 owners walked down the street as a group towards Cohen's office:Jerry Richardson (Panthers) and Pat Bowlen (Broncos), the co-chairmen of the committee; Mara, Robert Kraft (Patriots), Jerry Jones (Cowboys), Art Rooney(Steelers), Clark Hunt (Chiefs), Mark Murphy (Packers), Dean Spanos(Chargers) and Mike Brown (Bengals)."

[grego]

thanks, go. 

 

**** the pats more than ever, then.

 

keep thinking your team isnt cheating, kraft, you blind ****.

[Fred Jones]

The only question I want to know is what the heck is going to happen?  I expect nothing will happen, this story will blow over and NE will continue, smug in the knowledge that they got away with it.

 

Just plain sad, the cheaters.

[MrSilverMaC]

keep thinking your team isnt cheating, kraft, you blind ****.

Oh he knows. You can't have organizational cheating like that and not know.

[codeorama]

Wow..These are grown men we're talking about, right? SMDH. No wonder Reggie Wayne wanted out and said they're "no fun". Probably told him to verify all of the Colt hand signals they have on file. 

 

You know, when Wayne was signed, the first thing I wondered is if he would give up info on the Colts offense.  I honestly didn't think he would because he seems like a guy of high integrity.  Looks like I was right.

[kost203]

im just gonna post something simple on the matter.  When the nfl and the patriots are both working together to stomp on the evidence involving video/ beta tapes then there is a huge problem.  The system is broke or and I say or it is working perfect to benefit certain "ones" at the expense of others.  Looks like kraft is dirty, as much as, mara.

[Rufus T Firefly]

Whether or not any of this effected the outcome of games will never be known but it doesn't matter. "They would have won anyway" isn't a defense of cheating.

Not only is it not a defense, it's basically a full-throated endorsement of cheating. Because you are then advocating an environment where you can only be punished if you win a game you would have lost anyway without cheating. So, you only get a W taken away tat you wouldn't have gotten without cheating anyway. So there is literally no downside to cheating then. 

[Skin'emAlive]

So this bombshell of a report gets released directly following a loss in court over deflated footballs; and by ESPN, no less...

 

Does no one else see the blaring issues right there? First off, if there were any investigative journalism about this information, it would have either come out sooner and/or been released by an agency of higher journalistic integrity than that of ESPN. Like say, TMZ. There is zero percent chance something like this is sat on this long and then released to ESPN at this exact moment without obvious questions pertaining to the integrity and source of the information. Why wouldnt it have come out sooner? Do we really think that an ESPN journalist could sit on this report this long? This to me seems more like a revenge play from Goodell over losing a court case, using internet/social media strategies to shame New England publicly. They have already done this with Brady earlier. They already decided to appeal this ridiculous case of deflated footballs. They have already spent Millions of dollars and gotten the legal system involved. Why not go the full monty and burn the whole organization down either in the eyes of the lemmings of public opinion or in court.

 

This report may or may not be true. But there are some serious questions that lead me to have less faith in the integrity of the report, and more faith in the ineptitude of Roger.

[codeorama]

I can see Goddell leaking some of this or all of it and personally, I'm ok with it.
I'm guess a lot of Redskin fans hate him because of the salary cap thing. I just don't.  I'd rather him be harsh with punishment.

The way I see it, he was hired to represent the owners and in the case of Spygate, not that I agree with the decision, he/they were looking out for the league as a whole. Personally, I wish the truth would have come out then.

But, it makes sense for him to slap the Pats down now because they should have known better. They were let off the hook before but kept the nonsense up.

 

What is sad is that this seems like its becoming a non story.  People are saying "the cheating didn't matter, they were better... blah blah blah"  
THEY CHEATED REPEATEDLY.... geez.  They should have their titles removed, Belichek banned and so much more.  Its a farce.

[SkinsGuy]

You know what I want to see?

 

I would love to see this season that every time the Patriots' offense comes out onto the field and gets ready to play, the ref briefly stops the game and walks over and makes a very public showing of testing the football. LOL

 

Not after every play. Just every time when they come out onto the field on offense.

 

That would so funny to see their reaction.

 

I wouldn't put it past the NFL to do it.

[grego]

Skinem- there was actually a book about Spygate that came out a couple of years ago with many of these same stories about the Patriots, but nobody paid much attention to it.

[Momma There Goes That Man]

I don't see why Goodell would release this to distract from Deflate-gate. It doesn't paint him in a positive light at all and states deflate-gate is simply some makeup call to appease other owners. Not to mention his actions in deliberately covering up Spy-gate

That's not going to help him in the slightest or distract from the court ruling

[MrSilverMaC]

If untrue that report makes some pretty slanderous/damaging claims. I'd expect a lawsuit from either the pats, the nfl, or both.

Of course if it's legit all we're going to see are fluff responses like the patriots already issued.

[grego]

 

where is my favorite patriots apologist? probably going over the espn story,  point by point, preparing explanations of how its all a witch hunt, or how the patriots have never actually cheated, or how, if they did, its ok, cuz every team does the same thing. etc.

 

anything but, 'ya, they cheated'.

[Duckus]

This to me seems more like a revenge play from Goodell over losing a court case, using internet/social media strategies to shame New England publicly. 

 

Ummmmm, did you read it? There is absolutely no way Goodell was apart of this report and its release.

 

The report destroys Goodell. The entire premise of the report is that Goodell was either completely incompetent in investigating Spygate OR he lied, destroyed evidence, and covered up the biggest cheating scandal in NFL history. It even questions if he, or someone else in NFL, forged documents to avoid a congressional investigation.

 

This report is a disaster for the NFL AND the Patriots. 

[Momma There Goes That Man]

I'm waiting for some kind of backlash and fallout. When are those responsible going to be tied up in the town square and stoned?

[Larry]

Whether or not any of this effected the outcome of games will never be known but it doesn't matter. "They would have won anyway" isn't a defense of cheating.

 

Speaking only for myself, I'm not saying it's a defense for cheating. 

 

I'm saying "Boy, that sure was dumb of them to cheat, when they didn't even need to." 

[MrSilverMaC]

Speaking only for myself, I'm not saying it's a defense for cheating. 

 

I'm saying "Boy, that sure was dumb of them to cheat, when they didn't even need to." 

 

That seems to be the reasoning for most who believe it was likely to have helped. Why put that much effort into something that isn't helping and is likely to cause you seriously negative consequences?

 

How many good teams might have been great with foreknowledge of their opponents plays and gameplans? How many good teams would have went the distance if they had a better grip on the ball vs their opponent when throwing it, catching it, running it? How many good teams would have seemed dominant with those advantages?

 

The steelers and giants each won 2 sb's in the last 10 years, maybe it would have been 4 for them. Maybe Peyton or Aaron Rodgers would have had 2 or 3 rings instead of 1. Maybe the eagles would have had 3.

 

Bill Belichick, a loser head coach in his previous stops until he gets a really good qb and a system in place to gain multiple unfair advantages.

[Larry]

The steelers and giants each won 2 sb's in the last 10 years, maybe it would have been 4 for them. Maybe Peyton or Aaron Rodgers would have had 2 or 3 rings instead of 1. Maybe the eagles would have had 3.

Now, there's a good reason to let them get away with it.

[Fred Jones]

The biggest problem I have is, really, nothing it going to happen.  They will continue to win until Brady retires, both will go to the HOF and in a few years this will all be forgotten.

 

The league and its horrible manager will do nohting.  The right thing to do would be to punish NE, Goods quits, the league appologizes and they start fresh.  That will never happen, and they destroyed all the evidence anyway.

 

The only thing that I would like to know is exactly what they got out of cheating.  NE went to a lot of trouble, put in a lot of time an energy, to cheat.  One would assume they got something out of it.  Makes me think of full time criminals.  People, instead of working a regular job, spend 8-10 hours a day finding ways to steal everyone's money.

[Skin'emAlive]

Ummmmm, did you read it?

Yes I did read it. Ignoring the details and looking at it all as a whole, do you not see the blaring coincidences of such a report coming out at such a time, by such a sports network that has been in cahoots with Goodell for ages? (Starting with the original erroneous report about the deflated footballs months ago). A sports network that has lost all integrity and lowers themselves to posting breaking news updates about the Kardashians entering a tennis match and men/women winning courage awards over cancer patients ( in their own company no less) all in the name of pushing a reality show while blatantly ignoring manslaughter charges.

 

Yes, that sports network held on to a story this big until now...