Quote:
Originally Posted by PennBF
It is ironic that the title of this post is "New England Cheaters" and I would bet the farm 99% of the people who read or posted never raised a question in their mind as to who the post was meant for and the subject matter!! As a couple of well known famous QB's from the NFL said that not one thing happens in the game including the balls, the field condition, the player shoes, etc.etc. without
Belichick and the quarterback knowing. To believe otherwise is to indicate you have never played pro football or worked for one of the organizations. Of course Belichick and the QB knew the balls were underinflated and were violating the rules. It is also ironic that some point to how many points that NE won by and that regardless of the condition of the ball they would have won. That may or may not have been true but to use that as an logic for cheating kind of lacks morals and ethics If you win it is ok to cheat. Where does that logic come from? As I understand it, if you get caught cheating in Vegas you are banned from ever working of entering a Casino in the state. Maybe the NFL should take a page out of that book?  |
Report: Only 1 ball from AFC championship was 2 PSI low, others just ‘a tick’ below regulation
02.01.15 at 12:11 pm ET
By Mike Petraglia
Bill Belichick speaks Monday at the team headquarters in Chandler, Ariz. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)
Bill Belichick speaks Monday at the team headquarters in Chandler, Ariz. (Mike Petraglia/WEEI.com)
GLENDALE, Ariz. — As the Patriots prepare to take the field for Super Bowl XLIX, they are apparently looking more and more like winners in the Deflategate saga.
According to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, only one of the 12 balls used by the Patriots in the AFC championship was a full 2 PSI below regulation while the other 11 found to be below spec were only “a tick” below regulation.
This news contradicts a report from Chris Mortensen two days after the AFC title game that 11 of the balls were found to be as much as a full 2 PSI below regulation.
There is an ongoing investigation being conducted by Ted Wells into how the balls were handled before the AFC championship game and if there were serious protocol violations by the Patriots. Patriots owner Robert Kraft sounded a confident tone Monday night upon the team’s arrival in Phoenix, expressing his support of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and demanding an apology from the league if the report clears the team.
In his state of the league address on Friday, commissioner Roger Goodell said he’s not drawn any conclusions and will let the report speak for the league.
But the more that comes out, the more it appears the Patriots will be vindicated. Here is more from Rapoport on Sunday morning:
Prior to the game, a game-day worker employed by the Patriots, a man described as elderly, took two bags of 12 footballs (one bag from each team) into the restroom near the referees’ room in Gillette Stadium. The man was in the room for 98 seconds. When he exited the room, he took the balls to the field. There is video of the man entering and exiting the bathroom, but it’s unclear if there is a clear shot inside the restroom.
That the man entered the restroom prior to walking with the footballs onto the field was discovered by the Patriots, and video footage was quickly turned over to Ted Wells for his investigation.
When coach Bill Belichick and Tom Brady were told there were questions about the footballs, both were incredulous. Belichick indicated privately what he said publicly: That he had little knowledge of what went into pregame footballs. Brady told someone close to him that he works on the footballs all week, then has no idea what happens to them on gameday.
Eleven of the 12 footballs used in the first half were judged by the officials to be under the minimum of 12.5 PSI, but just one was two pounds under. Many of them were just a few ticks under the minimum.
Many of the footballs used in the AFC title game, which all have Walt Anderson’s initials on them, were returned to circulation among the rest of the Patriots game-day footballs. Because Anderson was the referee for two other Patriots games this season, there are more than 30 footballs with his initials in the team’s possession. It appears the league has the football D’Qwell Jackson intercepted and took to the sidelines to ultimately hand over to his equipment staff.
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